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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/37322-0.txt b/37322-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9466dde --- /dev/null +++ b/37322-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9120 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Music-Study in Germany, by Amy Fay + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Music-Study in Germany + from the Home Correspondence of Amy Fay + +Author: Amy Fay + +Editor: Fay Peirce + +Release Date: September 5, 2011 [EBook #37322] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + + + +MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY + +[Illustration: colophon] + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + +NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS +ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO + +MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED + +LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA +MELBOURNE + +THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD, +TORONTO + + + + +MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY + +FROM + +THE HOME CORRESPONDENCE +OF AMY FAY + +EDITED BY + +MRS. FAY PEIRCE + +AUTHOR OF "CO-OPERATIVE HOUSEKEEPING" + +"The light that never was on sea or land." + +WORDSWORTH + +"Pour admirer assez il faut admirer trop, et un peu d'illusion +est necessaire au bonheur." + +CHERBULIEZ + +WITH A PREFATORY NOTE +BY O. G. SONNECK + +NEW YORK +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY +1922 + +_All rights reserved_ + +COPYRIGHT, +JANSEN, McCLURG & COMPANY +1880. + +COPYRIGHT, 1896, +BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + +Printed August, 1896; reprinted June, 1897; +September, 1900; February, 1903; March, 1905; +June, 1908; July, 1909; August, 1913; April, 1922. + +Norwood Press: +Berwick & Smith, Norwood, Mass., U. S. A. + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE. + + +Comparatively few books on music have enjoyed the distinction of +reissue. Twenty-one editions is an amazing record for a book of so +narrow a subject as "Music Study in Germany." The case of Miss Amy Fay's +volume becomes all the more unusual, if one considers that her letters +were written only for home, not for a public audience and further that +within twenty years from the year of first publication, her observations +had become more or less obsolete. + +The Germany of the years 1869-1875 was quite different from the Germany +of 1900 and certainly of 1912, even down to German table-manners. The +earlier "Spiessbürgertum" of which Miss Fay gives such entertaining +glimpses even in high quarters with their pomp and circumstance, was +rapidly being replaced, at least outwardly, by the more cosmopolitan +culture of the _fin de siècle_, not to mention the ambition for +political, industrial and commercial "Weltmacht" in a nation thitherto +known, perhaps too romantically, as a nation of "Denker und Dichter." + +Most of the heroes of the book are long since dead, Miss Fay included, +who died in 1921. While even as late as 1890, Miss Fay's volume could +have been used as a guide of orientation by the would-be student of +music in Germany, certainly it could no longer serve such a purpose +during the years just prior to the war, when the lone American student +of her book who despised Germany and everything German was definitely in +the ascendency. In other words, her personal observations had ceased to +be applicable except in certain details of ambient and had passed into +the realm of autobiography valuable for historical reading. As a piece +of historical literature proper, I doubt that the book would have +survived the war, because it is lamentably true that the average +American music-student or even cultured lover of music is not +particularly interested in musical history as such. + +To this must be added the indisputable fact that "music study in +Germany" or in France, for that matter, had become a mere matter of +personal taste and predilection, and was not a necessity as in the days +of Miss Fay's amusing experiments with this or that German teacher of +renown. An endless stream of excellent European artists and teachers had +poured into America since then, augmented by the equally broad stream of +native Americans who had learned their _métier_ abroad. Music study in +America thus became an easy matter and many an aspiring virtuoso would +have done more wisely by staying and studying at home, instead of +venturing to a European country with its different language, its +different temperament, its different mode of living, customs and so +forth. Germany, in particular, is still a "marvellous home of music," to +quote an editorial remark of Miss Fay's sister, but it is no longer the +"only real home of music," thanks precisely to such artists as Miss Amy +Fay herself. + +To point out the radical change in conditions in that respect is one +thing, quite another to deny, as some rather zealotic patriots do, that +Europe, Germany included, can still give the American music-student +something which he does not have at home quite in the same manner. +Debate on that subject is futile. Let the American music-student at some +time in his career, but only when he is ripe for further study in a +foreign country, sojourn a few years in Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, +Vienna, Rome, London, and he will profitably encounter, whether it be to +his taste or not, that indefinable something which the old world in +matters of life, art, and art-life possessed as peculiarly its own in +1870, still possesses to-day, and will possess for many, many years to +come. + +What, then, gives to Miss Fay's book its vitality? What is it that +justifies the publisher in keeping the book accessible for the benefit +of those who wish to study music in Germany instead of elsewhere or of +those even who study music in America? + +Of course, there is first of all the charm of Miss Fay's own +personality, the charm of her observations intimately, entertainingly, +and shrewdly expressed. That makes for good reading. Incidentally, it +teaches a student-reader to be observant, which unfortunately many +musicians are not, even in matters of technique on their chosen +instrument. Secondly, the seriousness of purpose of the authoress, the +determination to improve her understanding of art and technique to the +very limit of her natural ability, will act as a stimulating tonic for +him or her who despairs of ever conquering the often so forbidding +difficulties of music. The book will teach patience to Americans, +patience and endurance in endeavor, qualities which are none too +frequent in us. Young America forgets too often that the _Gradus ad +Parnassum_ is not only steep; it is long and rough. + +There is furthermore in these letters that respect for solid +accomplishment of others, that reverential attitude toward the great in +art and toward art itself, without which no musician, however talented, +will ever reach the commanding heights of art. There permeates these +letters the enthusiasm of youth, that perhaps sometimes overshoots its +mark but for which most of us would gladly exchange the more critical +attitude of maturer years. For we learn to appreciate sooner or later +that enthusiasm is the propelling force and the refreshing source of +inspiration. Finally, born of all these elements there appear on the +pages of Miss Fay's letters such fascinating pen-portraits as that of +her revered master, Franz Liszt, the incomparable. Turning the pages of +the volume to refresh my memory and impression of it, I confess that I +skipped quite a few because their interest seemed so remote and +personal, but I found myself absorbing every word Miss Fay had to say in +her chapters about Liszt and his Weimar circle. An enjoyable experience +which one may safely recommend to those who desire first-hand +impressions of the golden days of pianism in Germany, of the romantic, +indeed almost legendary figure of Franz Liszt, and consequently a touch +of the stuff out of which art-novels are made, into the bargain. + + O. G. SONNECK + + + + +PREFACE. + + +In preparing for the public letters which were written only for home, I +have hoped that some readers would find in them the charm of style which +the writer's friends fancy them to possess; that others would think the +description of her masters amid their pupils, and especially Liszt, +worth preserving; while piano students would be grateful for the +information that an analysis of the piano technique has been made, such +as very greatly to diminish the difficulties of the instrument. + +How much of Herr Deppe's piano "method" is original with himself, +pianists must decide. That he has at least made an invaluable _résumé_ +of all or most of their secrets, my sister believes no student of the +instrument who fairly and conscientiously examines into the matter will +deny. + + M. FAY PEIRCE. + +CHICAGO, Dec., 1880. + + + + +PREFACE + +TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. + + +Miss Fay's little book has been so popular in her own country as to have +gone through half a dozen editions, and even in German, into which it +was translated soon after its first appearance, it has had much success. +It is strange that it has not been already published in England, where +music excites so much attention, and where works on musical subjects are +beginning to form a distinct branch of literature. This is the more +remarkable because it is thoroughly readable and amusing, which books on +music too rarely are. The freshness and truth of the letters is not to +be denied. We may laugh at the writer's enthusiasm, at the readiness +with which she changes her methods and gives up all that she has already +learnt at the call of each fresh teacher, at the certainty with which +every new artist is announced as quite the best she ever heard, and at +the glowing and confident predictions--not, alas, apparently always +realised. But no one can laugh at her indomitable determination, and the +artistic earnestness with which she makes the most of each of her +opportunities, or the brightness and ease with which all is described +(in choice American), and each successive person placed before us in his +habit as he lives. Such a gift is indeed a rare and precious one. Will +Miss Fay never oblige us with an equally charming and faithful account +of music and life in the States? Hitherto musical America has been +almost an unknown land to us, described by the few who have attempted it +in the most opposite terms. Their singers we already know well, and in +this respect America is perhaps destined to be the Italy of the future, +if only the artists will consent to learn slowly enough. But on the +subject of American players and American orchestras, and the taste of +the American amateurs, a great deal of curiosity is felt, and we commend +the subject to the serious attention of one so thoroughly able to do it +justice. + + GEORGE GROVE. + +December, 1885. + + + + +PREFACE + +TO THE GERMAN EDITION. + + +Die vorliegenden Briefe einer Amerikanerin in die Heimath, die im +Original bereits in zweiter Auflage erschienen sind, werden, so hoffen +wir, auch dem deutschen Leser nicht minderes Vergnügen, nicht geringere +Anregung als dem amerikanischen gewähren, da sie in unmittelbarer +Frische niedergeschrieben, ein lebendiges Bild von den Beziehungen der +Verfasserin zu den hervorragendsten musikalischen Persönlichkeiten, wie +Liszt, v. Bülow, Tausig, Joachim u. s. w. bieten. + +Wir geben das Buch in wortgetreuer Uebersetzung und haben es nur um +diejenigen Briefe gekürzt, die in Deutschland Allzubekanntes behandeln. +Hingegen glaubten wir die Stellen dem Leser nicht vorenthalten zu +dürfen, welche zwar nicht musikalischen Inhalts sind, uns aber zeigen, +wie manche unserer deutschen Zu-oder Mißstände von Amerikanern +beurtheilt werden. + + Robert Oppenheim, Publisher. + +Berlin, 1882. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +IN TAUSIG'S CONSERVATORY. + +CHAPTER I. + PAGE. + +A GERMAN INTERIOR IN BERLIN. A GERMAN PARTY. JOACHIM. +TAUSIG'S CONSERVATORY. 13 + + +CHAPTER II. + +CLARA SCHUMANN AND JOACHIM. THE AMERICAN MINISTER'S. THE +MUSEUM. THE CONSERVATORY. OPERA. TAUSIG. CHRISTMAS. 25 + + +CHAPTER III. + +TAUSIG AND RUBINSTEIN. TAUSIG'S PUPILS. THE BANCROFTS. A +GERMAN RADICAL. 37 + + +CHAPTER IV. + +OPERA AND ORATORIO IN BERLIN. A TYPICAL AMERICAN. PRUSSIAN +RUDENESS. CONSERVATORY CHANGES. EASTER. 51 + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE THIER-GARTEN. A MILITARY REVIEW. CHARLOTTENBURG. +TAUSIG. BERLIN IN SUMMER. POTSDAM AND BABELSBERG. 64 + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE WAR. GERMAN MEALS. WOMEN AND MEN. TAUSIG'S TEACHING. +TAUSIG ABANDONS HIS CONSERVATORY. DRESDEN. KULLAK. 79 + +WITH KULLAK. + +CHAPTER VII. + +MOVING. GERMAN HOUSES AND DINNERS. THE WAR. CAPTURE OF +NAPOLEON. KULLAK'S AND TAUSIG'S TEACHING. JOACHIM. WAGNER. +TAUSIG'S PLAYING. GERMAN ETIQUETTE. 95 + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CONCERTS. JOACHIM AGAIN. THE SIEGE OF PARIS. PEACE DECLARED. +WAGNER. A WOMAN'S SYMPHONY. OVATION TO WAGNER IN +BERLIN. 111 + + +CHAPTER IX. + +DIFFICULTIES OF THE PIANO. TRIUMPHAL ENTRY OF THE TROOPS. +PARIS. 123 + + +CHAPTER X. + +A RHINE JOURNEY. FRANKFORT. MAINZ. SAIL DOWN THE RHINE. +COLOGNE. BONN. THE SEVEN MOUNTAINS. WORMS. SPIRE. +HEIDELBERG. TAUSIG'S DEATH. 131 + + +CHAPTER XI. + +EISENACH. GOTHA. ERFURT. ANDERNACH. WEIMAR. TAUSIG. 145 + + +CHAPTER XII. + +DINNER-PARTY AND RECEPTION AT MR. BANCROFT'S. AUDITION AT +TAUSIG'S HOUSE. A GERMAN CHRISTMAS. THE JOACHIMS. 157 + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +VISIT TO DRESDEN. THE WIECKS. VON BÃœLOW. A CHILD PRODIGY. +GRANTZOW, THE DANCER. 163 + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +A RISING ORGANIST. KULLAK. VON BÃœLOW'S PLAYING. A PRINCELY +FUNERAL. WILHELMI'S CONCERT. A COURT BEAUTY. 174 + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE BOSTON FIRE. AGGRAVATIONS OF MUSIC STUDY. KULLAK. +SHERWOOD. HOCH SCHULE. A BRILLIANT AMERICAN. GERMAN +DANCING. 182 + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A GERMAN PROFESSOR. SHERWOOD. THE BARONESS VON S. VON +BÃœLOW. A GERMAN PARTY. JOACHIM. THE BARONESS AT HOME. 192 + + +WITH LISZT. + +CHAPTER XVII. + +ARRIVES IN WEIMAR. LISZT AT THE THEATRE.--AT A PARTY. AT +HIS OWN HOUSE. 205 + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +LISZT'S DRAWING-ROOM. AN ARTIST'S WALKING PARTY. LISZT'S +TEACHING. 218 + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +LISZT'S EXPRESSION IN PLAYING. LISZT ON CONSERVATORIES. ORDEAL +OF LISZT'S LESSONS. LISZT'S KINDNESS. 227 + + +CHAPTER XX. + +LISZT'S COMPOSITIONS. HIS PLAYING AND TEACHING OF BEETHOVEN. +HIS "EFFECTS" IN PIANO-PLAYING. EXCURSION TO JENA. A +NEW MUSIC MASTER. 235 + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +LISZT'S PLAYING. TAUSIG. EXCURSION TO SONDERSHAUSEN. 248 + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +FAREWELL TO LISZT! GERMAN CONSERVATORIES AND THEIR METHODS. +BERLIN AGAIN. LISZT AND JOACHIM. 263 + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +KULLAK AS A TEACHER. THE FOUR GREAT VIRTUOSI, CLARA SCHUMANN, +RUBINSTEIN, VON BÃœLOW AND TAUSIG. 272 + +WITH DEPPE. + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +GIVES UP KULLAK FOR DEPPE. DEPPE'S METHOD IN TOUCH AND IN +SCALE-PLAYING. FRÄULEIN STEINIGER. PEDAL STUDY. 283 + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +CHORD-PLAYING. DEPPE NO MERE "PEDAGOGUE." SHERWOOD. +MOZART'S CONCERTOS. PRACTICING SLOWLY. THE OPERA BALL. 299 + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +A SET OF BEETHOVEN VARIATIONS. FANNIE WARBURG. DEPPE'S +INVENTIONS. HIS ROOM. HIS AFTERNOON COFFEE. PYRMONT. 311 + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +THE BRUSSELS CONSERVATOIRE. STEINIGER. EXCURSION TO KLEINBERG. +GIVING A CONCERT. FRÄULEIN TIMM. 328 + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +MUSIC IN HAMBURG. STUDYING CHAMBER MUSIC. ABSENCE OF RELIGION +IN GERMANY. SOUTH AMERICANS. DEPPE ONCE MORE. +A CONCERT DEBUT. POSTSCRIPT. 331 + + + + +IN TAUSIG'S CONSERVATORY. + + + + +MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. + +CHAPTER I. + + A German Interior in Berlin. A German Party. Joachim. Tausig's + Conservatory. + + + BERLIN, _November 3, 1869_. + +Behold me at last at No. 26 Bernburger Strasse! where I arrived exactly +two weeks from the day I left New York. Frau W. and her daughter, +Fräulein A. W., greeted me with the greatest warmth and cordiality, and +made me feel at home immediately. The German idea of a "large" room I +find is rather peculiar, for this one is not more than ten or eleven +feet square, and has one corner of it snipped off, so that the room is +an irregular shape. When I first entered it I thought I could not stay +in it, it seemed so small, but when I came to examine it, so ingeniously +is every inch of space made the most of, that I have come to the +conclusion that it will be very comfortable. It is not, however, the +apartment where "the last new novel will lie upon the table, and where +my daintily slippered feet will rest upon the velvet cushion." No! +rather is it the stern abode of the Muses. + +To begin then: the room is spotlessly clean and neat. The walls are +papered with a nice new paper, grey ground with blue figures--a cheap +paper, but soft and pretty. In one corner stands my little bureau with +three deep drawers. Over it is a large looking-glass nicely framed. In +the other corner on the same side is a big sofa which at night becomes a +little bed. Next to the foot of the sofa, against the wall, stands a +tiny square table, with a marble top, and a shelf underneath, on which +are a basin and a minute soap-dish and tumbler. In the opposite corner +towers a huge grey porcelain stove, which comes up to within a few feet +of the ceiling. Next is one stiff cane-bottomed chair on four stiff +legs. Then comes the lop-sided corner of the room, where an upright +piano is to stand. Next there is a little space where hangs the +three-shelved book-case, which will contain my _vast_ library. Then +comes a broad French window with a deep window-seat. By this window is +my sea-chair--by far the most luxurious one in the house! Then comes my +bureau again, and so on _Da Capo_. In the middle is a pretty round +table, with an inlaid centre-piece, and on it is a waiter with a large +glass bottle full of water, and a glass; and this, with one more stiff +chair, completes the furniture of the room. My curtains are white, with +a blue border, and two transparencies hang in the window. My towel-rack +is fastened to the wall, and has an embroidered centre-piece. On my +bureau is a beautiful inkstand, the cover being a carved eagle with +spread wings, perched over a nest with three eggs in it. It is quite +large, and looks extremely pretty under the looking-glass. + +After I had taken off my things, Frau W. and her daughter ushered me +into their parlour, which had the same look of neatness and simplicity +and of extreme economy. There are no carpets on any of the floors, but +they have large, though cheap, rugs. You never saw such a primitive +little household as it is--that of this German lawyer's widow. We think +our house at home small, but I feel as if we lived in palatial +magnificence after seeing how they live here, _i. e._, about as our +dressmakers used to do in the country, and yet it is sufficiently nice +and comfortable. There are two very pretty little rooms opposite mine, +which are yet to be let together. If some friend of mine could only take +them I should be perfectly happy. + +At night my bed is made upon the sofa. (They all sleep on these sofas.) +The cover consists of a feather bed and a blanket. That sounds rather +formidable, but the feather bed is a light, warm covering, and looks +about two inches thick. It is much more comfortable than our bed +coverings in America. I tuck myself into my nest at night, and in the +morning after breakfast, when I return to my +room--_agramento-presto-change!_--my bed is converted into a sofa, my +basin is laid on the shelf, the soap-dish and my combs and brushes are +scuttled away into the drawer; the windows are open, a fresh fire +crackles in my stove, and my charming little bed-room is straightway +converted into an equally charming sitting-room. How does the picture +please you? + +This morning Frau and Fräulein W. went with me to engage a piano, and +they took me also to the conservatory. Tausig is off for six weeks, +giving concerts. As I went up the stairs I heard most beautiful playing. +Ehlert, Tausig's partner, who has charge of the conservatory, and +teaches his pupils in his absence, examined me. After that long voyage I +did not dare attempt anything difficult, so I just played one of Bach's +Gavottes. He said some encouraging words, and for the present has taken +me into his class. I am to begin to-morrow from one o'clock to two. It +is now ten P. M., and tell C. we have had five meals to-day, so Madame +P.'s statement is about correct. The cooking is on the same scale as the +rest of the establishment--a little at a time, but so far very good. We +know nothing at all about rolls in America. Anything so delicious as the +rolls here I never ate in the way of bread. In the morning we had a cup +of coffee and rolls. At eleven we lunched on a cup of bouillon and a +roll. At two o'clock we had dinner, which consisted of soup and then +chickens, potatoes, carrots and bread, with beer. At five we had tea, +cake and toast, and at nine we had a supper of cold meat, boiled eggs, +tea and bread and butter. Fräulein W. speaks English quite nicely, and +is my medium of communication with her mother. I begin German lessons +with her to-morrow. They both send you their compliments, and so you +must return yours. They seem as kind as possible, and I think I am very +fortunate in my boarding place. + +Be sure to direct your letters "Care Frau Geheimräthin W." (Mrs. +Councillor W.), as the German ladies are very particular about their +_titles_! + + * * * + + BERLIN, _November 21, 1869_. + +Since I wrote to you not much of interest has occurred. I am delighted +with Berlin, and am enjoying myself very much, though I am working hard. +I am so thankful that all my sewing was done before I came, for I have +not a minute to spare for it, and here it seems to me all the dresses +fit so dreadfully. It would make me miserable to wear such looking +clothes, and as I can't speak the language, the difficulties in the way +of giving directions on the technicalities of dressmaking would be +terrific. Tell C. he is very wise to continue his German conversation +lessons with Madame P. Even the few that I took prove of immense +assistance to me, as I can understand almost everything that is said to +me, though I cannot answer back. He ought to make one of his lessons +about shopping and droschkie driving, for it is very essential to know +how to ask for things, and to be able to give directions in driving. I +had a very funny experience with a droschkie the other day, but it would +take too long to write it. Frau W. cannot understand English, and she +gets dreadfully impatient when Fräulein A. and I speak it, and always +says "_Deutsch_" in a sepulchral tone, so that I have to begin and say +it all over again in German with A.'s help. + +When I got fairly settled I presented myself and my letters at the +Bancrofts, the B's. and the A's., and was very kindly and cordially +received by them all. Mrs. Bancroft and Mrs. B. have since called in +return, and I have already been to a charming reception at the house of +the latter, and to the grand American Thanksgiving dinner at the Hotel +de Rome, at which Mr. Bancroft presided, and made very happy speeches +both in English and German. I enjoyed both occasions extremely, and made +some pleasant acquaintances. I have also been to one German tea-party +with Frau W. and A., and there I had "the jolliest kind of a time." +There were only twelve invited, but you would have supposed from the +clatter that there were at least a hundred. At the American dinner there +was nothing like the noise of conversation that this little handful kept +up. Before supper it was rather stupid, for the men all retired to a +room by themselves, where they sat with closed doors and played whist +and smoked. It is not considered proper for ladies to play cards except +at home, and I, of course, did not say much, for the excellent reason +that I _couldn't_! At ten o'clock supper was announced, and the +gentlemen came and took us in. Herr J. was my partner. He is a +delightful man, though an elderly one, and knows no end of things, as he +has spent his whole life in study and in travelling. He looks to me like +a man of very sensitive organization, and of very delicate feelings. He +is a tremendous republican, and a great radical in every respect, and +has an unbounded admiration for America. + +As soon as every one was seated at the table with due form and ceremony, +all began to talk as hard as they could, and you have no idea what a +noise they made, and how it increased toward the end with the potent +libations they had. The bill of fare was rather curious. We began with +slices of hot tongue, with a sauce of chestnuts, and it was extremely +nice, too. Then we had venison and boiled potatoes! Then we had a +dessert consisting of fruit, and some delicious cake. There were several +kinds of wine, and everybody drank the greatest quantity. The host and +hostess kept jumping up and going round to everybody, saying: "But you +drink nothing," and then they would insist upon filling up your glass. I +don't dare to think how many times they filled mine, but it seemed to be +etiquette to drink, and so I did as the rest. The repast ended with +coffee, and then the gentlemen lit their cigars, and were in such an +extremely cheerful frame of mind that they all began to sing, and I even +saw two old fellows kiss each other! The venison was delicious, and +nicer than any I ever ate. Herr J. was the only man in the room who +could speak any English, and since then he takes a good deal of interest +in me, and lends me books. Every Sunday Fran W. takes me to her sister's +house to tea. I like to go because I hear so much German spoken there, +and they all take a profound interest in my affairs. They know to a +minute when I get a letter, and when I write one, and every incident of +my daily life. It amuses them very much to see a real live wild Indian +from America. I am soon going to another German party, and I look +forward to it with much pleasure; not that the parties here give me the +same feeling as at home, but they are amusing because they are so +entirely different. + +There is so much to be seen and heard in Berlin that if one has but the +money there is no end to one's resources. There are the opera and the +Schauspielhaus every night, and beautiful concerts every evening, too. +They say that the opera here is magnificent, and the scenery superb, +and they have a wonderful ballet-troupe. So far, however, I have only +been to one concert, and that was a sacred concert. But Joachim +played--and Oh-h, what a tone he draws out of the violin! I could think +of nothing but Mrs. Moulton's voice, as he _sighed_ out those +exquisitely pathetic notes. He played something by Schumann which ended +with a single note, and as he drew his bow across he produced so many +shades that it was perfectly marvellous. I am going to hear him again on +Sunday night, when he plays at Clara Schumann's concert. It will be a +great concert, for she plays much. She will be assisted by Joachim, +Müller, De Ahna, and by Joachim's wife, who has a beautiful voice and +sings charmingly in the serious German style. Joachim himself is not +only the greatest violinist in the world, but one of the greatest that +ever lived. De Ahna is one of the first violinists in Germany, and +Müller is one of the first 'cellists. In fact, this quartette cannot be +matched in Europe--so you see what I am expecting! + +Tausig has not yet returned from his concert tour, and will not arrive +before the 21st of December. I find Ehlert a splendid teacher, but very +severe, and I am mortally afraid of him. Not that he is cross, but he +exacts so much, and such a hopeless feeling of despair takes possession +of me. His first lesson on touch taught me more than all my other +lessons put together--though, to be sure, that is not saying much, as +they were "few and far between." At present I am weltering in a sea of +troubles. The girls in my class are three in number, and they all play +so extraordinarily well that sometimes I think I can never catch up with +them. I am the worst of all the scholars in Tausig's classes that I have +heard, except one, and that is a young man. I know that Ehlert thinks I +have talent, but, after all, talent must go to the wall before such +_practice_ as these people have had, for most of them have studied a +long time, and have been at the piano four and five hours a day. + +It is very interesting in the conservatory, for there are pupils there +from all countries except France. Some of them seem to me splendid +musicians. On Sunday morning (I am sorry to say) once in a month or six +weeks, they have what they call a "Musical Reading." It is held in a +piano-forte ware-room, and there all the scholars in the higher classes +play, so I had to go. Many of the girls played magnificently, and I was +amazed at the technique that they had, and at the artistic manner in +which even very young girls rendered the most difficult music, and all +without notes. It gave me a severe nervous headache just to hear them. +But it was delightful to see them go at it. None of them had the least +fear, and they laughed and chattered between the pieces, and when their +turn came they marched up to the piano, sat down as bold as lions, and +banged away so splendidly! + +You have no idea how hard they make Cramer's Studies here. Ehlert makes +me play them tremendously _forte_, and as fast as I can go. My hand gets +so tired that it is ready to break, and then I say that I cannot go on. +"But you _must_ go on," he will say. It is the same with the scales. It +seems to me that I play them so loud that I make the welkin ring, and he +will say, "But you play always _piano_." And with all this rapidity he +does not allow a note to be missed, and if you happen to strike a wrong +one he looks so shocked that you feel ready to sink into the floor. +Strange to say, I enjoy the lessons in _Zusammenspiel_ (duet-playing) +very much, although it is all reading at sight. Four of us sit down at +two pianos and read duets at sight. Lesmann is a pleasant man, and he +always talks so fast that he amuses me very much. He always counts and +beats time most vigorously, and bawls in your ear, "_Eins--zwei! +Eins--zwei!_" or sometimes, "_Eins!_" only, on the first beat of every +bar. When, occasionally, we all get out, he looks at us through his +glasses, and then such a volley of words as he hurls at us is wonderful +to hear. I never can help laughing, though I take good care not to let +him see me. + +But Weitzmann, the Harmony professor, is the funniest of all. He is the +dearest old man in the world, and it is impossible for him to be cross; +but he takes so much pains and trouble to make his class understand, and +he has the most peculiar way of talking imaginable, and accents +everything he says tremendously. I go to him because Ehlert says I must, +but as I know nothing of the theory of music (and if I did, the names +are so entirely different in German that I never should know what they +are in English) it is extremely difficult for me to understand him at +all. He knew I was an American, and let me pass for one or two lessons +without asking me any questions, but finally his German love of +thoroughness has got the better of him, and he is now beginning to take +me in hand. At the last lesson he wrote some chords on the blackboard, +and after holding forth for some time he wound up with his usual +"_Verstehen Sie wohl--Ja?_ (Do you understand--Yes?)" to the class, who +all shouted "_Ja_," except me. I kept a discreet silence, thinking he +would not notice, but he suddenly turned on me and said, "_Verstehen_ +Sie _wohl--Ja?_" I was as puzzled what to say as the Pharisees were when +they were asked if the baptism of John were of heaven or of men. I knew +that if I said "_Ja_," he might call on me for a proof, and that if I +said "_Nein_," he would undertake to enlighten me, and that I should not +understand him. + +After an instant's consideration I concluded the latter course was the +safer, and so I said, boldly, "_Nein_." "_Kommen Sie hierher!_ (Come +here!)" said he, and to my horror I had to step up to the blackboard in +front of this large class. He harangued me for some minutes, and then +writing some notes on the bass clef, he put the chalk into my hands and +told me to write. Not one word had I understood, and after staring +blankly at the board I said, "_Ich verstehe nicht_ (I don't +understand.)" "_Nein?_" said he, and carefully went over all his +explanation again. This time I managed to extract that he wished me to +write the succession of chords that those bass notes indicated, and to +tie what notes I could. A second time he put the chalk into my hands, +and told me to write the chords. "Heaven only knows what they are!" +thinks I to myself. In my desperation, however, I guessed at the first +one, and uttered the names of the notes in trembling accents, expecting +to have a cannon fired off at my head. Thanks to my lucky star, it +happened to be right. I wrote it on the blackboard, and then as my wits +sharpened I found the other chords from that one, and wrote them all +down right. I drew a long breath of relief as he released me from his +clutches, and sat down hardly believing I had done it. I have not now +the least idea what it was he made me do, but I suppose it will come to +me in the course of the year! As he does not understand a word of +English, I cannot say anything to him unless I can say it in German, and +as he is determined to make me learn Harmony, it would be of no use to +explain that I did not know what he was talking about, for he would +begin all over again, and go on _ad infinitum_. I have got a book on the +Theory of Music, which I am reading with Fräulein W. She has studied +with Weitzmann, also, and when I have caught up with the class I shall +go on very easily. I quite adore Weitzmann. He has the kindest old face +imaginable, and he hammers away so indefatigably at his pupils! The +professors I have described are all thorough and well-known musicians of +Berlin, and I wonder that people could tell us before I came away, and +really seem to believe it, "that I could learn as well in an American +conservatory as in a German one." In comparison with the drill I am now +receiving, my Boston teaching was mere play. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + Clara Schumann and Joachim. The American Minister's. The Museum. + The Conservatory. The Opera. Tausig. Christmas. + + + BERLIN, _December 12, 1869_. + +I heard Clara Schumann on Sunday, and on Tuesday evening, also. She is a +most wonderful artist. In the first concert she played a quartette by +Schumann, and you can imagine how lovely it was under the treatment of +Clara Schumann for the piano, Joachim for the first violin, De Ahna for +the second, and Müller for the 'cello. It was perfect, and I was in +raptures. Madame Schumann's selection for the two concerts was a very +wide one, and gave a full exhibition of her powers in every kind of +music. The Impromptu by Schumann, Op. 90, was exquisite. It was full of +passion and very difficult. The second of the Songs without Words, by +Mendelssohn, was the most fairy-like performance. It is one of those +things that must be tossed off with the greatest grace and smoothness, +and it requires the most beautiful and delicate technique. She played it +to perfection. The terrific Scherzo by Chopin she did splendidly, but +she kept the great octave passages in the bass a little too subordinate, +I thought, and did not give it quite boldly enough for my taste, though +it was extremely artistic. Clara Schumann's playing is very objective. +She seems to throw herself into the music, instead of letting the music +take possession of her. She gives you the most exquisite pleasure with +every note she touches, and has a wonderful conception and variety in +playing, but she seldom whirls you off your feet. + +At the second concert she was even better than at the first, if that is +possible. She seemed full of fire, and when she played Bach, she ought +to have been crowned with diamonds! Such _noble_ playing I never heard. +In fact you are all the time impressed with the nobility and breadth of +her style, and the comprehensiveness of her treatment, and oh, if you +_could_ hear her _scales_! In short, there is nothing more to be desired +in her playing, and she has every quality of a great artist. Many people +say that Tausig is far better, but I cannot believe it. He may have more +technique and more power, but nothing else I am sure. Everybody raves +over his playing, and I am getting quite impatient for his return, which +is expected next week. I send you Madame Schumann's photograph, which is +exactly like her. She is a large, very German-looking woman, with dark +hair and superb neck and arms. At the last concert she was dressed in +black velvet, low body and short sleeves, and when she struck powerful +chords, those large white arms came down with a certain splendor. + +As for Joachim, he is perfectly magnificent, and has amazing _power_. +When he played his solo in that second Chaconne of Bach's, you could +scarcely believe it was only one violin. He has, like Madame Schumann, +the greatest variety of tone, only on the violin the shades can be made +far more delicate than on the piano. + +I thought the second movement of Schumann's Quartette perhaps as +extraordinary as any part of Clara Schumann's performance. It was very +rapid, very _staccato_, and _pianissimo_ all the way through. Not a note +escaped her fingers, and she played with so much magnetism that one +could scarcely breathe until it was finished. You know nothing can be +more difficult than to play staccato so very softly where there is great +execution also. Both of the sonatas for violin and piano which were +played by Madame Schumann and Joachim, and especially the one in A +minor, by Beethoven, were divine. Both parts were equally well +sustained, and they played with so much fire--as if one inspired the +other. It was worth a trip across the Atlantic just to hear those two +performances. + +The Sing-Akademie, where all the best concerts are given, is not a very +large hall, but it is beautifully proportioned, and the acoustic is +perfect. The frescoes are very delicate, and on the left are boxes all +along, which add much to the beauty of the hall, with their scarlet and +gold flutings. Clara Schumann is a great favorite here, and there was +such a rush for seats that, though we went early for our tickets, all +the good parquet seats were gone, and we had to get places on the +_estrade_, or place where the chorus sits--when there is one. But I +found it delightful for a piano concert, for you can be as close to the +performer as you like, and at the same time see the faces of the +audience. I saw ever so many people that I knew, and we kept bowing away +at each other. + +Just think how convenient it is here with regard to public amusements, +for ladies can go anywhere alone! You take a droschkie and they drive +you anywhere for five groschen, which is about fifteen cents. When you +get into the concert hall you go into the _garde-robe_ and take off your +things, and hand them over to the care of the woman who stands there, +and then you walk in and sit down comfortably as you would in a parlour, +and are not roasted in your hat and cloak while at the concert, and +chilled when you go out, as we are in America. Their programmes, too, +are not so unconscionably long as ours, and, in short, their whole +method of concert-giving is more rational than with us. I always enjoy +the garde-robe, for if you have acquaintances you are sure to meet them, +and you have no idea how exciting it is in a foreign city to see anybody +you know. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _December 19, 1869_. + +I suppose you are muttering maledictions on my head for not writing, but +I am so busy that I have no time to answer my letters, which are +accumulating upon my hands at a terrible rate. This week I have been out +every night but one, so that I have had to do all my practicing and +German and Harmony lessons in the day-time; and these, with my daily +hour and a half at the conservatory, have been as much as I could +manage. + +On Monday I went to a party at the Bancroft's, which I enjoyed +extremely. It was a very brilliant affair, and the toilettes were +superb. At the entrance I was ushered in by a very fine servant dressed +in livery. A second man showed me the dressing-room, where my bewildered +sight first rested on a lot of Chinamen in festive attire. I could not +make out for a second what they were, and I thought to myself, "Is it +possible I have mistaken the invitation, and this is a masquerade?" +Another glance showed me that they were Chinese, and it turned out that +Mr. Burlingame, the Chinese Minister, was there, and these men were part +of his suite. The ladies and gentlemen had the same dressing-room, which +was a new feature in parties to me, and as we took off our things the +servant took them and gave us a ticket for them, as they do at the +opera. I should think there were about a hundred persons present. There +were a great many handsome women, and they were beautifully dressed and +much be-diamonded and pearled. Corn-colour seemed to be the fashion, and +there were more silks of that colour than any other. + +Mr. Burlingame seemed to be a very genial, easy man. I was not presented +to him, but stood very near him part of the time. He looks upon the +introduction of the Chinese into our country as a great blessing, and +laughs at the idea of it being an evil. He says that the reason +railroads can't be introduced into China is because the whole country is +one vast grave-yard, and you can't dig any depth without unearthing +human bones, so that there would be a revolution on the part of the +people if it were done now, but it will gradually be brought about. He +travels with a suite of forty attendants, and says he has got all his +treaties here arranged to his wishes, and that Prussia has promised to +follow the United States in everything that they have agreed on with +China. He is going to resign his office in a year and go back to +America, where he wants to get into politics again. Mr. Bancroft +introduced many of the ladies to the Chinese, one of whom could speak +English, and he interpreted to the others. It was very quaint to see +them all make their deep bows in silence when some one was presented to +them. They were in the Chinese costume--Turkish trousers, white silk +coats, or blouses, and red turbans, and their hair braided down their +backs in a long tail that nearly touched their heels. + +On Thursday I went to Dr. A.'s to dinner. He seems to be a very +influential man here, and is a great favorite with the Americans. He has +a great big heart, and I suspect that is the reason of it. Mrs. A., too, +is very lovely. I saw there Mr. Theodore Fay, who used to be our +minister in Switzerland, and who is also an author. He is very +interesting, and the most earnest Christian I ever met. He has the +tenderest sympathies in the world, and in a man this is very striking. +He has a high and beautiful forehead, and a certain spirituality of +expression that appeals to you at once and touches you, also. At least +he makes a peculiar impression on _me_. There is something entirely +different about him from other men, but I don't know what it is, unless +it be his deep religious feeling, which shines out unconsciously. + +Last week I made my first visit to the Museum. It is one of the great +sights of Berlin, but it is so immense that I only saw a few rooms. In +fact there are two Museums--an old and a new. I was in the new one. It +is a perfect treasure house, and the floors alone are a study. All are +inlaid with little coloured marbles, and every one is different in +pattern. One of the most beautiful of the rooms was a large circular +dome-roofed apartment round which were placed the statues of the gods, +and in the centre stood a statue in bronze of one of the former German +kings in a Roman suit of armour. Half way up from the floor ran round a +little gallery in which you could stand and look down over the railing, +and here were placed on the walls Raphael's cartoons, which are +fac-similes of those in the Vatican, and are all woven in arras. They +are very wonderful, and you feel as if you could not look at them long +enough. The contrast is impressive as you look down and see all the +heathen statues standing on the marble floor, each one like a separate +sphinx, and then look up and see all the Christian subjects of Raphael. +The statues are so cold and white and distant, and the pictures are so +warm and bright in colour. They seem to express the difference between +the ancient and the modern religions. We went through the rooms of Greek +and Roman statues, of which there is an immense number, and on the walls +are Greek and Italian landscapes, all done by celebrated painters. + +We had to pass through these rooms rather hastily in order to get a +glimpse of the "Treppen Halle," which is the place where the two grand +stair-cases meet that carry you into the upper rooms of the Museum. +This is magnificent, and is all gilding and decoration. An immense +statue stands by each door, and on the wall are six great pictures by +Kaulbach, three on each side. "The Last Judgment," of which you're seen +photographs, is one of them. I ought to go to the Museum often to see it +properly, but it is such a long distance off that I can't get the time. +Berlin is a very large city, and the distances are as great as they are +in New York. + +At the last "Reading" at the conservatory the four best scholars played +last. One of them was an American, from San Francisco, a Mr. Trenkel, +but who has German parents. He plays exquisitely, and has just such a +poetic musical conception as Dresel, but a beautiful technique, also. He +is a thorough artist, and he looks it, too, as he is dark and pale, and +very striking. I always like to see him play, for he droops his dark +eyes, and his high pale forehead is thrown back, and stands out so well +defined over his black brows. His expression is very serious and his +manner very quiet, and he has a sort of fascination about him. He is a +particular favorite of Tausig's. + +After he played, came a young lady who has been a pupil of Von Bülow for +two years. She plays splendidly, and I could have torn my hair with envy +when she got up, and Ehlert went up to her and shook her hand and told +her before the whole school that she had "_real_ talent." After her came +_my_ favorite, little Fräulein Timanoff, who sat down and did still +better. She is a little Russian, only fifteen, and is still in short +dresses. She has almost white hair, it is so light, and she combs it +straight back and wears it in two long braids down her back, which makes +her look very childish. It is really wonderful to see her! She takes her +seat with the greatest confidence, and plays with all the boldness of an +artist. + +Almost all the scholars in Tausig's class are studying to play in +public, and I should think he would be very proud of all those that I +have heard. There are many scholars in the conservatory, but he teaches +only the most advanced. He only returned to Berlin on Saturday, and I +have not yet seen him, though I am dying to do so, for all the Germans +are wild over his playing. The girls in his class are mortally afraid of +him, and when he gets angry he tells them they play "like a rhinoceros," +and many other little remarks equally pleasing. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _January 11, 1870_. + +Since my last letter I have been quite secluded, and have seen nothing +of the gay world. I have been to the opera twice--once to "_Fantaska_," +a grand ballet, and the second time to "_Trovatore_." The opera house +here is magnificent, and I would that I could go to it every week. It is +extremely difficult to get tickets to it, as the rich Jews manage to get +the monopoly of them and the opera house is crowded every night. It is +the most brilliant building, and so exquisitely painted! All the heads +and figures of the Muses and portraits of composers and poets which +decorate it, are so soft and so beautifully done. The curtain even is +charming. It represents the sea, and great sea monsters are swimming +about with nymphs and Cupids and all sorts of things, and one lovely +nymph floats in the air with a thin gauzy veil which trails along after +her. The scenery and dresses are superb, and I never imagined anything +to equal them. The orchestra, too, plays divinely. + +The singing is the only thing which could be improved. The Lucca, who is +the grand attraction, is a pretty little creature, but I did not find +her voice remarkable. The Berlinese worship her, and whenever Lucca +sings there is a rush for the tickets. Wachtel and Niemann are the star +singers among the men. Niemann I have not heard, but Wachtel we should +not rave over in America. I am in doubt whether indeed the Germans know +what the best singing is. They have most wonderful choruses, but when it +comes to soloists they have none that are really great--like Parepa and +Adelaide Phillips; at least, that is my judgment after hearing the best +singers in Berlin, though as the voice is not my "instrument," I will +not be too confident about it. Everything else is so far beyond what we +have at home that perhaps I unconsciously expect the climax of all--the +solo singing, to be proportionally finer also. + +They have beautiful ballet-dancers here, though. There is one little +creature named Fräulein David, who is a wonderful artist. She does such +steps that it turns one's head to see her. She is as light as down, and +so extremely graceful that when you watch her floating about to the +enchanting ballet music, it is too captivating. There were four other +dancers nearly as good, who were all dressed exactly alike in white +dresses trimmed with pink satin. They would come out first, and dance +all together, sometimes separately and sometimes forming a figure in the +middle of the stage. Then suddenly little David, who was dressed in +white and blue, would bound forward. The others would immediately break +up and retire to the side of the stage, and she would execute a +wonderful _pas seul_. Then _she_ would retire, and the others would come +forward again, and so it went. It was perfectly beautiful. Finally they +all danced together and did everything exactly alike, though little +David could always bend lower, and take the "positions" (as we used to +say at Dio Lewis's,) better than all the rest. + +On Friday I am going to hear Rubinstein play. I suppose he will give a +beautiful concert, as he and Bülow, Tausig and Clara Schumann are the +grand celebrities now on the piano, Liszt having given up playing in +public. After our lesson was over yesterday, Ehlert took his leave, and +left us to wait for TAUSIG--my dear!--who was to hear us each play. He +came in very late, and just before it was time to give his own lesson. +He is precisely like the photograph I sent you, but is very short +indeed--too short, in fact, for good looks--but he has a remarkably +vivid expression of the eyes. He came in, and, scarcely looking at us, +and without taking the trouble to bow even, he turned on me and said, +imperiously, "_Spielen Sie mir Etwas vor_. (Play something for me.)" I +got up and played first an _Etude_, and then he asked for the scales, +and after I had played a few he told me I "had talent," and to come to +his lessons, and I would learn much. I went accordingly the next +afternoon. There were two girls only in the class, but they were both +far advanced. I had never heard either of them play before. The second +one played a fearfully difficult concerto by Chopin, which I once heard +from Mills. It is exquisitely beautiful, and she did it very well. From +time to time Tausig would sweep her off the stool, and play himself, and +he is indeed a perfect wonder! If, as they say, Liszt's trill is "like +the warble of a bird," his is as much so. It is not surprising that he +is so celebrated, and I long to hear him in concert, where he will do +full justice to his powers. He thrills you to the very marrow of your +bones. He is divorced from his wife, and I think it not improbable that +she could not live with him, for he looks as haughty and despotic as +Lucifer, though he has a very winning way with him when he likes. His +playing is spoken of as _sans pareil_. + +I spent a very pleasant Christmas. The family had a pretty little tree, +and we all gave each other presents. It was charming to go out in the +streets the week before. The Germans make the greatest time over +Christmas, and the streets are full of Christmas trees, the shops are +crammed with lovely things, and there are little booths erected all +along the sidewalks filled with toys. They have special cakes and +confections that they prepare only at this season. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + Tausig and Rubinstein. Tausig's Pupils. The Bancrofts. A German + Radical. + + + BERLIN, _February 8, 1870_. + +I have heard both Rubinstein and Tausig in concert since I last wrote. +They are both wonderful, but in quite a different way. Rubinstein has +the greatest power and _abandon_ in playing that you can imagine, and is +extremely exciting. I never saw a man to whom it seemed so easy to play. +It is as if he were just sporting with the piano, and could do what he +pleased with it. Tausig, on the contrary, is extremely restrained, and +has not quite enthusiasm enough, but he is absolutely _perfect_, and +plays with the greatest expression. He is pre-eminent in grace and +delicacy of execution, but seems to hold back his power in a concert +room, which is very singular, for when he plays to his classes in the +conservatory he seems all passion. His conception is so very refined +that sometimes it is a little too much so, while Rubinstein is +occasionally too precipitate. I have not yet decided which I like best, +but in my estimation Clara Schumann as a whole is superior to either, +although she has not their unlimited technique. + +This was Tausig's programme: + + 1. Sonate Op. 53, Beethoven. + + 2. a. Bourrée, Bach. + b. Presto Scherzando, Mendelssohn. + c. Barcarole Op. 60, } + d. Ballade Op. 47, } Chopin. + e. Zwei Mazurkas Op. 59 u 33,} + f. Aufforderung zum Tanz, Weber. + + 3. Kreisleriana Op. 16, 8 Phantasie Stücke, Schumann. + 4. a. Ständchen von Shakespeare nach Schubert, } Liszt. + b. Ungarische Rhapsodie, } + +Tausig's octave playing is the most extraordinary I ever heard. The last +great effect on his programme was in the Rhapsody by Liszt, in an octave +variation. He first played it so _pianissimo_ that you could only just +hear it, and then he repeated the variation and gave it tremendously +_forte_. It was colossal! His scales surpass Clara Schumann's, and it +seems as if he played with velvet fingers, his touch is so very soft. He +played the great C major Sonata by Beethoven--Moscheles' favorite, you +know. His conception of it was not brilliant, as I expected it would be, +but very calm and dreamy, and the first movement especially he took very +_piano_. He did it most beautifully, but I was not quite satisfied with +the last movement, for I expected he would make a grand climax with +those passionate trills, and he did not. Chopin he plays divinely, and +that little Bourrée of Bach's that I used to play, was magical. He +played it like lightning, and made it perfectly bewitching. + +Altogether, he is a great man. But Clara Schumann always puts herself +_en rapport_ with you immediately. Tausig and Rubinstein do not sway you +as she does, and, therefore, I think she is the greater interpreter, +although I imagine the Germans would not agree with me. Tausig has such +a little hand that I wonder he has been able to acquire his immense +virtuosity. He is only thirty years old, and is much younger than +Rubinstein or Bülow. + +The day after Tausig's concert I went, as usual, to hear him give the +lesson to his best class of girls. I got there a little before the hour, +and the girls were in the dressing-room waiting for the young men to be +through with their lesson. They were talking about the concert. "Was it +not beautiful?" said little Timanoff, to me; "I did not sleep the whole +night after it!"--a touch of sentiment that quite surprised me in that +small personage, and made me feel some compunctions, as I had slept +soundly myself. "I have practiced five hours to-day already," she added. +Just then the young men came out of the class-room and we passed into +it. Tausig was standing by the piano. "Begin!" said he, to Timanoff, +more shortly even than usual; "I trust you have brought me a study +_this_ time." He always insists upon a study in addition to the piece. +Timanoff replied in the affirmative, and proceeded to open Chopin's +_Etudes_. She played the great A minor "Winter Wind" study, and most +magnificently, too, starting off with the greatest brilliancy and "go." +I was perfectly amazed at such a feat from such a child, and expected +that Tausig would exclaim with admiration. Not so that Rhadamanthus. He +heard it through without comment or correction, and when Timanoff had +finished, simply remarked very composedly, "So! Have you taken the +_next_ Etude, also?" as if the great A minor were not enough for one +meal! It is eight pages long to begin with, and there is no let-up to +the difficulty all the way through. Afterward, however, he told the +young men that he "could not have done it better" himself. + +Tausig is so hasty and impatient that to be in his classes must be a +fearful ordeal. He will not bear the slightest fault. The last time I +went into his class to hear him teach he was dreadful. Fräulein H. +began, and she has remarkable talent, and is far beyond me. She would +not play _piano_ enough to suit him, and finally he stamped his foot at +her, snatched her hand from the piano, and said: "_Will_ you play +_piano_ or not, for if not we will go no farther?" The second girl sat +down and played a few lines. He made her begin over again several times, +and finally came up and took her music away and slapped it down on the +piano,--"You have been studying this for weeks and you can't play a note +of it; practice it for a month and then you can bring it to me again," +he said. + +The third was Fräulein Timanoff, who is a little genius, I think. She +brought a Sonata by Schubert--the lovely one in A minor--and by the way +he behaved Tausig must have a particular feeling about that particular +Sonata. Timanoff began running it off in her usual nimble style, having +practiced it evidently every minute of the time when she was not +asleep, since the last lesson. She had not proceeded far down the first +page when he stopped her, and began to fuss over the expression. She +began again, but this time with no better luck. A third time, but still +he was dissatisfied, though he suffered her to go on a little farther. +He kept stopping her every moment in the most tantalizing and +exasperating manner. If it had been I, I should have cried, but Timanoff +is well broken, and only flushed deeply to the very tips of her small +ears. From an apple blossom she changed to a carnation. Tausig grew more +and more savage, and made her skip whole pages in his impatience. "Play +here!" he would say, in the most imperative tone, pointing to a half or +whole page farther on. "This I cannot hear!--Go on farther!--It is too +bad to be listened to!" Finally, he struck the music with the back of +his hand, and exclaimed, in a despairing way, "_Kind, es liegt eine +Seele darin. Weiss du nicht es liegt eine_ SEELE _darin_? (Child, +there's a soul in the piece. Don't you know there is a _soul_ in it?)" +To the little Timanoff, who has no soul, and who is not sufficiently +experienced to counterfeit one, this speech evidently conveyed no +particular idea. She ran on as glibly as ever till Tausig could endure +no more, and shut up the music. I was much disappointed, as it was new +to me, and I like to hear Timanoff's little fingers tinkle over the +keys, "Seele" or no "Seele." She has a most accurate and dainty way of +doing everything, and somehow, in her healthy little brain I hardly wish +for _Seele_! + +Last of all Fräulein L. played, and she alone suited Tausig. She is a +Swede, and is the best scholar he has, but she has such frightfully ugly +hands, and holds them so terribly, that when I look at her I cannot +enjoy her playing. Tausig always praises her very much, and she is +tremendously ambitious. + +Tausig has a charming face, full of expression and very sensitive. He is +extremely sharp-sighted, and has eyes in the back of his head, I +believe. He is far too small and too despotic to be fascinating, +however, though he has a sort of captivating way with him when he is in +a good humor. + +I was dreadfully sorry to hear of poor Gottschalk's death. He had a +golden touch, and equal to any in the world, I think. But what a +romantic way to die!--to fall senseless at his instrument, while he was +playing "_La Morte_." It was very strange. If anything more is in the +papers about him you must send it to me, for the infatuation that I and +99,999 other American girls once felt for him, still lingers in my +breast! + +On Saturday night I went for the first time to hear the Berlin Symphony +Kapelle. It is composed only of artists, and is the most splendid music +imaginable. De Ahna, for instance, is one of the violinists, and he is +not far behind Joachim. We have no conception of such an orchestra in +America.[A] The Philharmonic of New York approaches it, but is still a +long way off. This orchestra is so perfect, and plays with such +precision, that you can't realize that there are any performers at all. +It is just a great wave of sound that rolls over you as smooth as glass. +As the concert halls are much smaller here, the music is much louder, +and every man not only plays _piano_ and _forte_ where it is marked, but +he draws the _tone_ out of his violin. They have the greatest pathos, +consequently, in the soft parts, and overwhelming power in the loud. +Where great expression is required the conductor almost ceases to beat +time, and it seems as if the performers took it _ad libitum_; but they +understand each other so well that they play like one man. It is _too_ +ecstatic! I observed the greatest difference in the horn playing. +Instead of coming in in a monotonous sort of way as it does at home, and +always with the same degree of loudness, here, when it is solo, it +begins round and smooth and full, and then gently modulates until the +tone seems to sigh itself out, dying away at last with a little tremolo +that is perfectly melting. I never before heard such an effect. When the +trumpets come in it is like the crack of doom, and you should hear the +way they play the drums. I never _was_ satisfied with the way they +strike the drums in New York and Boston, for it always seemed as if they +thought the parchment would break. Here, sometimes they give such a +sharp stroke that it startles me, though, of course, it is not often. +But it adds immensely to the accent, and makes your heart beat, I can +tell you. They played Schubert's great symphony, and Beethoven's in B +major, and I could scarcely believe my own ears at the difference +between this orchestra and ours. It is as great as between---- and +Tausig. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _March 4, 1870_. + +Tausig is off to Russia to-day on a concert tour, and will not return +until the 1st of May. Out of six months he has been in Berlin about two +and a half! However, as I am not yet in his class it doesn't affect me +much, but I should think his scholars would be provoked at such long +absences. That is the worst of having such a great artist for a master. +I believe we are to have no vacation in the summer though, and that he +has promised to remain here from May until November without going off. +Ehlert and Tausig have had a grand quarrel, and Ehlert is going to leave +the conservatory in April. I am very sorry, for he is an admirable +teacher, and I like him extremely. + +We had another Musical Reading on Sunday, at which I played, but all the +conservatory classes were there, and all the teachers, with Tausig, +also, so it was a pretty hard ordeal. The girls said I turned deadly +pale when I sat down to the piano, and well I might, for here you cannot +play any thing that the scholars have not either played themselves or +are perfectly familiar with, so they criticise you without mercy. Tausig +plays so magnificently that you know beforehand that a thing can never +be more than comparatively good in his eyes. Fräulein L. is the only one +of his pupils that plays to suit him. I do not like her playing so much +myself, because it sounds as if she had tried to imitate him +exactly--which she probably does. It does not seem spontaneous, and she +is an affected creature. They all think 'the world' of her at the +conservatory, and I suppose she _is_ quite extraordinary; but I prefer +Fräulein Timanoff--"_die kleine Person_," as Tausig calls her--and she +is, indeed, a "little person." On Sunday Fräulein L. played the first +part of a Sonata by Chopin, and Tausig was quite enchanted with her +performance. I thought he was going to embrace her, he jumped up so +impetuously and ran over to her. He declared that it could not be better +played, and said he would not hear anything else after that, and so the +school was dismissed, although several had not played that expected to +do so. + +Tausig has one scholar who is a very singular girl--the Fräulein H. I +mentioned to you before, who has studied with Bülow. She is half French +and half German, and speaks both languages. She is full of talent and +cannot be over eighteen, but she is the most intense character, and is a +perfect child of nature. One can't help smiling at everything she does, +because she goes at everything so hard and so unconsciously. When the +other girls are playing she folds her arms and plays with her fingers +against her sides all the time, and when her turn comes she seizes her +music, jumps up, and rushes for the piano as fast as she can. She hasn't +the least timidity, and on Sunday when Tausig called out her name he +scarcely got the words out before she said, "_Ja_," to the great +amusement of the class (for none of us answered to our names) and ran to +the piano. + +She sat down with the chair half crooked, and almost on the side of it, +but she never stopped to arrange herself, but dashed off a prelude out +of her own head, and then played her piece. When she got through she +never changed countenance, but was back in her seat before you could say +"Jack Robinson." She is as passionate as Tausig, and so they usually +have a scene over her lesson. He is always either half amused at her or +very angry, and is terribly severe with her. When he stamps his foot at +her she makes up a face, and the blood rushes up into her head, and I +believe she would beat him if she dared. She always plays as impetuously +as she does everything else, and then he stops his ears and tells her +she makes too much "_Spectakel_" (his favorite expression). Then she +begins over again two or three times, but always in the same way. He +snatches the music from the piano and tells her that is enough. Then the +class bursts out laughing and she goes to her seat and cries. But she is +too proud to let the other girls see her wipe her eyes, and so she sits +up straight, and tries to look unconcerned, but the tears trickle down +her cheeks one after the other, and drop off her chin all the rest of +the hour. By the time she has had a piece for two lessons she comes to +the third, and at last she has managed to tone down enough, and then she +plays it splendidly. She is a savage creature. The girls tell me that +one time she sat down to the piano (a concert-grand) with such violence +as to push the instrument to one side, and began to play with such +vehemence that she burst the sleeve out of her dress behind! She is +going to be an artist, and I told her she must come to America to give +concerts. She said "_Ja_," and immediately wanted to know where I lived, +so she could come and see me. I think she will make a capital concert +player, for she is always excited by an audience, and she has immense +power. I am a mere baby to her in strength. Perhaps when she is ten +years older she will be able to restrain herself within just limits, and +to put in the light and shade as Fräulein L. does. + +Since I last wrote I have been to hear Rubinstein again. He is the +greatest sensation player I know of, and, like Gottschalk, has all sorts +of tricks of his own. His grand aim is to produce an _effect_, so it is +dreadfully exciting to hear him, and at his last concert the first piece +he played--a terrific composition by Schubert--gave me such a violent +headache that I couldn't hear the rest of the performance with any +pleasure. He has a gigantic spirit in him, and is extremely poetic and +original, but for an entire concert he is too much. Give me Rubinstein +for a few pieces, but Tausig for a whole evening. Rubinstein doesn't +care how many notes he misses, provided he can bring out his conception +and make it vivid enough. Tausig strikes _every_ note with rigid +exactness, and perhaps his very perfection makes him at times a little +cold. Rubinstein played Schubert's Erl-König, arranged by Liszt, +_gloriously_. Where the child is so frightened, his hands flew all over +the piano, and absolutely made it shriek with terror. It was enough to +freeze you to hear it. + +Last week I went to a party at Mrs. Bancroft's in honour of Washington's +birthday, and had a lovely time, as I always do when I go there. +Bismarck was present, and wore a coat all decorated with stars and +orders. He is a splendid looking man, and is tall and imposing. No one +could be kinder than Mr. Bancroft. He and Mrs. Bancroft live in a +beautiful house, furnished in perfect taste and full of lovely pictures +and things, and they entertain most charmingly. They seem to do their +utmost for the Americans who are in Berlin, and I am very proud of our +minister. His reputation as our national historian, together with his +German culture and early German associations, all combine to render him +an admirable representative of our country to this haughty kingdom, and +I hear that he is very popular with its selfsatisfied citizens. As for +Mrs. Bancroft, one could hardly be more elegant, or better suited to the +position. Mr. Bancroft is passionately fond of music, and knows what +good music is,--which is of course an additional title to _my_ high +opinion! + +The other day Herr J. called for me to go and take a walk through the +Thier-Garten, and see the skating. It was the first time I had been +there, though it is not far from us, and I was delighted with it. It is +the natural forest, with beautiful walks and drives cut through it, and +statues here and there. We went to see the skating, and it was a lovely +sight. The band was playing, and ladies and gentlemen were skating in +time to the waltz. Many ladies skate very elegantly, and go along with +their hands in their muffs, swaying first to one side and then to the +other. It is grace itself. Carriages and horses pranced slowly around +the edge of the pond, and at last the Prince and Princess Royal came +along, drawn by two splendid black horses. + +The carriage stopped and they got out to walk. "Now," said I to Herr J., +"you must take off your hat"--for everybody takes off his hat to the +Crown Prince. As they passed us he did take it off, but blushed up to +his ears, which I thought rather odd, until he said, in a half-ashamed +tone, "That is the first time in my life that I ever took off my hat to +a Prince." "Well, what did you do it for?" said I. "Because you told me +to," said he. He is such a red hot republican, that even such a little +act of respect as this grated upon him! I only told him in fun, any way, +but I was very much amused to see how he took it. He always raves over +the United States, and says we are the greatest country in the world. He +is a strange man, and you ought to hear his theory of religion. He sets +the Bible entirely aside--like most German cultivated men. We were +talking of it one night, and he said, "We won't speak of that +_blockhead_ Peter, stupid fisherman that he was! but we will pass on to +Paul, who was a man of some education." David, he calls "that rascal +David, etc." Of course, I hold to my own belief, but I can't help +laughing to hear him, it sounds so ridiculous. The world never had any +beginning, he says, and there is no resurrection. We live only for the +benefit of the next generation, and therefore it is necessary to lead +good lives. We inherit the result of our father's labours, and our +children will inherit ours. So we shall go on until the human race comes +to a state of perfection. "And then what?" said I. Oh--then, he didn't +know. Perhaps the world would explode, and go off in meteors. "We _do_ +know," said he, "that there are lost stars. Occasionally a star +disappears and we can't tell what has become of it; and perhaps the +earth will become a wandering star, or a comet. The intervals between +the stars are so great as to admit of a world wandering about--and there +is no police in those regions, I fancy," concluded he, with a shrug of +his shoulders. "Do you really _believe_ that, Herr J.?" I asked. "Oh," +said he, "we won't speak about _beliefs_. Now we are _speculating_!" He +is a delightful companion, and I think he is scrupulously conscientious. +Though he does not profess the Christian faith, he acts up to Christian +principles. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + Opera and Oratorio in Berlin. A Typical American. Prussian + Rudeness. Conservatory Changes. Easter. + + + BERLIN, _March 20, 1870_. + +On Wednesday the Bancrofts most kindly called for me to go to the opera +with them. They came in their carriage, with two horses and footmen, so +it was very jolly, and we bowled rapidly through Unter den Linden (the +Broadway of Berlin), in rather a different manner from the pace I +usually crawl along in a droschkie. They had fine opera glasses, of +course, and we took our seats just as the overture was about to begin, +so that everything was charming except that instead of Lohengrin, which +we had expected to hear, they had changed the opera to Faust, which I +had heard the week before. Faust is, however, a fascinating opera, and +it is beautifully given here, albeit the Germans stick to it that it is +Gounod's Faust and not Goethe's. + +Since I have come here I have a perfect passion for going to the opera, +for everything is done in such superb fashion, and they have the +orchestra of the Symphony Kapelle, which is so splendid that it could +not be better. It is a pity the singers are not equally good, but I +don't believe Germany is the land of great voices. However, the men sing +finely, and the prima donnas have much talent, and _act_ beautifully. +The prima donna on this occasion was Mallinger, the rival of Lucca. She +is especially good as Margaretta. Niemann and Wachtel are the great men +singers. Wachtel was formerly a coachman, but he has a lovely voice. His +acting is not remarkable, but Niemann is superb, and he sings and acts +delightfully. He is very tall and fair, with light whiskers, and golden +hair crowning a noble head, in truth a regular Viking. When he comes out +in his crimson velvet mantle and crimson cap, with a white plume, and +begins singing these delicious love songs to Margaretta, he is perfectly +enchanting! He and Mallinger throw themselves into the long love scene +which fills the third act, and act it magnificently. It was the first +time I ever saw a love scene well done. The fourth act is most +impressive. The curtain rises, and shows the interior of a church. The +candles are burning on the altar, and the priests and acolytes are +standing in their proper order before it. The organ strikes up a fugue +and all the peasants come in and kneel down. Then poor Margaretta comes +in for refuge, but when she kneels to pray a voice is heard which tells +her that for her there is no refuge or hope in heaven or earth. + +This scene Mallinger does so well that it is nature itself. When the +voice is heard she gives a shriek, totters for a moment, and then falls +upon the floor senseless, and O, _so_ naturally that one is entirely +carried away by it. The organ takes up the fugue, and the curtain drops. +The contrast between the two acts makes it all the more effective, for +in the third it is all love and flowers and languishing music, and in +the fourth one is suddenly recalled to the sanctity and severity of the +church; also, after the orchestra this subdued fugue on the organ makes +a very peculiar impression. In the fifth act Margaretta is in prison, +and Faust and Mephistopheles come to rescue her. This is a powerful +scene, for at first she hesitates, and thinks she will go with them, and +then her mind wanders, and she recalls, as in a vision, the happy scenes +of earlier days. They keep urging her, and try to drag her along with +them, but at last she breaks free from them and cries, "To Thee, O, God, +belongs my soul," and falls upon her straw pallet, and dies. Then the +scene changes, and you see four angels gradually floating up to heaven, +supporting her dead body, while the chorus sings: + + "Christ ist erstanden + Aus Tod und Banden + Frieden und Heil verkeisst + Aller Welt er, die ihn preist."[B] + +This ends the opera, which is very exciting throughout. I am going to +read the original as soon as I know a little more German, so that I +shan't have to read with a dictionary. I am just getting able to read +Goethe without one, and think he is the most entrancing writer. There +never could have been a man who understood women so well as he! His +female characters are perfectly captivating, but he is not very +flattering to his own sex, and generally makes them, in love, (what they +are) weak and vacillating. + +I met a very agreeable young countryman at a dinner the other day--a Mr. +P.--and a great contrast to any of Goethe's ill-regulated heroes. He was +the typical American, I thought. Wide awake, bright, with a sharp eye +to business, very republican, with a hearty contempt for titles and a +great respect for women, practical and clear-headed. When the wine was +passed round he refused it, and said he had never drunk a glass of wine +or touched tobacco in his life. I was so amused, for he looked so young. +I said to myself, "probably you are just out of college, and are +travelling before you settle down to a profession." After a while he +said something about his wife. I was a little surprised, but still I +thought "perhaps you have only been married a few months." A little +further on he mentioned his children. I was still more surprised, but +thought he couldn't have more than two; but when Mrs. B. asked him how +many he had, and he said "three living and two dead," adding very +gravely, "I have been twice left childless," I could scarcely help +bursting out laughing, for I had thought him about twenty-one, and these +revelations of a wife and numerous family seemed too preposterous!--But +it was very nice to see such a model countryman, too. It is such men +that make the American greatness. + +After dinner I went with my hostess to hear Mendelssohn's Oratorio of +St. Paul. It is a great work, a little tedious as a whole, but with +wonderfully beautiful numbers interspersed through it. There are several +lovely chorales in it. I was disappointed in the performance, though, +for in the first place there is no organ in the Sing-Akademie, and I +consider the effect of the organ and the drums indispensable to an +oratorio; and in the second, the solos all seemed to me indifferently +sung. The choruses were faultless, however. They understand how to +drill a chorus here! Next Friday I am going to Haydn's "Jahreszeiten," +which I never happened to hear in Boston. + +Germany is a great place for birds and flowers. All winter long we have +quantities of saucy-looking little sparrows here, and they have the most +thievish expression when they fly down for a crumb. I sometimes put +crumbs on my window-sill, and in a short time they are sure to see them. +Then they stand on the edge of a roof opposite, and look from side to +side for a long time, the way birds do. At last they make up their +minds, swoop down on the sill, stretch their heads, give a bold look to +see if I am about, and then snatch a crumb and fly off with it. They +never can get over their own temerity, and always give a chirp as they +fly away with the crumb; whether it is a note of triumph over their +success, or an expression of nervousness, I cannot decide. One cold day +I passed a tree, on every twig of which was a bird. They were holding a +political meeting, I am sure, for they were all jabbering away to each +other in the most excited manner, and each one had his breast bulged +out, and his feathers ruffled. They were "awfully cunning!" + +On Tuesday I went out to Borsig's greenhouse. He is an immensely rich +man here, who makes a specialty of flowers. He lives some way out of +Berlin, and has the largest conservatories here. The inside of the +portico which leads into them is all covered with ivy, which creeps up +on the inside of the walls, and covers them completely. When we came +within, the flowers were arranged in perfect _banks_ all along the +length of the greenhouse, so that you saw one continuous line of +brilliant colours, and oh--the perfume! The hyacinths predominated in +all shades, though there were many other flowers, and many of them new +to me. Camelias were trained, vine fashion, all over the sides of the +greenhouse, and hundreds of white and pink blossoms were depending from +them. All the centre of the greenhouse was a bed of rich earth covered +with a little delicate plant, and at intervals planted with azalea +bushes so covered with blossoms that one could scarcely see the leaves. +At one end was a very large cage filled with brilliant birds, and at the +other was a lovely fountain of white marble--Venus and Cupid supported +on three shells. But I was most struck by the tree ferns, which I had +never before seen. They were perfectly magnificent, and were arranged on +the highest side of the greenhouse with many other rare plants most +artistically mingled in. After we had finished looking at the flowers we +went into a second house, where were palm trees, ferns, cacti and all +sorts of strange things growing, but all placed with the same taste. It +was a beautiful sight, and I never had any idea of the garden of Eden +before. I must try and bring home a pot of the "Violet of the Alps." It +is the most delicate little flower, and looks as if it grew on a high, +cold mountain. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _April 1, 1870_. + +To-day is April Fool's day, and the first real month of spring is begun. +I have not fooled anybody yet, but as soon as dinner is ready, I shall +rush to the window and cry, "There goes the king!" Of course they will +all run to see him, and then I shall get it off on the whole family at +once. I shall wait until the "kleiner Hans," Frau W.'s son, comes home. +I call him the "Kleinen" in derision, for in reality he is immense. I +have been very much struck with the height of the people here. As a rule +they are much taller than Americans, and sometimes one meets perfect +giants in the streets. The Prussian men are often semi-insolent in their +street manners to women, and sometimes nearly knock you off the +sidewalk, from simply not choosing to see you. I suppose this arrogance +is one of the benefits of their military training! They _will_ have the +middle of the walk where the stone flag is laid, no matter what _you_ +have to step off into! + +I went to hear Haydn's Jahreszeiten a few evenings since, and it is the +most charming work--such a happy combination of grave and gay! He wrote +it when he was seventy years old, and it is so popular that one has +great difficulty in getting a ticket for it. The _salon_ was entirely +filled, so that I had to take a seat in the _loge_, where the places are +pretty poor, though I went early, too. The work is sung like an +oratorio, in arias, recitatives and choruses, and is interspersed with +charming little songs. It represents the four seasons of the year, and +each part is prefaced by a little overture appropriate to the passing +of each season into the next. The recitatives are sung by Hanna and +Lucas, who are lovers, and by Simon, who is a friend of both, +apparently. The autumn is the prettiest of the four parts, for it +represents first the joy of the country people over the harvests and +over the fruits. Then comes a splendid chorus in praise of Industry. +After that follows a little love dialogue between Hanna and Lucas, then +a description of a hunt, then a dance; lastly the wine is brought, and +the whole ends with a magnificent chorus in praise of wine. The dance is +too pretty for anything, for the whole chorus sings a waltz, and it is +the gayest, most captivating composition imaginable. The choruses here +are so splendidly drilled that they give the expression in a very vivid +manner, and produce beautiful effects. All the parts are perfectly +accurate and well balanced. But the solo singers are, as I have remarked +in former letters, for the most part, ordinary. + +I took my last lesson of Ehlert yesterday. I am very sorry that he and +Tausig have quarrelled, for he is a splendid teacher. He has taught me a +great deal, and precisely the things that I wanted to know and could not +find out for myself. For instance, those twists and turns of the hands +that artists have, their way of striking the chords, and many other +little technicalities which one must have a master to learn. He always +seemed to take great pleasure in teaching me, and I am most grateful to +him for his encouragement. I think Tausig behaves very strangely to be +off for such a long time. He does not return until the first of May, and +all this month we are to be taught by one of his best scholars until he +comes back and engages another teacher. He has just given concerts at +St. Petersburg, and I am told that at a single one he made six thousand +rubles. They are in an immense enthusiasm there over him. + +Last night I went with Mr. B. to hear Bach's Passion Music. Anything to +equal that last chorus I never heard from voices. I felt as if it ought +to go on forever, and could not bear to have it end. That chorale, "O +Sacred Head now wounded," is taken from it, and it comes in twice; the +second time with different harmonies and without accompaniment. It is +the most exquisite thing; you feel as if you would like to die when you +hear it. But the last chorus carries you straight up to heaven. It +begins: + + "We sit down in tears + And call to thee in the grave, + Rest soft--rest soft." + +It represents the rest of our Saviour after the stone had been rolled +before the tomb, and it is _divine_. Everybody in the chorus was dressed +in black, and almost every one in the audience, so you can imagine what +a sombre scene it was. This is the custom here, and on Good Friday, when +the celebrated "Tod Jesu" by Graun, is performed, they go in black +without exception. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _April 24, 1870_. + +I thought of you all on Easter Sunday, and wondered what sort of music +you were having. I did not go to the English church, as is my wont, but +to the Dom, which is the great church here, and is where all the court +goes. It is an extremely ugly church, and much like one of our old +Congregational meeting-houses; but they have a superb choir of two +hundred men and boys which is celebrated all over Europe. Haupt (Mr. J. +K. Paine's former master) is the organist, and of course they have a +very large organ. I knew, as this was Easter, that the music would be +magnificent, so I made A. W. go there with me, much against her will, +for she declared we should get no seat. The Germans don't trouble +themselves to go to church very often, but on a feast day they turn out +in crowds. + +We got to the church only twenty minutes before service began, and I +confess I was rather daunted as I saw the swarms of people not only +going in but coming out, hopeless of getting into the church. However, I +determined to push on and see what the chances were, and with great +difficulty we got up stairs. There is a lobby that runs all around the +church, just as in the Boston Music Hall. All the doors between the +gallery and the lobby were open, and each was crammed full of people. I +thought the best thing we could do would be to stand there until we got +tired, and listen to the music, and then go. Finally, the sexton came +along, and A. asked him if he could not give us two seats; he shrugged +his shoulders and said, "Yes, if you choose to pass through the crowd." +We boldly said we would, although it looked almost hopeless, and then +made our way through it, followed by muttered execrations. At last the +sexton unlocked a door, and gave us two excellent seats, and there was +plenty of room for a dozen more people; but I don't doubt he frightened +them away just as he would have done us if he could. He locked us in, +and there we sat quite in comfort. + +At ten the choir began to sing a psalm. They sit directly over the +chancel, and a gilded frame work conceals them completely from the +congregation. They have a leader who conducts them, and they sing in +most perfect time and tune, entirely without accompaniment. The voices +are tender and soft rather than loud, and they weave in and out most +beautifully. There are a great many different parts, and the voices keep +striking in from various points, which produces a delicious effect, and +makes them sound like an angel choir far up in the sky. After they had +finished the psalm the organ burst out with a tremendous great chord, +enough to make you jump, and then played a chorale, and there were also +trombones which took the melody. Then all the congregation sang the +chorale, and the choir kept silence. You cannot imagine how easy it is +to sing when the trombones lead, and the effect is overwhelming with the +organ, especially in these grand old chorales. I could scarcely bear it, +it was so very exciting. + +There was a great deal of music, as it was Easter Sunday, and it was +done alternately by the choir and the congregation; but generally the +Dom choir only sings one psalm before the service begins, and therefore +I seldom take the trouble to go there. The rest of the music is entirely +congregational, and they only have trombones on great occasions. We sat +close by the chancel, and the great wax candles flared on the altar +below us, and the Lutheran clergyman read the German so that it sounded +a good deal like Latin. I was quite surprised to see how much like Latin +German _could_ sound, for it has these long, rolling words, and it is +just as pompous. Altogether it made a strange but splendid impression. I +thought if they had only had their choir in the chancel, and in white +surplices, it would have been much more beautiful, but perhaps the music +would not have sounded so fine as when the singers were overhead. The +Berlin churches all look as if religion was dying out here, so old and +bare and ill-cared for, and so few in number. They are only redeemed by +the great castles of organs which they generally have; and it is a +difficult thing to get the post of organist here. One must be an +experienced and well-known musician to do it. They sing no chants in the +service, but only chorales. + +To-night is the last Royal Symphony Concert of this season, and of +course I shall go. This wonderful orchestra carries me completely away. +It is too marvellous how they play! such expression, such _élan!_ I +heard them give Beethoven's Leonora Overture last week in such a fashion +as fairly electrified me. This overture sums up the opera of Fidelio, +and in one part of it, just as the hero is going to be executed, you +hear the post-horn sound which announces his delivery. This they play so +softly that you catch it exactly as if it came from a long distance, and +you cannot believe it comes from the orchestra. It makes you think of +"the horns of elf-land faintly blowing." + +Tausig is expected back this week, and he has indeed been gone long +enough. He is going to give a lesson every Monday to the best scholars +who are not in his class, and as I stand at the head of these I hope to +have a lesson from him every week. This would suit me better than two, +as he is so dreadfully exacting, and it will give me time to learn a +piece well. Then I should have my regular lesson beside from Mr. +Beringer, or whoever he appoints to take Ehlert's place. Beringer, who +is a young man about twenty-five years old, has turned out a capital +teacher, and I am learning much with him. He plays beautifully himself, +and is a great favorite of Tausig's. He has been with him so long that +he teaches his method excellently, and gives me pieces that he has +studied with him. I believe he is to come out at the Gewandhaus, in +Leipsic, in October, and after that he will settle in London. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + The Thier-Garten. A Military Review. Charlottenburg. Tausig. Berlin + in Summer. Potsdam and Babelsberg. + + + BERLIN, _June 5, 1870_. + +We've had the vilest possible weather this spring, but Berlin looks +perfectly lovely now. There are a great many gardens attached to the +houses here. Everything is in bloom, and is laden with the scent of +lilacs and apple blossoms. The streets are planted with lindens and +horse chestnut trees, and on the fashionable street bordering on the +Thier-Garten, all the houses have little lawns in front, carpeted with +the most dazzling green grass, and rising out of it are solid banks of +flowers. The shrubs are planted according to their height, close +together, and one behind the other, and as they are all in blossom you +see these great masses of colour. It is like a gigantic bouquet growing +up before you. + +The Thier-Garten is perfectly beautiful. It is so charming to come upon +this unfenced wood right in the heart of an immense city, with roads and +paths cut all through it, and each over-arched with vivid green as far +as the eye can reach. When you see the gay equipages driving swiftly +through it, and ladies and gentlemen glancing amid the trees on +horseback, it is very romantic. + +Frau W.'s brother, "Uncle S." as I call him, announced the other day +that he was going to take us to Charlottenburg. I had often been told +that I must go there and see the "Mausoleum," but as you know I never +ask for explanations, this did not convey any particular idea to my +mind, and I started out on this excursion in my usual state of blissful +ignorance. We took two droschkies for our party, and meandered slowly +through the Thier-Garten and along the Charlottenburg road till we +arrived at our point of destination. This was announced from afar by an +absurd statue poised on one toe on the top of the castle which stands in +front of the park containing the Mausoleum. + +The first thing we did on alighting was to go into a little beer garden +close by to take coffee. It was a perfect afternoon, and the trees and +flowers were in all their June glory. We sat down around one of those +delightful tables which they always have under the trees in Germany. The +coffee was soon served, hot and strong, and Uncle S. took out a cigar to +complete his enjoyment. Then we began to stroll. We went through a gate +into the grounds surrounding the castle, and after passing through the +orangery emerged into a garden, which soon spread into a beautiful park +filled with magnificent trees, and with beds of flowers cut in the +smooth turf for some distance along the borders of the avenues. We +turned to the right (instead of to the left, which would have brought us +directly to the Mausoleum) in order to see the flowers first, then the +river, and then come round by the pond where the carp are kept. + +The Germans certainly understand laying out parks to perfection. They +are not _too_ rigidly kept, and there is an air of nature about +everything. This Charlottenburg park is a particularly fascinating one. +A dense avenue borders the River Spree, which is broad at this point, +and flows gloomily and silently along. The branches of the trees +overhang the stream, and also lock together across the walk, forming a +leafy avenue before and behind you. We met very few people, scarcely any +one, in fact, and the songs of the birds were the only sounds that broke +the all-pervading calm. The path finally left the river, and we came out +on an open spot, where was a pretty view of the castle through a little +cut in the trees. We sat down on a bench and looked about us for awhile, +and then went up on the bridge which crosses the pond where the carp are +kept. The Germans always feed these carp religiously, and that is a +regular part of the excursion. The fish are very old, many of them, and +we saw some hoary old fellows rise lazily to the surface and condescend +to swallow the morsels of cake that we threw them. They were evidently +accustomed to good living, and, like all swells, considered it only +their due! + +At last we came gradually round towards the Mausoleum. An avenue of +hemlocks led to it--"Trauer-Bäume (mourning-trees)," as the Germans call +them, and it was an exquisite touch of sentiment to make _this_ avenue +of these dark funereal evergreens. At first you see nothing, for the +avenue is long, and you turn into it gay and smiling with the influence +of the birds, the trees, and the flowers fresh upon you. But the +drooping boughs of the sombre hemlocks soon begin to take effect, and +the feeling that comes over one when about half way down it is certainly +peculiar. It seems as if one were passing between a row of tall and +silent _sentinels_ watching over the abode of death! + +Involuntarily you begin repeating from Edgar Poe's haunting poem: + + "Then I pacified Psyche and kissed her, + And conquered her scruples and gloom, + And banished her scruples and gloom, + And we passed to the end of the vista + Till we came to the door of a tomb; + And I said, 'What is written, sweet sister, + On the door of this legended tomb?' + And she said, 'Ulalume, Ulalume, + 'Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume." + +And so, too, does _your_ eye become fixed upon a door at the end of +_this_ vista, which comes nearer and nearer until finally the Mausoleum +takes form round it in the shape of a little Greek temple of polished +brown marble. A small flower garden lies in front of it, and it would +look inviting enough if one did not know what it was. Two officials +stand ready to receive you and conduct you up the steps. + +Within these walls a royal pair lie buried--King Friedrich Wilhelm III. +and his beautiful wife, Luisa, who so calmly withstood the bullying of +Napoleon I. and for whom the Prussians cherish such a chivalrous +affection. They are entombed under the front portion of the temple, and +two slabs in the pavement mark their resting places. These are lit from +above by a window in the roof filled with blue glass, which throws a +subdued and solemn light into the marble chamber. You walk past them to +the other end of the temple, which is cruciform in shape, go up one step +between pillars, and there, in the little white transept, lie upon two +snowy marble couches the sculptured forms of the dead king and queen +side by side. Though this apartment is lit by side windows of plain +glass high up on the walls, so that it is full of the white daylight, +yet the blueish light from the outer room is reflected into it just +enough to heighten the delicacy of the marble and to bestow on +everything an unearthly aspect. + +Queen Luisa was celebrated for her beauty, and the sculptor Rauch, who +knew and adored her, has breathed it all into the stone. There she lay, +as if asleep, her head easily pressing the pillow, her feet crossed and +the outlines of her exquisite form veiled but not concealed by the thin +tissue-like drapery. It covered even the little feet, but they seemed to +define themselves all the more daintily through the muslin. There is no +look of death about her face. She seems more like a bonny "Queen o' the +May," reclining with closed eyes upon her flowery bed. The statue has +been criticised by some on account of this entire absence of the +"_beauté de la mort_." There is no transfigured or glorified look to it. +It is simply that of a beautiful woman in deep repose. But it seems to +me that this is a matter of taste, and that the artist had a perfect +right to represent her as he most felt she was. The king's statue is +clothed in full uniform, and he looks very striking, too, lying there +in all the dignity of manhood and of kingship, with the drapery of his +military cloak falling about him. His features are delicate and regular, +and he is a fit counterpart to his lovely consort. Against the back wall +an altar is elevated on some steps, and there is an endless fascination +in leaning against it and gazing down on those two august forms +stretched out so still before you. On either side of the statues are +magnificent tall candelabra of white marble of very rich and beautiful +design, and appropriate inscriptions from the German Bible run round the +carved and diapered marble walls. Altogether, this garden-park, with its +river, its Mausoleum, its avenue of hemlocks, and its glorious statues +of the king and queen, is one of the most exquisite and ideal +conceptions imaginable. As we returned it was toward sunset. The evening +wind was sighing through the tall trees and the waving grasses. An +indefinable influence hovered in the air. The supernatural seemed to +envelop us, and instinctively we hastened a little as we retraced our +steps. + +When we emerged from the hemlock avenue Uncle S., I thought, seemed +rather relieved, for the contemplation of a future life is not +particularly sympathetic to him! After he had asked me if I did not +think the Mausoleum "_sehr schön_ (very beautiful)," and had ascertained +that I _did_ think so, he restored his equilibrium by taking out another +cigar, which he lighted, and we leisurely made our way through the +garden to our droschkies and drove home. It was quite dark as we were +coming through the Thier-Garten, and it seemed like a forest. The stars +were shining through the branches overhead, and their soothing light +gave the last poetic touch to a lovely day. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _June 26, 1870_. + +Last week the Emperor of Austria was here, and they had a parade in his +honour. The B.'s took me in their carriage to see it. We drove to a +large plain outside the city, and there we saw a mock battle, and all +the manÅ“uvers of an army--how they advance and retreat, and how they +form and deploy. There was a continual fire of musketry and artillery, +and it was very exciting. The enemy was only imaginary, but the +attacking party acted just as if there were one, and at last it ended +with the taking by storm, which was done by the attacking party rushing +on with one continued cheer, or rather yell, from one end of the lines +to the other. Then they all broke up, the bands played the Russian Hymn, +the King and the Emperor mounted horses and led off a great body of +cavalry, and away we all clattered home--carriages and horses all +together. It was a great sight, and I enjoyed it very much. + +I am going to play before Tausig next Monday, and have been studying +very hard. He praised me very much the last time, and said he would soon +take me into his regular class; but he is such a whimsical creature that +one can't rely on him much. Two of the girls have almost finished their +studies with him, and soon are going to give concerts. I am playing +Scarlatti, which he is _awfully_ particular with, and expect to have my +head taken off. Two of his scholars are playing the same pieces that I +am, and he told one of them that she played "like a nut-cracker." He is +very funny sometimes. The other day one of the young men played the +Pastoral Sonata to him. Tausig gave a sigh, and said, "This _should_ be +a garden of roses, but, as you play it, I see only potato plants." +Scarlatti is charming music. He writes _en suite_ like Bach, and is +still more quaint and full of humour. + +I find Berlin very pleasant, even in summer. Most of the better houses +are made with balconies or bow windows, and around each one they will +have a little frame full of earth in which is planted mignonette, +nasturtiums, geraniums, etc., which trail over the edge, and as you look +up from the street it seems as if the houses were festooned with +flowers. On many of them woodbine is trained so that every window is set +in a deep green frame. All the nice streets have pretty little front +yards in which roses are planted, and I never saw anything like them. +The branches are cut to one thick, straight stem, which is tied to a +stick. They grow very tall, and each one is crowned with a top-knot of +superb roses. Every yard looks like a little orchard of roses, and they +are of every imaginable shade of colour. Every American who comes here +must be struck with the want of beauty in the cities he has left at +home; and it is really shameful, that when our people are so much better +off, and when such immense numbers of them see this European culture +every year, still they do not introduce the same things into our +country. Take Fifth Avenue or Beacon Street, for example, and one won't +see anything the whole length of them but a little green grass and an +occasional woodbine, whereas here they would be adorned with flowers and +all sorts of contrivances to make them beautiful. + +On Thursday a little party of three, including myself, was made up to +take me out to Potsdam. The Museum, Charlottenburg and Potsdam, are, as +Mr. T. B. says, "the three sights of Berlin." I have written you of the +first two, and you shall now have the third. Potsdam is sixteen miles +from here, and it took about as long to go there by train as it does +from Boston to Lynn. It is the royal summer residence. On arriving we +bought a large quantity of cherries and then seated ourselves in a +carriage to drive through the city to Charlottenhof. Here we got out and +walked into a superb park, filled with splendid old trees. The first +thing we saw was a beautiful little building in the Pompeian style. This +was where Humboldt used to stay with the last king and queen in summer. +We went into it and found it the sweetest little place you can imagine. +When we opened the door, instead of a hall was a little court with a +fountain in it and two low, broad staircases (of marble, I think) +sweeping up to the main story. The walls were delicately tinted and +frescoed all round the borders with Pompeian devices. The windows were +of some sort of thin transparent stained glass, through which the light +could penetrate easily, and were also in the Pompeian fashion, with +chariots, and horses, and goddesses, etc. The rooms all opened into +each other, but we were obliged to go through them so hastily that I +could not look at them much in detail. The walls were covered with +lovely pictures, and there were tables inlaid with precious marbles and +all sorts of beautiful things. We saw the table and chair where the king +always sat, just as he had left it, with his papers and drawings; and +the queen's boudoir, with her writing materials and her sewing +arrangements. From her window one looked out on a fountain at the right, +and on the left was a long arcade covered with vines which led to a +garden of roses. + +We opened a door and passed through this arcade, and, after looking at +the flowers, went on through the park until we came to another house, +which was Pompeian, also, or Greek, I couldn't exactly tell which. It +was built only to bathe in. The floors were all of stone, and it was as +cool and fresh as could be. The bath itself was a large semi-circular +place into which one went down by steps. It was large enough to swim in. +Those old peoples understood pretty well how to make themselves +comfortable, didn't they? There was an ancient bath-tub there, set upon +a pedestal, made of some precious stone, which Humboldt had appraised at +half a million of thalers. Outside was a lovely little garden, of +course, and one of the prettiest things I saw was a quantity of those +flowers which only grow in cool, moist places, sheltered under an +awning. The awning was circular, and stretched down to the ground on +three sides, so that one could only see the flowers by standing just in +front. There were any number of lady-slippers of every shade, each +mottled exquisitely with a different colour, and behind them rose other +flowers in regular gradation, and all of brilliant tints. It seemed as +if they were all nestling under a great shaker bonnet, and they looked +as coy and bewitching as possible. I thought it was a charming idea. + +After we left this place we went on until we came to Sans Souci, which +was built simply for the benefit of the orange trees--to give them a +shelter in winter. At least, this was the pretext. It has a most +dazzling effect in the sunshine as you look at it from below. Terrace +rises above terrace, and at the top is this airy white building rising +lightly into the sky, with galleries and towers, groups of statuary, +colonnades, fountains, flowers, and every device one can imagine to make +it look as much like a fairy palace as possible. The great burly orange +trees stand in rows in the gardens in large green pots. Many of them +were in blossom, and cast their heavy perfume on the air. You couldn't +turn your eyes any where that _something_ was not arranged to arrest and +surprise them. Here I saw another way of training roses. Running along +on the green turf was a certain low growing variety, the branches of +which they pin to the earth with a kind of wooden hair-pin, so that it +does not show. They thus lie perfectly flat, and the grass is +_literally_ "carpeted" with them. It was lovely. After we had +sufficiently admired the exterior of the palace, we ascended the flights +of steps which lead up the terraces, and went into it. Outside were the +long galleries where the orange trees stand, and then we passed into +the large and noble rooms. First came the one which is devoted to +Raphael's pictures. Copies of them all hang upon the walls. After we had +gazed at them a long time, we looked at the other apartments, all of +which were furnished in some extraordinary way, but I glanced at them +too hastily to retain any recollection of them. I only remember that one +was all of malachite and gold. + +The next thing we did was to go over the palace originally named "Sans +Souci," where Frederick the Great lived. We saw the benches--ledges +rather--on which his poor pages had to sit in the corridor, and which +were purposely made so narrow in order to prevent their falling asleep +while on duty. The armchair in which he died is there, and the bust of +Charles XII still stands on the floor at the foot of the statue of +Venus, where Frederick placed it in derision, because Charles was a +woman-hater. I think it was a very small piece of malice on Frederick's +part, and in fact he had such a bad heart that none of his relics +interested me in the least. + +After we had seen everything we went to a little restaurant at the foot +of Sans Souci, where we drank beer and coffee and ate cake seated round +a little table under the trees. This fashion that the Germans have of +eating out of doors in summer is perfectly delightful, I think. I laid +in a fresh stock of cherries, though I had already eaten an immense +quantity, but they looked so nice, piled in little pyramids upon a vine +leaf, like the cannon balls at the Cambridge arsenal, that there was no +resisting them. I've thought of you ever since the cherry season began. +They are so extremely cheap here, that two groschens (about six cents) +will buy as many as two persons can eat at one time. We drove from Sans +Souci to Fingstenberg, which is only a place to see a view of the +country. The landscape was perfectly flat, but it had the charm of quiet +cultivation. It was green with beautiful trees, and the river wound +along dotted with white sails, and there were wind-mills turning in +every direction. After we left Fingstenberg we drove down to an inn +where we ordered dinner, and this also was served out of doors. It was +about six o'clock in the evening, and we were all very hungry, so we +enjoyed this part of the programme very much. + +When we had finished our cutlet and green peas we got into the carriage +again, and drove to Babelsberg. This is a little retreat which belongs +to the queen, and where the royal family sometimes passes a few weeks in +summer. We walked through a noble park where the ground swelled upward +on our left and sloped downward on our right. After following the +windings of the road for a long distance, we at last arrived at the +little castle, perched upon a hill-side and embowered in trees. A smart +looking maid showed us through it, and I was more impressed here than by +all I had previously seen. As Balzac says, "People who talk about a +house 'being like a palace' should see one first,"--although, as Herr J. +observed, "Babelsberg is not a palace, but is more like the home of an +English nobleman." It is just a quiet little retreat, but the beauty +with which everything is arranged is quite indescribable. Every window +is planned so that you cannot look out without having something +exquisite before you. Here it will be a little mosaic of rare flowers; +there a fountain, etc. And then the bronzes, the pictures, the rare old +pieces of glass and china, the thousand curious and beautiful objects of +art that one must see over and over again to be able really to take in. +In these castles, too, there are no end of little nooks and crannies +where two or three persons, only, can sit and talk. Dainty little +recesses made for enjoyment. + +I walked into the grand salon and imagined an elegant assemblage of +people in it, with all the means of entertainment at hand. It was a +circular room, and large enough to dance the German in very comfortably. +We went up stairs and through the different apartments. I went into the +Princess Royal's room, and "surveyed my queenly form" in the superb +mirror, and arranged my veil by her toilette glass--which I envied her, +I assure you, for it shone like silver. We saw the cane of Frederick the +Great, with a lion couchant on it--the one which he shook on some +occasion and frightened somebody--(now you know, don't you?) Last of all +we went up into the tower, and after climbing the dizzy staircase, we +stood on the balconies for a long time, and looked over the splendid +park about the country. Altogether, I was enchanted with Babelsberg, and +nothing will suit me now but to have it for the retreat of my old age. I +think I shall apply to be a servant there, for it must be a delightful +situation. The royal family is only a short time there, and the servants +have this exquisite habitation, which is always kept in perfect order, +all the rest of the year, and have nothing to do but show visitors over +it and take in half thalers! + +After we left Babelsberg we took a carriage and drove to the station, +where we got into the cars about half-past nine, and went back to +Berlin. Herr J. had made himself extremely agreeable, and had exerted +himself the whole day on our behalf. We had a most perfect time of its +kind, and I enjoyed every minute of it, but came back in the worst of +spirits, as I generally do. It seems so hard that one can never get +together _all_ the elements of perfect happiness! Here in Babelsberg +everything was so lovely that one could scarcely believe that there had +ever been a "Fall." It seemed as if people _must_ be happy there, and +yet I'm told that the queen is very unhappy. I suppose because she has +such a faithless old husband. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + The War. German Meals. Women and Men. Tausig's Teaching. Tausig + Abandons his Conservatory. Dresden. Kullak. + + + BERLIN, _July 23, 1870_. + +Just now the grand topic of course is this dreadful war that has just +been declared between Prussia and France, and everybody is in the +wildest state of excitement over it. It broke out so very suddenly that +it is only just one week since it has been decided upon, and ever since, +the drafting has been going on, and the streets are filled with +regiments and with droves of horses, cannon, and all the implements of +war. The trains are going out all the time packed with soldiers, and the +railroad stations are the constant scene of weeping women of all +classes, come to see the last of their dear ones. There is such a storm +of indignation against Napoleon that one hears nothing but curses +against him. I am entirely on the German side, and am anxious to see the +result, for between two such great nations, and with so much at stake, +it will be a tremendous struggle. + +We are promised a holiday soon, when I shall have a let-up from +practicing, and only practice three hours a day, instead of five or six. +Don't think I am making extraordinary progress because I practice so +much. I find that the strengthening and equalizing of the fingers is a +terribly slow process, and that it takes much more time to make a step +forward than I expected. You may know how a thing _ought_ to be played, +but it is another matter to get your hands into such a training that +they obey your will. Sometimes I am very much encouraged, and feel as if +I should be an artist "immediately, if not sooner," and at others I fall +into the blackest despair. I don't know but that S. J. was in the right +of it, not to attempt anything, for it is an awful pull when you _do_ +once begin to study! + +I wish S. could come here and spend a winter. I am sure it would be +capital for her health. The Germans have a great idea that you must +"_stärken_ (strengthen)" yourself. So they eat every few hours. When you +first arrive you feel stuffed to bursting all the time, for you +naturally eat heartily at every meal, because, as we only eat three +times a day in America, we are accustomed to take a good deal at once. +Here they have five meals a day, and one has to learn how to take a +little at a time. But it is a pretty good idea, for you are continually +repairing yourself, and you never have such a strain on your system as +to get hungry! The German women are plump roly-polies, as a general +rule, and it is probably in consequence of this continual +"strengthening." One has full opportunity to observe their condition, +for they generally have their dress "_aus-geschnitten_ (square neck)," +as they call it, in order to save collars, and you will see them +strolling along the streets with their dresses out open in front. They +are not handsome--irregular features and muddy complexions being the +rule. The way they neglect their teeth is the worst. They are always +complimenting Americans on what they call our "fine Grecian noses," and, +in fact, since they have said so much about it, I have noticed that +nearly all Americans _have_ straight and reasonably proportioned +noses.--One sees a great many handsome _men_ on the street, +however--many more than we do at home. Perhaps it is because the +Prussian uniform sets them off so, and then their blonde beards and +moustaches give them a _distingué_ air. + +From what you tell me of the shock of our respected friend---- over B.'s +travelling from the West under Mr. S.'s escort, I think the +"conventionalities" are taking too strong a hold in America, and it will +not be many years before they are as strict there as they are here, +where young people of different sexes can never see anything of each +other. I regard it as a shocking system, as the Germans manage it. Young +ladies and gentlemen only see each other in parties, and a young man can +never call on a girl, but must always see her in the presence of the +whole family. I only wonder how marriages are managed at all, for the +sexes seem to live quite isolated from each other. The consequence is, +the girls get a lot of rubbish in their heads, and as for the men, I +know not what they think, for I have not seen any to speak of since I +have been here. You can imagine that with my co-education training and +ideas, I have given Fräulein W.'s moral system a succession of shocks. +She has been fenced up, so to speak, her whole life, and, consequently, +was dumbfounded at the bold stand I take. I cannot resist giving her a +sensation once in a while, so I come out with some strong expression. Do +you know, since I've seen so much of the world I've come to the +conclusion that the New England principle of teaching daughters to be +independent and to look out for themselves from the first, is an +excellent one. I've seen the evil of this German system of never +allowing children to think for themselves. It _does_ make them so +mawkish. A girl here nearly thirty years old will not know where to buy +the simplest thing, or do without her mother any more than a baby. The +best plan is the old-fashioned American one, viz.: Give your children a +"stern sense of duty," and then throw them on their own resources. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _August 6, 1870_. + +Until yesterday I have had no holiday, for I got into Tausig's class +finally, so I had to practice very hard. He was as amiable to me as he +ever can be to anybody, but he is the most trying and exasperating +master you can possibly imagine. It is his principle to rough you and +snub you as much as he can, even when there is no occasion for it, and +you can think yourself fortunate if he does not hold you up to the +ridicule of the whole class. I was put into the class with Fräulein +Timanoff, who is so far advanced that Tausig told her he would not give +her lessons much longer, for that she knew enough to graduate. You can +imagine what an ordeal my first lesson was to me. I brought him a long +and difficult Scherzo, by Chopin, that I had practiced carefully for a +month, and knew well. Fancy how easy it was for me to play, when he +stood over me and kept calling out all through it in German, "Terrible! +Shocking! Dreadful! O Gott! O Gott!" I was really playing it well, too, +and I kept on in spite of him, but my nerves were all rasped and excited +to the highest point, and when I got through and he gave me my music, +and said, "Not at all bad" (very complimentary for him), I rushed out of +the room and burst out crying. He followed me immediately, and coolly +said, "What are you crying for, child? Your playing was not at all bad." +I told him that it was "impossible for me to help it when he talked in +such a way," but he did not seem to be aware that he had said anything. + +And now to show how we all have our troubles, and that blow falls upon +blow--I will tell you that at our last lesson Tausig informed us that he +was _not going to give another lesson to anybody_, and that the +conservatory would be shut up on the first of October!! This is the most +_awful_ disappointment to me, for just as I have worked up to the point +where I am prepared to profit by his lessons, he goes away! I suppose +that he has left Berlin by this time, or that he will very soon, but he +wouldn't tell when or where he was going, and only said that he was +going off, and did not know when he was coming back, or what would +become of him. Of course he _does_ know, but he does not want to be +plagued with applications from scholars for private lessons. I heard +that he was only going to retain two of his scholars, and that one was a +princess and the other a countess. + +He is a perfect rock. I went to his house to see if I could persuade him +to give me private lessons. He came into the room and accosted me in his +sharpest manner, with "_Nun, was ist's?_ (Well, what is it?)" I soon +found that no impression was to be made on him. He only said that when +he happened to be in Berlin, if I would come and play to him, he would +give me his judgment. But I never should venture to do this, for as +likely as not he would be in a bad humour, and send me off--he is such a +difficult subject to come at. I told him I thought it was very hard +after I had come all this way, and had been at so much expense only to +have lessons from him, that I should have to go back without them. He +said he was very sorry, but that most of his scholars came from long +distances, and that he could not show any special favor to me. He asked +me why I insisted upon having lessons from him, and said that Kullak or +Bendel both teach as well as he does. The fact is, he is a capricious +genius, entirely spoiled and unregulated, and the conservatory is a mere +plaything to him. He amused himself with it for a while, and now he is +tired of it, and doesn't like to be bound down to it, and so he throws +it up. Money is no consideration to him. + +It really seems almost as difficult to get a _great_ teacher in Europe +as in America. Tausig is the only celebrity who teaches, and now he has +given up. He rather advised my taking lessons of Bendel, who is a +resident artist here, and a pupil of Liszt's. + +I suffered terribly over Tausig's going off. I heard of it first two +weeks ago, and couldn't sleep or anything. The only consolation I bare +is that I should have been "worn to the bone," as H. C. says, if I had +kept on with him, for all his pupils except little Timanoff, who is at +the age of plump fifteen, look as thin as rails. However--"the +bitterness of death is past!" When one is stopped off in one direction, +there is nothing for it but to turn in another. But it seems as if the +more one tried to accomplish a thing, the thicker hindrances and +difficulties spring up about one, like the dragon's teeth. I suppose I +shall end by going to Kullak. He used to be court pianist here before +Tausig and has had immense experience as a teacher. Indeed, Professor J. +K. Paine recommended me to go to him in the first place, you remember. +If I do, I hope I shall have a better fate than poor young N., whom, +also, Professor Paine recommended to go to Kullak. He could not +stand--or else _under_stand the snubbing and brow-beating they gave him +in Kullak's conservatory, and from being deeply melancholy over it, he +got desperate, and actually committed suicide! + +Germans cannot understand blueness. They are never blue themselves, and +they expect you always to preserve your equanimity, and torment you to +death to know "what is the matter?" when there is nothing the matter, +except that you are in a state of disgust with everything. Moods are +utterly incomprehensible to them. They feel just the same every day in +the year. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _August 21, 1870_. + +I suppose that C. has described to you in full our Dresden visit, and +what a lovely time we had. It was really a poetic five days, as +everything was new to both of us. We were a good deal surprised at many +things in Dresden. In the first place, the beauty of the city struck us +very forcibly, and we both remarked how singular it was that of all the +people we know who have been there no one should have spoken of it. The +Brühl'sche Terrasse is the most lovely promenade imaginable. It runs +along the bank of the Elbe River, which is here quite broad and +handsome, and I always felt myself under a species of enchantment as +soon as we had ascended the broad flight of steps that lead to it. We +always took tea in the open air, and listened to a band of music +playing. The Germans just live in the open air in summer, and it is +perfectly fascinating. They have these gardens everywhere, filled with +trees, under which are little tables and chairs and footstools; and +there you can sit and have dinner or tea served up to you. At night they +are all lighted up with gas. + +It seemed like fairy land, as we sat there in Dresden. The evenings were +soft and balmy, the very perfection of summer weather. The terrace is +quite high above the river, and you look up and down it for a long +distance. The city lies to the left, below you, and the towers rise so +prettily--precisely as in a picture. This air of the culture of +centuries lies over everything, and the soft and lazy atmosphere lulls +the soul to rest. We used to walk until we came to the Belvidere, which +is a large restaurant with a gallery up-stairs running all round it. +There was a band of music, and here we sat and took our tea, and spent +two or three hours, always. The moonlight, the river flowing along and +spanned with beautiful bridges, the thousands of lamps reflected in it +and trembling across the water and under the arches, the infinity of +little steamers and wherries sailing to and fro and brilliantly lighted +up, the music, and the throngs of people passing slowly by, put one into +a delicious and bewildered sort of state, and one feels as if this world +were heaven! + +The day after we arrived we went, of course, to the picture gallery, and +here I was entirely taken by surprise. Nothing one reads or hears gives +one the least idea of the magnificence of the pictures there. I never +knew what a picture was before. The softness and richness of the +colouring, and their exquisite beauty, must be seen to be understood. +The Sistine Madonna fills one with rapture. It is perfectly glorious, +and one can't imagine how the mind of man could have conceived it. One +sees what a flight it was after looking at all the other Madonnas in the +Gallery, many of which are wonderful. But this one soars above them all. +Most of the Madonnas look so stiff, or so old, or so matronly, or so +expressionless, or, at best, as in Corregio's Adoration of the Shepherds +(a magnificent picture), the rapture of the mother only is expressed in +the face. In the Sistine Madonna the virgin looks so young and +innocent--so virgin-like--not like a middle-aged married woman. The +large, wide-open blue eyes have a dewy look in them, as if they had +wept many tears, and yet such an innocence that it makes you think of a +baby whom you have comforted after a violent fit of crying. The majesty +of the attitude, and the perfect repose of the face, upon which is a +look of _waiting_, of ineffable expectancy, are very striking. Mr. T. B. +says it looked to him as though she had been overwhelmed at the +tremendous dignity that had been put upon her, and was yet lost in the +awe of it--which I think an exquisite idea. St. Sixtus, who is kneeling +on the right of the virgin, has an expression of anxious solicitude on +his features. He is evidently interceding with her for the congregation +toward whom his right hand is outstretched, for this picture was +intended to be placed over an altar. The only fault to be found with the +picture, I think, is in the face of Santa Barbara, who kneels on the +left. She looks sweetly down upon the sinners below, but with a slight +self-consciousness. The two cherubs underneath are exquisite. Their +little round faces wear an exalted look, as if their eyes fully took in +the august pair to whom they are upturned. The background of the +picture--all of the faces of angels cloudily painted--gives the +finishing touch to this astounding creation. But you must see it to +realize it. + +Since my return I have finally decided to take private lessons of +Kullak. Kullak is a very celebrated teacher, and plays splendidly +himself, I am told, though he doesn't give concerts any more. He used to +be court pianist here, and has had so much experience in teaching that +I hope a good deal from him, though I don't believe he will equal our +little Tausig, capricious and ill-regulated though he is. Never shall I +forget the _iron_ way he used to stand over those girls, his hand +clenched, determined to _make_ them do it! No wonder they played so! +They didn't dare not to. He told one of the class that "it was _in_ me, +and he could knock it out of me if he had chosen to keep on with me." +And I know he could--and that is what distracts me! + +But just think what a way to behave--to leave his conservatory so, at a +day's notice, in holiday time, without even informing his teachers! He +left everything to be attended to by Beringer. Many of the scholars are +very poor, and have made a great effort to get here in order to learn +his method. Off he went like a shot, because he suddenly got disgusted +with teaching, and he hasn't told a soul where he was going, or how long +he intended to remain away. He wrote to Bechstein, the great piano-maker +here, "I am going away--away--away." He wouldn't condescend to say more. +Mr. Beringer has been to his house to see him on business connected with +the conservatory, but he was flown, and his housekeeper told Beringer +that both letters and telegrams had come for Tausig, and she did not +know where to send them. Did you ever hear of such a capricious +creature? I was so provoked at him that after the first week I ceased to +grieve over his departure. One cannot rely on these great geniuses, but +I hope that, as Kullak makes a business of teaching, and not of playing, +more is to be gained from him. At any rate, he will not be off on these +long absences. + +I am just studying my first concerto. It is Beethoven's C minor, and it +is extremely beautiful. Mr. Beringer tells me that two years is too +short a time to make an artist in; and indeed one does not know how +extremely difficult it is until one tries it. He plays splendidly +himself, and is to make his _début_ in the Gewandhaus in Leipsic, this +October. The best orchestra in Germany is there. Tausig has turned out +five artists from his conservatory this summer. Time will show if any of +them become first class. + +Aunt H. was right in thinking that this would be one of the most +dreadful wars that ever was, though she needn't be anxious on my +account. The Prussians are winning everything, and are pushing on for +Paris as hard as they can go. They have just taken Chalons. The battles +have been _terrible_, and immense numbers have been killed and wounded +on both sides. They have really fought to the death. The spirit of the +two peoples seems to me entirely different. The French seem only to be +possessed by a mad thirst for glory, and manifest a blood-thirstiness +which is perfectly appalling. One reads the most revolting stories in +the papers about their creeping around the battle-field after the battle +is over, and killing and robbing the wounded Prussians, cutting out +their tongues and putting out their eyes. The Prussians are so on the +alert now, however, that I hope few such things can take place. One +Prussian writes that he was lying wounded upon the field of battle, and +another man was not far off in the same helpless condition, when an old +Frenchman came up and clove this other man's head with a hatchet. The +first screamed loudly for help, when a party of Prussians rushed up and +rescued him, and overtook the old man, and shot him. We hear every day +of some dreadful thing. O.'s cousin, who is just my age, and is three +years married, has lost her husband, her favorite brother is fatally +wounded with three balls and lies in the hospital, and her second +brother has a shot in each leg and they don't know whether he will ever +be able to walk again. He is a young fellow nineteen years old. + +In the first days after the war was declared, I felt as if no punishment +could be too hot for Napoleon. The people just gave up everything, and +stood in the streets all day long on each side of the railroad track. +The trains passed every fifteen minutes, packed with the brave fellows +who were going off to lose their lives on a mere pretext. Then there +would be one continual cheering all along as they passed, and all the +women would cry, and the men would execrate Napoleon. The Prussians +don't seem to have any feelings of revenge, but regard the French as a +set of lunatics whom they are going to bring to reason. The hatred of +Napoleon is intense. They regard him as the leader of a people whom he +has willfully blinded, and are determined to make an end of him, if +possible. The Prussian army is such a splendid one that it is difficult +to imagine that it can be overcome. You see everybody under a certain +age is liable to be drafted, and no one is allowed to buy a substitute. +So everybody is interested. Bismarck has two sons who are common +soldiers, and all the ministers together have twelve sons in the war. +Then the King and the Crown Prince being with the army, gives a great +enthusiasm. The Crown Prince has distinguished himself, and seems to +have great military ability. The King was very angry with Prince +Friedrich Carl, because in the last battle he exposed one regiment so +that it was completely mowed down. Only two or three men escaped. But it +makes one groan for the poor Frenchmen when one sees these terrible +great cannon passing by. The largest-sized ones were ordered for the +storming of Metz, and each one requires twenty-four horses to draw it! + + + + +WITH KULLAK. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Moving. German Houses and Dinners. The War. The Capture of + Napoleon. Kullak's and Tausig's Teaching. Joachim. Wagner. Tausig's + Playing. German Etiquette. + + + BERLIN, _September_ 29, 1870. + +I must request you in future to direct your letters to No. 30 +Königgrätzer Strasse, as we move in three days. The people who live on +the floor under us wouldn't bear my practicing for five or six hours +daily, and so Frau W. has looked up another lodging. The German houses +are about as uncomfortable as can be imagined. Only the newest ones have +gas and water-works, or even the ordinary conveniences that _every_ +house has with us. No carpets on the floors, stiff, straight-backed +chairs, precious little fire in cold weather, etc. The rooms have no +closets, and one always has to have a great clumsy wardrobe with wooden +pegs in it, instead of hooks, so that when you go to take down one dress +all the others tumble down, too. In short, the Germans are fifty years +behind us. Of course the rich people have superb houses, but I speak now +of people in ordinary circumstances. I often look back upon the solid +comfort of the Cambridge houses. I think people understand there pretty +well how to live. I shall relish a good dinner when I come home, for +this is the land where what we call "family dinners" are unknown. They +have _parts_ of meals five times a day, but never a complete one. The +meat is dreadful, and I never can tell what kind of an animal it grows +on. They give me two boiled eggs for supper, so I manage to live, but O! +_has_ beefsteak vanished into the land of dreams? and _is_ turkey but +the figment of my disordered imagination? They have delicious bread and +butter, but "man cannot live by bread alone." Mr. F. says that where +_he_ boards they give him "pear soup, and cherry soup, and plum soup!" + +Everything here is saddened by this fearful war. You have no idea how +frightful it is. The men on both sides are just being slaughtered by +thousands. Haven't the Prussians made a magnificent campaign I declare, +I think it is marvellous what they have done. The French haven't had the +smallest success, and have had to give up one tremendous stronghold +after another. It is expected that Metz will surrender in about eight +days. It is a terrific place, and was believed to be impregnable. Over +and over again the poor French have tried to cut through the Prussian +army, and just so often they have been beaten back into the city. +Finally they will have to give over. Their generals must be shameful, +for they have fought to the death, but they can't make any headway +against these formidable Prussians. The German papers say that the +French fire too high, for one thing. They are not such practiced +marksmen as the Germans, and their balls fly over the enemy's heads. The +French are a savage people, however, and cruelty runs in their veins. +One reads the most awful things, but for the credit of human nature it +is to be hoped that the worst of them are not true. + +I believe I have not written to you since the capture of the Emperor +Napoleon, which of course you heard of as soon as it happened. The +Germans, as you may imagine, were completely carried away with the +glorious news, and could scarcely believe in their own good fortune. On +the 3d of September, when I came out to breakfast, Frau W. called out to +me from behind the newspaper, with a face all ablaze with triumph and +excitement, "_Der Kaiser Napoleon ist gefangen_. (The Emperor Napoleon +is taken.)" "_No!_" said I, for it did not seem possible that anything +so great and unexpected _could_ have happened. "It is _true_" said she; +"look at this paper, which I just sent out for." The instant I saw that +Frau W. had been guilty of the unwonted extravagance of purchasing the +morning paper, it became clear to me that Napoleon _must_ have been +taken prisoner. Generally we do not get the paper till it is a day old, +when Frau W. brings it carefully home from her brother's in her +capacious bag. He subscribes for it, and after his family have perused +it, she borrows it for our benefit--an economical arrangement upon which +she frequently congratulates herself. + +I fancy there was little work done or business transacted _that_ day in +Berlin! After I had finished my coffee, I went and stood by the window +and watched the people pour through the streets. Everybody streamed up +Unter den Linden past the palace, their faces full of joy. The street +boys took an active part in the general jollification, and were as +ubiquitous as boys always are when anything extraordinary is going on. +They conceived the brilliant idea of climbing up on the equestrian +statue of Frederick the Great, which is just opposite the palace +windows. The Crown Princess, who was looking out, immediately had it +announced to them that he who got to the top first should receive a +silver cup and some pieces of money. That was all the boys needed. Away +they went, struggling and tumbling over each other like a swarm of bees. +At last one little urchin secured the coveted position, and was +afterward called up to the palace window to receive the prize.--If the +Crown Princess, by the way, were more given to such little acts of +generosity, she would be more popular by far, for the Germans sniff at +her for being too economical. They are the closest possible economisers +themselves, but they despise the trait in foreigners! + +At night there was a grand illumination in honour of the victory, and of +course we all went to see it. Such a time as we had! The whole city was +blazing with light, and all the large firms had put up something +brilliant and striking before their places of business. Stars, eagles, +crosses (after the celebrated "iron cross" of Prussia), beside countless +tapers, were burning away in every direction, and all the carriages and +droschkies in Berlin were slowly crawling along the streets, much +impeded by the dense throng of pedestrians crowding through. All the +private houses were lit up with tapers, and thousands of flags were +flying. Over every public building and railroad station, and on all the +public squares were transparencies in which the substantial form of +_Germania_ flourished extensively, leaning upon her shield, and gazing +sentimentally into vacancy. But I always enjoy "Germania." It seems a +sort of recognition of the feminine element. + +We were in a droschkie, like other people, taking the prescribed tour +round by the Rath-Haus (City-Hall), and were frequently brought to a +stand-still by the crush. At such times we were the target for all the +small boys standing in our neighbourhood. The "Berlinger Junge" is +almost as famous for his talent for repartee as the Paris "Gamin." "Do +be careful!" said one to me; "you will certainly tumble out, your +carriage is going so fast." This was intended as a double sarcasm, for +in the first place we were not in a carriage at all, but in a +second-class droschkie, and in the second place we had been standing +stock still for half an hour, and there was no prospect of getting +started for half an hour more. Many more such little speeches were +addressed to us which we pretended not to hear, though we were secretly +much amused.--It was a strange sort of feeling to be put in the streets +at night with this glare of light, these crowds of people, and this +suppressed excitement in the air. I thought it gave some idea of the Day +of Judgment. + +The women are tremendously patriotic and self-sacrificing, and they seem +to be throwing themselves heart and soul into the war. With the +catholicity of the female sex, however, they could not help taking a +peep at the _French_ prisoners when they came on, but went to the +station to see them arrive, and bestowed many little hospitalities upon +them in the way of cigars, luncheon, etc., at all of which the papers +were patriotically indignant, and indulged in many sarcasms on the "warm +and sympathetic" reception given by the German women to their enemies. +Quite as many women go into nursing as was the case in our own war. I +know one young lady who spends her whole time in the hospitals among the +wounded soldiers, who are all the time being sent on in ambulances. Her +name is Fräulein Hezekiel, and she has received a decoration from the +Government. + +Just after I wrote you last I went to Kullak, as I told you I should, +and engaged him to give me one private lesson a week. He looks about +fifty, and is charming. I am enchanted with him. He plays magnificently, +and is a splendid teacher, but he gives me immensely much to do, and I +feel as if a mountain of music were all the time pressing on my head. He +is so occupied that I have to take my lesson from seven to eight in the +evening. + +Tausig's conservatory closes on the first of October, and I feel very +sorry, for my three grand friends, Mr. Trenkel, Mr. Weber and Mr. +Beringer, are all going away, and I shall be awfully lonely without +them. Weber is very handsome, and has the most splendid forehead I think +I ever saw. He composes like an angel, besides being remarkably clever +in every way. He will be famous some day, I know, and he belongs to the +Music of the Future. Beringer is poetic, passionate and vivid. He has +golden hair and golden eyes, I may say, for they are of a peculiar light +hazel, almost yellow, but with a warmth and sunniness, and often a +tenderness of expression that is extremely fascinating. Weber cannot +speak English, and as he is from Switzerland, he speaks an entirely +different dialect from the Berlinese, so that it took me some time to +understand him. He is a perfect child of nature, and has a great deal of +humour. He and Beringer are devoted friends, and are about my age. +Trenkel is older. He has the blackest hair and eyes, and a dark Italian +skin. He is intellectual and highly cultured, and at the same time such +a very peculiar character that he interested me greatly. Most of his +life has been spent in America: first in Boston, where he seems to know +everybody, and afterwards in San Francisco, whither he is about to +return. He has been studying with Tausig for two years, and is a +heavenly musician, though he hasn't Beringer's great technique and +passion. His conception is more of the Chopin order, extremely finely +shaded and "filed out," as the Germans have it. + +It was so pleasant to have these three musical friends, who all play so +much better than I, as they often met and made lovely music in my little +room. Weber and Beringer took tea with us only yesterday evening. Weber +was in one of his good moods, and played to Beringer and me his most +beautiful compositions for ever so long. We settled ourselves +comfortably, one in two chairs, the other on the sofa, and enjoyed it. +The Andante out of a great sonata he is composing, is perfectly lovely. +It is entirely original, and different from any music I have ever heard. +Then he played the second movement of his symphony, and it is the most +exquisite _morceau_ you can imagine. I asked him to compose a little +piece for me, and so yesterday morning he sat down and wrote seven +mazurkas, one after the other. Whether he actually gives me one is +another matter, for, like all geniuses, he is not very prodigal with his +gifts, and is not very easy to come at. But I would like to have even +four bars written by him, for he is so individual that it would be worth +keeping. + +Weber looks perfectly charming when he plays. He never glances at the +keys, but his large blue eyes gaze dreamily into vacancy, and his noble +brow stands out white and lofty. His conception is extremely musical, +but as he only practices when he feels like it (as he does everything +else), he doesn't come up to the other two. Tausig burst out laughing at +him at his last lesson. That individual, by the way, came back as +suddenly as he went off, but announced that he would give no more +lessons except to these favoured three. All the rest of us had to go +begging. It didn't make so much difference to me, as I had already gone +to Kullak, who is now the first teacher in Germany, as all the greatest +virtuosi have given up teaching. + +Kullak himself is a truly splendid artist, which I had not expected. He +used to have great fame here as a pianist, but I supposed that as he had +given up his concert playing he did not keep it up. I found, however, +that I was mistaken. His playing does not suffer in comparison with +Tausig's even, whom I have so often heard. Why in the world he has not +continued playing in public I can't imagine, but I am told that he was +too nervous. Like all artists, he is fascinating, and full of his whims +and caprices. He knows everything in the way of music, and when I take +my lessons he has two grand pianos side by side, and he sits at one and +I at the other. He knows by heart everything that he teaches, and he +plays sometimes with me, sometimes before me, and shows me all sorts of +ways of playing passages. I am getting no end of ideas from him. I have +enjoyed playing my Beethoven Concerto so much, for he has played all the +orchestral parts. Just think how exciting to have a great artist like +that play second piano with you! I am going to learn one by Chopin next. + +Kullak is not nearly so terrible a teacher as Tausig. He has the +greatest patience and gentleness, and helps you on; but Tausig keeps +rating you and telling you, what you feel only too deeply, that your +playing _is_ "awful." When Tausig used to sit down in his impatient way +and play a few bars, and then tell me to do it just so, I used always to +feel as if some one wished me to copy a streak of forked lightning with +the end of a wetted match. At the last lesson Tausig gave me, however, +he entirely changed his tone, and was extremely sweet to me. I think he +regretted having made me cry at the previous lesson, for just as I sat +down to play, he turned to the class and made some little joke about +these "_empfindliche Amerikanerinnen_ (sensitive Americans)." Then he +came and stood by me, and nothing could have been gentler than his +manner. After I had finished, he sat down and played the whole piece +for me, a thing he rarely does, introducing a magnificent trill in +double thirds, and ending up with some peculiar turn in which he allowed +his virtuosity to peep out at me for a moment. Only for a moment though, +for he is much too proud and has too much contempt for _Spectakel_ to +"show off," so he suppressed himself immediately. It was as if his +fingers broke into the trill in spite of him, and he had to pull them up +with a severe check. Strange, inscrutable being that he is! + + * * * + + BERLIN, _October 13, 1870_. + +My room in our new lodging is a charming one. Quite large, and a front +one, and there is no _vis-á-vis_. We look right over across the street +into Prince Albrecht's Garden. It is very uncommon to have such a nice +outlook, particularly in Berlin. But it is so long since I have lived +among trees that at first it affected my spirits dreadfully. As I sit by +my window and hear the autumn wind rushing through them, and see all the +leaves quivering and shaking, and think that they have only a few short +weeks more to sway in the breeze, it makes me wretched. I suppose that +we shall now have two months of dismal weather. + +I wish you were here to counsel me over my dresses. I have just bought +two--one for a street dress, and the other for demi-evening toilette, +but heaven only knows when they will be done, or how they will fit! You +ought to see the biases of the dresses here! They all go zig-zag. The +Berlin dressmakers are abominable. Mrs.----, of the Legation, told me +that when she first came here she cried over every new dress she had +made, and I could not sufficiently rejoice last winter that I had got +all my things before I sailed. M. E., too, who gets all her best things +from Paris, told M. she was never so happy as when her mother sent her +over an "American dress."--"They are _so_ comfortable and _so_ +satisfactory," said she. + +Yesterday I took my fourth lesson of Kullak. He plays much more to me +than Tausig did, and I am surprised to see how much I have got on in +four weeks. Tausig didn't deign to do more than play occasional +passages, and we had only one piano in the room where he taught. But at +Kullak's there are two grand pianos side by side. He sits at one and I +at the other, and as he knows everything by heart which he teaches, as I +told you, he keeps playing with me or before me, so that I catch it a +great deal better. Sometimes he will repeat a passage over and over, and +I after him, like a parrot, until I get it _exactly_ right. He has this +excessively finished and elegant fantasia style of playing, like +Thalberg or De Meyer. He has great fame as a teacher, and is perhaps +more celebrated in this respect than Tausig, but I was with Tausig too +short a time to judge personally which teaches the best. + +This war is perfectly awful. The men are simply being slaughtered like +cattle. New regiments are all the time being sent on. The Prussians have +taken over two hundred thousand prisoners, to say nothing of the killed +and wounded. But they lose fearful numbers themselves also. It is +expected in a few days that Metz will surrender. It is a tremendous +stronghold, and contains an army of fifty thousand men. But isn't it +extraordinary how disastrous the war has been to the French? They had an +immense army of several hundred thousand men. And then they had all the +advantages of position. The Prussians have had to fight their way +through all these strong defences one after another. They will soon +bombard Paris. As Herr S. says, this war is a disgrace to the +governments. He says that they ought to have united against it (America +included), and to have said that on such an unjust pretext they would +not permit it. I read the other day a most touching letter that was +found on the dead body of a common soldier from his old peasant father. +He said, "What have we poor people done that the _lieber Gott_ visits us +with such fearful judgments? When I got thy letter, my dear son, saying +that thou art safe come out of the last battle with thy brother, I fell +on my knees and thanked God for His goodness." Then he goes on to +describe the joy of his mother and sister and sweetheart, and how he +read his letter to all the neighbours, "who rejoiced much at thy +safety," and his hope and confidence that his son would return alive to +his old father. But in a few days his son fell in another battle, +desperately wounded. He was carried to the house of a lady who did all +she could for him, but he died, and she sent this letter to the paper. +Do you get many of the anecdotes in the American papers? Such as that of +the three hundred and two horses which, at the usual signal after the +battle that called the regiments together, came back riderless? I think +that was very touching in the poor things.[C] Or have you heard of the +Frenchman who, when informed that the Emperor was taken prisoner, coolly +replied: "_Moi aussi!_" But these are already old stories, and you have +doubtless heard them. I think one of the worst incidents of the war is +that bomb that fell into a girls' school at Strasbourg. When one thinks +of innocent young girls having their eyes torn out, and being killed and +wounded, it seems too terrible.--I always pity the poor horses so much. +At the surrender of Sedan, the French forgot to detach them from the +cannon, and to give them food and drink. Finally, frantic with thirst, +they broke themselves loose and rushed wildly through the streets. It +was said that any body could have a horse for the trouble of catching +him. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _November 25, 1870_. + +I went last week to hear Joachim, who lives here, and is giving his +annual series of quartette soirees. Oh! he is a wonderful genius, and +the sublimest artist I have yet heard. I am amazed afresh every time I +hear him. He draws the most extraordinary _tone_ from his violin, and +such a powerful one that it seems sometimes as if several were playing. +Then his expression is so marvellous that he holds complete sway over +his audience from the moment he begins till he ceases. He possesses +magnetic power to the highest degree. + +On Saturday night I went to a superb concert given for the benefit of +the wounded. The royal orchestra played, and as it was in the +Sing-Akademie, where the acoustic is very remarkable, the orchestral +performance seemed phenomenal. Generally, this orchestra plays in the +opera house, which is so much larger that the effect is not so great. +The last thing they played was the "Ritt der Walküren," by Wagner. It +was the first time it was given in Berlin, and it is a wonderful +composition. It represents the ride of the Walküre-maidens into +Valhalla, and when you hear it it seems as if you could really see the +spectral horses with their ghostly riders. It produces the most +unearthly effect at the end, and one feels as if one had suddenly +stepped into Pandemonium. I was perfectly enchanted with it, and +everybody was excited. The "bravos" resounded all over the house. Tausig +played Chopin's E minor concerto in his own glorious style. He did his +very best, and when he got through not only the whole orchestra was +applauding him, but even the conductor was rapping his desk with his +bâton like mad. I thought to myself it was a proud position where a man +could excite enthusiasm in the hearts of these old and tried musicians. +As a specimen of his virtuosity, what do you say to the little feat of +playing the running passage at the end, two pages long, and which was +written for both hands in unison, in octaves instead of single +notes?--Gigantic! [Later Kullak gave this great concerto to my sister to +study, and as she was struggling with its difficulties he said: "Ah yes, +Fräulein, when I think of the time and labour I spent over that concerto +in my youth, I could weep _tears of blood_!"]--ED. + +Yesterday evening I went to a party at the house of a relative of the +M.'s. Madame de Stael was right in saying that etiquette is terribly +severe in Germany. It is downright law, and everybody is obliged to +submit to it. What other people in the world, for example, would insist +on your coming at eight and remaining until nearly four in the morning, +when the party consists of a dozen or twenty people, almost all of them +married and middle-aged, or elderly? I nearly expire of fatigue and +ennui, but they would all take it so ill if I didn't go, that there is +no escape. Last night I came home with such a dreadful nervous headache +from sheer exhaustion, that I could scarcely see. You know in a dancing +party the excitement keeps one up, and one doesn't feel the fatigue +until afterward. But to sit three mortal hours before supper, and keep +up a conversation with a lot of people much older than yourself in whom +you have not the slightest interest, and in a foreign language, when you +wouldn't be brilliant in your own, and then another long three hours at +the supper table, and then _still_ an hour or so afterwards, to an +American mind is terrible! I always groan in spirit when I think how +comfortably I used to jump into the carriage at nine o'clock, in +Cambridge, go to the party, and come home at half-past eleven or +twelve. These long parties are what the Germans call being "_gemüthlig_ +(sociable and friendly)." The French would call them "_assommant_," and +they would be entirely in the right. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Concerts. Joachim again. The Siege of Paris. Peace Declared. + Wagner. A Woman's Symphony. Ovation to Wagner in Berlin. + + + BERLIN, _December 11, 1870_. + +I haven't been doing much of anything lately, except going to concerts, +of which I have heard an immense number, and all of them admirable.--I +wish you _could_ hear Joachim! I went last night to his third soiree, +and he certainly is the wonder of the age. Unless I were to _rave_ I +never could express him. One of his pieces was a quartette by Haydn, +which was perfectly bewitching. The adagio he played so wonderfully, and +drew such a pathetic tone from his violin, that it really went through +one like a knife. The third movement was a jig, and just the gayest +little piece! It flashed like a humming bird, and he played every note +so distinctly and so fast that people were beside themselves, and it was +almost impossible to keep still. It received a tremendous encore. + +Joachim is so bold! You never imagined such strokes as he gives the +violin--such tones as he brings out of it. He plays these great _tours +de force_, his fingers rushing all over the violin, just as Tausig +dashes down on the piano. So free! And then his conception!! It is like +revealing Beethoven in the flesh, to hear him. + +I heard a lady pianist the other day, who is becoming very celebrated +and who plays superbly. Her name is Fräulein Menter, and she is from +Munich. She has been a pupil of Liszt, Tausig and Bülow. Think what a +galaxy of teachers! She is as pretty as she can be, and she looked +lovely sitting at the piano there and playing piece after piece. I +envied her dreadfully. She plays everything by heart, and has a +beautiful conception. She gave her concert entirely alone, except that +some one sang a few songs, and at the end Tausig played a duet for two +pianos with her, in which he took the second piano. Imagine being able +to play well enough for such a high artist as he to condescend to do +such a thing! It was so pretty when they were encored. He made a sign to +go forward. She looked up inquiringly, and then stepped down one step +lower than he. He smiled and applauded her as much as anybody. I thought +it was very gallant in him to stand there and clap his hands before the +whole audience, and not take any of the encore to himself, for his part +was as important as hers, and he is a much greater artist. I was charmed +with her, though. She goes far beyond Mehlig and Topp, though Mehlig, +too, is considered to have a remarkable technique. + +I regret so much that M. will have to go back to America without seeing +Paris--the most beautiful city in the world! Nobody knows how long the +war is going to last. The Prussians have so surrounded Paris that it is +cut off from the country, and can't get any supplies. They have eaten up +all their meat, and now the French are living upon rats, dogs and cats! +Just think how horrid! They catch the rats in the Paris sewers, and +cook them in champagne and eat them. (At least that is the story.) It +seems perfectly inconceivable. The poor things have no milk, no salt, no +butter and no meat. I wonder what they do with all the little babies +whose mothers can't nurse them, and with young children. They will not +give up, however, for they have bread and wine enough to last all +winter, and they declare that Paris is too strong to be taken. Of course +if the Prussians remain where they are, eventually Paris will be starved +out, and will be obliged to surrender. + +It is a difficult position for the Prussians, for they must either +bombard the city, or starve it out. If they bombard it, they must be in +a situation to begin it from all sides, or else the French will break +through their lines, and establish a communication with the rest of +France. Now the circle round Paris is twelve miles long, so that it +would take an enormous army to keep up such a bombardment, and although +the Prussian army _is_ enormous, I don't know whether it is equal to +that, for the French have so much the advantage of position that they +can fire down on the Prussians, and kill them by thousands. On the other +hand, if they starve Paris out, the poor soldiers will have to lie out +in the cold all winter, and many of them will die from the exposure. + +The men are getting very restless from so many weeks of inactivity. +Nobody knows how it is to end. The King is opposed to bombardment, for +aside from the terrible loss of life it would cause, it seems too +inhuman to lay such a splendid city in the dust. Fresh troops are sent +on all the time, and every day the trains pass my windows packed with +soldiers. It seems as if every man in Germany were being called out, and +that looks like bombardment. It is a terrible time, and everybody feels +restless and disturbed. One sees few soldiers on the streets except +wounded ones. I often meet a young man who is wheeled about in a chair, +who has had both legs cut off. The poor fellow looks so sad--and I know +of another who has lost both hands and both feet. + +It is curious to note the condescending attitude taken by people here +toward the French in this war. They never for a moment speak of them as +if they were antagonists on equal ground, but always as if they were a +set of fools bent on their own destruction, who must be properly +chastised and restored to their equilibrium by the Germans. "_Ja!--die +Franzosen!_" the Germans will say with a shrug which implies the deepest +conviction of their entire imbecility. They admit, however, that the +French are an "amusing people," and that "_Paris ist_ DOCH _die +Welt-Stadt_. (Paris is _the_ city of the world.)" + + * * * + + BERLIN, _February 26, 1871_. + +I am going to send you a song out of the Meistersänger, which I think is +one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. It is called Walther's +Traumlied (Walter's Dream Song). The idea of it is that he sees his love +in a dream or vision as she will be when she is his wife. You must +begin to sing in a dreamy way, as if you were in a trance, and then you +must gradually become more and more excited until you end in a grand +gush of passion. You will be quite in the music of the future if you +sing out of the Meistersänger. It is one of Wagner's greatest operas, +and is very beautiful, in my opinion. It caused a grand excitement when +it came out last winter. + +The whole musical world is in a quarrel over Wagner. He is giving a new +direction to music and is finding out new combinations of the chords. +Half the musical world upholds him, and declares that in the future he +will stand on a par with Beethoven and Mozart. The other half are +bitterly opposed to him, and say that he writes nothing but dissonances, +and that he is on an entirely false track. I am on the Wagner side +myself. He seems to me to be a great genius.--Pity he is such a moral +outlaw! + +Since I began this letter Paris has capitulated, and PEACE has been +declared. The anxiety and suspense have lasted so long, however, that +the news did not cause much excitement or enthusiasm. Nothing like that +with which the capture of Napoleon was received. But that was decidedly +_the_ event of the war. The politic Bismarck would not allow the troops +to march triumphantly through Paris, but only permitted them to pass +through as small a corner of it as was consistent with the national +honour. This has caused a good deal of murmuring and discontent among +the Germans.--"Our poor soldiers! after all their fatigues and +hardships, they ought have been allowed the satisfaction of marching +through the city!"--is the general opinion I hear expressed. However, +they will probably acquiesce in Bismarck's wisdom in not triumphing over +a fallen foe when they come to think it over. We are now to have six +weeks of mourning for those who have been killed in the war, and then in +May the army will come back in triumph. The King is to meet them at the +Brandenburger Gate, and lead them up the Linden. All Berlin will be wild +with excitement, and I expect it will be a great sight. The windows on +Unter den Linden are already selling at enormous prices for the +occasion. + +The Germans, by the way, "take no stock" at all in the King's pious +expressions throughout the campaign. They laugh at him greatly for +calling himself victorious "by the grace of God." "Such a nonsense!" +Herr J. says, contemptuously. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _April 22, 1871_. + +I haven't a mortal thing to say, for all the little I have done I +communicated in a letter to N. S. Kullak has been praising my playing +lately, but I cannot believe in it myself. I have been learning a +Ballade of Liszt's. It is beautiful but very hard, and with some +terrific octave passages in it. It has the double roll of octaves in it, +and this is the first time I ever learned how it was done. I am now +studying octaves systematically. Kullak has written three books of them, +and it is an exhaustive work on the subject, and as famous in its way as +the Gradus ad Parnassum. The first volume is only the preparation, and +the exercises are for each hand separately. There are a lot of them for +the thumb alone, for instance. Then there are others for the fourth and +fifth fingers, turning over and under each other in every conceivable +way. Then there are the wrist exercises, and, in short, it is the most +minute and complete work. Kullak himself is celebrated for his octave +playing. That I knew when I was in Tausig's conservatory, as Tausig used +to tell his scholars that they must study Kullak's Octave School. + +Wagner has come to Berlin for a visit, and next week he will have a +grand concert, when some of his compositions are to be brought out, and +he will, himself, conduct. Weitzmann says that he is a great conductor. +I heard his opera of Tannhaüser the other day, and I was perfectly +carried away with the overture, which I had not heard for a long time. +The orchestra played it magnificently, and I think it quite equal to +Beethoven. Wagner's theory is that music is a cry of the mind, and his +compositions certainly illustrate it. All other music pales before it in +passion and intensity. + +Did you read my letter to N. S. in which I told her about Alicia Hund, +who composed and conducted a symphony? That is quite a step for women in +the musical line. She reminded me of M., as she had just such a +high-strung face. All the men were highly disgusted because she was +allowed to conduct the orchestra herself. I didn't think myself that it +was a very _becoming_ position, though I had no prejudice against it. +Somehow, a woman doesn't look well with a bâton in her hand directing a +body of men. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _May 18, 1871_. + +Wagner has just been in Berlin, and his arrival here has been the +occasion of a grand musical excitement. He was received with the +greatest enthusiasm, and there was no end of ovations in his honour. +First, there was a great supper given to him, which was got up by Tausig +and a few other distinguished musicians. Then on Sunday, two weeks ago, +was given a concert in the Sing-Akademie, where the seats were free. As +the hall only holds about fifteen hundred people, you may imagine it was +pretty difficult to get tickets. I didn't even attempt it, but luckily +Weitzmann, my harmony teacher, who is an old friend of Wagner's, sent me +one. + +The orchestra was immense. It was carefully selected from all the +orchestras in Berlin, and Stern, who directed it, had given himself +infinite trouble in training it. Wagner is the most difficult person in +the world to please, and is a wonderful conductor himself. He was highly +discontented with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipsic, which thinks +itself the best in existence, so the Berlinese felt rather shaky. The +hall was filled to overflowing, and finally, in marched Wagner and his +wife, preceded and followed by various distinguished musicians. As he +appeared the audience rose, the orchestra struck up three clanging +chords, and everybody shouted _Hoch!_ It gave one a strange thrill. + +The concert was at twelve, and was preceded by a "greeting" which was +recited by Frau Jachmann Wagner, a niece of Wagner's, and an actress. +She was a pretty woman, "fair, fat and forty," and an excellent speaker. +As she concluded she burst into tears, and stepping down from the stage +she presented Wagner with a laurel crown, and kissed him. Then the +orchestra played Wagner's Faust Overture most superbly, and afterwards +his Fest March from the Tannhäuser. The applause was unbounded. Wagner +ascended the stage and made a little speech, in which he expressed his +pleasure to the musicians and to Stern, and then turned and addressed +the audience. He spoke very rapidly and in that child-like way that all +great musicians seem to have, and as a proof of his satisfaction with +the orchestra he requested them to play the Faust Overture under _his_ +direction. We were all on tiptoe to know how he would direct, and indeed +it was wonderful to see him. He controlled the orchestra as if it were a +single instrument and he were playing on it. He didn't beat the time +simply, as most conductors do, but he had all sorts of little ways to +indicate what he wished. It was very difficult for them to follow him, +and they had to "keep their little eye open," as B. used to say. He held +them down during the first part, so as to give the uncertainty and +speculativeness of Faust's character. Then as Mephistopheles came in, he +gradually let them loose with a terrible crescendo, and made you feel as +if hell suddenly gaped at your feet. Then where Gretchen appeared, all +was delicious melody and sweetness. And so it went on, like a succession +of pictures. The effect was tremendous. + +I had one of the best seats in the house, and could see Wagner and his +wife the whole time. He has an enormous forehead, and is the most +nervous-looking man you can imagine, but has that grim setting of the +mouth that betokens an iron will. When he conducts he is almost beside +himself with excitement. That is one reason why he is so great as a +conductor, for the orchestra catches his frenzy, and each man plays +under a sudden inspiration. He really seems to be improvising on his +orchestra. + +Wagner's object in coming here was to try and get his Nibelungen opera +performed. It is an opera which requires four evenings to get through +with. Did you ever hear of such a thing? He lays out everything on such +a colossal scale. It reminded me of that story they tell of him when he +was a boy. He was a great Shakespeare enthusiast, and wanted to write +plays, too. So he wrote one in which he killed off forty of the +principal characters in the last act! He gave a grand concert in the +opera house here, which he directed himself. It was entirely his own +compositions, with the exception of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which he +declared nobody understood but himself. That rather took down Berlin, +but all had to acknowledge after the concert that they had never heard +it so magnificently played. He has his own peculiar conception of it. +There was a great crowd, and every seat had been taken long before. All +the artists were present except Kullak, who was ill. I saw Tausig +sitting in the front rank with the Baroness von S. There must have been +two hundred players in the orchestra, and they acquitted themselves +splendidly. The applause grew more and more enthusiastic, until it +finally found vent in a shower of wreaths and bouquets. Wagner bowed and +bowed, and it seemed as if the people would never settle down again. At +the end of the concert followed another shower of flowers, and his +Kaiser March was encored. Such an effect! After the tempest of sound of +the introduction the drums came in with a sharp tat-tat-tat-tat-tat! +Then the brass began with the air and came to a crescendo, at last +_blaring_ out in such a way as shivered you to the very marrow of your +bones. It was like an earthquake yawning before you. + +The noise was so tremendous that it was like the roaring of the surf. I +never conceived of anything in music to approach it, and Wagner made me +think of a giant Triton disporting himself amid the billows and tossing +these great waves of sound from one hand to the other. You don't see his +face, of course--nothing but his back, and yet you know every one of his +emotions. Every sinew in his body speaks. He makes the instruments +prolong the tones as no one else does, and the effect is indescribably +beautiful, yet he complains that he never _can_ get an orchestra to +_hold_ the tone as they ought. His whole appearance is of arrogance and +despotism personified. + +By the end of the concert the bouquets were so heaped on the stage in +front of the director's desk, that Wagner had no place left big enough +to stand on without crushing them. Altogether, it was a brilliant +affair, and a great triumph for his friends. He has a great many bitter +enemies here, however. Joachim is one of them, though it seems +unaccountable that a man of his musical gifts should be. Ehlert is also +a strong anti-Wagnerite, and the Jews hate him intensely.--Perhaps his +character has something to do with it, for he has set all laws of +honour, gratitude and morality at defiance all his life long. It is a +dreadful example for younger artists, and I think Wagner is depraving +them. In this country everything is forgiven to audacity and genius, and +I must say that if Germany can teach _us_ Music, we can teach _her_ +morals! + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Difficulties of the Piano. Triumphal Entry of the Troops. Paris. + + + BERLIN, _June 25, 1871_. + +I have been learning Beethoven's G major Concerto lately, and it is the +most horribly difficult thing I've ever attempted. I have practiced the +first movement a whole month, and I can't play it any more than I can +fly. If you hear Miss Mehlig play it, I trust you will take in what a +feat it is. Kullak gave me a regular rating over it at my last lesson, +and told me I must stick to it till I _could_ play it. It requires the +greatest rapidity and facility of execution, and I get perfectly +desperate over it. Kullak took advantage of the occasion to expand upon +all the things an artist must be able to do, until my heart died within +me. "What do you know of double thirds?" said he. I had to admit that I +knew nothing of double thirds, and then he rushed down the piano like +lightning from top to bottom in a scale in double thirds, just as if it +were a common scale. + +In one respect Kullak is a more discouraging teacher than Tausig, for +Tausig only played occasionally before you, where it was absolutely +necessary, and contented himself with scolding and blaming. Kullak, on +the contrary, doesn't scold much, but as he plays continually before and +with you, with him you see how the thing _ought_ to be done, and the +perception of your own deficiencies stands out before you mercilessly. +My constant thought is, "When _will_ my passages pearl? When _will_ my +touch be perfectly equal? When _will_ my octaves be played from a +lightly-hung wrist? When _will_ my trill be brilliant and sustained? +When _will_ my thumb turn under and my fourth finger over without the +slightest perceptible break? When _will_ my arpeggios go up the piano in +that peculiar _roll_ that a genuine artist gives?" etc., etc. All this +gives a heavy heart, and so disinclines me to write that you must excuse +my frequent silences. + +We are having such a horrid cold summer that I sit and shiver all the +time. I wish we could have a little of the hot weather you speak of. I +have put on a muslin dress only once. Berlin is a very severe climate, I +think. + +The week before last was the triumphal entry or "Einzug" of the troops. +They all went past my window, so I had a full view of them. The Emperor +had made immense preparations, for he is very proud of his army. All +along the Königgrätzer Strasse (the street we live in), to the +Brandenburger Gate, a distance of two or three miles, were set tall +poles at intervals of a few feet, connected by wreaths of green. These +were painted red and white, and had gilded pinnacles; they were +surmounted by the Prussian flag, which is black and white, with a black +eagle in the centre. About half way down the poles was set a coat of +arms, with the flags of the older German States grouped about it. As +they were of different colours, the effect was very gay, and they made +a triumphal path of waving banners for the troops to pass under. All +along the last part of the Königgrätzer Strasse, before you come to the +Linden, were set the French cannon which were captured, and on them was +printed the name of the place where the battle was, and one read on them +"Metz, Sedan, Strasburg," etc. All up the Linden, too, the way for the +soldiers was hemmed in on each side with cannon. The mitrailleuses +interested me the most, because they had thirty bores in each one, and +could fire as many balls in succession. In this way, you see, a single +cannon could _rain_ shot. Luckily the French aim so badly that they +couldn't have killed half so many Prussians as they expected. On every +Platz (as the Germans call the squares), were columns and statues set +up, and enormous scaffolds for people to sit on, all decked out with +flags and coloured cloth. In short, the whole city was got up in gala +array, and looked as gay as possible. + +Of course there were thousands of strangers who had come on to see it, +and the streets were crowded. For about a week beforehand there was one +continual stream of people going by our house, and a long line of +carriages and droschkies as far as one could see, creeping along at a +snail's pace behind each other. I got worn out with the noise and +confusion long before the eventful day came. When it _did_ arrive, +already at six o'clock in the morning, when I looked out of my window, +the walls of Prince Albrecht's garden opposite were covered with boys +and men, and there they had to sit until nearly twelve o'clock, with +their legs dangling down, and nothing to eat or drink, before the +procession came by, and _then_ it took four hours to pass! Such is +German endurance, and a still more striking instance of it was shown by +an orchestra stationed on the sidewalk opposite my window. There were no +seats or awnings for them, and there they stood on the stones in the hot +sun for fully six hours, playing every little while on those heavy +French horns and trumpets. Just imagine it! I was astonished that there +was no scaffold erected for them to sit on, and wondered how the poor +fellows could _stand_ it. + +Just before eleven o'clock the gate of Prince Albrecht's garden flew +open, and out he rode, accompanied by a large suite, and they remained +there awaiting the Emperor, who was to ride by on his way to meet the +troops. I wish you could have seen them in their superb uniforms, seated +on their magnificent horses. They looked like knights of the olden time, +with their embroidered saddle-cloths and gay trappings. Preceding the +Emperor came the Empress and all the ladies of the royal family in about +ten carriages, each one with six horses and the Empress's with eight. +The ladies were gorgeously dressed, of course, in light coloured silks +with lace over-dresses. Then came the Emperor and his escort, riding +slowly and majestically along. The enthusiasm was immense as they passed +by, and they were indeed a proud sight. Bismarck, Moltke and Von Roon +rode in one row by themselves. Bismarck looked very imposing in his +uniform entirely of white and silver, with enormous top-boots, and a +brazen helmet surmounted by a silver eagle. There was every variety of +uniform, and the Crown Prince looked very handsome in his. He is a +splendid-looking man, with a very soldierly bearing, and he rides to +perfection. + +The royal party went out to the parade ground, where they met the army, +and then returned at the head of it, riding very slowly. Then, for four +hours, the soldiers poured by at a very quick step. If you could have +seen that _river_ of men roll along, you would have some idea of the +strength of this nation. They were tall for the most part, and their +helmets and guns glittered in the sun. They were dressed in their old +uniforms, just as they came from the field of battle. The people +showered wreaths and bouquets upon them as they passed, and every man +presented a festal appearance with his helmet crowned, a bouquet on the +point of his bayonet, and flowers in his button hole. The Emperor's way +was literally carpeted with flowers, and his grooms rode behind him +picking them up, and hanging the wreaths upon their saddle-bows. +Bismarck, Moltke and Von Roon and all the men of mark during the war +were similarly favoured. + +The army marched along at an astonishingly quick pace. I was surprised +to see them walk so fast, heavily laden as they were with their guns and +knapsacks and blankets, etc. Many of them had been marching a good part +of the night to get to the place of rendezvous, and they had had a +parade early in the morning. A good many of them fainted and had to be +carried out of the ranks, and eight of them died! It was the hottest day +we have had this summer.--I was the most interested in the Uhlanen. They +were the greatest terror of the French, and were light cavalry with no +arms except a large pistol and a lance. Just below the head of the +lance was a little Prussian flag attached, and nearly every one was +splashed with the blood of some poor Frenchman. When one looked at those +terrible spikes, it seemed a most dreadful death, and I don't wonder +that the French lost all courage at the sight of them. You see, being on +horseback and so lightly armed, the Uhlanen could go about like +lightning, and were able to appear suddenly at the most unexpected +points. As I was not on the Linden I did not see the army received at +the Brandenburger Gate by the four hundred young ladies dressed in +white, so I can't give you any account of _that_. Bismarck, who always +knows what to do, took a handful of wreaths from his saddle-bow, and +flung them smilingly over among the welcoming maidens. He is a courtly +creature. I was nearly dead from just looking out of my window, and +listening to the continual music of the bands, and I did not get over +the fatigue and nervous excitement for several days; but I was very +fortunate to be able to see it from the house, for many persons who had +to sit on the scaffolds were dreadfully burned, and were thrown into a +fever by it. You see they weren't allowed to put up their parasols, as +that obscured the view of the people behind them. I had one friend who +suffered awfully with her face, and did not sleep for three nights. She +said it was as if she had been burnt by fire, and the whole skin peeled +off. + +July 4th.--As usual, it is over a week since I began this letter, and I +have just decided to start at once on a summer journey with Mrs. and +Miss V. N., Mr. P. and Mrs., Mr. and Miss S. Kullak is away for his +vacation, so I shall lose no lessons. We shall go first to Cologne and +then to Bonn and Coblentz and down the Rhine. Perhaps we shall get as +far as Heidelberg. We got one of those return tickets, which makes the +journey very cheap; only you are limited to a certain time. We expect to +be gone until the 1st of August. I intend to walk a great deal between +the different points. Where the scenery is picturesque we shall +occasionally walk from station to station. We take no baggage except a +little bag (which we sling over our backs with straps), containing a +change of linen and a brush and comb and tooth brush. We shall wear the +same dress all the time and have our linen washed at the hotel. I +thought it was a good chance for me, and as we shall be a party of +embryo artists, we expect to go along in the Bohemian and happy-go-lucky +style of our class. I think of writing a novel on the way! Won't it be +romantic? Only, unluckily for Miss S. and myself, we shall have no +adorers, as Mr. P. and Miss V. G. are engaged, and Mr. S. is only about +eighteen! + +Just before the Einzug I was at a party at the Bancroft's, and was +standing near a doorway talking to one of N.'s class-mates in Harvard, +when a portly gentleman pushed very rudely between us and stood there +talking to Mr. Bancroft, who was on the other side of me. We gazed at +him for a minute before we went on with our conversation. Presently the +gentleman took his leave and bustled away. "That was the Duke of +Somerset," said Mr. Bancroft to me. I was rather surprised, for I had +just been thinking to myself, "What an unmannerly creature you are!"--I +suppose he had come on to the Einzug. + +Triumphant Berlin, by the way, is rather a contrast to Paris under the +Commune. Such a horrible time as they have been having there! It is +enough to make one's blood run cold to think of it. What insane +barbarians they are--and the worst of it is the part the women take in +it. I saw a picture of Thiers' house which they burnt down. It was a +magnificent mansion, and crammed full of exquisite works of art. Mr. +Bancroft grieved over it, for he had dined there, and knew what +treasures it contained. He said it was one of the most beautiful houses +he had ever been in.--And then the idea of pulling down the column of +the Place Vendome! Napoleon had built it from cannon which he had +captured in his great battles and melted down, so that in a special +manner it was a monument of their victories over other nations. There is +a stupidity about them which makes them perfectly pitiable. + +[In 1848 Saint Beuve wrote the following almost prophetic words: +"Nothing is swifter to decline in crises like the present (the +Revolution of 1848) than civilization. In three weeks the result of many +centuries are lost. Civilization, life, is a thing learned and invented. +* * * * After years of tranquility men are too forgetful of this truth; +they come to think that culture is innate, that it is the same thing as +nature. But in truth barbarism is but a few paces off and begins again +as soon as our hold is slackened."]--ED. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + A Rhine Journey. Frankfort. Mainz. Sail down the Rhine. Cologne. + Bonn. The Seven Mountains. Worms. Spire. Heidelberg. Tausig's + Death. + + +ROLANDSECK AM RHEIN, _July 14, 1871_. + +You will be surprised to get this letter, dated from a little village on +the Rhine, and I shall proceed to tell you how I came here, if the +vilest of vile paper and pens will permit. I wrote a letter to L. just +before I left Berlin, in which I informed her that I meant to go on a +little trip with a party of friends, as Berlin in summer is malarious, +and I felt the need of a change. + +Thursday a week ago we left Berlin and rode straight through to +Frankfort. It was a long journey, and lasted from six o'clock in the +morning until ten at night. I got up at four in the morning in a most +halcyon frame of mind. In fact, I felt as if I were going to get +married, owing to my putting on everything new from top to toe! The +laundress had made such ravages upon my linen that I found myself +suddenly obliged to replenish throughout, and consequently I arrayed +myself with great satisfaction in new stockings, new under-clothes, new +flannel, new skirts, new hat, new veil and new shoes to _boot_! I put on +my black silk short suit, took my bag and shawl, and sallied to the +station, where I found the others waiting for me. + +It was a lovely ride from Berlin to Frankfort, and having been shut up +in a city for nearly two years, the country appeared perfectly charming +and new to me, and every little smiling tuft of daisies had a special +significance. I don't know whether you stopped at Frankfort on your +travels. I fell dead in love with it, and liked it better than any part +of Germany I have seen. It is such a quiet town and has such an air of +elegance, and there are such lovely walks all about. Everything looks so +clean, and the streets are so handsomely laid out, and then there are no +_smells_, as there are in Berlin. The river flows all along the outside +of the city, and the promenade along it is delightful. I went to see the +house where my adorable Goethe was born, and afterward walked over the +bridge over which he used to go to school. There was a gilded cock +perched upon it, which he used to be very fond of as a child. We saw his +statue, and then visited the Museum where was Danecker's great +masterpiece, Ariadne sitting on the Panther. It is the most exquisite +thing, and it is cut out of one solid block of Carrara marble. Through a +pink curtain a rosy light is thrown on it from above, which gives the +marble a delicious tinge. Strange that he should have risen to such a +poetic conception, and never done anything afterwards of importance. + +We went into a great room where life-size pictures of all the Emperors +of Germany were. Some of them are very handsome men, and the Latin +mottoes underneath are very funny. One of them was: "If you don't know +how to hold your tongue, you'll never know the right place to speak." I +hope P. will keep L. well at her Latin and her history, and teach her +something about architecture and mythology, for these one needs to know +when one travels abroad. We only stayed one day in Frankfort, for there +isn't a great deal to be seen there. The afternoon we spent in walking +about and in sitting on logs by the river-side. Oh, what a sweet place +one of those beautiful villas by the swiftly flowing river would be to +live in! + +We left Frankfort at seven P. M., and rode to Mainz, which is only a +ride of two hours, I believe. As we came over the railroad bridge into +the town, we got our first glimpse of the Rhine, and it was a splendid +sight. Our hotel was very near the river, and as our rooms were front +rooms, and three stories up, we had a magnificent view of it. In the +evening it was so fascinating to watch the lights on the water and the +boats plying up and down, that it was long before we could make up our +minds to leave the windows and go to bed. At Mainz we saw our first +cathedral. It is six hundred years old, and had suffered six times by +fire, but it was very fine, notwithstanding. We spent a long time +studying it out. Afterwards we visited another church and ascended a +tower which was built 30, B. C. It seemed almost as firm as the day it +was finished. The view from it is magnificent, and the top of it is all +overgrown with harebells, golden rod and grass. It was very picturesque. + +On Sunday evening we took the boat for Cologne which we reached at four +o'clock in the afternoon. Oh, that sail down the Rhine was too +delicious! The weather was perfect, and everything seemed to me like a +fairy tale. It is one of the most beautiful parts of the Rhine, and it +was too lovely to see those old castles in every degree of ruin, jutting +out over the steep rocks, so high in the air, and then the vineyards +sloping down the hillsides to the water's edge. The whole lay of the +land was so exquisite. I didn't wonder that it is so celebrated, and +that so much has been written about it. A funny old Englishman came and +sat beside me, and we had a long conversation, pretty much as follows: + +Englishman.--"England is no doubt the finest country in the world. You +know the people there are so enormous rich, they can do as they please." +"Ah, indeed," said I, "have you travelled much in Germany?" "O yes! I've +been all over Germany. I come up the Rhine every year," said he. "It's +all very pretty when you've never seen it before, but it's nothing to me +now." "Have you been to Berlin?" asked I. "O yes," said he. "Shouldn't +want to live there. Your Prussians are so confounded arrogant. They +think they're the greatest people in the world." "How did you like +Dresden?" said I. "Stupid hole," said he. "Leipsic?" "Dull town." +"Stuttgardt?" "Quite pretty." "Kissingen?" "'Orrible place, nothing but +fanatics; every other day a Saint's day, and the shops shut up." +"Wiesbaden?" "Very fine place." "Ems?" "Never been to Hems." "Mainz?" +"Nasty hole." "Cologne?" "Stinking place." "Munich?" "Dreadful +unhealthy. They have fevers there, typhus, etc. _I_ call 'em fevers." +"How do you like the Rhine wines?" "Don't like them at all. It's very +seldom a man gets to drink a decent glass of wine here. I don't drink +'em at all. I like a glass of port." "Beer?" "O, the German beer isn't +fit to drink. The English beer is the best in the world. German beer is +'orrible bad stuff. Nothing but slops,--slops!" Here I burst out +laughing, for his flattering descriptions were too much for me. He gave +me a quizzical look and said, "Well, I'm glad I made you laugh. You're +from America, aren't you?" "Yes," said I. "Very unhealthy place, I'm +told." "Indeed? I never heard so," said I. "O yes, _very_!" said he. +Then he went off, and after a long while he returned. "I've been +asleep," said he, "I've slept two hours and a half, all through the fine +scenery." "_What!_" said I, "don't you enjoy it?" "No, I don't enjoy it +at all." Then he told me he lived in Rotterdam, and that I must come to +Holland. He was very complaisant over the Dutch, whom he said were +"nice, decent people, like the English. There's nothing of the German in +them," said he, "they're quite another people--not so +en-_thu_si-_as_tic,"--with a contemptuous air. We got out at Cologne, +and he went on to his dear Rotterdam. So I saw him no more. + +Oh! isn't the Cologne Cathedral magnificent? It quite took my breath +away as I entered it. The priests were just having vespers as we went +in, and there was scarcely a person in the cathedral beside. It was so +solemn and so touching to see them all by themselves intoning the +prayers, their voices swelling and falling in that vast place. And when +the superb organ struck up, and they began to sing a hymn, so wildly +sweet, with an interlude most beautifully worked up at the end of each +line by the organist--as we sat there under those great arches which +soar up to such an immense height, I felt as if I were in Heaven. + + * * * + + ANDERNACH, _July 16, 1871_. + +I believe I left off in my last with our arrival at Cologne, of which I +saw very little, as I was extremely tired, and remained at the hotel. +The Cathedral was, of course, the main point of interest, and that I saw +thoroughly, as I went to it twice, and spent a number of hours each +time. I was entirely carried away by its beauty and grandeur, as +everybody must be. The descriptions I had heard and the photographs I +had seen of it didn't prepare me at all. The _height_ of the great pile +is one of the most astounding things, I think. The three and four story +houses about it look like huts beside it. Beside the Cathedral I only +saw the church where the eleven thousand virgins are buried, but that +was more curious than beautiful.--I was much taken down by the shops in +Cologne, which I think much finer than the Berlin ones, and saw no end +of things in the windows I should like to have bought. The cravats alone +quite turned my head! + +We only spent two days in Cologne, and then sailed for Bonn, which is +but a very short distance. Here we were in a hotel directly upon the +river, and I had a sweet little room quite to myself. The view up and +down the river was superb, and we could see the Seven Mountains most +beautifully. Bonn is the most quiet, sleepy little town you can imagine, +and just the place to study, I should think. We saw the house where +Beethoven was born, a little yellow, two-story house, and then we +visited the Minster, which is nine hundred years old. We saw there a +tomb devoted to the memory of the first architect of the Cologne +Cathedral, with his statue lying upon it. He had a severely beautiful +face, and I could very well imagine him capable of such a great +conception. We had great difficulty in getting a dinner at Bonn, as, +being a university town, the students gobble up everything. Finally, we +found a little restaurant where they got us up one, consisting of steak +and potatoes. After dinner I went to walk with Mr. S. and we ate +cherries all the way, and finally sat down on a bench by the river's +side, where we had an enchanting view. Then we went back to the hotel, +and I went directly to bed. It was delicious to lie there and hear the +little waves washing up outside my window. It is just the place for a +honey-moon--so out of the world as it seems, and with none of the +activity and bustle of other cities. + +At six o'clock the next morning we took the boat, and in about half an +hour we landed at a little town on the side of the river opposite to +Bonn, and began our pedestrian tour through the Seven Mountains, of +which we ascended and descended four. They were all very steep and +difficult to climb, and it reminded me of my trip to Mount Mansfield, +years ago, only _then_ we had horses. We spent the night on one of +them, the Löwenberg (Lion-mountain). This was a funny experience, as all +we five ladies had to sleep in one room, and in one great bed of straw +made up on the floor. The fleas bit us all night, so we did not sleep +_too_ much. I mentioned the little fact to the servant next day, to +which she replied, "Yes, when you aren't used to fleas and bed-bugs, it +_is_ hard to sleep!" I agreed with her perfectly!--Our walk was +enchanting in spite of the difficulty of the ascent, and of the fact +that all of us had satchels slung over our shoulders, and a shawl and +umbrella to carry, which made locomotion rather difficult. We were in +the sylvan shades, following delicious footpaths scented with flowers, +and with the birds singing and trilling as loud as they could over our +heads. + +It was heavenly on the Löwenberg, for the view was glorious on every +side, and it seemed as if we were on the highest peak in the universe. I +sat for hours looking over the lovely country and following the +meanderings of the Rhine. The atmospheric effects produced by the sunset +were wonderful, and when it got to be nine o'clock we saw the lights +twinkle up one by one from the distant villages below like little +earth-stars--reflections of the heavenly ones above. The last mountain +we ascended was the Drachenfels (Dragon-rock), and a fearful pull it +was. The three others had been so easy, comparatively, that we none of +us knew what we were in for. Soon found out, though! It was like trying +to go up a wall, it was so steep. But when we got up we were rewarded, +for the view was superb, and there was an interesting old Roman ruin up +there. We wandered all about, and got an excellent dinner, and then +came down late in the afternoon, took a row boat and rowed across the +Rhine to Rolandseck--a fashionable watering place, and as charming as +German towns have a way of being. + + * * * + + GOTHA, _July 27, 1871_. + +Since I wrote you from Andernach I have been travelling steadily. The +whole party except Mrs. V. N. and myself made a pedestrian tour along +the Rhine from Rolandseck to Bingen, a distance of sixty miles. I +started to walk, but when I had gone fifteen miles I gave out, and was +glad to take the boat. Mrs. V. N. was an invalid and couldn't walk, so I +took charge of her, and we would travel on together. When we got to the +station where we had agreed to wait for the others, I would seat her +somewhere with the bags of the party piled up around her, and then I +would make a sortie, look at the hotels, and engage our rooms. + +We saw the Rhine from Cologne to Worms very thoroughly--for we kept +stopping all along. It is truly magnificent, and nothing can be more +interesting and picturesque than those old ruined castles which look as +if they had grown there. Bingen is the sweetest place, and just the spot +to spend a summer. We travelled from there to Worms, which is a +delightful old city. We were there only an hour or two, but the walk +from the boat to the cars was through the prettiest part of it, I should +judge, and was very romantic, through winding walks overshadowed with +trees. We saw that great Luther monument there, which is most imposing. +The exterior of the Cathedral is splendid, and in quite another style +of architecture from the Cologne Cathedral. From Worms we went to Spire, +in order to see the Cathedral there, which is superb, and very +celebrated. It was founded in 1030 by Conrad the Second, as a burial +place for himself and his successors. It has no stained windows at all, +even in the chancel, which surprised me, but the frescoes and the whole +interior colouring are gorgeous in the extreme. It is in the Romanesque +style of architecture, and is so entirely different from the Cologne +Cathedral that it was very interesting, but there's nothing equal to the +Gothic, after all. + +From Spire we went to Heidelberg. I was enchanted with Heidelberg. It is +the most romantic and beautiful place I was ever in. The Castle is the +prince of ruins. I had made up my mind all along that I was going to +enjoy myself at Heidelberg, for my friend Dr. S. was studying there, and +I knew I should have him to go about with. So I had been urging the +party to go there from the first. As soon as we arrived, off I went to +find him, which I soon accomplished. He was very glad to see me, and put +himself at once at my disposal. You know the S.'s used to live at +Heidelberg, among other places, so he knows it all by heart. After +dinner we all went up to the Castle, of course. I was very sorry that I +had never read Hyperion. We had to ascend a long hill before we got to +it, but the weather was perfect, so we didn't mind. It is so high up +that the view of the town and of the Neckar winding through it, with the +wooded hills on the opposite shore, is panoramic. + +The Castle itself is an enormous ruin, and very richly ornamented. Ivy +two hundred years old climbs over it in great luxuriance. We passed +through a gateway over which stand two stone knights which are said to +change places with each other at midnight, and there are all sorts of +charming stories like that connected with the place. We saw a +beautifully carved stone archway which was put up in a single night, in +honour of somebody's birthday, and a monument with an inscription over +it stood in one corner of the grounds, stating that here had stood some +distinguished personage (I always forget all the names, unluckily, but +"the _principle_ remains the same"), when the Castle was being besieged +by the French. Two balls came from opposite directions, passed close by +him, and struck against each other, miraculously leaving him unharmed! + +After we had walked around the outside of the Castle sufficiently we +went inside. It took us a long time to go over it, it was so large. We +saw the stone dungeon, which was called the "Never Empty," because +somebody was always confined there--a dreadful hole, and it must have +been in perfect darkness--and we saw the great Heidelberg cask which had +a scaffolding on the top of it big enough to dance a quadrille on. But +the finest of everything was the ascending of the tower. Just as we got +to the top of it, and had begun to take in the magnificent scenery, an +orchestra at a little distance below struck up Wagner's "Kaiser March." +It was the one touch which was needed to make the _ensemble_ perfect. On +one side the landscape lay far below us, with the silver river winding +through it; on the other the hills rose behind the Castle to an immense +height, and with the greatest boldness of outline. The tops were thickly +wooded, and lower down the trees were beautifully grouped, and the +velvety turf rolled and swelled to the foot of the Castle. The sun was +just setting in a clear sky, and cast long shadows athwart the scene, +and I thought I had never seen anything more striking. Then to hear +Wagner's Kaiser March by a well-trained orchestra come soaring up, made +a combination such as one gets perhaps not more than once in a +life-time. + +The march is superb, so pompous and majestic, and with delicious +melodies occasionally interwoven through it. Wagner's melodies are so +heavily and intoxicatingly sweet, that they are almost narcotic. His +music excites a set of emotions that no other music does, and he is a +great original. It has the power of expressing longing and aspiration to +a wonderful degree, and it always seems to me as if two impulses were +continually trying to get the mastery. The one is the embodiment of all +those vague yearnings of the soul to burst its prison house, and the +other is the cradling of the body in the lap of pleasure. I always feel +as if I should like to swoon away when I hear his compositions. Then his +harmonies are so strangely seductive, so complicated, so "grossartig," +as the Germans say, and so peculiar! Oh, I have an immense admiration +for him! He thinks that music is not the impersonation of an idea, but +that it _is_ the idea. + +But to return to the Castle.--We stayed up in the tower for some time, +and then we made the tour of the interior. Afterwards we walked and sat +about until all the party thought it was time to go back to the hotel +Dr. S. and I thought we would stay up there to supper. So we went where +the orchestra was playing, which was in an enclosed space near the +Castle. We took our seats at a little table in the open air, and ordered +a delicious little supper, also + + "A bottle of wine + To make us shine" + +in _conversation!_--and so glided by the most ideal evening, as far as +surroundings go, that I ever spent. + +In our hotel at Heidelberg I kept hearing a man play splendidly in the +room below us, and every time we passed his door it was open, and we +could partly see the interior of a charming room with a grand piano in +it, at which he was seated. A pretty woman was always lying back in the +corner of the sofa listening to him, apparently. The presence of a large +wax doll indicated that there must be a child about, and the perfume of +flowers stole through the open doorway. My interest was at once excited +in these people, and I said to myself as I heard this gentleman practice +every day, "This must be some artist passing the summer here and getting +up his winter programme." Accordingly, on Sunday afternoon when he was +playing beautifully, I roused myself up and enquired of a servant who he +was. "Nicolai Rubinstein, from St. Petersburg," replied she. He is the +brother of the great Anton Rubinstein, and is nearly as fine a pianist. +I know a scholar of Tausig's who had studied with him, and Tausig had a +high opinion of him. + +Oh, isn't it _dreadful_? When we were at Bingen we saw the news of +Tausig's DEATH in the paper! He died at Leipsic, on the 17th of July, of +typhus fever, brought on by over-taxing his musical memory. It was a +dreadful blow to me, as you may imagine, and when I think of his +wonderful playing silenced forever, and comparatively in the beginning +of his career, I cannot get reconciled to it. If you could have heard +those matchlessly trained fingers of his, you would be able to +sympathize with me on the subject. I had counted so on hearing him next +winter, for he gave no concerts in Berlin last winter. He was only +thirty-one years old! + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Eisenach. Gotha. Erfurt. Andernach. Weimar. Tausig. + + + BERLIN, _August 15, 1871_. + +Well, here I am back in smelly old Berlin! I really hated to leave +Heidelberg, it was such a paradisiacal spot, but we saw so much that was +beautiful afterwards, that my impression of it has become a little +dimmed. From Heidelberg we went to Eisenach, its rival in a different +way, for here we went over the Wartburg--the Castle famous for having +been the dwelling of the holy St. Elizabeth, and where Luther translated +the Bible and spent ten months of his life disguised as a knight. I saw +his room, a bare and comfortless hole, but with a splendid view from the +windows. The Castle is in good repair, and is a noble pile. I suppose +the Duke of Weimar spends some time there every summer, as it looks as +if it were lived in. It is endlessly interesting. There is a lovely +little chapel in it where Luther used to preach, with everything left in +just as it was in his time--a little gem. The Wartburg is on a very high +hill, and the views from it are superb. Among other things to be seen +from it is the Venusberg, which is the mountain Wagner has introduced in +his famous opera of Tannhäuser. He was so carried away by the Wartburg +when he concealed himself near it, as he was being pursued by the +government to be arrested as a revolutionary, twenty years ago, that he +never rested until he had united the legends of St. Elizabeth and of the +Venusberg in his opera. Liszt, also, wrote an oratorio on St. Elizabeth +as _his_ tribute to the Wartburg. + +From Eisenach we went to Gotha, a lovely place, all shaded with trees, +and surmounted by a very imposing castle, with two immense towers. It is +an enormous edifice, and is surrounded by a magnificent park, through +which goes the slowly winding river. I believe that Gotha belongs to the +Duke of Saxe-Coburg, brother of the Queen of England, or something. At +all events, in the middle of this river is an island where the ducal +family is buried, and it is so thickly planted with trees whose boughs +hang over the water, that their graves are quite shrouded from the +vulgar eye. Pretty idea! The river laps lazily against the grassy slope +which covers the princely ones, and the wind rushing through the trees, +sings their dirge. + +From Gotha we went to Erfurt, where we only spent one night, in order to +see the Cathedral. Erfurt is an Undine of a place, full of running +streams and bridges and mills roaring all about you. I saw one street +with a brook rippling down the very middle of it at a most rattling +pace, and at every little distance two or three stepping stones by which +to cross it. Just think how fascinating for children! I longed to stay +and have a good play there myself. The Erfurt Cathedral is much smaller +than those of Spire and Cologne, but the exterior is wonderfully +beautiful. The transept is a masterpiece, and has fifteen enormous +windows of rich old stained glass going round it. The nave did not +please me so well, because in addition to its not being very rich, the +side aisles were of equal height with the main body of the Cathedral, +and were not sufficiently marked off from it to prevent the roof's +looking like a ceiling. I believe the side aisles were of equal height +with the main aisle in the Cologne Cathedral, but the archways and +pillars cut them off more, so that it had a different effect.--I am more +interested in cathedrals than anything else, and should like to travel +all over Europe and see all the different ones. There is a lovely old +church at Andernach, Roman Catholic, as most of the churches on the +Rhine are. I went there to church one Sunday morning, and stayed through +the service. They had the most powerful church music I've ever heard. +There was an excellent boy choir which sang in unison and led the +congregation, _every person_ of which joined in. The organ was fine, as +was also the organist, and the singing was so universal that the old +church walls rang again. The priest preached an excellent sermon, +too--the best I have heard in Germany. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _August 31, 1871_. + +Germany is a most lovely country, and perfectly delicious to travel +through. I believe I have described all the places we went to excepting +Weimar. Weimar is delightful, and so interesting, because Goethe and +Schiller, Wieland and Herder lived there, and everything is connected +with them, and especially with the first two. There are many fine +statues in the little city, and a delicious great park along the river +which was laid out under Goethe's superintendence.--One group of Goethe +and Schiller standing together in front of the theatre is magnificent. +One hardly knows which to admire the most, Goethe, with his courtly mein +and commanding features, or Schiller, with his extreme ideality and his +head a little thrown back as if to take in inspiration direct from the +sky. It is a most striking conception. + +The palace of the Grand Duke of Weimar is the principal "show" of the +place. It is filled with the richest works of art, and is beautifully +frescoed in rooms devoted each to a particular author, and representing +his most celebrated works. There is the Goethe room, and the Wieland +room, etc. The Wieland room is the most charming thing. The frescoes on +the walls are all illustrative of his "Oberon," which is his most +celebrated work, and one picture represents what happened when Oberon +blew his horn. You must know that when Oberon blows his horn everybody +is obliged to dance. So in this picture he is represented blowing it in +a convent, and all the fat friars and nuns are dancing away like mad. +They look so serious, and as if they didn't want to do it at all, but +their feet _will_ fly up in the air in spite of them. The nuns' slippers +scarcely stick on, and it looks so absurd! I was as highly amused at it +as the mischievous Oberon himself must have been, so delicately has the +artist touched it off. There was another design representing a band of +nymphs dancing in the sky, hand in hand in the twilight, and it was the +most graceful thing!--Their delicate little bare feet with every pretty +turn a foot could have, their clothes and hair streaming in the breeze, +and every attitude so airy. It was _lovely_! The Goethe frescoes were by +another painter, and not so fine, but I prefer pictures to frescoes. +Only one suite of the ducal rooms was frescoed. The others had superb +pictures by the old masters, many of them originals. + +The Duke is an artist himself, and designs a great many pretty things. +For instance, he designed the large candelabra which stood on each side +of one of the doorways,--Cupid peeping through a wreath of thistles and +nettles. He was kneeling on one knee, and pushing them aside with each +hand. It was all done in gilt metal and made a very dainty conceit, +beside being a good illustration of the pains of love! I think the Duke +probably designed some of the picture frames, for they were peculiarly +rich and artistic; for instance, the frames of the original cartoons of +Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper were entirely composed of the leaves and +flowers of the calla lily. The leaves lapped one over the other, and +here and there a lily was laid between. The flowers were done in a +different coloured gilding from the leaves. They were _very_ beautiful. +The pictures were not all hung together, so as to confuse your eye, but +here a gem and there a gem--and O, I saw the most bewitching little +statue there that ever I saw in my life! The subject was "Little Red +Riding Hood," and it stood in the corner of one of the great salons. It +was about two feet high, and represented the most fascinating little +girl you can imagine, clothed in the wolf's skin, which hung down behind +and had formed the little hood. The child herself was quite +indescribable--the daintiest little creature, with the most captivating +expression of innocence and roguishness. If she looked like that I +should have followed the wolf's example and eaten her up! It was really +a perfect little _pearl_ of a statue. I would give anything to possess +it. In short, I wish the Duke of Weimar were my intimate friend, for he +must be a man worth knowing. Now, if I could only play like Liszt!--I +don't wonder Liszt spends so much of his time in Weimar. I am getting +perfectly crazy to hear him, by the way, for everybody says there is +nobody in the world like him, and that he is the only artist who +combines _everything_. He does not play in public any more, but +Weitzmann says that he is amiability itself, and that it would probably +not be difficult for me to get an opportunity to hear him in private. + +In the palace I also saw the little boudoir of the Duchess. It was all +panelled in white satin, and the furniture was of the richest white +brocaded silk. The window frames were of malachite, and one looked out +through the single great plate of glass on to the beautiful park, and +the winding river spanned by a bridge which suggests immediately to your +mind, "Walk over me into the Garden of Paradise, for I was made for your +express benefit!" The park lies on each side of this little river Ilm, +and Goethe's exquisite taste has given it more a look of nature than of +art. It seems as if you were walking in a delicious meadow, the trees +being sometimes grouped together, sometimes growing thickly along the +water's edge. You go in and out of sunshine and shadow, and here and +there are dusky little retreats, and, to borrow Goldsmith's elegant +style,--"the winding walks assume a natural sylvage." Some distance up +the river, on the side of a gentle hill, was a small house in the woods +where Goethe used to live in summer. Here he slept sometimes, and +farther up the hill was a summer house where he took his coffee after +dinner. To the left of this summer house he had had made a long +alley-way or vista of trees whose tops met overhead and formed a leafy +ceiling. It was like a cloister, and here he could pace up and down and +muse. It was a delightful idea. To the right of the summer house was a +small garden, and beyond that was a path which wound through the wood +down to the path below. In one of the rocks there Goethe had had a +little poem cut. I was sorry afterward that I hadn't copied it, it was +so pretty.--But it was such a charming place to read and study, and it +seemed to give me a better impression of him than anything else. + +I saw a piano in the Duke's palace upon which Beethoven had played. It +was a funny little instrument of about five octaves, but it was so +wheezy with age that there wasn't much tone to be got out of it. After +we had finished looking at the palace, we went over to see the ducal +library. Here I saw a superb bust of Goethe as a young man. It was so +handsome that it spurns description. He must have been a perfect Apollo. +I also saw a likeness of him painted upon a cup by some great artist, +for which he sat thirty-four times! The old librarian, who had known +Goethe, said that it was _exactly_ like him, and the miniature painting +was so wonderful that when you looked at it with a magnifying glass it +was only finer and _more_ accurate instead of less so! There was also a +most noble bust of the composer Glück. The face was all scarred with +small-pox, so that the cast must have been moulded from his features +after death, but I never saw such a living, animated, likeness in +marble. It looked as if it were going to speak to you. There was a funny +toy there, nearly three hundred years old. It was a drummer boy, with a +little baby strapped on his back. The librarian wound him up, and then +he beat his drum lustily, rolled his eyes from side to side, and wagged +his head, while the baby on his back hopped up and down. Whenever little +children see it, it scares them, and they begin to cry. It had on a red +flannel coat, and hasn't had a new one since it was made.--"Nearly three +hundred years old, and never had a new coat," is worse than when C. P. +bought himself a trunk, and went round the house saying, "Twenty-seven +years old, and been in twenty-three states of the Union, and _never_ had +a new trunk before!" + +Goethe's house is not exhibited, which I think highly inexcusable in the +Goethe family, but Schiller's is. So we saw that, and what a contrast it +was to the ducal palace!--You go to a small yellow house on one of the +principal streets, enter a little hall by a little door, go up two +flights of a little stair-case, and in the very low-ceilinged third +story was Schiller's home--"home" I say, and the _whole_ of it, so +please take it in! The first room you enter is a sort of ante-room where +photographs are now sold. The next room was the parlour, and of late +years it has been comfortably furnished by the ladies of Weimar in the +usual cheap German taste. The third room was Schiller's study, with an +infinitesimal fourth room, or large closet, opening from it, which was +his sleeping apartment. The study is precisely as he left it, and +nothing could be more bald and bare. No carpet on the floor, the three +windows slightly festooned at the top with a single breadth of Turkey +red, his own portrait and a few wretched prints on the walls--in short, +such a sordid habitation for such a soaring nature as seemed almost +incredible! His writing table, with a globe, inkstand, and pens upon it, +stands at one window, and his wife's tiny little piano with her guitar +on top, is against the wall. There are two or three chairs, and a +wash-stand with a minute washing apparatus. In one corner is the tiny +unpainted wooden bedstead on which he died; a bed not meant to stretch +out in, but to lie, as Germans do, half reclining, and so low, narrow, +plain and mean that I never saw anything like it. In it and hanging on +the wall over it are wreaths which leading German actresses have brought +there as votive offerings to their great national dramatist, their white +satin ribbons yellowing by time. At the foot of the stair-case as you go +out, you see the little walled-up garden at the back of the house where +the poet loved to sit. + +After getting through with the abodes of the living, we visited the +ducal vault where Goethe and Schiller are buried. It is the crypt of a +sort of temple built in the old secluded cemetery in Weimar, and in it +all the coffins are laid in rows on supporters. Goethe and Schiller lie +apart from the others, side by side, near the foot of the stair-case +leading down into the crypt. Their coffins, especially Schiller's, are +covered with wreaths and bouquets brought by strangers and laid there. +Schiller's had on it a garland of silver leaves presented by the women +of Hamburg, and another of leaves of green gauze or crape, on every one +of which was worked in gold thread the name of one of his plays. A great +actress had made it herself as her tribute to his genius. From all I +observe, I should judge that the German people love Schiller much more +than they do Goethe. The dukes and duchesses lie farther back in the +vault in their red velvet coffins, quite unnoticed. So much better is +genius than rank! Hummel is buried also in the cemetery, which is the +most beautiful I ever saw--not stiff and "arranged" like ours, but so +natural! with over-grown foot-paths, and with much fewer and simpler +grave-stones and monuments, and many more vines and flowers and roses +creeping over the graves. We went to Hummel's grave, and had I been +Goethe and Schiller I should much rather have been buried out of doors +like him, amid this sweet half-wild, half-gentle nature, than in that +dismal vault. + +Speaking of Hummel reminds me of Tausig's death. Was it not terrible +that he should have died so young! Such an enormous artist as he was! I +cannot get reconciled to it at all, and he played only twice in Berlin +last winter. + +He was a strange little soul--a perfect misanthrope. Nobody knew him +intimately. He lived all the last part of his life in the strictest +retirement, a prey to deep melancholy. He was taken ill at Leipsic, +whither he had gone to meet Liszt. Until the ninth day they had hopes of +his recovery, but in the night he had a relapse, and died the tenth day, +very easily at the last. His remains were brought to Berlin and he was +buried here. Everything was done to save him, and he had the most +celebrated physicians, but it was useless. So my last hope of lessons +from him again is at an end, you see! I never expect to hear such +piano-playing again. It was as impossible for him to strike one false +note as it is for other people to strike right ones. He was absolutely +infallible. The papers all tell a story about his playing a piece one +time before his friends, from the notes. The music fell upon the keys, +but Tausig didn't allow himself to be at all disturbed, and went on +playing through the paper, his fingers piercing it and grasping the +proper chords, until some one rushed to his aid and set the notes up +again. Oh, he was a wonder, and it is a tragic loss to Art that he is +dead. He was such a _true_ artist, his standard was so immeasurably +high, and he had such a proud contempt for anything approaching +clap-trap, or what he called _Spectakel_. I have seen him execute the +most gigantic difficulties without permitting himself a sign of effort +beyond an almost imperceptible compression of one corner of his +mouth.--And then his touch! Never shall I forget it!--that _rush_ of +silver over the keys. However, he entirely overstrained himself, and his +whole nervous system was completely shattered long before his illness. +He said last winter that the very idea of playing in public was +unbearable to him, and after he had announced in the papers that he +would give four concerts, he recalled the announcement on the plea of +ill health. Then he thought he would go to Italy and spend the winter. +But when he got as far as Naples, he said to himself, "_Nein, hier +bleibst du nicht_ (No, you won't stay here);" and back he came to +Berlin. He doesn't seem to have known what he wanted, himself; his was +an uneasy, tormented, capricious spirit, at enmity with the world. +Perhaps his marriage had something to do with it. His wife was a +beautiful artist, too, and they thought the world of each other, yet +they couldn't live together. But Tausig's whole life was a mystery, and +his reserve was so complete that nobody could pierce it. If I had only +been at the point in music two years ago that I am now, I could have +gone at once into his class. His scholars were most of them artists +already, or had got to that point where they had pretty well mastered +the technique. A number of them came out last winter, and the little +Timanoff played duets with Rubinstein for two pianos, at St. Petersburg. + +Since my return I have gone into the first class in Kullak's +conservatory, instead of taking private lessons of him. I think it will +be of use to me to hear his best pupils play. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + Dinner-Party and Reception at Mr. Bancroft's. Auction at Tausig's + House. A German Christmas. The Joachims. + + + BERLIN, _October 2, 1871_. + +This week I have been to a dinner-party at the Bancroft's. There were +several eminent Germans there, and I was taken out by Bötticher, the +Herr who has arranged all the casts in the Museum, and who knows +everything about Art. He couldn't speak a word of English, so we +_Germaned_ it. We talked about Sappho all through dinner, and he gave me +several details about that young woman which I did not know before. As +C. used to say, we had one of those dinners "such as you read about in +the Arabian Nights," topping off with a glass of my favourite Tokay, +which, I regret to say, I so prolonged the pleasure of drinking, that +finally the signal was given to adjourn to the drawing-room, and I was +obliged to leave my glass standing half full, to be swallowed by the +waiter as soon as my back was turned. Sad, but true! + +On another evening, at a Bancroft reception, I talked with a Miss R., +who was charming. She is twenty-two or three, I should think, very +pretty and extremely elegant, and with the most delicious way of +speaking you can imagine. Such softness of manner and such a +delightfully pitched voice, and then along with this perfect repose, +such a vivid way of describing things! I was immensely taken with her, +and was delighted to have her for a countrywoman. She gave me a +wonderful account of the Island of Java. I had a lot of questions to ask +her, for you remember how persistently I read that book by a naturalist +(Wallace) who went to Java in search of the Bird of Paradise. Miss R. is +so extremely intelligent, and yet so unassuming; and then this high-bred +manner.--I did not have time to hear her talk half enough, and, +unfortunately, her party went away the next day. + +The other day was an auction in poor little Tausig's house, and all his +furniture was sold. It was very handsome, all of solid oak, beautifully +carved. He had spent five thousand thalers on it. His wardrobe was sold, +too, and I don't know how many pairs of his little boots and shoes were +there, his patent leather concert boots among others. His little velvet +coat that he used to wear went with the rest. I saw it lying on a chair. +I came home quite ill, and was laid up two days. It was the fatigue, I +suppose, and miserable reflections. I wanted to buy a picture, but they +were all sold in a lot. He had excellent ones of all the great +composers, down to Liszt and Wagner, hanging over his piano in the room +where he always played. Kullak deplores Tausig's death very deeply. He +had visited him in Leipsic two days before he was taken ill, and said no +one would have dreamed that Tausig was going to die, he looked so well. +Kullak said Tausig was one of the three or four great _special_ +pianists. "Who will interpret to us so again?" said he; and I echoed, +sadly enough, "Who, indeed?" + +Kullak, by the way, is a wonderfully _finished_ teacher. He is a great +friend of Liszt's, and Liszt has taught him a good many things. I doubt, +however, how M. will fare with him, if she is only going to be here a +year. My experience is that it takes fully a year to get started under a +first class master. These great teachers won't take a pupil raw from +America, still less trouble themselves with a scholar who cannot +immediately comprehend. I have written her to-day a three-sheet letter +in which I have set forth the disadvantages of Germany in a sufficiently +forcible manner to prevent her feeling disappointed if she still insists +upon the journey. I have come to the conclusion that I am no criterion +as to other people's impressions. Unless people have an enthusiasm for +art I don't see the least use in their coming abroad. If they cannot +appreciate the _culture_ of Europe, they are much better off in America. +There is no doubt whatever that as to the _comfort_ of every-day life, +we are a long way ahead of every nation, unless perhaps the English, +whom, however, I have not seen. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _December 25, 1871_. + +To-day is Christmas-day, and I have thought much of you all at home, and +have wondered if you've been having an apathetic time as usual. I think +we often spend Christmas in a most shocking fashion in America, and I +mean to revolutionize all that when I get back. So long a time in +Germany has taught me better. Here it is a season of universal joy, and +_everybody_ enters into it. Last night we had a Christmas tree at the +S.'s, as we always do. We went there at half past six, and it was the +prettiest thing to see in every house, nearly, a tree just lighted, or +in process of being so. As a separate family lives on each floor, often +in one house would be three trees, one above the other, in the front +rooms. The curtains are always drawn up, to give the passers-by the +benefit of it. They don't make a fearful undertaking of having a +Christmas tree here, as we do in America, and so they are attainable by +everybody. The tree is small, to begin with, and nothing is put on it +except the tapers and bonbons. It is fixed on a small stand in the +centre of a large square table covered with a white cloth, and each +person's presents are arranged in a separate pile around it. The tree is +only lighted for the sake of beauty, and for the air of festivity it +throws over the thing.--After a crisp walk in the moonlight (which I +performed in the style of "Johnny-look-up-in-the-air," for I was engaged +in staring into house-windows, so far as it was practicable), we sat +down to enjoy a cup of tea and a piece of cake. I had just begun my +second cup, when, Presto! the parlour doors flew open, and there stood +the little green tree, blossoming out into lights, and throwing its +gleams over the well-laden table. There was a general scramble and a +search for one's own pile, succeeded by deep silence and suspense while +we opened the papers. Such a hand shaking and embracing and thanking as +followed! concluding with the satisfactory conviction that we each had +"just what we wanted." Germans do not despise the utilitarian in their +Christmas gifts, as we do, but, between these and their birthday +offerings, expect to be set up for the rest of the year in the +necessaries of life as well as in its superfluities. Presents of +stockings, under-clothes, dresses, handkerchiefs, soaps--nothing comes +amiss. And every one _must_ give to every one else. That is LAW. + +I have just heard a young artist from Vienna who made a great impression +on me. His name is Ignaz Brühl. He is quite exceptional, and has not +only a brilliant technique, but also a peculiar and beautiful +conception.--But the best concert I have heard this season was one given +by Clara Schumann a week ago last Monday. She was assisted by Joachim +and his wife, and _that_ galaxy is indeed unequalled. Frau Joachim sings +deliciously. Not that her voice is so remarkable. You hear such voices +all the time. But she manages it consummately, and sings German songs as +no one but a German _could_ sing them. Indeed I never heard any woman +approach her in unobtrusive yet perfect art. She does not take you by +storm, and when I first came here I did not think much of her, but every +time I hear her I am struck with how exquisite it is. Every word takes +on a meaning, and on this account I think you have to understand the +language before you can realize the beauty of it. One of her songs was +Schumann's "Spring Song," with that rapid _agitato_ accompaniment, you +know.--She came out and started off in it with a half breath and a +tremor just like a bird fluttering up out of its nest, and then went up +on a portamento with _such_ abandon!--like the bird soaring off in its +flight. I never _shall_ forget that effect! Of course it carried you +completely away. + +Beside singing so admirably she is a beauty--a sort of baby beauty--and +when she comes out in a pale pink silk, contrasting with her dark hair +and revealing her imperial neck and arms, she is ravishing. I've been +told she wasn't anything remarkable when Joachim married her. No doubt +dwelling with such a genius has developed her. They say that Joachim has +had such a happy life that he wants to live forever! He certainly does +overtop everything. On this occasion he played Beethoven's great +Kreutzer Sonata for violin and piano, with Clara Schumann, and I thought +it the _most magnificent performance I ever heard_! I perfectly adore +Joachim, and consider him the wonder of the age. It is simple ecstasy to +listen to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Visit to Dresden. The Wiecks. Von Bülow. A Child Prodigy. Grantzow, + the Dancer. + + + BERLIN, _February 10, 1872_. + +A week ago last Monday I went to Dresden with J. L. to visit B. H. We +got there at about five in the afternoon, and were met at the station by +B.'s maid, who conducted us straightway to their house in Christian +Strasse. B. and Mrs. H. received us with the greatest cordiality, and we +had a splendid time. I came home only the day before yesterday, and J. +is still there. The H.'s have a charming lodging, and Mrs. H. is a +capital housekeeper. The _cuisine_ was excellent, and you can imagine +how I enjoyed an American breakfast once more, after nothing but "rolls +and coffee" for two years. B. did everything in her power to amuse us, +and she is the soul of amiability. She kept inviting people to meet us, +and had several tea-parties, and when we had no company she took us to +the theatre or the opera. She invited Marie Wieck (the sister of Clara +Schumann) to tea one night. I was very glad to meet her, for she is an +exquisite artist herself, and plays in Clara Schumann's style, though +her conception is not so remarkable. Her touch is perfect. At B.'s +request she tried to play for us, but the action of B.'s piano did not +suit her, and she presently got up, saying that she could do nothing on +that instrument, but that if we would come to _her_, she would play for +us with pleasure. + +I was in high glee at that proposal, for I was very anxious to see the +famous Wieck, the trainer of so many generations of musicians. Fräulein +Wieck appointed Saturday evening, and we accordingly went. B. had +instructed us how to act, for the old man is quite a character, and has +to be dealt with after his own fashion. She said we must walk in (having +first laid off our things) as if we had been members of the family all +our lives, and say, "Good-evening, Papa Wieck,"--(everybody calls him +Papa). Then we were to seat ourselves, and if we had some knitting or +sewing with us it would be well. At any rate we must have the apparent +intention of spending several hours, for nothing provokes him so as to +have people come in simply to call. "What!" he will say, "do you expect +to know a celebrated man like me in half an hour?" then (very +sarcastically), "perhaps you want my autograph!" He hates to give his +autograph. + +Well, we went through the prescribed programme. We were ushered into a +large room, much longer than it was broad. At either end stood a grand +piano. Otherwise the room was furnished with the greatest simplicity. My +impression is that the floor was a plain yellow painted one, with a rug +or two here and there. A few portraits and bas-reliefs hung upon the +walls. The pianos were of course fine. Frau Wieck and "Papa" received us +graciously. We began by taking tea, but soon the old man became +impatient, and said, "Come! the ladies wish to perform (_vortragen_) +something before me, and if we don't begin we shan't accomplish +anything." He _lives_ entirely in music, and has a class of girls whom +he instructs every evening for nothing. Five of these young girls were +there. He is very deaf, but strange to say, he is as sensitive as ever +to every musical sound, and the same is the case with Clara Schumann. +Fräulein Wieck then opened the ball. She is about forty, I should think, +and a stout, phlegmatic-looking woman. However, she played superbly, and +her touch is one of the most delicious possible. After hearing her, one +is not surprised that the Wiecks think nobody can teach touch but +themselves. She began with a nocturne by Chopin, in F major. I forgot to +say that the old Herr sits in his chair with the air of being on a +throne, and announces beforehand each piece that is to be played, +following it with some comment: _e. g._, "This nocturne I allowed my +daughter Clara to play in Berlin forty years ago, and afterward the +principal newspaper in criticising her performance, remarked: 'This +young girl seems to have much talent; it is only a pity that she is in +the hands of a father whose head seems stuck full of queer new-fangled +notions,'--so new was Chopin to the public at that time." That is the +way he goes on. + +After Fräulein Wieck had finished the nocturne, I asked for something by +Bach, which I'm told she plays remarkably. She said that at the moment +she had nothing in practice by Bach, but she would play me a _gigue_ by +a composer of Bach's time,--Haesler, I think she said, but cannot +remember, as it was a name entirely unknown to me. It was very +brilliant, and she executed it beautifully. Afterward she played the +last movement of Beethoven's Sonata in E flat major, but I wasn't +particularly struck with her conception of that. Then we had a pause, +and she urged me to play. I refused, for as I had been in Dresden a week +and had not practiced, I did not wish to sit down and not do myself +justice. My hand is so stiff, that as Tausig said of himself (though of +him I can hardly believe it), "When I haven't practiced for fourteen +days I can't do anything." The old Herr then said, "Now we'll have +something else;" and got up and went to the piano, and called the young +girls. He made three of them sing, one after the other, and they sang +very charmingly indeed. One of them he made improvise a _cadenza_, and a +second sang the alto to it without accompaniment. He was very proud of +that. He exercises his pupils in all sorts of ways, trains them to sing +any given tone, and "to skip up and down the ladder," as they call the +scale. + +After the master had finished with the singing, Fräulein Wieck played +three more pieces, one of which was an exquisite arrangement by Liszt of +that song by Schumann, "_Du meine Seele_." She ended with a _gavotte_ by +Glück, or as Papa Wieck would say, "This is a gavotte from one of +Glück's operas, arranged by Brahms for the piano. To the superficial +observer the second movement will appear very easy, but in _my_ opinion +it is a very hard task to hit it exactly." I happened to know just how +the thing ought to be played, for I had heard it three times from Clara +Schumann herself. Fräulein Wieck didn't please me at all in it, for she +took the second movement twice as quickly as the first. "Your sister +plays the second movement much slower," said I. "_So?_" said she, "I've +never heard it from her." She then asked, "So slow?" playing it slower. +"Still slower?" said she, beginning a third time, at my continual +disapproval. "_Streng im Tempo_ (in strict time)", said I, nodding my +head oracularly. "_Väterchen_." called she to the old Herr, "Miss Fay +says that Clara plays the second movement _so_ slow," showing him. I +don't know whether this correction made an impression, but he was then +_determined_ that I should play, and on my continued refusal he finally +said that he found it very strange that a young lady who had studied +more than two years in Tausig's and Kullak's conservatories shouldn't +have _one_ piece that she could play before people. This little fling +provoked me, so up I jumped, and saying to myself, "_Kopf in die Höhe, +Brust heraus,--vorwärts!_" (one of the military orders here), I marched +to the piano and played the fugue at the end of Beethoven's A flat +Sonata, Op. 110. They all sat round the room as still as so many statues +while I played, and you cannot imagine how dreadfully nervous I was. I +thought fifty times I would have to stop, for, like all fugues, it is +such a piece that if you once get out you never can get in again, and +Bülow himself got mixed up on the last part of it the other night in his +concert. But I got well through, notwithstanding, and the old master was +good enough to commend me warmly. He told me I must have studied a +great deal, and asked me if I hadn't played a great many _Etuden_. I +informed him in polite German "He'd better believe I had!" + +I should like to study with the Wiecks in my vacation next summer if +they would take me. Perhaps I may. They are considered somewhat +old-fashioned in their style, and I shouldn't wish to exchange Kullak +for them, but they are _such_ veterans that one could not help getting +many valuable ideas from them. Papa Wieck used to be Bülow's master +before he went to Liszt. + +Did I tell you how carried away with Bülow I was? He is magnificent, and +just between Rubinstein and Tausig. I am going to hear him again on +Saturday, and then I'll write you my full opinion about him. He is +famous for his playing of Beethoven, and I wish you could have heard the +Moonlight Sonata from him. One thing he does which is entirely peculiar +to himself. He runs all the movements of a sonata together, instead of +pausing between. It pleased me very much, as it gives a _unity_ of +effect, and seems to make each movement beget the succeeding one. + + +BERLIN, _May 30, 1872_. + +I wish L. were here studying piano with Kullak's son. He has one little +fairy of a scholar ten years old. Her name is Adele aus der Ohe--(isn't +that an old knightly name?)--and it is the most astonishing thing to +hear that child play! I heard her play a concerto of Beethoven's the +other day with orchestral accompaniment and a great cadenza by +Moscheles, absolutely _perfectly_. She never missed a note the whole way +through. I suppose she will become, like Mehlig, a great artist. But +perhaps, like her, she won't have a great conception, but will do +everything mechanically. One never can tell how these child-prodigies +will turn out.--Please don't form any exalted ideas of _my_ playing! I'm +a pretty stupid girl, and go forward slowly. I never expect to play as +Miss Mehlig does. If I can ever get up to Topp, I shall be satisfied. +You wouldn't believe how long it takes to get to be a virtuoso unless +you tried it. Mehlig, you know, studied steadily for ten years, under +the _best_ of teaching all the time, and she had probably more talent to +start with than I have. Miss V. and Mr. G. have been here _five_ years +studying steadily, and they are no farther than I am now. Not so far. It +makes all the difference in the world what kind of hand and wrist a +person has. Mine, you know, were pretty stiff, and then it is a great +disadvantage to begin studying after one is grown up. One ought to be +learning while the hand is forming. + +I am just now learning that A minor concerto of Schumann's that Topp +played at the Handel and Haydn Festival in Boston. The cadenza is tough, +I can tell you. That is the worst of these concertos. There is always a +grand cadenza where you must play all alone and "make a splurge." I +don't know how it feels to be left all at once without any support from +the orchestra. It is bad enough when Kullak lies back in his chair and +ceases accompanying me. He plays with me on two pianos, and I get so +excited that my wrists tremble. He is a magnificent pianist, and his +technique is perfect. There's nothing he can't do. Like all artists, he +is as capricious and exasperating as he can be, and, as the Germans say, +he is "_ein Mal im Himmel und das nächste Mal im Keller_ (one time in +heaven and the next time in the cellar)!" He has a deep rooted prejudice +against Americans, and never loses an opportunity to make a mean remark +about them, and though he has some remarkably gifted ones among his +scholars, he always insists upon it that the Americans have no real +talent. As far as I know anything about his conservatorium just now, his +_most_ talented scholars are Americans. There is a young fellow named +Sherwood, who is only seventeen years old, and he not only plays +splendidly but composes beautifully, also. In my own class Miss B. and I +are far ahead of all the others. Kullak will praise us very +enthusiastically, and then when some one plays particularly badly in the +class he will say to them, "Why, Fräulein, you play exactly as if you +came from America." It makes Miss B. and me so indignant that we don't +know what to do. Of course we can't say anything, for he addresses this +remark in a lofty way to the whole class. Miss V. couldn't bear Kullak, +and the other day, when she and Mr. G. were taking leave of him to go to +America, she let him see it. He said to her, "And when shall I see you +again?" "_Never_," exclaimed she! We have only one way of revenging +ourselves, and that is when he gives us the choice of taking one of his +compositions or a piece by some one else, always to take the other +person's. For instance, he said to me, "Fräulein, you can take +Schumann's concerto or _my_ concerto." I immediately got Schumann's. + +The other night I went to see a great ballet-dancer. Her name is +Fräulein Grantzow, and she is the court dancer at St. Petersburg, where +I've heard that the ballet surpasses everything of the kind in the +world. This danseuse is a wonder, and they say there has never been such +dancing since the days of Fanny Ellsler. She has the figure of a Venus, +and the most expressive face imaginable. When she dances, it is not only +dancing, but a complete representation of character, for she plays a +rôle by her motions just the same as if she were an actress. I have seen +many a ballet, but I never conceived what an art dancing is before. I +saw her in "Esmeralda," a ballet which is arranged from Victor Hugo's +romance and modified for the stage. Fräulein Grantzow took the part of +Esmeralda. In the first act a man is condemned to death, but is pardoned +on condition that one of the women present will promise to marry him. +The women, represented by about fifty ballet dancers, come up one after +the other, contemplate the poor victim, pirouette round him, and reject +him in turn with a gesture of contempt. At last Esmeralda (a gypsy) +comes dancing along, asks what is the matter, and on being told, has +compassion on the poor wretch, and promises to marry him in order to +save him from his fate. + +When the time came for Grantzow to appear, the crowd of dancers +suddenly divided, and she bounded out from the back of the stage. _Such_ +an apparition as she was! In the first place her toilettes surpassed +everything, and she appeared in a fresh dress in every act. In this +first one she had on a most dazzling shade of green gauze for her skirt. +From her waist fell a golden net-work, like a cestus, with little golden +tassels all round. She wore a little scarlet satin jacket all fringed +with gold coins, and a broad golden belt, pointed in front, clasped her +waist. On her head was a tiny scarlet cap, also fringed with coins, and +she had some golden bangles round her neck. In her hand was a tambourine +from which depended four knots of coloured ribbons with long ends. +Shaking her tambourine high in the air, out she sprang like a panther, +made one magnificent circuit all round the stage, and after executing an +immensely difficult _pas_ with perfect ease, she suddenly posed to the +audience in the most ravishing and impossible attitude and with the most +captivating grace conceivable. Anything like her _élan_, her _aplomb_, I +never saw. Such a daring creature! Well, I cannot tell you all the +things she did. She is a perfect Terpsichorean genius. All through the +first act she danced very slowly, merely to show her wonderful grace, +and the beauty and originality of her positions. She had a way of +folding her arms over her breast and dancing with a dreamy step that was +quite different from anybody else, and it produced an entrancing effect. +Through the second and third acts she made a regular crescendo, just to +display her technique and show what she could do. All the other dancers +seemed like blocks of wood in comparison with her.--Fräulein Grantzow is +said to be between thirty-five and thirty-eight years old. As the papers +said, her art shows the perfection that only maturity can give. The men +are all crazy over her, as you may imagine, and she was showered with +bouquets as large as the top of a barrel. The play of her features was +as extraordinary as the play of her muscles. Her whole being seemed to +be the soul of motion. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + A Rising Organist. Kullak. Von Bülow's Playing. A Princely Funeral. + Wilhelmj's Concert. A Court Beauty. + + + BERLIN, _July 1, 1872_. + +Since I have been here X. has gradually developed into a great organ +player, and I fancy he is now one of the first organ virtuosi in the +world. His musical activity is immense, and I don't doubt he will be one +of the great musical authorities here by the time he is a few years +older. He is a good-hearted little demon, the incarnation of German dirt +and good humour, and he pretends to be desperately devoted to me. Last +Sunday he was at M.'s and went home with us afterward. Generally I go in +front with A. or Herr J. and let X. give his arm to M., but this time I +accorded him the honour of taking it myself. He is about a foot shorter +than I am, but he trotted along by my side in a state of high +satisfaction, and asked me what he should play at this concert. I told +him he might play the G Minor Prelude and Fugue, as I had just taken it, +"_but_," said I, "mind you play it well, for I shall study it very hard +during the next fortnight, and I shall know if you strike one false +note. I'll allow you six faults, but if you make one more I'll beat +you." This amused him highly, but he said, "It is a very complicated +fugue, and it isn't so easy to play it perfectly, with all the pedal +passages. What will you do for me if I come off without making _one_ +fault?" I told him there was plenty of time to think about that, and I +didn't believe he could. I have no doubt that he _will_ play it +magnificently, but I love to plague him. I wish that his department were +secular rather than church music, for if he were only a conductor of an +orchestra, or something of that sort, he could give me many a lift. He +doesn't dare play the piano any more since I played to him a few times. +He used nearly to kill me with his extemporizations, for he has no +memory, and so he always had to extemporize. I generally went off into a +secret convulsion of laughter when he went bang! bang! Donner and +Blitz!--splaying all over the key-board. It was the funniest thing I +ever heard, and when I heard him burst forth in such grand style on the +organ, I was perfectly amazed, and couldn't reconcile it with his piano +playing at all. He is a great reader, of course, and can transpose at +sight, and all that sort of thing. I've known him to play accompaniments +at sight in a great concert in the Dom and transpose them at the same +time! + +July 6.--You ask me why I gave up going to the Wiecks in Dresden this +summer.--Because they make everybody begin at the very beginning of +their system and go through it before they give them a piece, and at my +stage of progress that would be losing time. They think nobody can teach +touch but themselves, but Kullak is a much greater musician, and I +should not be willing to exchange him for Fräulein Wieck, who does not +begin to equal him in reputation. Much as Kullak enrages me, I have to +admit that he is a great master, and that he is thoroughly capable of +developing artistic talent to the utmost. He makes Miss B. so provoked +that she had very strong thoughts of going to Stuttgardt. The Stuttgardt +conservatorium is so crowded that it is very difficult to get admission. +Lebert (Mehlig's master,) sent word on her writing to enquire, that he +would only take her on condition that she brought him a letter from +Kullak authorizing her leaving him, as Kullak was a personal friend of +his own, and so great an artist, that only the most important reasons +could justify her giving up his instructions! Of course that put the +stopper on any such movement. + +I've always forgotten to describe Bülow's playing to you, and it is now +so long since I heard him that my impressions of it are not so vivid. He +has the most forcible style I ever heard, and phrases wonderfully. It is +like looking through a stereoscope to hear him. All the points of a +piece seem to start out vividly before you. He makes me think of +Gottschalk a little, for he is full of his airs. His expression is proud +and supercilious to the last degree, and he looks all round at his +audience when he is playing. He always has two grand pianos on the +stage, one facing one way, and one the other, and he plays alternately +on both. His face seems to say to his audience, "You're all cats and +dogs, and I don't care what you think of my playing." Sometimes a look +of infinite humour comes over it, when he is playing a rondo or anything +gay. It is very funny. He has remarkable magnetic power, and you feel +that you are under the sway of a tremendous will. Many persons find +fault with his playing, because they say it is pure intellect (_der +reine Verstand_) but I think he has too much passion to be called purely +intellectual. Still, it is always passion controlled. Beethoven has been +the grand study of his life, and he plays his sonatas as no one else +does. + +If he goes to America next winter, you _must_ hear him thoroughly, +_coûte que coûte_. So I advise you to be saving up your pennies, and be +sure to get a place near the piano so that you can see his face, for it +is a study. I always sit in the second or third row here. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _October 27, 1872_. + +This week has been quite an eventful one. It began on Monday with the +funeral of Prince Albrecht, the youngest brother of the Emperor, and it +was a very imposing spectacle. I was in hopes that Mr. B. would send me +a card of admission to the Dom, where the services were to be held, but +as he didn't, I was obliged to content myself with a sight of the +procession and general arrangement outside. I took my stand on a wagon +with H., and we got an excellent view. There was a roadway built of wood +from the royal Castle to the Dom, carpeted with black, over which the +procession was to pass. We waited about an hour before it came along, +but we were pretty well amused by the gorgeous equipages and liveries of +the different diplomatic corps which dashed past. + +We were on the opposite side of the canal which separated us from the +square in front of the Dom. On the right of the Dom is the Castle, and +the Museum is on the left. All this square was surrounded by military, +for as Prince Albrecht was a Field-Marshal, the funeral had a military +character. They were beautifully arranged, the cavalry on one side and +the infantry on the other, and the different uniforms were contrasted +with each other so as to make the best effects in colour. Both horses +and men stood as if they were carved out of marble, with the greatest +precision of position. A little before eleven the royal carriages rolled +past from the palace to the Castle, with their occupants. Presently the +bells began to toll, and exactly at eleven the procession started. The +Gardes du Corps, which is the Crown Prince's regiment, preceded the +coffin, dressed in white and silver uniforms, with glittering brass +helmets surmounted by silver eagles. The coffin itself was borne on a +catafalque, and drawn by eight horses covered with black velvet +trappings. It was yellow, and was surmounted by a crown of gold. On it +was laid the Prince's sword, helmet, etc., and some flowers. I was too +far away to distinguish the personages that followed. Of course the +Emperor was nearest, and all were on foot. Behind the coffin the +Prince's favorite horse was led, saddled and bridled. All the servants +of his household walked together in silver liveries and with large +triangular hats with long bands of crape hanging down behind. The band +played a chorale, "Jesus, my Refuge," and the bells kept tolling all the +while. At the door of the Dom, the procession was received by the +clergy officiating. The coffin was so heavy that it was rolled down a +platform of boards put up for the purpose. Then it was lifted by sixteen +bearers, the glittering cortége closed round it, and they all swept it +at the open portal. + +We waited until the end of the service, as it was a short one, in order +to hear the eight rounds of firing by the artillery. It was interesting +to see how exactly they all fired the instant the signal was given. +First the musketry on one side, and then the musketry on the other, in +answer to it. The officers galloped and curveted about on their fiery +steeds, and finally, the cannon went boom--boom. The sharp crack of the +rifles made you start, but the sullen roar of the cannon made you +shudder. It gave you some idea of a battle. + +Tuesday night I went to a concert given by a new star in the musical +world, a young violinist named Wilhelmj. He is only twenty-six years +old, and is already said to be one of the greatest virtuosi living, +perhaps _the_ greatest of the romantic school, for Joachim belongs to +the severe classic. All the artists and critics and many of the +aristocracy turned out to hear him. It was his first appearance in +Berlin, and as I looked round the audience and picked out one great +musician after another, I fairly trembled for him. Joachim and de Ahna +were both present, among others, and my adorable Baroness von S. swept +in late, looking more exquisite than ever in black lace over black silk, +with jet ornaments, and her lovely hair curled and done up high on her +aristocratic little head. She was all in mourning for the Prince, even +to a black lace fan with which she occasionally shaded her eyes, so that +her peach-bloomy cheek was just to be discerned through it. She is a +charming pianist herself, I've heard, and is a great patroness of music +and musicians, especially of the "music of the future," and its +creators. I see her at all the concerts. When her face is in perfect +repose she has the most charming expression and a sort of celestial look +in her deep-set blue eyes. She is what the French call _spirituelle_, +and the Germans _geistreich_, but we've no word in our language that +just describes her. + +Well, as I was saying, my head got quite dizzy with thinking what a +trial it was to play before such an audience, but Wilhelmj seemed to +differ from me, for he came confidently down the steps with the +dignified self-poise of an artist who is master of his instrument, and +who knows what he can do. He is extremely handsome, with regular +features, massive overhanging forehead, and with an expression of power +and self-containment. He looked a perfect picture as he stood there so +quietly and played. He hadn't gone far before he made a brilliant +cadenza that took down the house, and there was a general burst of +applause. His _tone_ (which is the grand thing in violin-playing) was +magnificent, and his technique masterly. He didn't play with that +tenderness of feeling and wonderful variety of expression that Joachim +does, but it was as if he didn't care to affect people in that way. It +made me think of Tausig on the piano. He played with the greatest +intensity and _aplomb_, and the strings seemed actually to seethe. +People were taken by storm. The second piece was a concerto by Raff. +Wilhelmj was in the midst of the Andante, and was sawing our hearts with +every saw of his bow, when suddenly a string snapped under the strain of +his passionate fingers. He instantly ceased playing, and retired up the +steps to the back of the stage to put on another string. Unfortunately +he had not brought along an extra one in his pocket, and had to borrow +one from one of the orchestra. Weitzmann, who in his youth was himself +an eminent concert violinist, was amazed at Wilhelmj's temerity. "What +_rashness_," exclaimed he, "and the G string, too!" (one of the most +important). After a pause Wilhelmj came down and began again, but the +string was so out of tune that he retired a second time. He must have +been furious inwardly, one would think, and at his _Berlin_ début, too! +but he came down the third time with the utmost imperturbability, and +got through the concerto. The whole effect of the concert was spoiled, +though, and he had also to change the solos he had intended playing, so +as to avoid the G string as much as possible. Instead of the lovely +Chopin Nocturne in D flat (his own arrangement), he played an Aria by +Bach. He did it so wonderfully that I was really startled.--I never +shall forget the _nuances_ he put into his trill. But at his second +concert, where he _did_ give the Nocturne, it was evident that the +romantic is his great forte, and on a first appearance, and before his +large and critical audience, he should have been heard in that +_genre_.[D] + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + The Boston Fire. Aggravations of Music Study. Kullak. Sherwood. + Hoch Schule. A Brilliant American. German Dancing. + + +BERLIN, _November 24, 1872_. + +All the papers over here have been ringing with the Boston fire, the +horse pestilence, shipwrecks, explosions, etc., until I feel as if all +America were going to the bad. What an awful calamity that fire is! I +can't take it in at all. All the Germans are wondering what our fire +companies are made of that such conflagrations _can_ take place. They +say it would be an impossibility _here_, where the organization is so +perfect. The men are trained to the work for years, and are on the spot +in a twinkling, knowing just what to do. They are as fully convinced of +their super-excellence in the Fire Department as in every other, and +nothing can make them believe that if two or three of their little +fire-engines had been there, and worked by _their_ firemen, the Chicago +and Boston fires could not have been put out! You know their machines +are pumped by _hand_, too, instead of by steam, as ours are, which makes +the assumption all the more ludicrous. It reminds me of a German party I +was at once, where our war was the subject of conversation. "Oh, you +don't know anything about fighting over there," said one gentleman, +nodding at me patronizingly across the table. "If you had had two or +three of _our_ regiments, with one of _our_ generals, your war would +have been finished up in no time!" + +I've had _such_ a vexation to-day that I'm really quite beside myself! I +was to play the first movement of my Rubinstein Concerto in the +conservatory with the orchestra. I've been straining every nerve over it +for several weeks, practicing incessantly, and had learned it perfectly. +When I played it in the class the other day it went beautifully, and I +think even Kullak was satisfied. Well, of course I was anticipating +playing it with the orchestra before an audience, with much pleasure, +and hoped I was going to distinguish myself. Music-director Wuerst and +Franz Kullak always take charge of these orchestra lessons, sometimes +one directing and sometimes the other. I got up early this morning, and +practiced an hour and a half before I went to the conservatory, and I +was there the first of all who were to play concertos. I spoke to Wuerst +and told him what I was to play, and he said "All right." Wouldn't you +have thought now, that he would have let me play first? Not a bit of it. +He first heard the orchestra play a stupid symphony of Haydn's, which +they might just as well have left out. Then he began screaming out to +know if Herr Moszkowski was there? Herr Moszkowski, however, was _not_ +there, and I began to breathe freer, for he is a finished artist, and +has been studying with Kullak for years, and plays in concerts. Of +course if he had played first, it would have been doubly hard for me to +muster up my courage, and you would have thought that Wuerst would have +taken that into consideration. As Moszkowski was absent, I thought I +certainly should be called up next, but another girl received the +preference. She played extremely well, and Wuerst paid her his +compliments, and then took his departure, leaving Franz Kullak to +conduct. Then one of my class played Beethoven's G major concerto most +wretchedly. Poor creature, she was nervous and frightened, and couldn't +do herself any sort of justice. At last it was over, and at last Franz +Kullak sung out, "We will now have Rubinstein's concerto in D minor." + +I got up, went to the piano, wiped off the keys, which were completely +_wet_ from the nervous fingers of those who had preceded me, and was +just going to sit down, when a young fellow approached from the other +side with the same intention. "O, Fräulein Fay, you have the same +concerto? Very well, you can play it the _next_ time. To-day Herr +So-and-So plays it!" Now, did you ever know anything so provoking? I +hoped at least that the young fellow would play it well, and that I +should learn something, but he perfectly _murdered_ it, and there I had +to sit through it all, with the piece tingling at my fingers ends--and +now there's no knowing _when_ I shall play it, as the orchestra lessons +are so seldom and so uncertain. I hope there will be one two weeks from +to-day, but even so I probably shan't do half so well as I should have +done to-day, for the freshness will be all out of the piece, and I've +practiced it so much _now_ that I hate the sound of it, and can't bear +to waste any more time over it. Such is life! I thought this time that I +had taken every precaution to ensure success, for I had risen early +every day, and eaten no end of the "bread of carefulness," and the +result is--nothing at all! Not even a failure. It is the more to be +regretted as to-day was the first Sunday of the month, and I wanted to +go to church, especially as the bad weather kept me at home for two +Sundays. However, I'm determined I _will_ play the concerto _yet_, if I +stake "_Kopf und Kragen_ (head and collar)" on it, as the Germans +say.--But oh, the difficulty of doing _anything_ at all in this world! + +December 18, 1872.--_At last_ I played my Rubinstein concerto a week ago +Sunday with the orchestra, and had the pleasure of being told by +Scharwenka that I had had a brilliant success. Franz Kullak said that my +octave passages were superbly played, and Moszkowski (who, to my +surprise, was playing first violin) applauded. So I was complimented by +the three of whom I stood most in awe. Scharwenka and Moszkowski are +both finished artists and exquisite composers, and play a great deal in +concerts this winter. Scharwenka is very handsome. He is a Pole, and is +very proud of his nationality. And, indeed, there _is_ something +interesting and romantic about being a Pole. The very name conjures up +thoughts of revolutions, conspiracies, bloody executions, masked balls, +and, of _course_, grace, wit and beauty! Scharwenka certainly sustains +the traditions of his race as far as the latter qualification is +concerned. I never talked with him, as I have but a bowing acquaintance +with him, so I don't know what sort of a _mind_ he has, but I find +myself looking at him and saying to myself with a certain degree of +satisfaction, "He is a Pole." Why I should have this feeling I know not, +but I seem to be proud of knowing Poles!--Scharwenka has a clear olive +complexion, oval face, hazel eyes (I _think_) and a mass of brown silky +hair which he wears long, and which falls about his head in a most +picturesque and attractive fashion. He always presides over the piano at +the orchestral lessons in the conservatory on Sunday mornings, and +supplies those parts which are wanting. When concertos are performed he +accompanies. He has a delightful serenity of manner, and sits there with +quiet dignity, his back to the windows, and the light striking through +his fluffy hair. He plays beautifully, and composes after Chopin's +manner. Perhaps he will do greater things and develop a style of his own +by and by. Every winter he gives a concert in Berlin in the +Sing-Akademie. + +By the way, I would not advise your paying any attention to what G. says +about music. She is incapable of forming a correct judgment on the +subject, and she used to provoke me to death with her ignorant and +sweeping criticisms. I continually set her right, but to hear her go on +about music and musicians is much like hearing S. R. and the M. crowd +talk about art. What _can_ be easier or more absurd, than to set +yourself up and say that "nobody satisfies you." _Stuff!_--As for +Kullak, I think a master must be judged by the number of players he +turns out. In the two years that I have studied with him he has formed +six or eight artists to my knowledge, beside no end of pupils who play +extremely well. People come to him from all over the world, and as an +artist himself he ranks first class. + +I must tell you about a new acquaintance I've just made, a Mr. P., a +Harvard man, very fascinating, very brilliant, a great swell, and the +most perfect _dancer_ I ever saw. I first met this phÅ“nix at a +dinner, when he fairly sparkled. He seemed to have the history of all +countries at his tongue's end, and went through revolutions and reigns +in the most rapid way. We had an animated discussion over the Germans, +whom he loathes and despises, and he brought up all the historical +events he could to justify his disgust. I was on the defensive, of +course. "They've no _delicacy_," said P., in his emphatic way, and I had +to give in there. Indeed, I can imagine that to a fastidious creature +like him, imbued, too, with all the Southern chivalry, the Germans would +be startling, to say the least. "Why," he cried, "they help you at table +with their own forks after they've been eating with them! What do you +think my host did to-day? He took a piece of meat that he had begun to +eat, from _his own plate!_ and put it on to mine with _his own fork!!_ +saying, 'Try this, this is a good piece!'--His intentions were +excellent, but it never occurred to him that I shouldn't be delighted to +eat after him."--P. can't bear it when the waiters at the restaurants +pretend to think him a lord and address him as "Herr Graf." "I'll teach +them to _Herr Graf_ me," he said between his teeth, lowering his head, +his eyes flashing dangerous fire. But it is quite likely that they do +suppose him a lord, for he looks it, "every inch." + +I met him again at a reception, and was having a most charming +conversation with him about Goethe, whom he was dissecting in his keen +way, when in came Mr. and Mrs. N. I knew at once that there was an end +of our delightful talk, for though Mrs. N. has a most fascinating and +high-bred husband herself, and is, moreover, extremely jealous of him, +she is never content unless the most agreeable man in the room is +devoted to her, also. Sure enough, she came straight toward us, and took +occasion to whisper some senseless thing in my ear. Of course Mr. P. had +to offer her his seat. She was, however, not quite bare-faced enough to +take it, but she had succeeded in breaking the tête-à -tête and in +distracting his attention. Soon after another gentleman came up to speak +to me, Mr. P. bowed, and for the rest of the evening he was pinned to +Mrs. N.'s side. Such are the satisfactions of parties! Either one does +not meet any one worth talking to, or the conversation is sure to be +interrupted. It takes these women of the world, like Mrs. N., to get the +plums out of the pudding. + +However, seeing him dance gave me almost as much pleasure as talking +with him. He has this air of having danced millions of Germans, and is +grace and elegance incarnate. Just at the end of the party, he asked me +for a turn, and we took three long ones. I never enjoyed dancing so +much. He manages to annihilate his legs entirely, and his arm, though +strong, is so light that you feel yourself borne along like a bubble, +and are only conscious that you are sustained and guided. He inspired me +so that I danced really well, but when he complimented me, I basely +refrained from letting him know it was all owing to him! By a funny +coincidence he is the son of that elegant Mrs. P. who was on the steamer +with me, and his father is very prominent in politics. I remember +perfectly the pride with which Mrs. P. spoke to me of this son, and how +slightly interested I was. He accompanied her to the steamer, and in +fact the first time I saw her was when Mr. T., who was standing by me on +the deck, said, "That was a _mother's_ kiss," as she rapturously +embraced him on taking leave. I didn't notice Mr. P. at all, though he +says he remembers me perfectly standing there. He is going, or has gone, +to Russia, and from there he will rejoin his family in Paris. That is +the worst of being abroad. Charming people pass over your path like +comets and disappear never to be seen again. + +By the way, I now feel equal to anything in the shape of a German dance. +Perhaps that may seem to you a trifling statement; but little do you +know on the subject if it does. If you've ever read "Fitz Boodle's +Confessions," you will remember that he represents the German dancing as +a thing fearful and wonderful to the inexperienced, and how the match +between him and Dorothea was broken off by his falling with her during +the waltz, and rolling over and over. Here _everybody_ dances, old and +young, and you'll see fat old married ladies waddle off with their gray +and spindle-shanked husbands. Declining doesn't help you in the least, +and you are liable to be whisked off without notice by some old fellow +who revolves with you like lightning on the tips of his toes, his +coat-tails flying at an angle of considerably _more_ than forty-five +degrees. Reversing is unknown, and consequently you see the room go +spinning round with you. + +I always thought, though, that if one _could_ take their steps, it might +be pretty good fun. So, after a pause of three years, I finally +concluded this winter to go to some German balls and try it again. The +first one I attended was an artists' ball. There was first a little +concert (at which I played), then a supper at ten o'clock, and then the +dancing began. The dancing cards were handed round at supper, and my +various acquaintances came up to ask me for different dances. The first +one asked me for the Polonaise. "Delighted!" said I;--not that I had the +remotest idea what a "polonaise" was, but I was determined not to +flinch. The second engaged me for the "Quadrille à la Cour," and the +third for the "Rheinlaender," etc., etc. I assented to everything with +outward alacrity, but with some inward trepidation, for I thought it +rather a bold stroke to get up at a large ball and attempt to dance a +string of things I had never heard of! However, I was in luck. The +Polonaise turned out to be merely walking, but in different figures, and +this, before the conclusion of it, makes you continually change partners +until you have promenaded and spoken with every one of the opposite sex +in the room. This is to get the whole party acquainted. When you finally +get back to your own partner, it breaks up with a waltz, and so ends. + +My partner was a young artist, half painter, half musician, and a very +intelligent and in fact charming talker. Like most artists, his dress +was rather at sixes and sevens. He had on a swallow-tailed coat, but it +did not fit him, so I conclude it was borrowed or hired for the +occasion. It was so wide, and so long, that when I saw him dancing with +some one else, I thought I must have made a laughable figure with him, +for he was small into the bargain. However, he had that sunny, +happy-go-lucky way about him that all artists have when they're in good +humour, and he was a capital dancer. When I came back to him at the end +of the Polonaise I started off with a mental "Now for it," for the waltz +was the thing I was most afraid of; but to my surprise, I got on most +beautifully. Emboldened by success, I went on recklessly. "Rheinlaender" +turned out to be the schottisch, and "Quadrille à la Cour" the lancers, +so I was all right. They had to be danced in the German sense of the +word, of course, but with courage it is possible to do it. Since this +ball I have been to two others, and am now pronounced by the gentlemen +to be a finished dancer. I don't know how I learned, but it seemed to +come to me with a sudden inspiration. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + A German Professor. Sherwood. The Baroness von S. Von Bülow. A + German Party. Joachim. The Baroness at Home. + + + BERLIN, _February 25, 1873_. + +At Mr. P.'s we had a charming dinner the other day, which was as +sociable as possible, though we sat thirteen at table. Think what an +oversight! I believe though, that I was the only one who perceived it. I +sat next to a German professor, who is said to speak sixty-four +languages! He had a little compact head, which looked as if it were +stuffed and crammed to the utmost. I reflected a long time which of his +sixty-four languages I should start him on, but finally concluded that +as I spoke English with tolerable fluency we would confine ourselves to +that! He was perfectly delightful to talk to, as all these German +_savans_ are, and I got a lot of new ideas from him. He had been writing +a pamphlet on the subject of love, as considered in various ancient and +modern languages, and in it he proves that the passion of love used to +be quite a different thing from what it is now. All this ideality of +sentiment is entirely modern. + +My friend Miss B. is playing exquisitely now, and Sherwood is going +ahead like a young giant. To-day Kullak said that Sherwood played +Beethoven's E flat major concerto (the hardest of all Beethoven's +concertos) with a perfection that he had rarely heard equalled. So much +for being a genius, for he is still under twenty, and has only been +abroad a year or two. But he studied with our best American master, +William Mason, and played like an artist before he came. But, then, +Sherwood has one enormous advantage that no master on earth can bestow, +and that is, perfect confidence in himself. There's nothing like having +faith in yourself, and I believe _that_ is the kind of faith that "moves +mountains." + +At Mr. Bancroft's grand party for Washington's birthday, last Friday, he +presented me to the Baroness von S., but without telling her that I was +the person who wrote that letter about her and Wilhelmj that M. +published without my knowledge in _Dwight's Journal_. She was as +exquisite as I thought she would be, and is the most bewitching +creature! She is just such a woman as Balzac describes--like Honorine, +for instance. She has "_l'oeil plein de feu_," etc., and is grace and +sentiment personified. + +She was dressed in white silk, cut square neck and trimmed with a lot of +little box-plaited ruffles round the bottom. Round her throat was a +black velvet ribbon, with a necklace of magnificent pearls fastened to +it in festoons and a diamond pendant in the middle. She greeted me with +a ceremonious bow, and began the conversation by complimenting me on an +accompaniment I had been playing. I told her I was studying music here, +and that I had been in Tausig's conservatory a year. As soon as I +mentioned him we got on delightfully, for she was his favourite pupil, +and we talked a good deal about him and Bülow. She said she had heard +Tausig play everything he ever learned, she thought, and that only a +fortnight before his death, he was at her house and played Chopin's +first Sonata. The last movement comes after the well-known Funeral March +(which forms the Adagio) and is very peculiar. It is a continual running +movement with both hands in unison, and it is played all muffled, and +with the soft pedal. Kullak thinks that Chopin meant to express that +after the grave all is dust and ashes, but the Baroness said that Tausig +thought Chopin meant to represent by it the ghost of the departed +wandering about. On this occasion, when Tausig had finished playing it, +he turned and said to her, "That seems to me like the wind blowing over +my grave." A fortnight later he was dead! I asked her if it were not +dreadful that such an artist should have died so young. The most pained +look came into her beautiful eyes, and she said, "I have _never_ been +able to reconcile myself to it." + +The conversation continued in the most charming manner until von Moltke +came up to speak to her on one side and Mr. Bancroft on the other +offered his arm to lead her into the supper-room. "Did you tell her?" +whispered Mr. Bancroft. "No; how could I?" said I. "_You_ ought to tell +her." So I imagine he did tell her, as they went into supper, that I was +the young lady who had described her in the paper. I did not have a +chance to approach her again until just as I was going home. She was +standing in the door-way of an ante-room with Mr. Bancroft, wrapped in +her opera cloak and waiting for her carriage to be announced. I bade Mr. +Bancroft good-night, and as I passed her she put out her hand and said +to me with a meaning look, in her little hesitating English, "I am so +happy to have met you." I told her I owed her an apology, which I hoped +to make another time. "Oh, no," said she, smilingly, "I am very +thankful."--I suppose she meant "very much flattered," or something of +that kind. + +I heard two tremendous concerts of Bülow's lately. Oh, I do hope you'll +hear him some day! He is a colossal artist. I never heard a pianist I +liked so well. He has such perfect mastery, and yet such comprehension +and such sympathy. Among other things, he played Beethoven's last +Sonata. Such a magnificent one as it is! I liked it better than the +Appassionata. + +The other night I went to a party at a General von der G.'s. It was a +"dreadfully" elegant set of people--all countesses, Vons and generals' +wives. Stiff, oh, _how_ stiff! I felt as if the ladies did me a personal +favor every time they spoke to me. They were very handsomely dressed, +and wore their family jewels. There was a great deal of music, and a +certain old Herr von K. sat on a sofa and nodded his head _à la_ +connoisseur, while the officers stood round and scarcely dared to wink. +The formality did not abate till we adjourned to the supper-room, when, +as is always the case in German parties, everybody's tongue suddenly +became loosed.--Germans are the happiest people _at_ supper, and the +most wretched before it, that you ever saw. Their parties are _always_ +"just so." So many hours of propriety beforehand,--the ladies all by +themselves round a centre-table in one room, the young girls discreetly +sandwiched in between with their embroidery, and talking on the most +limited subjects in the most "papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism" +manner--and the men in the other room playing cards. On this occasion, +when we went into supper, there was one large central table covered with +the feast, and then there were little tables standing about, whither you +could retire with your prey when you had once secured it. I got +something, and betook myself to a table in the corner, whither a young +artist, also Miss B. and an officer, the son of the celebrated General +von W., who won the battle of something, speedily followed me. The +artist, Herr Meyer, sat opposite me, and I began to jabber with him, +unmindful of the officer, as I had previously tried him on every subject +in the known world without being able to extract a reply. We gradually +collected a miscellaneous array of plates full of things, when I dropped +one of my spoons on the floor. I picked it up, laid it aside, and began +eating out of one of my other plates. Presently the officer, who had +been glaring at me all the while out of his uniform, rose solemnly and +went to the centre-table and returned. Suddenly I became aware, by my +light being obscured, that he was standing opposite me on the other side +of the table. I glanced up, and remarked that he had a spoon in his +thumb and finger. As he did not offer it, however, it did not occur to +me that it was for me, so I went on eating. After a minute I looked up +again, and he was still standing as if he were pointing a gun, the spoon +between thumb and finger. At last it dawned upon me that he had brought +it for me, so I took it out of his hand and thanked him, whereupon he +resumed his seat. I was so overcome by this unheard-of act of gallantry +on the part of an aristocrat! and an officer!! that I felt I must say +something worthy of the occasion. So after a few minutes I remarked to +him, "Everything tastes very sweet out of _this_ spoon!"--Total silence +and impassibility of countenance on his part.--Miss B., who was sitting +opposite, remarked mischievously, "That was entirely lost, my dear," and +I was so depressed by my failure that I subsided and did not try to +kindle him again. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _April 14, 1873_. + +Colonel B. told me some weeks ago, that Kullak had told him I was ready +for the concert room, and that he would like to have me play at court. +If this is his real opinion _I_ have no evidence of it, for he knows I +am anxious to play in concert before I leave Germany, and yet he does +nothing whatever to bring me forward. It is very discouraging. In this +conservatory there is no stimulus whatever. One might as well be a +machine. + +I propose to go to Weimar the last of this week. It seems very strange +that I shall actually know Liszt at last, after hearing of him so many +years. I am wild to see him! They say everything depends upon the humour +he happens to be in when you come to him. I hope I shall hit upon one +of his indulgent moments. Every one says he gives no lessons. But I hope +at least to play to him a few times, and what is more important, to hear +_him_ play repeatedly. Happy the pianist who can catch even a faint +reflection of his wonderful style! + +Not long ago Mr. Bancroft invited me to drive out to Tegel, Humboldt's +country-seat, near here, with the Joachims, and so I had a three hours +conversation with _that_ idol! He is the most modest, unpretending man +possible. To hear him talk you wouldn't suppose he could play at all. +I've always said to myself that if anything would be heaven, it would be +to play a sonata with Joachim, but have supposed such a thing to be +unattainable--these master-artists are so proud and unapproachable. But +I think now it might not have been so difficult after all, he is so +lovely. Joachim was very quiet during the first part of the excursion, +and I couldn't think how I could get him to talk. At last I mentioned +Wagner, whom I knew he hated. His eyes kindled, and he roused up, and +after that was animated and interesting all the rest of the time! He +said that "Wagner was under the delusion that he was the only man in the +world that understood Beethoven; but it happened there _were_ other +people who could comprehend Beethoven as well as he,"--and indeed, it is +difficult to conceive of any one understanding Beethoven any better than +Joachim. + +Joachim is quite as noble and generous to poor artists as Liszt is, and +constantly teaches them for nothing. He has the greatest enthusiasm for +his class in the Hoch Schule, and I shouldn't think that any one who +wishes to study the violin would _think_ of going any where else. They +say that Joachim possesses beautiful social qualities, also, and has the +faculty of entertaining in his own house charmingly. He brings out what +there is in every one without apparently saying anything himself. + +The Baroness von S. had seemed so cordial and friendly at Mr. Bancroft's +on account of the letter you had published in _Dwight's Journal of +Music_, that I finally made up my mind to the daring act of calling on +her in order to ask her for a letter of introduction to Liszt. She lives +in a palace belonging to the Empress. There is a deep court in front of +it, with lions on the gateway. Before the door stood a soldier on guard. +As I approached, one of the Gardes du Corps (the Crown Prince's +regiment) emerged from the entrance. He was dressed all in white and +silver, with big top boots, and his helmet surmounted by a silver eagle. +He was an officer, and of course all the officers in this regiment +belong to the flower of the nobility. I was rather awed by his imposing +appearance, and advanced timidly to the doors, which were of glass, and +pulled the bell. A tall phantom in livery appeared, as if by magic, and +signed to me to ascend the grand staircase. The walls of it were all +covered with pictures. I went up, and was received by another tall +phantom in livery. I asked him "if the Frau Excellency was to be +spoken." He took my card, and discreetly said, "he would see," at the +same time ushering me into an immense ball-room, where he requested me +to be seated. It was furnished in crimson satin, there were myriads of +mirrors, and the floor was waxed. I took refuge in a corner of it, +feeling very small indeed. Those few minutes of waiting were extremely +uncomfortable, for I didn't know what she would say to my request, as I +had only seen her that one time at Mr. Bancroft's, and was not sure that +she would not regard my coming as a liberty. People are so severe in +their ideas here. + +At last the servant returned and said she would receive me, and led the +way across the ball-room to a door which he opened for me to enter. I +found myself in a large, high room, also furnished in crimson, and in +the centre of which stood two pianos nestled lovingly together. The +Baroness was not there, however, and I saw what seemed to be an endless +succession of rooms opening one out of the other, the doors always +opposite each other. I concluded to "go on till I stopped," and after +traversing three or four, I at last heard a faint murmur of voices, and +entered what I suppose is her _boudoir_. There my divinity was seated in +a little crimson satin sofa, talking to an old fellow who sat on a chair +near her, whom she introduced as Herr Professor Somebody. He had a +small, well-stuffed head, and a pale, observant eye that seemed to say, +"I've looked into everything"--and I should think it _had_ by the way he +conversed. + +The Baroness was attired in an olive-coloured silk, short, and +fashionably made. She was leaning forward as she talked, and toying with +a silver-sheathed dagger which she took from a table loaded with costly +trifles next her. She rose as I came in, and greeted me very cordially, +and asked me to sit down on the sofa by her. I explained to her my +errand, and she immediately said she would give me a letter with the +greatest pleasure. We had a very charming conversation about artists in +general, and Liszt in particular, in which the little professor took a +leading part. He showed himself the connoisseur he looked, and gradually +diverged from the art of music to that of speaking and reading, which he +said was the most difficult of all the arts, because the tone was not +there, but had to be made. He said he had never heard a perfect speaker +or reader in his life. He descanted at great length upon the art of +speaking, and finally, when he paused, the Baroness took my hand and +said, "Where do you live?" I gave her my address, and she said she would +send me the letter. I then rose to go, and she assured me again she +would say all she could to dispose Liszt favourably towards me. I +thanked her, and said good-bye. She waited till I was nearly half across +the next room, and then she called after me, "I'll say lots of pretty +things about you!" That was a real little piece of coquetry on her part, +and she knew that it would take me down! She looked so sweet when she +said it, standing and smiling there in the middle of the floor, the +door-way making a frame for her. A few days afterward I met her in the +street, and she told me she had enjoined it upon Liszt to be amiable to +me, "but," she added, with a mischievous laugh, "I didn't tell him you +wrote so well for the papers." Oh, she is too fascinating for +anything!--She seems just to float on the top of the wave and never to +think. Such exquisite perception and intelligence, and yet lightness! + +The last excitement in Berlin was over the wedding of Prince Albrecht +(the son of the one whose funeral I saw) with the Princess of Altenburg. +When she arrived she made a regular entry into the city in a coach all +gold and glass, drawn by eight superb plumed horses. A band of music +went before her, and she had an escort all in grand equipages. As she +sat on the back seat with the Crown Princess, magnificently dressed, and +bowing from side to side, you rubbed your eyes and thought you saw +Cinderella! + + + + +WITH LISZT. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Arrives in Weimar. Liszt at the Theatre. At a Party. At his own + House. + + + WEIMAR, _May 1, 1873_. + +Last night I arrived in Weimar, and this evening I have been to the +theatre, which is very cheap here, and the first person I saw, sitting +in a box opposite, was Liszt, from whom, as you know, I am bent on +getting lessons, though it will be a difficult thing I fear, as I am +told that Weimar is overcrowded with people who are on the same errand. +I recognized Liszt from his portrait, and it entertained and interested +me very much to observe him. He was making himself agreeable to three +ladies, one of whom was very pretty. He sat with his back to the stage, +not paying the least attention, apparently, to the play, for he kept +talking all the while himself, and yet no point of it escaped him, as I +could tell by his expression and gestures. + +Liszt is the most interesting and striking looking man imaginable. Tall +and slight, with deep-set eyes, shaggy eyebrows, and long iron-gray +hair, which he wears parted in the middle. His mouth turns up at the +corners, which gives him a most crafty and Mephistophelean expression +when he smiles, and his whole appearance and manner have a sort of +Jesuitical elegance and ease. His hands are very narrow, with long and +slender fingers that look as if they had twice as many joints as other +people's. They are so flexible and supple that it makes you nervous to +look at them. Anything like the polish of his manner I never saw. When +he got up to leave the box, for instance, after his adieux to the +ladies, he laid his hand on his heart and made his final bow,--not with +affectation, or in mere gallantry, but with a quiet courtliness which +made you feel that no other way of bowing to a lady was right or proper. +It was most characteristic. + +But the most extraordinary thing about Liszt is his wonderful variety of +expression and play of feature. One moment his face will look dreamy, +shadowy, tragic. The next he will be insinuating, amiable, ironical, +sardonic; but always the same captivating grace of manner. He is a +perfect study. I cannot imagine how he must look when he is playing. He +is all spirit, but half the time, at least, a mocking spirit, I should +say. I have heard the most remarkable stories about him already. All +Weimar adores him, and people say that women still go perfectly crazy +over him. When he walks out he bows to everybody just like a King! The +Grand Duke has presented him with a house beautifully situated on the +park, and here he lives elegantly, free of expense, whenever he chooses +to come to it. + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _May 7, 1873_. + +There isn't a piano to be had in Weimar for love or money, as there is +no manufactory, and the few there were to be disposed of were snatched +up before I got here. So I have lost an entire week in hunting one up, +and was obliged to go first to Erfurt and finally to Leipsic, before I +could find one--and even that was sent over as a favour after much +coaxing and persuasion. I felt so happy when I fairly saw it in my room! +As if I had taken a city! However, I met Liszt two evenings ago at a +little tea-party given by a friend and _protégée_ of his to as many of +his scholars as have arrived, I being asked with the rest. Liszt +promised to come late. We only numbered seven. There were three young +men and four young ladies, of whom three, including myself, were +Americans. Five of the number had studied with Liszt before, and the +young men are artists already before the public. + +To fill up the time till Liszt came, our hostess made us play, one after +the other, beginning with the latest arrival. After we had each +"exhibited," little tables were brought in and supper served. We were in +the midst of it, and having a merry time, when the door suddenly opened +and Liszt appeared. We all rose to our feet, and he shook hands with +everybody without waiting to be introduced. Liszt looks as if he had +been through everything, and has a face _seamed_ with experience. He is +rather tall and narrow, and wears a long abbé's coat reaching nearly +down to his feet. He made me think of an old time magician more than +anything, and I felt that with a touch of his wand he could transform us +all. After he had finished his greetings, he passed into the next room +and sat down. The young men gathered round him and offered him a cigar, +which he accepted and began to smoke. We others continued our nonsense +where we were, and I suppose Liszt overheard some of our brilliant +conversation, for he asked who we were, I think, and presently the lady +of the house came out after Miss W. and me, the two American strangers, +to take us in and present us to him. + +After the preliminary greetings we had some little talk. He asked me if +I had been to Sophie Menter's concert in Berlin the other day. I said +yes. He remarked that Miss Menter was a great favourite of his, and that +the lady from whom I had brought a letter to him had done a good deal +for her. I asked him if Sophie Menter were a pupil of his. He said no, +he could not take the credit of her artistic success to himself. I heard +afterwards that he really had done ever so much for her, but he won't +have it said that he teaches! After he had finished his cigar, Liszt got +up and said, "America is now to have the floor," and requested Miss W. +to play for him. This was a dreadful ordeal for us new arrivals, for we +had not expected to be called upon. I began to quake inwardly, for I had +been without a piano for nearly a week, and was not at all prepared to +play to him, while Miss W. had been up since five o'clock in the +morning, and had travelled all day. However, there was no getting off. A +request from Liszt is a command, and Miss W. sat down, and acquitted +herself as well as could have been expected under the circumstances. +Liszt waved his hand and nodded his head from time to time, and seemed +pleased, I thought. He then called upon Leitert, who played a +composition of Liszt's own most beautifully. Liszt commended him and +patted him on the back. As soon as Leitert had finished, I slipped off +into the back room, hoping Liszt would forget all about me, but he +followed me almost immediately, like a cat with a mouse, took both my +hands in his, and said in the most winning way imaginable, +"_Mademoiselle, vous jouerez quelque-chose, n'est-ce-pas?_" I can't give +you any idea of his _persuasiveness_, when he chooses. It is enough to +decoy you into anything. It was such a desperate moment that I became +reckless, and without even telling him that I was out of practice and +not prepared to play, I sat down and plunged into the A flat major +Ballade of Chopin, as if I were possessed. The piano had a splendid +touch, luckily. Liszt kept calling out "Bravo" every minute or two, to +encourage me, and somehow, I got through. When I had finished, he +clapped his hands and said, "Bravely played." He asked with whom I had +studied, and made one or two little criticisms. I hoped he would shove +me aside and play it himself, but he didn't. + +Liszt is just like a monarch, and no one dares speak to him until he +addresses one first, which I think no fun. He did not play to us at all, +except when some one asked him if he had heard R. play that afternoon. +R. is a young organist from Leipsic, who telegraphed to Liszt to ask him +if he might come over and play to him on the organ. Liszt, with his +usual amiability, answered that he might. "Oh," said Liszt, with an +indescribably comic look, "he improvised for me a whole half-hour in +this style,"--and then he got up and went to the piano, and without +sitting down he played some ridiculous chords in the middle of the +key-board, and then little trills and turns high up in the treble, which +made us all burst out laughing. Shortly after I had played I took my +leave. Liszt had gone into the other room to smoke, and I didn't care to +follow him, as I saw that he was tired, and had no intention of playing +to us. Our hostess told Miss W. and me to "slip out so that he would not +perceive it." Yesterday Miss W. went to see him, and he asked her if she +knew that Miss "Fy," and told her to tell me to come to him. So I shall +present myself to-morrow, though I don't know how the lion will act when +I beard him in his den. + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _May 21, 1873_. + +Liszt is so _besieged_ by people and so tormented with applications, +that I fear I should only have been sent away if I had come without the +Baroness von S.'s letter of introduction, for he admires her extremely, +and I judge that she has much influence with him. He says "people fly in +his face by dozens," and seem to think he is "only there to give +lessons." He gives _no_ paid lessons whatever, as he is much too grand +for that, but if one has talent enough, or pleases him, he lets one come +to him and play to him. I go to him every other day, but I don't play +more than twice a week, as I cannot prepare so much, but I listen to the +others. Up to this point there have been only four in the class besides +myself, and I am the only new one. From four to six P. M. is the time +when he receives his scholars. The first time I went I did not play to +him, but listened to the rest. Urspruch and Leitert, the two young men +whom I met the other night, have studied with Liszt a long time, and +both play superbly. Fräulein Schultz and Miss Gaul (of Baltimore), are +also most gifted creatures. + +As I entered Liszt's salon, Urspruch was performing Schumann's Symphonic +Studies--an immense composition, and one that it took at least half an +hour to get through. He played so splendidly that my heart sank down +into the very depths. I thought I should never get on _there_! Liszt +came forward and greeted me in a very friendly manner as I entered. He +was in very good humour that day, and made some little witticisms. +Urspruch asked him what title he should give to a piece he was +composing. "_Per aspera ad astra_," said Liszt. This was such a good hit +that I began to laugh, and he seemed to enjoy my appreciation of his +little sarcasm. I did not play that time, as my piano had only just +come, and I was not prepared to do so, but I went home and practiced +tremendously for several days on Chopin's B minor sonata. It is a great +composition, and one of his last works. When I thought I could play it, +I went to Liszt, though with a trembling heart. I cannot tell you what +it has cost me every time I have ascended his stairs. I can scarcely +summon up courage to go there, and generally stand on the steps awhile +before I can make up my mind to open the door and go in! + +This day it was particularly trying, as it was really my first serious +performance before him, and he speaks so very indistinctly that I +feared I shouldn't understand his corrections, and that he would get out +of patience with me, for he cannot bear to explain. I think he hates the +trouble of speaking German, for he mutters his words and does not half +finish his sentences. Yesterday when I was there he spoke to me in +French all the time, and to the others in German,--one of his funny +whims, I suppose. + +Well, on this day the artists Leitert and Urspruch, and the young +composer Metzdorf, who is always hanging about Liszt, were in the room +when I came. They had probably been playing. At first Liszt took no +notice of me beyond a greeting, till Metzdorf said to him, "Herr Doctor, +Miss Fay has brought a sonata." "Ah, well, let us hear it," said Liszt. +Just then he left the room for a minute, and I told the three gentlemen +that they ought to go away and let me play to Liszt alone, for I felt +nervous about playing before them. They all laughed at me and said they +would not budge an inch. When Liszt came back they said to him, "Only +think, Herr Doctor, Miss Fay proposes to send us all home." I said I +could not play before such great artists. "Oh, that is healthy for you," +said Liszt, with a smile, and added, "you have a very choice audience, +now." I don't know whether he appreciated how nervous I was, but instead +of walking up and down the room as he often does, he sat down by me like +any other teacher, and heard me play the first movement. It was +frightfully hard, but I had studied it so much that I managed to get +through with it pretty successfully. Nothing could exceed Liszt's +amiability, or the trouble he gave himself, and instead of frightening +me, he inspired me. Never was there such a delightful teacher! and he is +the first sympathetic one I've had. You feel so _free_ with him, and he +develops the very spirit of music in you. He doesn't keep nagging at you +all the time, but he leaves you your own conception. Now and then he +will make a criticism, or play a passage, and with a few words give you +enough to think of all the rest of your life. There is a delicate +_point_ to everything he says, as subtle as he is himself. He doesn't +tell you anything about the technique. That you must work out for +yourself. When I had finished the first movement of the sonata, Liszt, +as he always does, said "Bravo!" Taking my seat, he made some little +criticisms, and then told me to go on and play the rest of it. + +Now, I only half knew the other movements, for the first one was so +extremely difficult that it cost me all the labour I could give to +prepare that. But playing to Liszt reminds me of trying to feed the +elephant in the Zoological Garden with lumps of sugar. He disposes of +whole movements as if they were nothing, and stretches out gravely for +more! One of my fingers fortunately began to bleed, for I had practiced +the skin off, and that gave me a good excuse for stopping. Whether he +was pleased at this proof of industry, I know not; but after looking at +my finger and saying, "Oh!" very compassionately, he sat down and played +the whole three last movements himself. That was a great deal, and +showed off all his powers. It was the first time I had heard him, and I +don't know which was the most extraordinary,--the Scherzo, with its +wonderful lightness and swiftness, the Adagio with its depth and pathos, +or the last movement, where the whole key-board seemed to "_donnern und +blitzen_ (thunder and lighten)." There is such a vividness about +everything he plays that it does not seem as if it were mere music you +were listening to, but it is as if he had called up a real, living +_form_, and you saw it breathing before your face and eyes. It gives +_me_ almost a ghostly feeling to hear him, and it seems as if the air +were peopled with spirits. Oh, he is a perfect wizard! It is as +interesting to see him as it is to hear him, for his face changes with +every modulation of the piece, and he looks exactly as he is playing. He +has one element that is most captivating, and that is, a sort of +delicate and fitful mirth that keeps peering out at you here and there! +It is most peculiar, and when he plays that way, the most bewitching +little expression comes over his face. It seems as if a little spirit of +joy were playing hide and go seek with you. + +On Friday Liszt came and paid me a visit, and even played a little on my +piano.--Only think what an honour! At the same time he told me to come +to him that afternoon and play to him, and invited me also to a matinee +he was going to give on Sunday for some countess of distinction who was +here for a few days. None of the other scholars were asked, and when I +entered the room there were only three persons in it beside Liszt. One +was the Grand Duke himself, the other was the Countess von M. (born a +Russian Princess), and the third was a Russian minister's wife. They +were all four standing in a little knot, speaking in French together. I +had no idea who they were, as the Grand Duke was in morning costume, and +had no star or decoration to distinguish him. I saw at a glance, +however, that they were all swells, and so I didn't speak to any of +them, luckily, though it was an even chance that I had not said +something to avoid the awkwardness of standing there like a post, for I +had been told beforehand that Liszt never introduced people to each +other. Liszt greeted me in a very friendly manner, and introduced me to +the countess, but she was so dreadfully set up that it was impossible to +get more than a few icy words out of her. I was thankful enough when +more people arrived, so that I could retire to a corner and sit down +without being observed, for it was a very uncomfortable situation to be +standing, a stranger, close to four fashionables and not dare to speak +to _any_ of them because they did not address me. + +After the company was all assembled, it numbered eighteen persons, +nearly all of whom were titled. I was the only unimportant one in it. +Liszt was so sweet. He kept coming over to where I sat and talking to +me, and promised me a ticket for a private concert where only his +compositions were to be performed. He seemed determined to make me feel +at home. He played five times, but no _great_ work, which was a +disappointment to me, particularly as the last three times he played +duetts with a leading Weimar artist named Lassen, who was present. He +made me come and turn the leaves. Gracious! how he _does_ read! It is +very difficult to turn for him, for he reads ever so far ahead of what +he is playing, and takes in fully five bars at a glance, so you have to +guess about where you _think_ he would like to have the page over. Once +I turned it too late, and once too early, and he snatched it out of my +hand and whirled it back.--Not quite the situation for timorous me, was +it? + +May 21.--To-day being my birthday, I thought I must go to Liszt by way +of celebration. I wasn't really ready to play to him, but I took his +second Ballade with me, and thought I'd ask him some questions about +some hard places in it. He insisted upon my playing it. When we came in +he looked indisposed and nervous, and there happened to be a good many +artists there. We always lay our notes on the table, and he takes them, +looks them over, and calls out what he'll have played. He remarked this +piece and called out "_Wer spielt diese grosse mächtige Ballade von +mir?_ (Who plays this great and mighty ballad of mine?)" I felt as if he +had asked "Who killed Cock Robin?" and as if I were the one who had done +it, only I did not feel like "owning up" to it quite so glibly as the +sparrow had, for Liszt seemed to be in very bad humour, and had roughed +the one who had played before me. I finally mustered up my courage and +said "_Ich_," but told him I did not know it perfectly yet. He said, "No +matter; play it." So I sat down, expecting he would take my head off, +but, strange to say, he seemed to be delighted with my playing, and said +that I had "quite touched him." Think of that from Liszt, and when I was +playing his own composition! When I went out he accompanied me to the +door, took my hand in both of his and said, "To-day you've covered +yourself with glory!" I told him I had only _begun_ it, and I hoped he +would let me play it again when I knew it better. "What," said he, "I +must pay you a still greater compliment, must I?" "Of course," said I. +"_Il faut vouz gâter?_" "Oui," said I. He laughed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Liszt's Drawing-room. An Artist's Walking Party. Liszt's Teaching. + + + WEIMAR, _May 29, 1873_. + +I am having the most heavenly time in Weimar, studying with Liszt, and +sometimes I can scarcely realize that I am at that summit of my +ambition, to be _his_ pupil! It was the Baroness von S.'s letter that +secured it for me, I am sure. He is so overrun with people, that I think +it is a wonder he is civil to anybody, but he is the most amiable man I +ever knew, though he _can_ be dreadful, too, when he chooses, and he +understands how to put people outside his door in as short a space of +time as it can be done. I go to him three times a week. At home Liszt +doesn't wear his long abbé's coat, but a short one, in which he looks +much more artistic. His figure is remarkably slight, but his head is +most imposing.--It is _so_ delicious in that room of his! It was all +furnished and put in order for him by the Grand Duchess herself. The +walls are pale gray, with a gilded border running round the room, or +rather two rooms, which are divided, but not separated, by crimson +curtains. The furniture is crimson, and everything is so +_comfortable_--such a contrast to German bareness and stiffness +generally. A splendid grand piano stands in one window (he receives a +new one every year). The other window is always wide open, and looks +out on the park. There is a dove-cote just opposite the window, and the +doves promenade up and down on the roof of it, and fly about, and +sometimes whirr down on the sill itself. That pleases Liszt. His +writing-table is beautifully fitted up with things that all match. +Everything is in bronze--ink-stand, paper-weight, match-box, etc., and +there is always a lighted candle standing on it by which he and the +gentlemen can light their cigars. There is a carpet on the floor, a +rarity in Germany, and Liszt generally walks about, and smokes, and +mutters (he can never be said to _talk_), and calls upon one or other of +us to play. From time to time he will sit down and play himself where a +passage does not suit him, and when he is in good spirits he makes +little jests all the time. His playing was a complete revelation to me, +and has given me an entirely new insight into music. You cannot +conceive, without hearing him, how poetic he is, or the thousand +_nuances_ that he can throw into the simplest thing, and he is equally +great on all sides. From the zephyr to the tempest, the whole scale is +equally at his command. + +But Liszt is not at all like a master, and cannot be treated like one. +He is a monarch, and when he extends his royal sceptre you can sit down +and play to him. You never can ask him to play anything for you, no +matter how much you're dying to hear it. If he is in the mood he will +play, if not, you must content yourself with a few remarks. You cannot +even offer to play yourself. You lay your notes on the table, so he can +see that you _want_ to play, and sit down. He takes a turn up and down +the room, looks at the music, and if the piece interests him, he will +call upon you. We bring the same piece to him but once, and but once +play it through. + +Yesterday I had prepared for him his _Au Bord d'une Source_. I was +nervous and played badly. He was not to be put out, however, but acted +as if he thought I had played charmingly, and then he sat down and +played the whole piece himself, oh, _so_ exquisitely! It made me feel +like a wood-chopper. The notes just seemed to ripple off his fingers' +ends with scarce any perceptible motion. As he neared the close I +remarked that that funny little expression came over his face which he +always has when he means to surprise you, and he suddenly took an +unexpected chord and extemporized a poetical little end, quite different +from the written one.--Do you wonder that people go distracted over him? + +Weimar is a lovely little place, and there are most beautiful walks all +about. Ascension being a holiday here, all we pianists made up a walking +party out to Tiefurt, about two miles distant. We went in the afternoon +and returned in the evening. The walk lay through the woods, and was +perfectly exquisite the whole way. As we came back in the evening the +nightingales were singing, and I could not help wishing that P. were +there to hear them, as he has such a passion for birds. There are +cuckoos here, too, and you hear them calling "cuckoo, cuckoo." Metzdorf +and I danced on the hard road, to the edification of all the others. In +Tiefurt we partook of a magnificent collation consisting of a mug of +beer, brown bread and sausage! Some of the party preferred coffee, among +whom was Metzdorf, who made us laugh by sticking the coffee-pot into his +inside coat pocket as soon as he had poured out his first cup, in order +to make sure that the others didn't take more than their share; he would +coolly take it out, help himself, and put it back again. The servant who +waited got frightened, and thought he was going to steal it. Afterwards +when we were playing games and wanted the door shut, the host came and +opened it, and would not allow us to shut it, because he said we might +carry off something! How's that! + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _June 6, 1873_. + +When I first came there were only five of us who studied with Liszt, but +lately a good many others have been there. Day before yesterday there +came a young lady who was a pupil of Henselt in St. Petersburg. She is +immensely talented, only seventeen years old, and her name is Laura +Kahrer. It is a very rare thing to see a pupil of Henselt, for it is +very difficult to get lessons from him. He stands next to Liszt. This +Laura Kahrer plays everything that ever was heard of, and she played a +fugue of her own composition the other day that was really vigorous and +good. I was quite astonished to hear how she had worked it up. She has +made a grand concert tour in Russia. I never saw such a hand as she had. +She could bend it backwards till it looked like the palm of her hand +turned inside out. She was an interesting little creature, with dark +eyes and hair, and one could see by her Turkish necklace and numerous +bangles that she had been making money. She played with the greatest +_aplomb_, though her touch had a certain roughness about it to my ear. +She did not carry me away, but I have not heard many pieces from her. + +However, all playing sounds barren by the side of Liszt, for _his_ is +the living, breathing impersonation of poetry, passion, grace, wit, +coquetry, daring, tenderness and every other fascinating attribute that +you can think of! I'm ready to hang myself half the time when I've been +to him. Oh, he is the most phenomenal being in every respect! All that +you've heard of him would never give you an idea of him. In short, he +represents the whole scale of human emotion. He is a many-sided prism, +and reflects back the light in all colours, no matter how you look at +him. His pupils _adore_ him, as in fact everybody else does, but it is +impossible to do otherwise with a person whose genius flashes out of him +all the time so, and whose character is so winning. + +One day this week, when we were with Liszt, he was in such high spirits +that it was as if he had suddenly become twenty years younger. A student +from the Stuttgardt conservatory played a Liszt Concerto. His name is +V., and he is dreadfully nervous. Liszt kept up a little running fire of +satire all the time he was playing, but in a good-natured way. I +shouldn't have minded it if it had been I. In fact, I think it would +have inspired me; but poor V. hardly knew whether he was on his head or +on his feet. It was too funny. Everything that Liszt says is so +striking. For instance, in one place where V. was playing the melody +rather feebly, Liszt suddenly took his seat at the piano and said, "When +_I_ play, I always play for the people in the gallery [by the gallery he +meant the cock-loft, where the rabble always sit, and where the places +cost next to nothing], so that those persons who pay only five groschens +for their seat also hear something." Then he began, and I wish you could +have heard him! The sound didn't seem to be very _loud_, but it was +penetrating and far-reaching. When he had finished, he raised one hand +in the air, and you seemed to see all the people in the gallery drinking +in the sound. That is the way Liszt teaches you. He presents an _idea_ +to you, and it takes fast hold of your mind and sticks there. Music is +such a real, visible thing to him, that he always has a symbol, +instantly, in the material world to express his idea. One day, when I +was playing, I made too much movement with my hand in a rotatory sort of +a passage where it was difficult to avoid it. "Keep your hand still, +Fräulein," said Liszt; "_don't make omelette_." I couldn't help +laughing, it hit me on the head so nicely. He is far too sparing of his +playing, unfortunately, and, like Tausig, only sits down and plays a few +bars at a time, generally. It is dreadful when he stops, just as you are +at the height of your enjoyment, but he is so thoroughly _blasé_ that he +doesn't care to show off, and doesn't like to have any one pay him a +compliment. Even at the court it annoyed him so that the Grand Duchess +told people to take no notice when he rose from the piano. + +On the same day that Liszt was in such high good-humour, a strange lady +and her husband were there who had made a long journey to Weimar, in the +hope of hearing him play. She waited patiently for a long time through +the lesson, and at last Liszt took compassion on her, and sat down with +his favourite remark that "the young ladies played a great deal better +than he did, but he would try his best to imitate them," and then played +something of his own so wonderfully, that when he had finished we all +stood there like posts, feeling that there was _nothing_ to be said. But +he, as if he feared we might burst out into eulogy, got up instantly and +went over to a friend of his who was standing there, and who lives on an +estate near Weimar, and said, in the most commonplace tone imaginable, +"By the way, how about those eggs? Are you going to send me some?" It +seems to be not only a profound bore to him, but really a sort of +sensitiveness on his part. How he can bear to hear _us_ play, I cannot +imagine. It must grate on his ear terribly, I think, because everything +_must_ sound expressionless to him in comparison with his own marvellous +conception. I assure you, no matter how beautifully we play any piece, +the minute Liszt plays it, you would scarcely recognize it! His touch +and his peculiar use of the pedal are two secrets of his playing, and +then he seems to dive down in the most hidden thoughts of the composer, +and fetch them up to the surface, so that they gleam out at you one by +one, like stars! + +The more I see and hear Liszt, the more I am lost in amazement! I can +neither eat nor sleep on those days that I go to him. All my musical +studies till now have been a mere going to school, a preparation for +him. I often think of what Tausig said once: "Oh, compared with Liszt, +we other artists are all blockheads." I did not believe it at the time, +but I've seen the truth of it, and in studying Liszt's playing, I can +see where Tausig got many of his own wonderful peculiarities. I think he +was the most like Liszt of all the army that have had the privilege of +his instruction.--I began this letter on Sunday, and it is now Tuesday. +Yesterday I went to Liszt, and found that Bülow had just arrived. None +of the other scholars had come, for a wonder, and I was just going away, +when Liszt came out, asked me to come in a moment, and introduced me to +Bülow. There I was, all alone with these two great artists in Liszt's +_salon_! Wasn't _that_ a situation? I only stayed a few minutes, of +course, though I should have liked to spend hours, but our conversation +was in the highest degree amusing while I _was_ there. Bülow had just +returned from his grand concert tour, and had been in London for the +first time. In a few months he had given one hundred and twenty +concerts! He is a fascinating creature, too, like all these master +artists, but entirely different from Liszt, being small, quick, and airy +in his movements, and having one of the boldest and proudest foreheads I +ever saw. He looks like strength of will personified. Liszt gazed at +"his Hans," as he calls him, with the fondest pride, and seemed +perfectly happy over his arrival. It was like his beautiful courtesy to +call me in and introduce me to Bülow instead of letting me go away. He +thought I had come to play to him, and was unwilling to have me take +that trouble for nothing, though he must have wished me in Jericho. You +would think I paid him a hundred dollars a lesson, instead of _his_ +condescending to sacrifice his valuable time to _me_ for nothing. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Liszt's Expression in Playing. Liszt on Conservatories. Ordeal of + Liszt's Lessons. Liszt's Kindness. + + + WEIMAR, _June 19, 1873_. + +In Liszt I can at last say that my ideal in _something_ has been +realized. He goes far beyond all that I expected. Anything so perfectly +beautiful as he looks when he sits at the piano I never saw, and yet he +is almost an old man now.[E] I enjoy him as I would an exquisite work of +art. His personal magnetism is immense, and I can scarcely bear it when +he plays. He can make me cry all he chooses, and that is saying a good +deal, because I've heard so much music, and _never_ have been affected +by it. Even Joachim, whom I think divine, never moved me. When Liszt +plays anything pathetic, it sounds as if he had been through everything, +and opens all one's wounds afresh. All that one has ever suffered comes +before one again. Who was it that I heard say once, that years ago he +saw Clara Schumann sitting in tears near the platform, during one of +Liszt's performances?--Liszt knows well the influence he has on people, +for he always fixes his eyes on some one of us when he plays, and I +believe he tries to wring our hearts. When he plays a passage, and goes +_pearling_ down the key-board, he often looks over at me and smiles, to +see whether I am appreciating it. + +But I doubt if he feels any particular emotion himself, when he is +piercing you through with his rendering. He is simply hearing every +tone, knowing exactly what effect he wishes to produce and how to do it. +In fact, he is practically two persons in one--the listener and the +performer. But what immense self-command that implies! No matter how +fast he plays you always feel that there is "plenty of time"--no need to +be anxious! You might as well try to move one of the pyramids as fluster +_him_. Tausig possessed this repose in a technical way, and his touch +was marvellous; but he never drew the tears to your eyes. He could not +wind himself through all the subtle labyrinths of the heart as Liszt +does. + +Liszt does such bewitching little things! The other day, for instance, +Fräulein Gaul was playing something to him, and in it were two runs, and +after each run two staccato chords. She did them most beautifully, and +struck the chords immediately after. "No, no," said Liszt, "after you +make a run you must wait a minute before you strike the chords, as if in +admiration of your own performance. You must pause, as if to say, 'How +nicely I did that.'" Then he sat down and made a run himself, waited a +second, and then struck the two chords in the treble, saying as he did +so "Bra-_vo_," and then he played again, struck the other chord, and +said again "Bra-_vo_," and positively, it was as if the piano had softly +applauded! That is the way he plays everything. It seems as if the piano +were speaking with a _human_ tongue. + +Our class has swelled to about a dozen persons now, and a good many +others come and play to him once or twice and then go. As I wrote to L. +the other day, that dear little scholar of Henselt, Fräulein Kahrer, was +one, but she only stayed three days. She was a most interesting little +creature, and told some funny stories about Henselt, who she says has a +most violent temper, and is very severe. She said that one day he was +giving a lesson to Princess Katherina (whoever that is), and he was so +enraged over her playing that he snatched away the music, and dashed it +to the ground. The Princess, however, did not lose her equanimity, but +folded her arms and said, "Who shall pick it up?" And he had to bend and +restore it to its place. + +I've never seen Liszt look angry but once, but then he was terrific. +Like a lion! It was one day when a student from the Stuttgardt +conservatory attempted to play the Sonata Appassionata. He had a good +deal of technique, and a moderately good conception of it, but still he +was totally inadequate to the work--and indeed, only a _mighty_ artist +like Tausig or Bülow ought to attempt to play it. It was a hot +afternoon, and the clouds had been gathering for a storm. As the +Stuttgardter played the opening notes of the sonata, the tree-tops +suddenly waved wildly, and a low growl of thunder was heard muttering in +the distance. "Ah," said Liszt, who was standing at the window, with his +delicate quickness of perception, "a fitting accompaniment." (You know +Beethoven wrote the Appassionata one night when he was caught in a +thunder-storm.) If Liszt had only played it himself, the whole thing +would have been like a poem. But he walked up and down the room and +forced himself to listen, though he could scarcely bear it, I could see. +A few times he pushed the student aside and played a few bars himself, +and we saw the passion leap up into his face like a glare of sheet +lightning. Anything so magnificent as it was, the little that he _did_ +play, and the startling individuality of his conception, I never heard +or imagined. I felt as if I did not know whether I were "in the body or +out of the body."--GLORIOUS BEING! He is a two-edged sword that cuts +through everything. + +The Stuttgardter made some such glaring mistakes, not in the notes, but +in rhythm, etc., that at last Liszt burst out with, "You come from +Stuttgardt, and play like _that_!" and then he went on in a tirade +against conservatories and teachers in general. He was like a +thunder-storm himself. He frowned, and bent his head, and his long hair +fell over his face, while the poor Stuttgardter sat there like a beaten +hound. Oh, it was awful! If it had been I, I think I should have +withered entirely away, for Liszt is always so amiable that the contrast +was all the stronger.--"_Aber das geht Sie nichts an_ (But this does not +concern you)," said he, in a conciliatory tone, suddenly stopping +himself and smiling. "_Spielen Sie weiter_ (Play on)."--He meant that it +was not at the student but at the conservatories that he had been angry. + +Liszt hasn't the nervous irritability common to artists, but on the +contrary his disposition is the most exquisite and tranquil in the +world. We have been there incessantly, and I've never seen him ruffled +except two or three times, and then he was tired and not himself, and it +was a most transient thing. When I think what a little savage Tausig +often was, and how cuttingly sarcastic Kullak could be at times, I am +astonished that Liszt so rarely loses his temper. He has the power of +turning the best side of every one outward, and also the most marvellous +and instant appreciation of what that side is. If there is _anything_ in +you, you may be sure that Liszt will know it. Whether he chooses to let +you think he does, may, however, be another matter. + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _July 15, 1873_. + +Liszt is such an immense, inspiring force that one has to try and stride +forward with him at double rate, even if with double expenditure, too! +To-day I'm more dead than alive, as we had a lesson from him yesterday +that lasted four hours. There were twenty artists present, all of whom +were anxious to play, and as he was in high good-humour, he played ever +so much himself in between. It was perfectly magnificent, but exhausting +and exciting to the last degree. When I come home from the lessons I +fling myself on the sofa, and feel as if I never wanted to get up again. +It is a fearful day's work every time I go to him. First, four hours' +practice in the morning. Then a nervous, anxious feeling that takes away +my appetite, and prevents me from eating my dinner. And then several +hours at Liszt's, where one succession of concertos, fantasias, and all +sorts of tremendous things are played. You never know before whom you +must play there, for it is the musical headquarters of the world. +Directors of conservatories, composers, artists, aristocrats, all come +in, and you have to bear the brunt of it as best you can. The first +month I was here, when there were only five of us, it was quite another +matter, but now the room is crowded every time. + +Liszt gave a matinee the other day at which I played a "Soirée de +Vienne," by Tausig--awfully hard, but very brilliant and peculiar. I +don't know how I ever got through it, for I had only been studying it a +few days, and didn't even know it by heart, nor had I played it to +Liszt. He only told me the evening before, too, about eight +o'clock--"To-morrow I give a matinee; bring your Soirée de Vienne." I +rushed home and practiced till ten, and then I got up early the next +morning and practiced a few hours. The matinee was at eleven o'clock. +First, Liszt played himself, then a young lady sang several songs, then +there was a piece for piano and flute played by Liszt and a flutist, and +then I came. I was just as frightened as I could be! Metzdorf (my +Russian friend) and Urspruch sat down by me to give me courage, and to +turn the leaves, but Liszt insisted upon turning himself, and stood +behind me and did it in his dexterous way. He says it is an art to turn +the leaves properly! He was _so_ kind, and whenever I did anything well +he would call out "_charmant!_" to encourage me. It is considered a +great compliment to be asked to play at a matinee, and I don't know why +Liszt paid it to me at the expense of others who were there who play far +better than I do--among them a young lady from Norway, lately come, who +is a most _superb_ pianist. She was a pupil of Kullak's, too, but it is +four years since she left him, and she has been concertizing a good +deal. Yesterday she played Schumann's A minor concerto magnificently. I +was surprised that Liszt had not selected her, but one can never tell +what to expect from Liszt. With him "nothing is to be presumed on or +despaired of"--as the proverb says. He is so full of moods and phases +that you have to have a very sharp perception even to begin to +understand him, and he can cut you all up fine without your ever +guessing it. He rarely mortifies any one by an open snub, but what is +perhaps worse, he manages to let the rest of the class know what he is +thinking while the poor victim remains quite in darkness about it!--Yes, +he can do very cruel things. + +After all, though, people generally have their own assurance to thank, +or their own want of tact, when they do not get on with Liszt. If they +go to him full of themselves, or expecting to make an impression on +_him_, or merely for the sake of saying they have been with him, instead +of presenting themselves to sit at his feet in humility, as they ought, +and learn whatever he is willing to impart--he soon finds it out, and +treats them accordingly. Some one once asked Liszt, what he would have +been had he not been a musician. "The first diplomat in Europe," was the +reply. With this Machiavellian bent it is not surprising that he +sometimes indulges himself in playing off the conceited or the obtuse +for the benefit of the bystanders. But the real _basis_ of his nature is +compassion. _The bruised reed he does not break, nor the humble and +docile heart despise!_ + +Fräulein Gaul tells a characteristic story about the "Meister," as we +call Liszt. When she first came to him a year or two ago, she brought +him one day Chopin's B flat minor Scherzo--one of those stock pieces +that every artist _must_ learn, and that has also been thrummed to death +by countless tyros. Liszt looked at it, and to her fright and dismay +cried out in a fit of impatience, "No, I _won't_ hear it!" and dashed it +angrily into the corner. The next day he went to see her, apologized for +his outburst of temper, and said that as a penance for it he would force +himself to give her not one, but two or three lessons on the Scherzo, +and in the most minute and careful manner--which accordingly he did! +Fancy any music teacher you ever heard of, so humbling himself to a +little girl of fifteen, and then remember that Tausig, the greatest of +modern virtuosi, said of Liszt, "No mortal can measure himself with +Liszt. He dwells upon a solitary height." + +But you need not fear that I am "giving up American standards" because I +reverence Liszt so boundlessly. Everything is topsy-turvy in Europe +according to _our_ moral ideas, and they don't have what we call "men" +over here. But they _do_ have artists that we cannot approach! It is as +a Master in Art that I look at and write of Liszt, and his mere presence +is to his pupils such stimulus and joy, that when I leave _him_ I shall +feel I have left the best part of my life behind! + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Liszt's Compositions. His Playing and Teaching of Beethoven. His + "Effects" in Piano-playing. Excursion to Jena. A New Music Master. + + + WEIMAR, _July 24, 1873_. + +Liszt is going away to-day. He was to have left several days ago, but +the Emperor of Austria or Russia (I don't know which), came to visit the +Grand Duke, and of course Liszt was obliged to be on hand and to spend a +day with them. He is such a grandee himself that kings and emperors are +quite matters of course to him. Never was a man so courted and spoiled +as he! The Grand Duchess herself frequently visits him. But he never +allows anyone to ask him to play, and even she doesn't venture it. That +is the only point in which one sees Liszt's sense of his own greatness; +otherwise his manner is remarkably unassuming. + +Liszt will be gone until the middle of August, and I shall be thankful +to have a few weeks of repose, and to be able to study more quietly. +With him one is at high pressure all the time, and I have gained a good +many more ideas from him than I can work up in a hurry. In fact, Liszt +has revealed to me an entirely new idea of piano-playing. He is a +wonderful _composer_, by the way, and that is what I was unprepared for +in him. His oratorio of _Christus_ was brought out here this summer, and +many strangers and celebrities came to hear it, Wagner among others. It +was magnificent, and one of the noblest, and decidedly the grandest +oratorio that I ever heard. I've never had time to write home about it, +for I felt that it required a dissertation in itself to do it justice. I +wish it could be performed in Boston, for his orchestral and choral +works, I am sorry to say, make their way very slowly in Germany. "Liszt +helped Wagner," said he to me, sadly, "but who will help Liszt? though, +compared with Opera it is as much harder for Oratorio to conquer a place +as it is for a pianist to achieve success when compared to a singer." So +he feels as if things were against him, though his heart and soul are so +bound up in sacred music, that he told me it had become to him "the only +thing worth living for." He really seems to care almost nothing for his +piano-playing or for his piano compositions. + +And yet, what beauty is there in those compositions! In Berlin I had +always been taught that Liszt was a would-be composer, that he could not +write a melody, that he had no originality, and that his compositions +were merely glitter to dazzle the eyes of the public. How unjust and +untrue have I found all these assertions to be! Here I have an +opportunity of hearing his piano works _en masse_, and day by day (since +all the young artists are playing them), and my previous ideas have been +entirely reversed. If Liszt is _anything_, he is _original_. One can see +that at a glance, simply by imagining his music taken out. Where is +there anything that would fill its place? When artists wish to make an +"effect" and stir up the public--"to fuse the leaden thousands," as +Chopin expressed it--what do they play? LISZT!--Not only is his music +brilliant--not only does he pour this wealth of pearls and diamonds down +the key-board, but his pieces rise to great climaxes, are grandiose in +style, overleap all boundaries, and whirl you away with the vehemence of +passion. Then what lightness of touch in the lesser _morceaux_, where he +is often the acme of tenderness, grace and fairy-like sportiveness, +while in the melancholy ones, what subtle feeling after the emotions +curled up in the remote corners of the heart! They are so rich in +harmony, so weird, so wild, that when you hear them you are like a +sea-weed cast upon the bosom of the ocean. And then what could be more +deep and poetic than Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert's and Wagner's +songs? They are altogether exquisite. Finally, Liszt's compositions +stand the severest test of merit. They _wear_ well. You can play them a +long time and never weary of them. In short, they embrace every element +_except_ the classic, and the question is, whether these airy or intense +ideas that appeal to you through their veils of shimmer and sheen are +not a sort of classics in their own way! + +Liszt's Christus is arranged for piano for four hands, and I wish I had +it, and also Bülow's great edition of Beethoven's sonatas--Oh! you +cannot _conceive_ anything like Liszt's playing of Beethoven. When _he_ +plays a sonata it is as if the composition rose from the dead and stood +transfigured before you. You ask yourself, "Did _I_ ever play that?" But +it bores him so dreadfully to hear the sonatas, that though I've heard +him teach a good many, I haven't had the courage to bring him one. I +suppose he is sick of the sound of them, or perhaps it is because he +feels obliged to be conscientious in teaching Beethoven! + +When one of the young pianists brings Liszt a sonata, he puts on an +expression of resignation and generally begins a half protest which he +afterward thinks better of.--"Well, go on," he will say, and then he +proceeds to be very strict. He always teaches Beethoven with notes, +which shows how scrupulous he is about him, for, of course, he knows all +the sonatas by heart. He has Bülow's edition, which he opens and lays on +the end of the grand piano. Then as he walks up and down he can stop and +refer to it and point out passages, as they are being played, to the +rest of the class. Bülow probably got many of his ideas from Liszt. One +day when Mr. Orth was playing the Allegro of the Sonata Op. 110, Liszt +insisted upon having it done in a particular way, and made him go back +and repeat it over and over again. One line of it is particularly hard. +Liszt made every one in the class sit down and try it. Most of them +failed, which amused him.--"Ah, yes," said he, laughing, "when I once +begin to play the pedagogue I am not to be outdone!" and then he related +as an illustration of his "pedagogism" a little anecdote of a former +pupil of his, now an eminent artist. "I liked young M. very much," said +he. "He played beautifully, but he was inclined to be lazy and to take +things easily. One morning he brought me Chopin's E minor concerto, and +he rather skimmed over that difficult passage in the middle of the first +movement as if he hadn't taken the trouble really to study it. His +execution was not clean. So I thought I would give him a lesson, and I +kept him playing those two pages over and over for an hour or two until +he had mastered them. His arms must have been ready to break when he got +through! At the next lesson there was no M. I sent to know why he did +not appear. He replied that he had been out hunting and had hurt his arm +so that he could not play. At the lesson following he accordingly +presented himself with his arm in a sling. But I always suspected it was +a stratagem on his part to avoid playing, and that nothing really ailed +him. He had had enough for one while," added Liszt, with a mischievous +smile. + +On Monday I had a most delightful tête-à -tête with Liszt, quite by +chance. I had occasion to call upon him for something, and, strange to +say, he was alone, sitting by his table and writing. Generally all sorts +of people are up there. He insisted upon my staying a while, and we had +the most amusing and entertaining conversation imaginable. It was the +first time I ever heard Liszt really talk, for he contents himself +mostly with making little jests. He is full of _esprit_. We were +speaking of the faculty of mimicry, and he told me such a funny little +anecdote about Chopin. He said that when he and Chopin were young +together, somebody told him that Chopin had a remarkable talent for +mimicry, and so he said to Chopin, "Come round to my rooms this evening +and show off this talent of yours." So Chopin came. He had purchased a +blonde wig ("I was very blonde at that time," said Liszt), which he put +on, and got himself up in one of Liszt's suits. Presently an +acquaintance of Liszt's came in, Chopin went to meet him instead of +Liszt, and took off his voice and manner so perfectly, that the man +actually mistook him for Liszt, and made an appointment with him for the +next day--"and there I was in the room," said Liszt. Wasn't that +remarkable? + +Another evening I was there about twilight and Liszt sat at the piano +looking through a new oratorio, which had just come out in Paris upon +"Christus," the same subject that his own oratorio was on. He asked me +to turn for him, and evidently was not interested, for he would skip +whole pages and begin again, here and there. There was only a single +lamp, and _that_ rather a dim one, so that the room was all in shadow, +and Liszt wore his Merlin-like aspect. I asked him to tell me how he +produced a certain effect he makes in his arrangement of the ballad in +Wagner's _Flying Dutchman_. He looked very "_fin_" as the French say, +but did not reply. He never gives a direct answer to a direct question. +"Ah," said I, "you won't tell." He smiled, and then immediately played +the passage. It was a long arpeggio, and the effect he made was, as I +had supposed, a pedal effect. He kept the pedal down throughout, and +played the beginning of the passage in a grand _rolling_ sort of manner, +and then all the rest of it with a very pianissimo touch, and so +lightly, that the continuity of the arpeggios was destroyed, and the +notes seemed to be just _strewn_ in, as if you broke a wreath of flowers +and scattered them according to your fancy. It is a most striking and +beautiful effect, and I told him I didn't see how he ever thought of it. +"Oh, I've invented a great many things," said he, +indifferently--"_this_, for instance,"--and he began playing a double +roll of octaves in chromatics in the bass of the piano. It was very +grand, and made the room reverberate. "Magnificent," said I. "Did you +ever hear me do a storm?" said he. "No." "Ah, you ought to hear me do a +storm! Storms are my _forte_!" Then to himself between his teeth, while +a weird look came into his eyes as if he could indeed rule the blast, +"_Da_ KRACHEN _die Bäume_ (Then _crash_ the trees!)" + +How ardently I wished he _would_ "play a storm," but of course he +_didn't_, and he presently began to trifle over the keys in his _blasé_ +style. I suppose he couldn't quite work himself up to the effort, but +that look and tone told how Liszt _would_ do it.--Alas, that we poor +mortals here below should share so often the fate of Moses, and have +only a glimpse of the Promised Land, and that without the consolation of +being Moses! But perhaps, after all, the vision is better than the +reality. We see the _whole land_, even if but at a distance, instead of +being limited merely to the spot where our foot treads. + +Once again I saw Liszt in a similar mood, though his expression was this +time _comfortably_ rather than _wildly_ destructive. It was when +Fräulein Remmertz was playing his E flat concerto to him. There were two +grand pianos in the room, and she was sitting at one, and he at the +other, accompanying and interpolating as he felt disposed. Finally they +came to a place where there were a series of passages beginning with +both hands in the middle of the piano, and going in opposite directions +to the ends of the key-board, ending each time in a short, sharp chord. +"_Alles zum Fenster hinaus werfen_ (Pitch everything out of the +window)," said he, in a cozy, easy sort of way, and he began playing +these passages and giving every chord a whack as if he _were_ splitting +everything up and flinging it out, and that with such enjoyment, that +you felt as if you'd like to bear a hand, too, in the work of general +demolition! But I never shall forget Liszt's look as he so lazily +proposed to "pitch everything out of the window." It reminded me of the +expression of a big tabby-cat as it sits and purrs away, blinking its +eyes and seemingly half asleep, when suddenly--!--! out it strikes with +both its claws, and woe be to whatever is within its reach! Perhaps, +after all, the secret of Liszt's fascination is this power of intense +and wild emotion that you feel he possesses, together with the most +perfect control over it. + +Liszt sometimes strikes wrong notes when he plays, but it does not +trouble him in the least. On the contrary, he rather enjoys it. He +reminds me of one of the cabinet ministers in Berlin, of whom it is said +that he has an amazing talent for making blunders, but a still more +amazing one for getting out of them and covering them up. Of Liszt the +first part of this is not true, for if he strikes a wrong note it is +simply because he chooses to be careless. But the last part of it +applies to him eminently. It always amuses him instead of disconcerting +him when he comes down squarely _wrong_, as it affords him an +opportunity of displaying his ingenuity and giving things such a turn +that the false note will appear simply a key leading to new and +unexpected beauties. An accident of this kind happened to him in one of +the Sunday matinees, when the room was full of distinguished people and +of his pupils. He was rolling up the piano in arpeggios in a very grand +manner indeed, when he struck a semi-tone short of the high note upon +which he had intended to end. I caught my breath and wondered whether he +was going to leave us like that, in mid-air, as it were, and the harmony +unresolved, or whether he would be reduced to the humiliation of +correcting himself like ordinary mortals, and taking the right chord. A +half smile came over his face, as much as to say--"Don't fancy that +_this_ little thing disturbs me,"--and he instantly went meandering down +the piano in harmony with the false note he had struck, and then rolled +deliberately up in a second grand sweep, _this_ time striking true. I +never saw a more delicious piece of cleverness. It was so quick-witted +and so exactly characteristic of Liszt. Instead of giving you a chance +to say, "He has made a mistake," he forced you to say, "He has shown how +to get out of a mistake." + +Another day I heard him pass from one piece into another by making the +finale of the first one play the part of prelude to the second. So +exquisitely were the two woven together that you could hardly tell where +the one left off and the other began.--Ah me! _Such_ a facile grace! +_Nobody_ will ever equal him, with those rolling basses and those +flowery trebles. And then his Adagios! When you hear him in one of +_those_, you feel that his playing has got to that point when it is +purified from all earthly dross and is an exhalation of the soul that +mounts straight to heaven. + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _August 8, 1873_. + +The other day we all made an excursion to Jena, which is about three +hours' drive from here. We went in carriages in a long train, and pulled +up at a hotel named The Bear. There we took our second breakfast. There +was to be a concert at five in a church, where some of Liszt's music was +to be performed. After breakfast we went to the church, where Liszt met +us, and the rehearsal took place. After the rehearsal we went to dinner. +We had three long tables which Liszt arranged to suit himself, his own +place being in the middle. He always manages every little detail with +the greatest tact, and is very particular never to let two ladies or two +gentlemen sit together, but always alternately a lady and a gentleman. +"_Immer eine bunte Reihe machen_ (Always have a little variety)," said +he. The dinner was a very entertaining one to me, because I could +converse with Liszt and hear all he said, as he was nearly opposite me. +I was in very high spirits that day, and as Kellerman, Bendix and +Urspruch were all near me, too, we had endless fun. We had new potatoes +for dinner, boiled with their skins on, and Liszt threw one at me, and I +caught it. There was another young artist there from Brussels named +Gurickx, whom I didn't know, because he spoke only French, and as I do +not speak it, we had never exchanged words in the class. I wasn't paying +any attention to him, therefore, when suddenly my left-hand neighbour +touched my arm. I looked round and he handed me a flower made of bread +"from Monsieur Gurickx." I wish you could have seen it! It had the +effect of a tube rose. Every little leaf and petal was as delicately +turned as if nature herself had done it. The bread was fresh, and +Gurickx had worked it between his fingers to the consistency of clay, +and then modelled these little flowers which he stuck on to a stem. It +was so artistically done, and it was such a dainty little thing to do, +that I saw at once that he was interesting and that he possessed that +marvellous French taste. + +Since then we have become very good friends, and he is teaching me to +speak French. He plays beautifully, and was trained in the famous +Brussels conservatory, of which Dupont is the head. Servais also got his +musical education there. They both advise me to go there for a year, as +Dupont is a very great master indeed, and Brussels is the very home and +centre of art and taste of every description--a "little Paris"--but more +earnest, more German. Gurickx went through the art-school in Brussels as +well as the conservatory, so that he paints as well as plays, and he had +quite a struggle with himself to decide to which art he should devote +himself. His style is the grandiose and fiery. Rubinstein is his model, +and he plays Liszt's Rhapsodies as I never heard any one else. He brings +out all their power, brilliancy and careering wildness, and makes the +greatest sensation of them. Such tremendous sweeping chords! Liszt +himself doesn't play the chords as well as Gurickx;--perhaps because he +does not care now to exert the strength. + +But to return to Jena. After dinner Liszt said, "Now we'll go to +Paradise." So we put on our things, and proceeded to walk along the +river to a place called Paradise, on account of its loveliness. We +passed the University, on one corner of which is a tablet with "W. von +Goethe" written against the wall of the room which Goethe occupied. It +seemed strange to me to be passing the room of my beloved Goethe, with +our equally beloved Liszt!--This walk along the river was enchanting. +The current was very rapid, and the willows were all blowing in the +breeze. There is an odd triangular-shaped hill that rises on one side +very boldly and abruptly, called the Fox's Head. The way was under a +double row of tall trees, which met at the top and formed a green arch +over our heads. It was all breeze and freshness, and the sunlight struck +picturesquely aslant the hill-sides. I started to walk with Liszt, but +he was so surrounded that it was difficult to get near him, so I walked +instead with an interesting young artist named O., who was at once +extraordinarily ugly and extremely clever. + +After our walk we went to the concert, which was lovely, and then at +seven we were all invited to tea at the house of a friend of Liszt's. He +was a very tall man, and he had a very tall and hospitable daughter, +nearly as big as himself, who received us very cordially. The tea was +all laid on tables in the garden, and the sausages were cooking over a +fire made on the grounds. We sat down pell-mell, anywhere, I next to +Liszt, who kept putting things on my plate. When supper was over he +retreated to a little summer house with some of his friends, to smoke. +We sauntered round the grass plat in front of it until Liszt called us +to come in and sit by him, which we did until he was ready to go. + +I've heard of a new music master lately. When my friend Miss B. was +here, she told me that she had met a "Herr Director Deppe" in Berlin, +after I left, and had told him all about me and my struggle to conquer +the piano. He seemed very much interested and said, "O, if she had only +come to me! _I_ would have helped her," and from all I can hear I think +he must be the man for me. He is interested in Sherwood, who used to +talk to me about him last winter. Sherwood says he is wholly +disinterested and devoted to art, and lives entirely in music, and that +he is a noble-hearted man, and the "most musical person he ever met." +Sherwood often wavers between him and Kullak, and Deppe would like to +teach Sherwood if he could, simply out of interest for him.--Deppe has a +pupil whom he has trained entirely himself, and whom he is going to +bring out next winter. Sherwood says he never heard anything so +beautiful as her playing. She is spending the summer near Deppe, and he +hears her play the programme she is going to give in Berlin next winter, +every day. Think what immense certainty that must give! + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + Liszt's Playing. Tausig. Excursion to Sondershausen. + + WEIMAR, _August 23, 1873_. + +Liszt has returned from his trip, and I have played to him twice this +week, and am to go again on Monday. He praised me very much on Tuesday, +and said I played admirably. I knew he was pleased, because whenever he +corrected me he would say, "_Nein, Kindchen_" in such a gentle way! +"_Kind_" is the German for child, and "_Kindchen_" is a diminutive, and +whenever he calls you that you can tell he has a leaning toward you. + +This week is the first time that I have been able to play to him without +being nervous, or that my fingers have felt warm and natural. It has +been a fearful ordeal, truly, to play there, for not only was Liszt +himself present, but such a crowd of artists, all ready to pick flaws in +your playing, and to say, "She hasn't got much talent." I am so glad +that I stayed until Liszt's return, for now the rush is over, and he has +much more time for those of us who are left, and plays a great deal more +himself. Yesterday he played us a study of Paganini's, arranged by +himself, and also his Campanella. I longed for M., as she is so fond of +the Campanella. Liszt gave it with a velvety softness, clearness, +brilliancy and pearliness of touch that was inimitable. And oh, his +grace! _Nobody_ can compare with him! Everybody else sounds heavy +beside him! + +However, I have felt some comfort in knowing that it is not Liszt's +genius alone that makes him such a player. He has gone through such +technical studies as no one else has except Tausig, perhaps. He plays +everything under the sun in the way of _Etuden_--has played them, I +mean. On Tuesday I got him talking about the composers who were the +fashion when he was a young fellow in Paris--Kalkbrenner, Herz, +etc.--and I asked him if he could not play us something by Kalkbrenner. +"O yes! I must have a few things of Kalkbrenner's in my head still," and +then he played part of a concerto. Afterward he went on to speak of +Herz, and said: "I'll play you a little study of Herz's that is +infamously hard. It is a stupid little theme," and then he played the +theme, "but _now_ pay attention." Then he played the study itself. It +was a most hazardous thing, where the hands kept crossing continually +with great rapidity, and striking notes in the most difficult positions. +It made us all laugh; and Liszt hit the notes every time, though it was +disgustingly hard, and as he said himself, "he used to get all in a heat +over it." He had evidently studied it so well that he could never forget +it. He went on to speak of Moscheles and of his compositions. He said +that when between thirty and forty years of age, Moscheles played +superbly, but as he grew older he became too old-womanish and set in his +ways--and then he took off Moscheles, and played his Etuden in his +style. It was very funny. But it showed how Liszt has studied +_everything_, and the universality of his knowledge, for he knows +Tausig's and Rubinstein's studies as well as Kalkbrenner and Herz. There +cannot be many persons in the world who keep up with the whole range of +musical literature as he does. + +Liszt loved Tausig as his own child, and is always delighted when we +play any of his music. His death was an awful blow to Liszt, for he used +to say, "He will be the inheritor of my playing." I suppose he thought +he would live again in him, for he always says, "Never did such talent +come under my hands." I would give anything to have seen them together, +for Tausig was a wonderfully clever and captivating man, and I can +imagine he must have fascinated Liszt. They say he was the naughtiest +boy that ever was heard of, and caused Liszt no end of trouble and +vexation; but he always forgave him, and after the vexation was past +Liszt would pat him on the head and say, "_Carlchen, entweder wirst du +ein grosser Lump oder ein grosser Meister_ (You'll turn out either a +great blockhead or a great master)." That is Liszt all over. He is so +indulgent that in consideration of talent he will forgive anything. + +Tausig's father, who was himself a music-master, took him to Liszt when +he was fourteen years old, hoping that Liszt would receive the little +marvel as a pupil and protégé. + +But Liszt would not even hear the boy play. "I have had," he declared +positively, "enough of child prodigies. They never come to much." +Tausig's father apparently acquiesced in the reply, but while he and +Liszt were drinking wine and smoking together, he managed to smuggle the +child on to the piano-stool behind Liszt, and signed to him to begin to +play. The little Tausig plunged into Chopin's A flat Polonaise with such +fire and boldness that Liszt turned his eagle head, and after a few bars +cried, "I take him!" I heard Liszt say once that he could not endure +child prodigies. "I have no time," said he, "for these artists _die_ +WERDEN _sollen_ (that _are_ to be)!" + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _September 9, 1873_. + +This week has been one of great excitement in Weimar, on account of the +wedding of the son of the Grand Duke. All sorts of things have been +going on, and the Emperor and Empress came on from Berlin. There have +been a great many rehearsals at the theatre of different things that +were played, and of course Liszt took a prominent part in the +arrangement of the music. He directed the Ninth Symphony, and played +twice himself with orchestral accompaniments. One of the pieces he +played was Weber's Polonaise in E major, and the other was one of his +own Rhapsodies Hongroises. Of these I was at the rehearsal. When he came +out on the stage the applause was tremendous, and enough in itself to +excite and electrify one. I was enchanted to have an opportunity to hear +Liszt as a concert player. The director of the orchestra here is a +beautiful pianist and composer himself, as well as a splendid conductor, +but it was easy to see that he had to get all his wits together to +follow Liszt, who gave full rein to his imagination, and let the _tempo_ +fluctuate as he felt inclined. As for Liszt, he scarcely _looked_ at the +keys, and it was astounding to see his hands go rushing up and down the +piano and perform passages of the utmost rapidity and difficulty, while +his head was turned all the while towards the orchestra, and he kept up +a running fire of remarks with them continually. "You violins, strike in +_sharp_ here." "You trumpets, not too loud there," etc. He did +everything with the most immense _aplomb_, and without seeming to pay +any attention to his hands, which moved of themselves as if they were +independent beings and had their own brain and everything! He never did +the same thing twice alike. If it were a scale the first time, he would +make it in double or broken thirds the second, and so on, constantly +surprising you with some new turn. While you were admiring the long roll +of the wave, a sudden spray would be dashed over you, and make you catch +your breath! No, never was there such a player! The nervous intensity of +his touch takes right hold of you. When he had finished everybody +shouted and clapped their hands like mad, and the orchestra kept up such +a _fanfare_ of applause, that the din was quite overpowering. Liszt +smiled and bowed, and walked off the stage indifferently, not giving +himself the trouble to come back, and presently he quietly sat down in +the parquet, and the rehearsal proceeded. The concert itself took place +at the court, so that I did not hear it. Metzdorf was there, however, +and he said that Liszt played fabulously, of course, but that he was +not as inspired as he was in the morning, and did not make the same +effect. + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _September 15, 1873_. + +The other day an excursion was arranged to Sondershausen, a town about +three hours' ride from Weimar in the cars. There was to be a concert +there in honour of Liszt, and a whole programme of his music was to be +performed. About half a dozen of the "Lisztianer"--as the Weimarese dub +Liszt's pupils--agreed to go, I, of course, being one. Liszt himself, +the Countess von X. and Count S. were to lead the party. The morning we +started was one of those perfect autumnal days when it is a delight +simply to _live_. + +After breakfast I hurried off to the station, where I met the others, +everybody being in the highest spirits. Liszt and his titled friends +travelled in a first class carriage by themselves. The rest of us went +second class, in the next carriage behind. We were very gay indeed, and +the time did not seem long till we arrived at Sondershausen, where we +exchanged our seats in the cars for seats in an omnibus, and drove to +the principal hotel. There were not sufficient accommodations for us +all, owing to the number of strangers who had come to the festival, so +Mrs. S. and I went to a smaller hotel in a more distant part of the town +to engage rooms, intending to return and dine with Liszt and the rest. +Just as our noisy vehicle clattered up to the inn and some of the +gentlemen jumped out to arrange matters, the solemn strains of a chorale +were heard from a church close by, with its grand and rolling organ +accompaniment. Somehow it made me feel sad to hear it, and a sense of +the _transitoriness_ of things came over me. It seemed like one of those +voices from the other world that call to us now and then. + +After we had engaged our rooms, we drove back to the hotel where Liszt +was staying, and where we were to dine immediately. It was in the centre +of the town, and directly opposite the palace, which rose boldly on a +sort of eminence with great flights of stone steps sweeping down to the +road on each side. It looked quite imposing. An avenue wound up the hill +to the right of it. In the dining-room of the hotel a long table was +spread and all the places were carefully set. My place was next Count S. +and not far from Liszt. So I was very well seated. Everybody began +talking at once the minute dinner was served, as they always do at table +in Germany. Toward the close of it were the usual number of toasts in +honour of Liszt, to which he responded in rather a bored sort of way. I +don't wonder he gets tired of them, for it is always the same thing. He +did not seem to be in his usual spirits, and had a fatigued air. + +After dinner he said, "Now let us go and see Fräulein Fichtner." +Fräulein Fichtner was the young lady who was going to play his concerto +in A major at the concert that evening. She is a well-known pianist in +Germany, and is both pretty and brilliant. We started in a procession, +which is the way one always walks with Liszt. It reminds me of those +snow-balls the boys roll up at home--the crowd gathers as it proceeds! +When we got to the house we entered an obscure corridor and began to +find our way up a dark and narrow staircase. Some one struck a wax +match. "Good!" called out Liszt, in his sonorous voice. "_Leuchten Sie +voraus_ (Light us up)." When we got to the top we pulled the bell and +were let in by Fräulein Fichtner's mother. Fräulein Fichtner herself +looked no ways dismayed at the number of her guests, though we had the +air of coming to storm the house. She gaily produced all the chairs +there were, and those who could not find a seat had to stand! She was in +Weimar for a few days this summer. So we had all met her before, and I +had once heard her play some duets by Schumann with Liszt, who enjoyed +reading with "Pauline," as he calls her. It is to her that Raff has +dedicated his exquisite "_Maerchen_ (Fairy story)." She is a sparkling +brunette, with a face full of intelligence. They say she writes charming +little poems and is gifted in various ways. Not to tire her for the +concert we only stayed about twenty minutes. + +Going back, Liszt indulged in a little graceful _badinage_ apropos of +the concerto. You know he has written two concertos. The one in E flat +is much played, but this one in A very rarely. It is exceedingly +difficult and is one of the few of his compositions that it interests +Liszt to know that people play. "I should write it otherwise if I wrote +it now," he explained to me as we were walking along. "Some passages are +very troublesome (_haecklig_) to execute. I was younger and less +experienced when I composed it," he added, with one of those +illuminating smiles "like the flash of a dagger in the sun," as Lenz +says. + +When we reached the hotel everybody went in to take a siesta--that +"Mittags-Schlaf" which is law in Germany. I did not wish to sleep and +felt like exploring the old town. So Count S. and I started on a walk. +Sondershausen is a dreamy, sleepy place, with so little life about it +that you hardly realize there are any people there at all. It is +pleasantly situated, and gentle hills and undulations of land are all +about it, but it seems as if the town had been dead for a long time and +this were its grave over which one was quietly walking. We took the road +that wound past the castle. It was embowered in trees, and behind the +castle were gardens and conservatories. The road descended on the other +side, and we followed it till we came unexpectedly upon a little +circular park. Such a deserted, widowed little park it seemed! Not a +soul did we encounter as we wandered through its paths. Bordering them +were great quantities of berry-laden snow-berry bushes, of which I am +very fond. The park had a sort of rank and unkempt aspect, as if it were +abandoned to itself. The very stream that went through it flowed +sluggishly along, and as if it hadn't any particular object in life.--I +enjoyed it very much, and it was very restful to walk about it. One felt +there the truth of R.'s favourite saying, "It doesn't make any +difference. _Nothing_ makes any difference." + +Count S. rattled on, but I didn't hear more than half of what he said. +He is a pleasure-loving man of the world, fond of music, but a perfect +materialist, and untroubled by the "_souffle vers le beau_" which +torments so many people. At the same time he is appreciative and very +amusing, and one has no chance to indulge in melancholy with _him_. We +sauntered about till late in the afternoon, and then returned to the +hotel for coffee before going to the concert, which began at seven. The +concert hall was behind the palace and seemed to form a part of it. +Liszt, the Countess von X., and Count S. sat in a box, aristocratic-fashion. +The rest of us were in the parquet. I was amazed at the orchestra, which +was very large and played gloriously. It seemed to me as fine as that of +the Gewandhaus in Leipsic, though I suppose it cannot be.--"Why has no +one ever mentioned this orchestra to me?" I asked of Kellermann, who sat +next, "and how is it one finds such an orchestra in such a place?" "Oh," +said he, "this orchestra is very celebrated, and the Prince of +Sondershausen is a great patron of music." This is the way it is in +Germany. Every now and then one has these surprises. You never know when +you are going to stumble upon a jewel in the most out-of-the-way corner. + +We were all greatly excited over Fräulein Fichtner's playing, and it +seemed very jolly to be behind the scenes, as it were, and to have one +of our own number performing. We applauded tremendously when she came +out. She was not nervous in the least, but began with great _aplomb_, +and played most beautifully. The concerto made a generally dazzling and +difficult impression upon me, but did not "take hold" of me +particularly. I do not know how Liszt was pleased with her rendering of +it, for I had no opportunity of asking him. She also played his +Fourteenth Rhapsody with orchestral accompaniment in most bold and +dashing style. Fräulein Fichtner is more in the bravura than in the +sentimental line, and she has a certain breadth, grasp, and freshness. +The last piece on the programme was Liszt's Choral Symphony, which was +magnificent. The chorus came at the end of it, as in the Ninth Symphony. +Mrs. S. said she was familiar with it from having heard Thomas's +orchestra play it in New York.--That orchestra, by the way, from what I +hear, seems to have developed into something remarkable. It is a great +thing for the musical education of the country to have such an +organization travelling every winter. And what a revelation is an +orchestra the first time one hears it, even if it be but a poor +one!--Music come bodily down from Heaven! And here in their musical +darkness, the Americans in the provinces are having an orchestra of the +very highest excellence burst upon them in full splendour. What _could_ +be more American? They always have the best or none! + +At nine o'clock in the evening the concert was over, and we all returned +to the hotel for supper. We were all desperately hungry after so much +music and enthusiasm. Everybody wanted to be helped at once, and the +waiters were nearly distracted. Count S. sat next me and was very funny. +He kept rapping the table like mad, but without any success. Finally he +exclaimed, "_Jetzt geh'_ ICH _auf Jagd_ (Now _I'm_ going hunting)!" and +sprang up from his chair, rushed to the other end of the dining-room, +possessed himself of some dishes the waiters were helping, and returned +in triumph. I couldn't help laughing, and he made a great many jokes at +the expense of the waiters and everybody else. I could not hear any of +Liszt's conversation, which I regretted, but he seemed in a quiet mood. +I do not think he is the same when he is with aristocrats. He must be +among _artists_ to unsheathe his sword. When he is with "swells," he is +all grace and polish. He seems only to toy with his genius for their +amusement, and he is never serious. At least this is as far as _my_ +observation of him goes on the few occasions I have seen him in the +_beau monde_. The presence of the proud Countess von X. at Sondershausen +kept him, as it were, at a distance from everybody else, and he was not +overflowing with fun and gayety as he was at Jena. She, of course, did +not go with us to see Fräulein Fichtner, which was fortunate. After +supper one and all went to bed early, quite tired out with the day's +excitement. + +This haughty Countess, by the way, has always had a great fascination +for me, because she looks like a woman who "has a history." I have often +seen her at Liszt's matinees, and from what I hear of her, she is such a +type of woman as I suppose only exists in Europe, and such as the +heroines of foreign novels are modelled upon. She is a widow, and in +appearance is about thirty-six or eight years old, of medium height, +slight to thinness, but exceedingly graceful. She is always attired in +black, and is utterly careless in dress, yet nothing can conceal her +innate elegance of figure. Her face is pallid and her hair dark. She +makes an impression of icy coldness and at the same time of tropical +heat. The pride of Lucifer to the world in general--entire abandonment +to the individual. I meet her often in the park, as she walks along +trailing her "sable garments like the night," and surrounded by her four +beautiful boys--as Count S. says, "each handsomer than the other." They +have such romantic faces! Dark eyes and dark curling hair. The eldest is +about fourteen and the youngest five. + +The little one is too lovely, with his brown curls hanging on his +shoulders! I never shall forget the supercilious manner in which the +Countess took out her eye-glass and looked me over as I passed her one +day in the park. Weimar being such a "_kleines Nest_ (little nest)," as +Liszt calls it, every stranger is immediately remarked. She waited till +I got close up, then deliberately put up this glass and scrutinized me +from head to foot, then let it fall with a half-disdainful, +half-indifferent air, as if the scrutiny did not reward the trouble.--I +was so amused. Her arrogance piques all Weimar, and they never cease +talking about her. I can never help wishing to see her in a fashionable +toilet. If she is so _distinguée_ in rather less than ordinary dress, +what _would_ she be in a Parisian costume? I mean as to grace, for she +is not pretty.--But as a psychological study, she is more interesting, +perhaps, as she is. She always seems to me to be gradually going to +wreck--a burnt-out volcano, with her own ashes settling down upon her +and covering her up. She is very highly educated, and is preparing her +eldest son for the university herself. What a subject she would have +been for a Balzac! + +We stayed over the next day in Sondershausen, as there was to be another +orchestral concert--this time with a miscellaneous programme. Fräulein +Fichtner had already departed, but the first violinist played +Mendelssohn's famous concerto for violin.--Not in Wilhelmj's masterly +style, but extremely well. We took the train for Weimar about five P. M. +Going back I was in the carriage with Liszt. He sat opposite me, and +gradually began to talk. The conversation turned upon Weitzmann, my +former harmony teacher, who, you remember, was so determined to make me +learn. Liszt remarked upon the extent of his knowledge and said, "If I +were not so old I should like to go to school again to Weitzmann." He +was talking to Weitzmann one day, he said, and Weitzmann proposed to him +that he should write a canon. "I sat down and worked over it a good +while, but finally gave it up.--I know not why, but I never had any +success in writing canons. Weitzmann then sat down, and in half an hour +had produced two excellent ones." He gave this as an instance of +Weitzmann's readiness.--A canon, you know, is a sort of musical puzzle. +The right hand plays the theme. The left hand takes it up a little later +and imitates the right. The two interweave, and the theme forms the +melody and the accompaniment at the same time, according as it is played +by the right or left hand--something on the principle of singing rounds. +The difficulty consists in avoiding monotony with this continual +iteration of the theme, which can be brought on at different intervals, +inverted, etc., at will. It seems to be more a mathematical than a +musical style of composition. I should suppose that _Bach_ could fire +off canons without end! He developed it in every imaginable +form.--Liszt, however, is of rather a different school! + +We got back to Weimar about eight in the evening, and this delicious +excursion, like all others, _had to end_. But the quiet old town, with +its musical name and its great orchestra, will long remain in my memory. + +Adieu, Sondershausen! + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + Farewell to Liszt! German Conservatories and their Methods. Berlin + Again. Liszt and Joachim. + + + WEIMAR, _September 24, 1873_. + +We had our last lesson from Liszt a few days ago, and he leaves Weimar +next week. He was so hurried with engagements the last two times that he +was not able to give us much attention. I played my Rubinstein concerto. +He accompanied me himself on a second piano. We were there about six +o'clock P. M. Liszt was out, but he had left word that if we came we +were to wait. About seven he came in, and the lamps were lit. He was in +an awful humour, and I never saw him so out of spirits. "How is it with +our concerto?" said he to me, for he had told me the time before to send +for the second piano accompaniment, and he would play it with me. I told +him that unfortunately there existed no second piano part. "Then, child, +you've fallen on your head, if you don't know that at least you must +have a second copy of the concerto!" I told him I knew it by heart. +"Oh!" said he, in a mollified tone. So he took my copy and played the +orchestra part which is indicated above the piano part, and I played +without notes. I felt inspired, for the piano I was at was a magnificent +grand that Steinway presented to Liszt only the other day. Liszt was +seated at another grand facing me, and the room was dimly illuminated +by one or two lamps. A few artists were sitting about in the shadow. It +was at the twilight hour, "_l'heure du mystère_," as the poetic Gurickx +used to say, and in short, the occasion was perfect, and couldn't happen +so again. You see we always have our lessons in the afternoon, and it +was a mere chance that it was so late this time. So I felt as if I were +in an electric state. I had studied the piece so much that I felt +perfectly sure of it, and then with Liszt's splendid accompaniment and +his beautiful face to look over to--it was enough to bring out +everything there was in one. If he had only been himself I should have +had nothing more to desire, but he was in one of his bitter, sarcastic +moods. However, I went rushing on to the end--like a torrent plunging +down into darkness, I might say--for it was the end, too, of my lessons +with Liszt! + +In answer to your musical questions, I don't know that there is much to +be told about conservatories of which you are not aware. The one in +Stuttgardt is considered the best; and there the pupils are put through +a regular graded method, beginning with learning to hold the hand, and +with the simplest five finger exercises. There are certain things, +studies, etc., which _all_ the scholars have to learn. That was also the +case in Tausig's conservatory. First we had to go through Cramer, then +through the Gradus ad Parnassum, then through Moscheles, then Chopin, +Henselt, Liszt and Rubinstein. I haven't got farther than Chopin, +myself, but when I went to Kullak I studied Czerny's School for +Virtuosen a whole year, which is the book he "swears by." I'm going on +with them this winter. It takes years to pass through them all, but when +you _have_ finished them, you are an artist. + +I think myself the "Schule des Virtuosen" is indispensable, much as I +loathe it. First, there is nothing like it for giving you a technique. +It consists of passages, generally about two lines in length, which +Czerny has the face to request you to play from twenty to thirty times +successively. You can imagine at that rate how long it takes you to play +through one page! Tedious to the _last_ degree! But it greatly equalizes +and strengthens the fingers, and makes your execution smooth and +elegant. It teaches you to take your time, or as the Germans call it, it +gives you "_Ruhe_ (repose)," the _grand sine qua non_! You learn to +"play out" your passages ("_aus-spielen_," as Kullak is always saying); +that is, you don't hurry or blur over the last notes, but play clearly +and in strict time to the end of the passage. I saw Lebert, the head of +the Stuttgardt conservatory, here this summer, and had several long +conversations with him, and he told me he considered Bach the best +study, and put the Well-Tempered Clavichord at the foundation of +everything. The Stuttgardters study Bach every day, and I think it a +capital plan myself. I have begun doing it, too. It was a great thing +for me, that quarter of Bach that I took with Mr. Paine in Cambridge, +and was one of your inspirations, when you "builded better than you +knew."--I never _saw_ a person with such an instinct to find out the +right thing as you have! If it hadn't been for that, I should never +have got so familiarized with Bach, or got into the way of studying him +for myself, as I have done a great deal. It is as great for the fingers +as it is "good for the soul." Lenz, in his sketch of Chopin, says that +Chopin told him when he prepared for a concert he never studied his own +compositions at all, but shut himself up and practiced Bach! + +However, I suppose it comes to the same thing in the end if one studies +Bach, Czerny, or Gradus, only you must _keep at_ one of them all the +while. The grand thing is to have each of your five fingers go "dum, +dum," an equal number of times, which is the principle of all three! +Tausig was for Gradus, you know, and practiced it himself every day. He +used to transpose the studies in different keys, and play just the same +in the left hand as in the right, and enhance their difficulties in +every way, but _I_ always found them hard enough as they were written! +Bach strengthens the fingers and makes them independent. Czerny +equalizes them and gives an easy and elegant execution, and Gradus is +not only good for finger technique--it trains the arm and wrist also, +and gives a much more powerful execution. + +I think that in all conservatories they have at least six lessons a +week, two solo, two in reading at sight, and two in composition. Then +there are often lectures held on musical subjects by some of the +Professors, or by some one who is engaged for that purpose. All large +conservatories have an orchestra, composed generally out of the scholars +themselves, with a few professionals hired to eke out deficiencies. With +this the best piano scholars play their concertos once a month, or once +in six weeks. The number of public representations varies in every +conservatory. In the Hoch Schule in Berlin they have two yearly in the +Sing-Akademie. Kullak _professes_ to have _one_, but he has so little +interest in his scholars that he omits it when it suits his convenience. +In Stuttgardt I believe they have four. I don't know much about the +interior arrangements of Kullak's conservatory, because I only went to +his own class. I lived too far away to attempt the theory and +composition class. Liszt says that Kullak's pupils are always the best +schooled of any, which rather surprised me, because there is a certain +intimacy between him and Stuttgardt, and he always recommends scholars +to the Stuttgardt conservatory. + + +The Stuttgardters do have immense technique, and I think they are better +taught how to study. It strikes me as if Stuttgardt were the place to +get the machine in working order, but I rather think that Kullak trains +the head more. There is a young American here named Orth, who studied +two years with Kullak, then he spent a year in Stuttgardt, and now he is +going to return to Kullak. He says he thinks that not Lebert, but +Pruckner, is the real backbone of the Stuttgardt conservatory, but that +even with _him_ one year is sufficient. Fräulein Gaul, on the contrary, +with whom Lebert has taken the greatest possible pains, thinks him a +magnificent master, and certainly he has developed her admirably. It is +probably with him as with them all. If they take a fancy to you, they +will do a great deal for you; if not, _nothing_! Liszt is no exception +to this rule. I've seen him snub and entirely neglect young artists of +the most remarkable talent and virtuosity, merely because they did not +please him personally. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _October 8, 1873_. + +_Voilà !_ as Liszt always says. Here I am back again in old Berlin, and +if I ever felt "like a cat in a strange garret," I do now. I left dear +little Weimar two days ago, and parted from our adored Liszt a week ago +to-day. He has gone to Rome. _Never_ did I feel leaving anybody or any +place so much, and Berlin seems to me like a great roaring wilderness. +The distances are so _endless_ here. You either have to kill yourself +walking, or else spend a fortune in droschkies. The houses all seem to +me as if they had grown. There is an immense number of new ones going up +on all sides, and the noise, and the crowd, and the confusion are enough +to set one distracted, after the idyllic life I've been leading. Ah, +well! _Es war eben_ ZU _schön!_ (It was _too_ beautiful!) + +Yesterday and to-day I've been looking about for a new boarding-place. +I've had two invitations to dinner since my return, but everybody and +everything seems so dull and stupid, prosaic and tedious to me, that I +declined them both, and haven't given any of my friends my address until +I have had a little time to let myself down gradually from the delights +of Weimar. + +Liszt was kindness itself when the time came to say good-bye, but I +could scarcely get out a word, nor could I even thank him for all he had +done for me. I did not wish to break down and make a scene, as I felt I +should if I tried to say anything. So I fear he thought me rather +ungrateful and matter-of-course, for he couldn't know that I was feeling +an excess of emotion which kept me silent. I miss going to him +inexpressibly, and although I heard my favourite Joachim last night, +even _he_ paled before Liszt. He is on the violin what Liszt is on the +piano, and is the only artist worthy to be mentioned in the same breath +with him. + +Like Liszt, he so vitalizes everything that I have to take him in all +over again every time I hear him. I am always astonished, amazed and +delighted afresh, and even as I listen I can hardly believe that the man +_can_ play so! But Liszt, in addition to his marvellous playing, has +this unique and imposing personality, whereas at first Joachim is not +specially striking. Liszt's face is all a play of feature, a glow of +fancy, a blaze of imagination, whereas Joachim is absorbed in his +violin, and his face has only an expression of fine discrimination and +of intense solicitude to produce his artistic effects. Liszt never looks +at his instrument; Joachim never looks at anything else. Liszt is a +complete actor who intends to carry away the public, who never forgets +that he is before it, and who behaves accordingly. Joachim is totally +oblivious of it. Liszt subdues the people to him by the very way he +walks on to the stage. He gives his proud head a toss, throws an +electric look out of his eagle eye, and seats himself with an air as +much as to say, "Now I am going to do just what I please with you, and +you are nothing but puppets subject to my will." He said to us in the +class one day, "When you come out on the stage, look as if you didn't +care a rap for the audience, and as if you knew more than any of them. +That's the way I used to do.--Didn't that provoke the critics though!" +he added, with an ineffable look of malicious mischief. So you see his +principle, and that was precisely the way he did at the rehearsal in the +theatre at Weimar that I wrote to you about. Joachim, on the contrary, +is the quiet gentleman-artist. He advances in the most unpretentious +way, but as he adjusts his violin he looks his audience over with the +calm air of a musical monarch, as much as to say, "I repose wholly on my +art, and I've no need of any 'ways or manners.'" In reality I admire +Joachim's principle the most, but there is something indescribably +fascinating and subduing about Liszt's willfulness. You feel at once +that he is a great genius, and that you _are_ nothing but his puppet, +and somehow you take a base delight in the humiliation! The two men are +intensely interesting, each in his own way, but they are extremes. + +[Beside his playing and his compositions, what Liszt has done for music +and for musicians, and why, therefore, he stands so pre-eminently the +greatest and the best beloved master in the musical world, may appear to +the general reader in the following extract taken from a translation in +_Dwight's Journal_, Oct. 23, 1880, of "Franz Liszt, a Musical Character +Portrait" by La Mara, in the _Gartenlaube_: "We must count it among the +exceptional merits of Liszt, that he has paved the way to recognition +for innumerable aspirants, as he always shows an open heart and open +hands to all artistic strivings. He was the first and most active +furtherer of the immense Bayreuth enterprise, and the chief founder of +the Musical Societies or Unions that flourish throughout Germany. And +for how many noble and philanthropic objects has he not exerted his +artistic resources! If, during his earlier virtuoso career, he made his +genius serve the advantage of others far more than his own--saving out +of the millions that he earned only a modest sum for himself, while he +alone contributed many thousands for the completion of Cologne +Cathedral, for the Beethoven monument at Bonn, and for the victims of +the Hamburg conflagration--so since the close of his career as a pianist +his public artistic activity has been exclusively consecrated to the +benefit of others, to artistic undertakings, or to charitable objects. +Since the end of 1847, not a penny has come into his own pocket either +through piano-playing and conducting, or through teaching. All this, +which has yielded such rich capital and interest to others, has cost +only sacrifice of time and money to himself."]--ED. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + Kullak as a Teacher. The Four Great Virtuosi, Clara Schumann, + Rubinstein, Von Bülow, and Tausig. + + + BERLIN, _November 7, 1873_. + +I've been in a sort of mental apathy since I got back--the result, I +suppose, of so much artistic excitement all summer. Of course I am +practicing very hard, and I am taking private lessons of Kullak again. I +played him my Rubinstein concerto two weeks ago and told him I wanted to +play it in a concert. He says I need more power in it in many places, +and by practicing it every day I hope I shall at last work up to it, as +I've conquered the technical difficulties in it. There were two pages in +it I thought I never _could_ master. It is the same with all concertos. +They are fearfully difficult things to play, and far more difficult, _I_ +think, than solos are, because the effort is so sustained. They are to +me the most interesting things to listen to of all, and I can't imagine +how you can think that piano and orchestra are "not made to go +together." However, I never myself appreciated concertos until I came to +Germany. Kullak is the most awfully discouraging teacher that can be +imagined. When you play to him, it is like looking at your skin through +a magnifying glass. All your faults seem to start out and glare at you. +I don't think, though, that I ever fairly do myself justice when I play +to him, because he has a sort of benumbing effect on me, and I feel to +him something the way that Owen did to old Peter in Hawthorne's story of +"The Artist of the Beautiful." I can't help acknowledging the truth of +his observations even when I am wincing under them, and I yet feel at +the same time that he does not wholly get at the soul of the thing. +Kullak is _so_ pedantic! He _never_ overlooks a technical imperfection, +and he ties you down to the technique so that you never can give rein to +your imagination. He sits at the other piano, and just as you are +rushing off he will strike in himself and say, "Don't hurry, Fräulein," +or something like that, and then you begin to think about holding back +your fingers and playing every note even, etc. Now I never expect to get +that perfection of technique that all these artists have who have been +training throughout their childhood while their hand was forming. +Kullak's own technique is magnificent, but now that I've graduated, as +it were, he ought to let me play my own way, and not expect me to play +as _he_ does, and then I could produce my own effects. That is just the +difference between him and Liszt. Liszt's grand principle is, to leave +you your freedom, and when you play to him, you feel like a Pegasus +caracoling about in the air. When you play to Kullak, you feel as if +your wings were suddenly clipped, and as if you were put into harness to +draw an express wagon! However, I don't think it would be well to go to +Liszt without having been through such a training first, for you want to +know what you are about when you study with _him_. You must have a good +solid _basis_ upon which to raise his airy super-structures. Kullak I +regard as the basis. + +You ask me in your letter to write you a comparison--a summing +up--between Clara Schumann, Bülow, Tausig and Rubinstein, but I don't +find it very easy to do, as they are all so different. Clara Schumann is +entirely a classic player. Beethoven's sonatas, and Bach, too, she plays +splendidly; but she doesn't seem to me to have any _finesse_, or much +poetry in her playing. There's nothing subtle in her conception. She has +a great deal of fire, and her whole style is grand, finished, perfectly +rounded off, solid and satisfactory--what the Germans call _gediegen_. +She is a _healthy_ artist to listen to, but there is nothing of the +analytic, no Balzac or Hawthorne about her. Beethoven's Variations in C +minor are, perhaps, the best performance I ever heard from her, and they +are immensely difficult, too; I thought she did them better than Bülow, +in spite of Bülow's being such a great Beethovenite. I think she repeats +the same pieces a good deal, possibly because she finds the modern +fashion of playing everything without notes very trying. I've even heard +that she cries over the necessity of doing it; and certainly it is a +foolish thing to make a point of, with so very great an artist as Clara +Schumann.--If people could _only_ be allowed to have their own +individuality! + +Bülow's playing is more many-sided, and is chiefly distinguished by its +great vigor; there is no end to his nervous energy, and the more he +plays, the more the interest increases. He is my favourite of the four. +But he plays Chopin just as well as he does Beethoven, and Schumann, +too. Altogether he is a superlative pianist, though by no means unerring +in his performance. I've heard him get dreadfully mixed up. I think he +trusts _too_ much to his memory, and that he does not prepare +sufficiently. He plays everything by heart, and such programmes! He +always hits the nail plump on the head, and such a grasp as he has! His +chords take firm hold of you. For instance, in the beginning of the two +last movements of the Moonlight Sonata, you should hear him run up that +arpeggio in the right hand so lightly and pianissimo, every note so +delicately articulated, and then _crash-smash_ on those two chords on +the top! And when he plays Bach's gavottes, gigues, etc., in the English +Suites, a laughing, roguish look comes over his face, and he puts the +most indescribable drollery and originality into them. You see that "he +sees the point" so well, and that makes _you_ see it, too. Yes, it is +good fun to hear Bülow do these things.--Perhaps the best summing up of +his peculiar greatness would be to say that he impresses you as using +the instrument only to express ideas. With him you forget all about the +piano, and are absorbed only in the thought or the passion of the piece. + +Rubinstein you've heard. Most people put him next to Liszt. Your finding +him cold surprised me, for if there is a thing he is celebrated here +for, it is the fire and passion of his playing, and for his imagination +and spontaneity. I think that Tausig, Bülow, and Clara Schumann, all +three, have it all cut and dried beforehand, how they are going to play +a piece, but Rubinstein creates at the instant. He plays without _plan_. +Probably the afternoon you heard him he did not feel in the mood, and +so was not at his best. As a composer he far outranks the other three. + +Tausig resembled Liszt more in that subtlety which Liszt has, and +consequently he was a better Chopin player than anybody else except +Liszt. I never shall forget his playing of Chopin's great Ballade in G +minor the very first time I heard him in concert. It is a divine +composition, and his rendering of it was not only all warmth and +fervour; it was also so wonderfully poetic that it fairly cast a spell +upon the audience, and a minute or two went by before they could begin +to applaud. It was like a dream of beauty suspended in the air before +you--floating there--and you didn't want to disturb it. Tausig had an +intense love for Chopin, and always wished he could have known him. I +think that he had more virtuosity, and yet more delicacy of feeling, +than either Rubinstein or Bülow. His finish, perfection, and above all +his touch, were above anything. But, except in Chopin, he was cold, at +least in the concert room. In the conservatory he seemed to be a very +passionate player; but, somehow, in public that was not the case. +Unfortunately, I had studied so little at that time, that I don't feel +as if I were competent to judge him. He was Liszt's favourite, and Liszt +said, "He will be the inheritor of my playing;" but I doubt if this +would have been, for the winter before Tausig died, Kullak remarked to +me that his playing became more and more "dry" every year, probably on +account of his morbid aversion to "Spectakel," as he called it; whereas +Liszt gives the reins to the emotions always. + +When I was in Weimar I heard a great deal about Tausig's _escapades_ +when he was studying there as a boy. They say he was awfully wild and +reckless at that time, and Liszt paid his debts over and over again. +Sometimes in aristocratic parties, when Liszt did not feel like playing +himself, he would tell Tausig to play, and perhaps Tausig would not feel +like it, either. He had the most enormous strength in his fingers, +though his hands were small, and he would go to the piano and pretend he +was going to play, and strike the first chords with such a crash that +three or four strings would snap almost immediately, and then, of +course, the piano was used up for the evening! + +Tausig's father once procured him a splendid grand piano from Leipsic, +and shortly after, Tausig whittled off the corners of all the keys, so +as to make them more difficult to strike, and his father had to pay a +large sum to have them repaired. Another time he was presented with a +set of chess-men, and the next day some one on visiting him observed the +pieces all lying about the floor. "Why, Tausig, what has happened to +your chess-men?" "Oh, I wanted to see if they were easily broken, so I +knocked up the board." He seemed to be possessed with a spirit of +destruction. Gottschal told me that one time when Tausig was "hard up" +for money, he sold the score of Liszt's Faust for five thalers to a +servant, along with a great pile of his own notes. The servant disposed +of them to some waste-paper man, and Gottschal, accidentally hearing of +it, went to the man and purchased them. Then he went to Liszt to tell +him that he had the score. As it happened the publisher had written for +it that very day and Liszt was turning the house upside down, looking +for it everywhere. + +At that time he was living in an immense house on a hill here, that they +call the Altenburg. Liszt occupied the first floor, a princely friend +the second, and the top story was one grand ball-room in which were +generally nine grand pianos standing. They used to give the most +magnificent entertainments, and Liszt spent thirty thousand thalers a +year. He lived like a prince in those days--very different from his +present simplicity. Well, he was in an awful state of mind because his +score was nowhere to be found. "A whole year's labor lost!" he cried, +and he was in such a rage, that when Gottschal asked him for the third +time what he was looking for, he turned and stamped his foot at him and +said, "You confounded fellow, can't you leave me in peace, and not +torment me with your stupid questions?" Gottschal knew perfectly well +what was wanting, but he wished to have a little fun out of the matter. +At last he took pity on Liszt, and said, "Herr Doctor, _I_ know what +you've lost. It is the score to your Faust." "Oh," said Liszt, changing +his tone immediately, "do you know anything of it?" "Of course I do," +said Gottschal, and proceeded to unfold Master Tausig's performance, and +how he had rescued the precious music. Liszt was transported with joy +that it was found, and called up-stairs, "Carolina, Carolina, we're +saved! Gottschal has rescued us;" and then Gottschal said that Liszt +embraced him in his transport, and could not say or do enough to make up +for his having been so rude to him. Well, you would have supposed that +it was now all up with Master Tausig; but not at all. A few days +afterward was Tausig's birthday, and Carolina took Gottschal aside, and +begged him to drop the subject of the note stealing, for Liszt doted so +on his Carl that he wished to forget it. Sure enough, Liszt kissed Carl +and congratulated him on his birthday, and consoled himself with his +same old observation, "You'll either turn out a great blockhead, my +little Carl, or a great master." + +Tausig had a great ambition to be a composer, and in his early youth he +published a number of compositions. Later on he became intensely +critical of his own work, and finally bought up all the copies he could +lay hands on and burnt them! This is entirely characteristic of his +sense of perfection, which was extreme, and may serve as an example to +young composers who are ambitious of saying something in music, when +very often they have nothing to say! Indeed, I am often amazed at the +temerity with which men will rush into print, quite oblivious of the +fact that it requires enormous talent to produce even a short piece of +music that is worth anything. Only a genius can do it. + +Tausig, in my opinion, _did_ possess exceptional genius in composition, +though he left but few works behind him to attest it. Prominent among +these are his unique arrangements of three of Strauss's Waltzes. He had +a passion for philosophy, and was deeply read in Kant and Hegel. These +"arrangements" betray his metaphysical and tentative turn, and could +only have been the product of the highest mental force and culture. +Calling the waltz itself the warp of the composition, then through its +simple threads we find darting backwards and forwards a subtle, +complicated and tragic mind, an exquisitely refined and delicate +sentiment, and a piquante, aerial fancy, until finally is wrought a +brilliant and bewildering transcription--transfiguration rather--of +endless fascination and tantalizing beauty, which no one but a virtuoso +can play and no one but a connoisseur can comprehend. In a peculiar +manner his music leaves a _stamp_ upon the heart, and to those who can +appreciate it, Tausig, as a composer, is a deep and irreparable +loss.--If he had not original ideas of his own, he certainly possessed +the power of putting an entirely new face on those of others. + + + + +WITH DEPPE. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + Gives up Kullak for Deppe. Deppe's Method in Touch and in + Scale-Playing. Fräulein Steiniger. Pedal Study. + + + BERLIN, _December 11, 1873_. + +Since I last wrote you I have taken a very important step, which is +_this_: After taking three or four lessons of Kullak I HAVE GIVEN HIM +UP! and am now studying under a new master. His name is Herr +Capelmeister Deppe. I suppose you will all think me crazed, but I think +I know what I am about. He seems to me a very remarkable man, and is to +me the most satisfactory teacher I've had yet. Of course I don't count +in the unapproachable Liszt when I say that, for Liszt is no +"_professeur du piano_," as he himself used scornfully to remark. + +I made Herr Deppe's acquaintance quite by chance, at a musical party +given for Anna Mehlig by an American gentleman living here. I had often +heard of him, and was very anxious to know him, but somehow had never +compassed it. He is a conductor, to begin with, and I have often seen +him conduct orchestral concerts. In fact, that was what he first came to +Berlin for, a few years ago--to conduct Stern's orchestral concerts +during the latter's absence in Italy. Deppe is an accomplished +conductor, and I have never heard Beethoven's second Overture to Leonora +sound as I have under his bâton. + +But it was Sherwood who first called my attention to him as a teacher. +He rushed into my room one day, and said, "Oh, I've just heard the most +beautiful playing that ever I heard in my life!" I asked him who it was +that had taken him so by storm, and he said it was a young English girl +named Fannie Warburg, and that she was a pupil of Deppe's. "Well, what +is it about her that is so remarkable," said I. "Oh, _everything_!--execution, +expression, style, touch--all are _perfect_! I never heard anything to +equal her, and I feel as if I never wanted to touch the piano again." + +This was such strong language for Sherwood, who is generally very +critical and anything but enthusiastic, that my interest was immediately +excited. He went on to tell me that Deppe had been training this young +English girl, now only eighteen years of age, with the greatest care, +for six years, and that he had such an interest in her that he did not +confine himself to giving her lessons only, but set himself to form her +whole musical taste by taking her to the best concerts and to hear the +great operas, calling her attention to every peculiarity of structure in +a composition, and giving her all sorts of hints which only a man of +profound musical culture _could_ give. Sherwood said, moreover, that in +summer he made her go to Pyrmont, which is a watering place near +Hanover, where he goes himself every year, and that there he heard her +play _every day_ Mozart's concertos and all sorts of things. I thought +to myself at the time that the man who would take so much trouble for a +pupil as that, would have been just the one for me, for it was easy to +see that Deppe was teaching more for the love of Art than for love of +money--a rare thing in these materialistic days! Afterward, you know, +Miss B. spoke to me about him in Weimar, and I wrote you what she said. + +Well, as I was saying, I went to this musical party given to Anna +Mehlig, where there were a number of musicians and critics. I was +listening to Mehlig play, when suddenly Sherwood, who was also present, +stole up to me and said, "Come into the next room and be introduced to +Deppe." At these magic words I started, and immediately did as I was +bid. I found Deppe in one corner looking about him in an absent sort of +way. He was a man of medium height, with a great big brain, keen blue +eyes and delicate little mouth, and he had a most cheery and sunny +expression. He shook hands, and then we sat down and got into a most +animated conversation--all about music. I told him how interested I was +by all I had heard of him--how I had returned to Kullak for a last +trial--how tired I was of his eternal pedagogism, and how I should like +to study with _him_. + +He asked me what my chief difficulty was, whereupon I answered "the +technique, of course." He smiled, and said "that was the smallest +difficulty, and that anybody could master execution if they knew how to +attack it, unless there was some want of proper development of the +hand." I said I had studied very hard, but that I hadn't mastered it, +and that there was always some hard place in every piece which I +couldn't get the better of. He said he was sure he could remedy the +deficiency, and that if I would show him my hand without a glove, he +could tell directly what I was capable of. I wouldn't pull it off, +however, because I was afraid he might find some radical defect or +weakness in it, but I was so charmed with the way he made light of the +technique, and with the absolute certainty he seemed to have that I +could overcome it, that I promised him that I would go and play to him +the following Wednesday. + +Accordingly on the following Wednesday I presented myself. I had +expected to stay about half an hour, but I ended by staying _three solid +hours_, and we talked as fast as we could all the while, too! So you may +imagine we had a good deal to say. He lives in two little rooms on the +Königgrätzer Strasse, only four doors from the W.'s, where I boarded for +so long. Now if I had only known I was close to such a teacher! We must +often have passed each other in the street, and where _was_ my good +angel that he did not touch my arm and say, "There's the man for +you?"--Frightful to think how near one may be to one's best happiness, +or even salvation, and not know it! + +Deppe's front room was pretty much filled up with a grand piano, which, +as well as the chairs and most other articles of furniture, was covered +with music. I glanced over the pieces a little, and there was nearly +every set of Etudes under the sun, it seemed to me, as well as concertos +and pieces by all the great composers, fingered and marked with pencil +in the most minute way. It was enough simply to turn the leaves, to see +what a study he must have made of everything he gave his scholars. His +inner room had double doors to it to prevent the sound from penetrating. +I rapped at the outside one, and presently I heard a great turning and +rattling of keys, and then they opened, and Deppe was before me. He put +out his hand in the most cordial and friendly way, and greeted me with +the most winning smile in the world. I took off my things and began to +play to him. He listened quietly, and without interrupting me. When I +had finished he told me that my difficulties were principally mechanical +ones--that I had conception and style, but that my execution was uneven +and hurried, my wrist stiff, the third and fourth fingers[F] very weak, +the tone not full and round enough, that I did not know how to use the +pedal, and finally, that I was too nervous and flurried. + +"If possible, you must get over this agitation," said he. "_Hören Sie +Sich spielen_ (Listen to your own playing). You have talent enough to +get over all your difficulties if you will be patient, and do just as I +tell you." "I will do anything," I said. "Very good. But I warn you that +you will have to give up all playing for the present except what I give +you to study, and _those_ things you must play very slowly." + +This was a pleasant prospect, as I was just preparing to give a concert +in Berlin, under Kullak's auspices, and had already got my programme +half learned! But I had "invoked the demon," and I felt bound to give +the required pledge.--So here I am, after four years abroad with the +"greatest masters," going back to first principles, and beginning with +five-finger exercises! I had never been given any particular rule for +holding my hand, further than the general one of curving the fingers and +lifting them very high. Deppe objects to this extreme lifting of the +fingers. He says it makes a _knick_ in the muscle, and you get all the +strength simply from the finger, whereas, when you lift the finger +moderately high, the muscle from the whole arm comes to bear upon it. +The tone, too, is entirely different. Lifting the finger so very high, +and striking with force, stiffens the wrist, and produces a slight jar +in the hand which cuts off the singing quality of the tone, like closing +the mouth suddenly in singing. It produces the effect of a blow upon the +key, and the tone is more a sharp, quick tone; whereas, by letting the +finger just fall--it is fuller, less loud, but more penetrating. I +suppose the hammer falls back more slowly from the string, and that +makes the tone _sing_ longer. + +Don't you remember my saying that Liszt had such an extraordinary way of +playing a melody? That it did not seem to be so loud and cut-out as most +artists make it, and yet it was so penetrating? Well, dear, _there_ was +the secret of it! "_Spielen Sie mit dem Gewicht_ (Play with weight)," +Deppe will say. "Don't strike, but let the fingers _fall_. At first the +tone will be nearly inaudible, but with practice it will gain every day +in power."--After Deppe had directed my attention to it, I remembered +that I had never seen Liszt lift up his fingers so fearfully high as the +other schools, and especially the Stuttgardt one, make such a point of +doing.[G] That is where Mehlig misses it, and is what makes her playing +so sharp and cornered at times. When you lift the fingers so high you +cannot bind the tones so perfectly together. There is always a break. +Deppe makes me listen to every tone, and carry it over to the next one, +and not let any one finger get an undue prominence over the other--a +thing that is immensely difficult to do--so I have given up all pieces +for the present, and just devote myself to playing these little +exercises right. + +Deppe not only insists upon the fingers being as curved as possible, so +that you play exactly on the tips of them, but he turns the hand very +much out, so as to make the knuckles of the third and fourth fingers +higher than those of the first and second, and as he does _not_ permit +you to throw out the elbow in doing this, the _turn must be made from +the wrist_. The _thumb_ must also be slightly curved, and quite free +from the hand. Many persons impede their execution by not keeping the +thumb independent enough of the rest of the hand. The moment it +contracts, the hand is enfeebled. The object of turning the hand outward +is to favour the third and fourth fingers, and give them a higher fall +when they are lifted. This strengthens them very much. It also looks +much prettier when the outer edge of the hand is high, and one of +Deppe's grand mottoes is, "When it _looks_ pretty then it is right." + +After Deppe had put me through five-finger exercises on the foregoing +principles, and taught me to lift each finger and let it fall with a +perfectly loose wrist, (a most deceitful point, by the way, for it took +me a long while to distinguish when I was stiffening the wrist +involuntarily and when I wasn't,) he proceeded to the scale. He always +begins with the one in E major as the most useful to practice. His +principle in playing the scale is _not_ to turn the thumb under! but to +turn a little on each finger end, pressing it firmly down on the key, +and screwing it round, as it were, on a pivot, till the next finger is +brought over its own key. In this way he prepares for the thumb, which +is kept free from the hand and slightly curved.--He told me to play the +scale of E major slowly with the right hand, which I did. He curved his +hand round mine, and told me as long as I played right, his hand would +not interfere with mine. I played up one octave, and then I wished to go +on by placing my first finger on F sharp. To do that I naturally turned +my hand outward, so as to make the step from my thumb on E to F sharp +with the first, but it came bang up against Deppe's hand like a sort of +blockade. "Go on," said Deppe. "I can't, when you keep your hand right +in the way," said I. "My hand isn't in the way," said he, "but _your_ +hand is out of position." + +So I started again. This time I reflected, and when I got my third +finger on D sharp, I kept my hand slanting from left to right, but I +prepared for the turning under of the thumb, and for getting my first +finger on F sharp, by turning my wrist sharply out. That brought my +thumb down on the note and prepared me instantly for the next step. In +fact, my wrist carried my finger right on to the sharp without any +change in the position of the hand, thus giving the most perfect legato +in the world, and I continued the whole scale in the same manner. Just +try it once, and you'll see how ingenious it is--only one must be +careful not to throw out the elbow in turning out the wrist. As in the +ascending scale one has to turn the thumb under twice in every octave, +Deppe's way of playing avoids twice throwing the hand out of position as +one does by the old way of playing straight along, and the smoothness +and rapidity of the scale must be much greater. The direction of the +hand in running passages is always a little oblique. + +Don't you remember my telling you that Liszt has an inconceivable +lightness, swiftness and smoothness of execution? When Deppe was +explaining this to me, I suddenly remembered that when he was playing +scales or passages, his fingers seemed to lie across the keys in a +slanting sort of way, and to execute these rapid passages almost without +any perceptible motion. Well, dear, _there_ it was again! As Liszt is a +great experimentalist, he probably does all these things by instinct, +and without reasoning it out, but that is why nobodys else's playing +sounds like his. Some of his scholars had most dazzling techniques, and +I used to rack my brains to find out how it was, that no matter how +perfectly anybody else played, the minute Liszt sat down and played the +same thing, the previous playing seemed rough in comparison. I'm sure +Deppe is the only master in the world who has thought that out; though, +as he says himself, it is the egg of Columbus--"when you know it!" + +Deppe always begins the scale in the middle of the piano, and plays up +three octaves with the right, and down three octaves with the left hand. +He says that all the difficulty is in going up, and that coming back is +perfectly easy, as all you have to do is to let the fingers run! He +always makes me play each hand separately at first, and very slowly, and +then both hands together in contrary direction, gradually quickening the +tempo. After that in thirds, sixths, octaves, etc. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _December 25, 1873_. + +As you may imagine, this is anything but a "Merry Christmas" for me, for +I am simply the most completely _bouleversée_ mortal in this world! Here +I was a month ago preparing to give a concert of my own. Then I have the +good or bad luck to make Herr Deppe's acquaintance, and to find out how +I "ought" to have been studying for the last four years. I give up +Kullak and my concert plan, thinking I'll study with Deppe and come out +under his auspices. After two lessons with him, comes your letter with +the news of this awful national panic in it.--_Could_ anything be worse +for a person who has really _conscientiously_ tried to attain her +object? I'm like the professor who gave some lectures to prove a certain +theory, and when he got to the fourteenth, he decided it was false, and +devoted the remaining ones to pulling it all down! + +However, after practicing the scale on Deppe's principles, I find that +they open the road to an ease, rapidity, sureness and elegance of +execution which, with my stiff hand, I've not been able to see even in +the dim distance before! One of his grand hobbies is _tone_, and he +never lets me play a note without listening to it in the closest manner, +and making it sound what he calls "_bewüsst_ (conscious)."--No more +mechanical "straying of the hands over the keys (as the novelists always +say of their heroines) thinking of all sorts of things the while," but +instead, a close pinning down of the whole attention to hear whether one +finger predominates over the other, and to note the effect produced. I +was perfectly amazed to see how many little ugly habits I had to correct +of which I had not been the least aware. It seems as though my ears had +been opened for the first time! Such concentration is very exhausting, +and after two or three hours' practice I feel as if I should drop off +the chair. + +I forgot to say before, that Deppe enjoins sitting very low--that +is--not higher than a common chair. He says one may have "the soul of an +angel," and yet if you sit high, the tone will not sound poetic. +Moreover, in a low seat the fingers have to work a great deal more, +because you can't assist them by bringing the weight of your arm to +bear. "Your elbow must be _lead_ and your wrist a _feather_." Of course +the seat must be modified to suit the person. I prefer a low seat +myself, and have even had my piano-chair cut off two inches. + +Before definitely deciding to give up Kullak and come to _him_, Deppe +insisted that I should hear one of his scholars play. Fannie Warburg is +in England on a visit, so I could not hear _her_, but he has another +young lady pupil of whom he is very proud, named Fräulein Steiniger. +This young lady had been originally a pupil of Kullak's, and I had heard +her play once in his conservatory. She was a girl of a good deal of +talent, but not a genius. Deppe said that when she came to him she had +all my defects, only worse. She has been studying with him in the most +tremendous manner for fifteen months, and he wanted me to see what he +had made of her in that time. She was going to play in a concert in +Lübeck, and he was to rehearse her pieces with her on Saturday for the +last time. He begged me to come then, and accordingly I went. + +I was very much struck by her playing, which was remarkable, not so much +for sentiment or poetry, of which she had little, but for the _mastery_ +she had over the instrument, and for the perfection with which she did +everything. There was a clarity and limpidity about her trills and runs +which surprised and delighted. Her left hand was as able as the right, +and had a way of taking up a variation like nothing at all and running +along with it through the most complicated passages, which almost made +you laugh with pleasure! There was a wonderful vitality, elasticity and +_snap_ to her chords which impressed me very much, and a unity of effect +about her whole performance of any composition which I don't remember to +have heard from the pupils of other masters. The position of the hand +was exquisite, and all difficulties seemed to melt away like snow or to +be surmounted with the greatest ease. I saw at a glance that Deppe is a +magnificent teacher, and I believe that he has originated a school of +his own. + +Fräulein Steiniger played a charming Quintette by Hummel, a beautiful +Suite by Raff, a Prelude and Fugue by Bach, and two Studies, and all, as +it seemed to me, exactly as they _ought_ to be played. After she had +finished, we had a long talk about Kullak. She said she staid with him +year after year, doing her very best, and never arriving at anything. At +last, as he did nothing for her, she resolved to strike out for herself, +and went to Deppe, who was at that time conducting Stern's orchestral +concerts, and asked him if he would not allow her to play in one of +them. Deppe received her with his characteristic kindness and +cordiality, but told her that before he could promise he must first hear +her in private, and he set a time for the purpose. + +She had prepared Beethoven's great E flat Concerto, which everybody +plays here. It is as difficult for Deppe to listen to that concerto as +it is for Liszt to hear Chopin's B flat minor Scherzo. "We poor +conductors!" he will exclaim, "will the artists _always_ keep bringing +us Beethoven's E flat Concerto? Why not, for once, the B flat, or a +Mozart concerto? _Then_ we should say '_Ja, mit Vergnügen_ (Yes, with +pleasure).' _Aber Jeder will grossartig spielen heutzutage_ (But +everybody wants to play on a grand scale now-a-days). The mighty rushing +torrent is the fashion, but who can do the wimpling, dimpling streamlet? +Nobody has any fingers for the _kleine Passagen_ (little fine +passages). Sie _haben_, Alle, _keine Finger_ (_None_ of them have any +fingers)." He then winds up by saying _he_ is the only man in Germany +who knows how to give them "fingers." "_Ich weiss worauf es ankommt_ +(_I_ know what it depends on)!" + +Nevertheless, he listened patiently for the thousandth time to the E +flat concerto, as Steiniger played it. He then quietly called her +attention to the fact that _she_ had "no fingers," and she was in +perfect despair. He saw that she was energetic and willing to work, and +he at once took her in hand and began to drill her. She withdrew +entirely from society and devoted herself to practicing, following his +directions implicitly. She is now a beautiful artist, and he chalks out +every step of her career. I don't doubt she will play in the Gewandhaus +in Leipsic eventually, which is the height of every artist's ambition, +and stamps you as "finished." Then you are recognized all over the +world. Deppe does not mean to let her play here till she has first +played in many little places and succeeded. As he said to me the other +day, "When you wish to spring over tall mountains, you must first jump +over little mounds (_kleine Graben_.)" He counsels me to take a lesson +of this young lady every day for a time, so as to get over the technical +part quickly. + +As for Deppe's young protégée, Fannie Warburg, whom he has formed +completely, everybody says that she is wonderful. Fräulein Steiniger +says that when you hear her play you feel almost as if it were something +holy, it is so perfect and so extraordinarily spiritual. She is only +eighteen. Deppe showed me the list of compositions that she has already +played in concerts elsewhere, and I was astonished at the variety and +compass of it. Every great composer was represented. + +Among other refinements of his teaching, Deppe asked me if I had ever +made any pedal studies. I said "No--nobody had ever said anything to me +about the pedal particularly, except to avoid the use of it in runs, and +I supposed it was a matter of taste." He picked out that simple little +study of Cramer in D major in the first book--you know it well--and +asked me to play it. I had played that study to Tausig, and he found no +fault with my use of the pedal; so I sat down thinking I could do it +right. But I soon found I was mistaken, and that Deppe had very +different ideas on the subject. He sat down and played it phrase by +phrase, pausing between each measure, to let it "sing." I soon saw that +it is possible to get as great a virtuosity with the pedal as with +anything else, and that one must make as careful a study of it. You +remember I wrote to you that one secret of Liszt's effects was his use +of the pedal,[H] and how he has a way of disembodying a piece from the +piano and seeming to make it float in the air? He makes a spiritual form +of it so perfectly visible to your inward eye, that it seems as if you +could almost hear it breathe! Deppe seems to have almost the same idea, +though he has never heard Liszt play. "The Pedal," said he, "is the +_lungs_ of the piano." He played a few bars of a sonata, and in his +whole method of binding the notes together and managing the pedal, I +recognized Liszt. The thing floated!--Unless Deppe wishes the chord to +be very brilliant, he takes the pedal _after_ the chord instead of +simultaneously with it. This gives it a very ideal sound.--You may not +believe it, but it is _true_, that though Deppe is no pianist himself, +and has the funniest little red paws in the world, that don't look as if +they could do anything, he's got that same touch and quality of tone +that Liszt has--that indescribable _something_ that, when he plays a few +chords, merely, makes the tears rush to your eyes. It is too heavenly +for anything. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + Chord-Playing. Deppe no "Mere Pedagogue." Sherwood. Mozart's + Concertos. Practicing Slowly. The Opera Ball. + + + BERLIN, _January 2, 1874_. + +When I had got the principle of the scale pretty well into my head, what +should Deppe rummage out but Czerny's "_Schule der Geläufigkeit_ (School +of Velocity)," which I hadn't looked at since the days of my childhood +and fondly flattered myself I had done with forever. (We none of us know +what stands before us!) After having studied Cramer, Gradus and Chopin, +you may imagine it was rather a come down to have to take to the School +of Velocity again! And to study it _very_ slowly and with one hand +only!! That was adding insult to injury. Deppe knows what he is about, +though. He began picking out passages here and there all through the +book, and making me play them, stretching from the thumb and turning on +the fingers as often as possible. After I have mastered the passages I +am to learn a whole study, first with each hand alone, and then with +both together! + +Deppe next proceeded to teach me how to strike chords. I had to learn to +raise my hands high over the key-board, and let them fall without any +resistance on the chord, and _then sink with the wrist_, and take up the +hand exactly over the notes, keeping the hand extended. There is quite +a little knack in letting the hand fall so, but when you have once got +it, the chord sounds much richer and fuller.--And so on, _ad infinitum_. +Deppe had thought out the best way of doing _everything_ on the +piano--the scale, the chord, the trill, octaves, broken octaves, broken +thirds, broken sixths, arpeggios, chromatics, accent, rhythm--all! He +says that the principle of the scale and of the chord are directly +opposite. "In playing the scale you must gather your hand into a +nut-shell, as it were, and play on the finger tips. In taking the chord, +on the contrary, you must spread the hands as if you were going to ask a +blessing." This is particularly the case with a wide interval. He told +me if I ever heard Rubinstein play again to observe how he strikes his +chords. "Nothing cramped about _him_! He spreads his hands as if he were +going to take in the universe, and takes them up with the greatest +freedom and _abandon_!" Deppe has the greatest admiration for +Rubinstein's _tone_, which he says is unequaled, but he places Tausig +above him as an artist. He said Tausig used to come to his room and play +to him, and he took off Tausig's little half bow and way of seating +himself at the piano and beginning at once, without prelude or wasting +of words, very funnily! He would scarcely take time to say "_Guten +Abend_ (Good Evening)." Deppe thinks Tausig played some things +matchlessly, but that in others he was dry and soulless. Clara Schumann, +he says, is the most "musical" of all the great artists--and you +remember how immensely struck I was with Natalie Janotha, who is her +pupil, and plays just like her. + +From my telling you so much about technicalities, you must not think +Deppe only a pedagogue. He is in reality the soul of music, and all +these things are only "means to an end." As he says himself, "I always +hear the music the people _don't_ play." No pianist ever entirely suited +him, and this it was that set him to examining the instrument in order +to see what was the matter with it. He made friends with the great +virtuosi, and studied their ways of playing, and the result of all his +observation is that "Piano playing is the only thing where there is +something to be done." He declares that there is so much musical talent +going to waste in the world that it is "lying all about the streets," +and he has a most ingenious way of accounting for the fact that there +are so many great pianists in spite of their not knowing _his_ +method:--"Gifted people," he says, "play by the grace of God; but +_everybody_ could master the technique on _my_ system!!" + +To show you that it is not alone my judgment of Deppe--four of Kullak's +best pupils, including Sherwood! left him for Deppe, after I did. They +got so uneasy from what I told them, that they went to see Deppe, and as +soon as they heard Fräulein Steiniger play, they had to admit that she +had got hold of some secrets of which they knew nothing. Sherwood, you +know, is a positive genius, yet he is beginning all over again, too. In +short, we are all unanimous, while Deppe, on his side, is much gratified +at having some American pupils.--He flatters himself that we will +introduce all his cherished ideas into our "new and progressive +country." + +Ah, if I had only studied with Deppe before I went to Weimar! When I was +there I didn't play half as often to Liszt as I might have done, kind +and encouraging as he always was to me, for I always felt I wasn't +_worthy_ to be _his_ pupil! But if I had known Deppe four years ago, +what might I not have been now? After I took my first lesson of Deppe +this thought made me perfectly wretched. I felt so dreadfully that I +cried and cried. When I woke up in the morning I began to cry again. I +was so afflicted that at last my landlady, who is very kind and +sympathetic, asked me what ailed me. I told her I felt so dreadfully to +think I had met the person I ought to have met four years ago, at the +last minute, so.--"On the contrary, you ought to rejoice that you have +met him _at all_," said she. "Many persons go through life without ever +meeting the person they wish to, or they don't know him when they +do."--Sensible woman, Frau von H.!--After that I stopped fretting, and +tried to believe that there _is_ "a divinity that shapes our ends, +rough-hew them how we may." + + * * * + + BERLIN, _February 12, 1874_. + +I am now taking three lessons a week from Fräulein Steiniger and one +lesson of Deppe himself, and he says I am almost through the technical +preparation, though I still practice only with one hand, and _very_ +slowly all the time. Fräulein Steiniger says that she also practiced +slowly all the time for six months, as I am now doing. In fact, she +completely forgot how to play _fast_, and one day when Deppe finally +said to her in the lesson, "Now play fast for once," she could not do +it, and had to learn it all over again. Of course she very soon got her +hand in again, and now she has the most beautiful execution, and can +play _anything_ perfectly. + +Deppe wants me to play a Mozart concerto for two pianos with Fräulein +Steiniger, the first thing I play in public. Did you know that Mozart +wrote _twenty_ concertos for the piano, and that nine of them are +masterpieces? Yet nobody plays them. Why? Because they are too hard, +Deppe says, and Lebert, the head of the Stuttgardt conservatory, told me +the same thing at Weimar. I remember that the musical critic of the +_Atlantic Monthly_ remarked that "we should regard Mozart's passages and +cadenzas as child's play now-a-days." _Child's play_, indeed! That +critic, whoever it is, "had better go to school again," as C. always +says! + +Deppe is remarkable in Mozart, and has studied him more than anybody +else, I fancy. Indeed, to turn over his concertos, and see how he has +_fingered_ them alone, is enough to make you dizzy. He is always saying, +"You must hear Fannie Warburg play a Mozart concerto. _She_ can do it!" +and, indeed, I am most anxious to hear her. + +It is ludicrous to hear Deppe talk about the artists that everybody else +thinks so great. Having been a director of an orchestra for years, he +has constantly directed their concerts, and he weighs them in a +relentless balance! The other day he gave me Mendelssohn's Concerto in +G minor, and just at the end of the first movement is a fearful +break-neck passage for both hands. "There!" cried Deppe, "that's a good +healthy place. _Nehmen Sie_ DAS _für Ihr tägliches Gebet_ (Take _that_ +for your daily prayer). When you can play it eight times in succession +without missing a note, I'll be satisfied. That is one of the places +that when the pianists come to, they get their foot hard on to the pedal +and hold on to it--_Herr Gott!_ how they hold on to it--and so _lie_ +themselves through." He said he never heard anyone do it right except +those to whom he had taught it. Steiniger played it for me the other day +and it so astonished my ears that I felt like saying, "_Herr Gott!_" +too. It was as if some one had snatched up a handful of hail and dashed +it all over me. Br-r-r-zip! how it did go!--Like a bundle of rockets +touched off one after the other. And yet this concerto is one of those +things that everybody thrums, and is one of the regular pieces you must +have in your repertoire. Deppe was quite shocked to find I had never +learned it. + +My lesson usually lasts three hours! Nothing Deppe hates like being +hurried over a lesson. He likes to have plenty of time to express all +his ideas and tell you a good many anecdotes in between! I usually take +my lessons from seven till ten in the evening. Then he puts on his coat +and saunters along with me on his way to his "Kneipe," or beer-garden, +for he is far too sociable to go to bed without having taken a friendly +glass of beer with some one. Every block or so he will stand stock still +and impress some musical point upon my mind, and will often harangue me +for five or ten minutes before moving on. It seems to be impossible to +him to walk and _talk_ at the same time! In this way you may imagine it +takes me a good while to get home. + +On Tuesday there is to be a grand ball at the opera house which the +Emperor and the whole court grace with their presence, and lead off the +first Polonaise. There are two of these grand public balls every winter. +The tickets are sold, and it is the sole occasion where the public can +have the felicity of gazing upon royalty in close proximity. I have +never been, though all my German friends have been dinning it into my +ears for the last four years that I ought to go and see it, for the +decorations are magnificent. This year there is to be but one, as the +Emperor is not very well, and I expect it will be as much as one's life +is worth to get in and get out again, such is the rush! + +The German officers waltz perfectly, and with great spirit and elegance. +Dancing is a part of their military training and they are obliged to +learn it. But they are not very comfortable partners, for one rubs one's +face against their epaulets unless they are just the right height, and +you've no rest for your left hand. They take only two turns round the +room and then stop a moment or two to fan you and rest--then they take +two more. The consequence is, one never gets fairly going before one has +to stop. At first I used to think the effect of so many people whirling +round in the same direction dizzying and monotonous. But when I became +accustomed to it, the continual reversing of the Americans who come to +Berlin struck me as angular, in contrast to the graceful German +circling. It is not "the thing" here for the girls to look flushed and +disordered--skirts torn, and hair out of crimp--as our belles do at the +end of an evening. They retire from the ball-room with their dresses in +faultless condition, so that going to parties in Germany must cost the +_pater familias_ considerably less than with us! The floor is never so +crowded with dancers at one time, and as they are going in the same +direction, they don't run into each other as our couples do. On the +other hand, they don't have such a "good time" out of it as do our +girls, with their long five and ten minute turns to those delicious +waltzes! Strange, that though Germany is the native home of the waltz, +and the Vienna waltzes surpass all others, the Schottisch or +Rhinelaender should be their favourite dance. They dance it very +gracefully and rythmically. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _March 1, 1874_. + +I went the other evening to the Opera ball I wrote you of in my last. +The whole opera house, stage and all, was floored over, and +magnificently decorated with evergreens, mirrors, fountains, and +flowers. The tickets are sold for some charitable purpose. Only nice +people can get in, because the whole thing is systematically arranged, +and nobody can give their tickets to anybody else. I got mine through +Mr. Bancroft, and I went with two other ladies and a gentleman. + +We went very early, so as to get a box to sit in, and _never_ shall I +forget the first effect of the ball-room! That immense polished floor +stretching out like one vast mirror or sheet of ice, the fountains +flashing at the sides, the walls wreathed with green, a big orchestra +sitting in the balcony at each end, and about a hundred pairs of +magnificently dressed ladies and gentlemen descending the stairs into +the rooms and promenading about. Light, diamonds, colour, everywhere. +Oh, it was perfectly fairy-like! The floor was built over the tops of +the chairs in the parquette, and the entrance was through the royal box, +which is just in the centre of the opera house, facing the stage. This +box is like a large recess, of course, and not like the ordinary boxes. +There was an entrance on each side, coming in from the corridor, and a +flight of broad steps, carpeted, had been improvised, which led from it +down to the floor. It looked perfectly dazzling to see the pairs come in +from both sides at once and descend the steps, and the ladies' dresses +were displayed to perfection. Such toilets I never saw. The women were +covered with lace, feathers, and diamonds. The simpler dresses were of +tarletane (mine included!) but as they were quite fresh they gave a very +dressy air. We had a splendid box, first rank, and the second from the +proscenium boxes on the left, in which sat the royal family. In the box +between us and the latter sat the wife of the French ambassador with the +Countess von Seidlewitz and her sister, and behind them was a formidable +array of magnificent-looking officers in full uniform, their breasts +flashing with stars and orders and silver chains. + +The Countess von Seidlewitz is a famous court beauty and is lady of +honour to the Princess Carl (sister of the Empress). She sat just next +to me, as only the partition of the box was between us, and she was the +most beautiful woman I saw--perfectly imperial, in fact--white and +magnificent as a lily. Her features were perfectly regular, and she had +a proudly-cut mouth, and such dazzling little teeth! Then, her arms, +neck, and shape were exquisite. She wore the severest kind of dress, and +one that only such beauty could have borne. It was a white silk, with an +immense train, of course, and without overskirt--simply caught up in a +great puff behind. The waist was made with a small basque, but very low, +and with very short sleeves. Round the neck was a white bugle fringe, +and there were two or three rows of this fringe in front, graduating to +the waist, smaller and smaller, and going round the basque. All the +front breadth of the skirt was laid in folds of satin, in groups of +three, and on the edge of every third row was the fringe again, +graduating wider and wider toward the bottom. In her hair she wore a +wreath of white verbenas or (snow-balls) and green leaves. Her sole +ornament was a magnificent diamond locket and ear-rings of some curious +design, the locket depending from a very fine gold chain, which +challenged all observers to notice the faultlessness of her neck. One +sly bit of coquetry was visible in two natural flowers, +lilies-of-the-valley, with their leaves, which she had stuck in her +corsage so that they should rest against her neck and show that they +were not whiter than her skin.--You see there were no folds anywhere, +as there was no overskirt, but the whole dress hung in long lines and +showed the contour of the figure. Nothing but these fringes (which +gleamed and waved with every motion) relieved it--not even a bit of +black velvet anywhere, for the lace round the neck was drawn through +with a white silk thread. There was another lady in the same box whose +dress was very beautiful, too, though she herself was not. It was a +green silk with green tulle overdress puffed, and with ears of silver +wheat scattered over it. The tunic was of silver crape, the bottom cut +in scallops and trimmed with silver wheat. A wisp of wheat was knotted +round her neck for a necklace, and a perfect sheaf of it in her hair. It +was an exquisite dress. + +At ten o'clock everybody had arrived--about two thousand people. The +orchestra struck up the Polonaise, and the court descended from the box +to make the tour of the floor (_i. e._, only the members of the royal +family with their ladies of honour). The Emperor was not very well, so +he remained in his box, but the Empress led off with the Duke of +Edinburgh, who happened to be here. She was dressed in lavender satin, +covered with the most superb white lace. Her hair was done in braids on +the top of her head, very high, and upon it was fastened a double +coronet of diamonds, stuck on in stars, etc., which flashed like so many +small suns. Round her neck depended from a black velvet band, strings of +diamonds of great size and magnificence. It really almost made you start +when your eye caught them unexpectedly! The Empress is a very +elegant-looking woman, and is every inch a queen. She moved with stately +step, bowing and bowing graciously from side to side to the crowd which +parted and bent before her, and was followed by the Crown Prince and +Princess, the Princess Carl, the Princess Friedrich Carl (a beauty) and +her daughters, and I don't know who all, with their ladies of honour. +When the Countess von Seidlewitz came along, with her fringes waving and +gleaming in front of her, she shone out from all the rest, and, in fact, +from the whole two thousand guests, like the planet Venus among the +other stars.--Stunning! + +The orchestra banged away its loudest, and it was quite exciting. The +three balconies were crowded with people, and all the boxes. The box of +the diplomatic corps was just opposite us, and our gay little Mrs. F. +sat in it dressed in white satin. Some of my friends came and stood +under my box and tried to get me to come down, but I would not, for I +knew I should lose my place if I did, and, indeed, I would not want to +dance there unless my dress were something superlative. You see, all the +swells sat in their boxes and gazed right down on the dancers, who had a +circular place roped off for them. De Rilvas, the Spanish minister, +looked so fine, however, with his broad blue ribbon across his breast +and his gold cross depending from his neck, that I should have liked +very well to have made the tour of the room with him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + A Set of Beethoven Variations. Fannie Warburg. Deppe's Inventions. + His Room. His Afternoon Coffee. Pyrmont. + + + BERLIN, _April 30, 1874_. + +I wish you were here now so that I could play you a set of little +variations by Beethoven called, "I've only got a little hut." They are +_bewitching_, and I think I can now play them so as to express (as Deppe +says) "that he had indeed nothing but his little hut, but was quite +happy in it." In the last variation he dances a waltz in his little hut! +I have learned a great deal from these tiny variations, taught in +Deppe's inimitable fashion. When I first took them to him I began +playing the second of the variations--which is rather plaintive and +seems to indicate that the proprietor of the little hut had a misgiving +that there _might_ be a better abode somewhere on the earth--with a +great deal of "expression," as I thought. I soon found out I was +overdoing it, however, and that it is not always so easy to define where +good expression stops and bad style begins. "Why do you make those notes +stick out so?" asked Deppe, as I was giving vent to my "soul-longings," +(as P. says). "Learn to paint in _grossen Flaechen_ (great surfaces)." +He made me play it again perfectly legato, and with no one note +"sticking out" more than another. I saw at once that he was right about +it, and that the effect was much better, while it took nothing from the +real sentiment of the piece. It was one of those cases where a simple +statement was all that was necessary. Anything more detracted from +rather than added to it. + +I have at last heard Fannie Warburg in a Mozart concerto, for she has +got back from England. How she did play it! To say that the passages +"pearled," would be saying nothing at all. Why, the piano just _warbled_ +them out like a nightingale! The last movement had the infectious gayety +that Mozart's things often have, with a magnificent cadenza by himself. +She rendered it so perfectly, and with such naïve light-heartedness, +that none of us could resist it, and we all finally burst into a laugh! +There was a little orchestra accompanying, which Deppe had got together +and was directing. When she got to the cadenza, he laid down his bâton, +and retired to lean against the door and enjoy it. She did it in the +most masterly manner, and O, it was _so_ difficult! I thought of the +Boston critic, who considered Mozart's compositions "child's play." They +_are_ child's play--that is, they are _nothing at all_ if they are not +faultlessly played, and every fault _shows_, which is the reason so few +attempt them. Your hand must be "in order," as Deppe says, to do it. + +Fannie Warburg is a sweet little eighteen-year-old maiden. A shy little +bud of a girl without any vanity or self-consciousness. She has a lovely +hand for the piano, and the way she uses it is perfectly exquisite. It +is small and plump, but strong, with firm little fingers. Every muscle +is developed, and indeed it could not be otherwise, after such a six +years' training. One of Deppe's rules is that when you raise the finger +the knuckle must not stick out. The finger must "sit firm +(_fest-sitzen_) in the joint." Fannie Warburg's fingers "_sitzen_" so +"_fest_" that when she plays she positively has a little row of dimples +where her knuckles ought to be. It looks too pretty for anything--just +like a baby's hand. She does not seem to have the slightest ambition, +however, and I doubt whether she will ever do anything with her music +after she leaves Deppe. Her mother was from Hamburg, and had taken +lessons of Deppe there when they were both quite young. She thought him +such a remarkable teacher that she declared her daughter should have no +other master. So when Fannie was twelve years old she brought her to +him, and he has been giving her lessons ever since--something like +Samuel's mother bringing him to the Temple, wasn't it?--and indeed when +I go into Deppe's shabby little room I always feel as if I were in a +little Temple of Music! I like to see the furniture all bestrewn with +it, and Deppe himself seated at his table surrounded with piles of +manuscript, pen in hand, going over and arranging them, bringing order +out of chaos. Other orchestra leaders are always writing and begging him +to lend them his copies of Oratorios, etc. + +Deppe has all sorts of practical little ideas peculiar to himself. For +instance, he has invented a candlestick to stand on a grand piano. In +shape it is curved, like those things for candles attached to upright +pianos, but with a weighted foot to hold it firm. It is a capital +invention, for you put one each side of the music-rack, and then you can +turn it so as to throw the light on your music, just as you can turn +those on the upright pianos. It is on the same principle, only with the +addition of the foot. It is much more convenient than a lamp, because it +doesn't rattle, and you can throw the light on the page so much +better.--Then he always insists on our having our pieces bound +separately, in a cover of stout blue paper, such as copy books are bound +in. He entirely disapproves of binding music in books. "Who will lug a +great heavy book along?" he will ask, "and besides, they don't lie open +well." + +The other day Deppe told me he wanted me to come and hear Fräulein +Steiniger take her lesson, as she had some interesting pieces to play. I +found her already there when I arrived. Deppe was in an uncommonly good +humour, and kept making little jokes. She played a string of things, and +finally ended off with Liszt's arrangement of the Spinning Song from +Wagner's Flying Dutchman. Deppe is dreadfully fussy about this piece, +and made some such subtle and telling points regarding the _conception_ +of the composition, that they were worthy of Liszt himself. I mean to +learn it, and when I come home I will play it to you as Deppe taught it +to Steiniger, and you will see how fascinating it is. I know you'll be +carried away with it. + +Toward the end of the lesson it was growing rather late, and time also +for Deppe's coffee, which beverage you know the Germans always drink +late in the afternoon, accompanied with cakes. He had just laid down his +violin, as he and Fräulein Steiniger had played a sonata together, and +had seated himself at the piano to show her about some passage or other. +Deeply absorbed, he was haranguing her as hard as he could, when the +maid of all work suddenly entered with the coffee on a tray, and was +apparently about to set it down on the piano in close proximity to the +violin. "_Herr Gott, nicht auf die Violin!_ (Good gracious, not on the +violin!)" exclaimed Deppe, springing frantically up and rescuing the +beloved instrument. "Where then?" said the girl. "Oh, anywhere, only not +on the violin." She set it down on a chair and vanished. There were only +three chairs in the room, and the sofa was covered with music. Fräulein +Steiniger occupied one chair, I the second, and the coffee the third. +Deppe glanced around in momentary bewilderment, and then sat himself +plump down on the floor, took his coffee, stretched out his legs, and +began stirring it imperturbably. "But Herr Deppe!" remonstrated +Steiniger. "Well," said he, with his light-hearted laugh, "what else can +I do when I have no chair?" There was no carpet on the floor, which was +an ordinary painted one, and he looked funny enough, sitting there, but +he enjoyed his coffee just as well!--After he had finished drinking it, +the shades of night were falling, and it occurred to him it would be +well to illuminate his apartment. He is the happy possessor of five +minute lamps and candlesticks, no two of which are the same height. The +lamps are two in number, and are about as big as the smallest sized +fluid lamp that we used in old times to go to bed by. The three +candlesticks are of china, and adorned with designs in decalcomania--probably +the handiwork of grateful pupils, for in Germany there is no present +like a "_Hand-Arbeit_ (something done by the hand of the giver)." It is +the correct thing to give a gentleman. When Fräulein Steiniger and I +only are present, Deppe usually considers the two lamps sufficient. But +if others are there and he is going to have some music in the evening, +he will produce the three minute candlesticks, with an end of candle in +each, light them, and dispose them in various parts of the room. When, +however, as on great occasions, the five lamps and candlesticks are +supplemented by two _more_ candles on the piano in the curved +candlesticks of Deppe's own invention, the blaze of light is something +tremendous to our unaccustomed eyes! Nothing short of the Tuileries or +the "Weisser Saal" at the palace here could equal it! + + * * * + + BERLIN, _May 31, 1874_. + +This season with Deppe has been of such immense importance to me, that I +don't know _what_ sum of money I would take in exchange for it. By +practicing in his method the tone has an entirely different sound, being +round, soft and yet penetrating, while the execution of passages is +infinitely facilitated and perfected. In fact, it seems to me that in +time one could attain anything by it, but time it _will_ have. One has +to study for months very slowly and with very simple things, to get into +the way of playing so, and to be able to think about each finger as you +use it--to "_feel_ the note and make it conscious." Deppe won't let me +finish anything at present, so I can't tell how far along I am myself. +His principle is, never to learn a piece completely the first time you +attack it, but to master it three-quarters, and then let it lie as you +would fruit that you have put on a shelf to ripen;--afterward, take it +up again and finish it. The principle _may_ be a good one, but it +prevents my ever having anything to play for people, and consequently I +have ceased playing in company entirely. In fact, I find it impossible, +and I don't see how Sherwood manages it. _He_ has a whole repertoire, +and sits down and plays piece after piece deliciously. But then he is a +perfect genius, and will make a sensation when he comes out. He has that +natural repose and imperturbability that are everything to an artist, +but which, unfortunately, so few of us possess. His compositions, too, +are exquisite, and so poetical! Mrs. Wrisley,[I] of Boston, and Fräulein +Estleben, of Sweden, who left Kullak when I did, are also gifted +creatures, whereas I think I am only a steady old poke-along, who +_won't_ give up! Sherwood, however, is head and shoulders above all of +us. + +[The following extract, taken from the report in the _Musical Review_ of +Mr. Sherwood's address before the Music Teachers' National Association +in Buffalo, in June, 1880, would seem to show that whether this +distinguished young virtuoso, now by far the leading American +concert-pianist, gained his ideas on the study of touch and tone from +Herr Deppe or not, he certainly endorses them in both his playing and +his teaching:--"It makes a great deal of difference whether a piano be +struck with a stick, with mechanical fingers, or with fingers that are +full of life and magnetism. I have examined Rubinstein's hand and arm, +and found that they are not only full of life and magnetism, but that +they are extremely elastic, and the fingers are so soft that the bones +are scarcely felt. Can practice produce these qualities? I believe so, +and I make it a point both with my pupils and myself to practice slow +motions. It is much easier to strike quickly than slowly, but practice +in the slow movement will develop both muscular and nervous power. And +the tone obtained by this motion is much better than that obtained by +striking. The mechanical practice in vogue at Leipsic and other European +conservatories often fails because the subject of æsthetics and tone +beauties are neglected." See pp. 288, 302-3, 334.]--ED. + +My lessons with Deppe are a genuine musical excitement to me, always. In +every one is something so new and unexpected--something that I never +dreamed of before--that I am lost in astonishment and admiration. The +weeks fly by like days before I know it. Deppe gives me the most +beautiful music, and never wastes time over things which will be of no +use to me afterward. Every piece has an _aim_, and is lovely, also, to +play to people. Now, in Tausig's and Kullak's conservatories I wasted +quantities of time over things which are beautiful enough, and do to +play to one's self, but which are not in the least effective to play to +other people either in the parlour or in the concert-room--as Bach's +Toccata in C, for example. Such things take a good while to learn, and +are of no practical advantage afterward. But Deppe has an organized +_plan_ in everything he does. + +In my study with Kullak when I had any special difficulties, he only +said, "Practice always, Fräulein. _Time_ will do it for you some day. +Hold your hand any way that is easiest for you. You can do it in _this_ +way--or in _this_ way"--showing me different positions of the hand in +playing the troublesome passage--"or you can play it with the _back_ of +the hand if that will help you any!" But Deppe, instead of saying, "Oh, +you'll get this after years of practice," shows me how to conquer the +difficulty _now_. He takes a piece, and while he plays it with the most +wonderful _fineness_ of conception, he cold-bloodedly dissects the +mechanical elements of it, separates them, and tells you how to use your +hand so as to grasp them one after the other. In short, he makes the +technique and the conception _identical_, as of course they ought to be, +but I never had any other master who trained his pupils to attempt it. + +Deppe also hears me play, I think, in the true way, and as Liszt used to +do: that is, he never interrupts me in a piece, but lets me go through +it from beginning to end, and _then_ he picks out the places he has +noted, and corrects or suggests. These suggestions are always something +which are not simply for that piece alone, but which add to your whole +artistic experience--a _principle_, so to speak. So, without meaning any +disparagement to the splendid masters to whom I owe all my previous +musical culture, I cannot help feeling that I have at last got into the +hands not of a mere piano virtuoso, however great, but, rather, of a +profound musical _savant_--a man who has been a violinist, as well as a +director, and who, without being a player himself, has made such a study +of the piano, that probably all pianists except Liszt might learn +something from him. You may all think me "enthusiastic," or even _wild_, +as much as you like; but whether or not I ever conquer my own block of a +hand--which has every defect a hand _can_ have!--when I come home and +begin teaching you all on Deppe's method, you'll succumb to the genius +and beauty of it just as completely as I have. You will _then_ all admit +I was RIGHT! + +July 22.--I have finally made up my mind to go to Pyrmont when Deppe +does, and spend several weeks, keeping right on with my lessons, and +perhaps, giving a little concert there. I have always had a curiosity to +visit one of the German watering places, as I'm told they are extremely +pleasant. + + * * * + + PYRMONT, _August 1, 1874_. + +Here I am in Pyrmont, and there's no knowing where I shall turn up next! +Fräulein Steiniger got here before me, but Deppe has not yet arrived +from Brussels, whither he has gone to be present at the yearly +exhibition of the Conservatoire there. He has been appointed one of the +judges on piano-playing. Pyrmont is a lovely little place. It is in a +valley surrounded by hills, heavily wooded, and has a beautiful park, as +all German towns have, no matter how small. The avenues of trees surpass +anything I ever saw. The soil has something peculiar about it, and is +particularly adapted to trees. They grow to an immense height, and their +stems look so strong, and their foliage is so tremendously luxuriant, +that it seems as if they were ready to burst for very life! + +Fräulein Steiniger went with me to look up some rooms. Every family in +Pyrmont takes lodgers, so that it is not difficult to find good +accommodations. The women are renowned for being good housekeepers and +their rooms are charmingly fitted up, but the prices are very high, as +they live the whole year on what they make in summer. People come here +to drink the waters of the springs, and to take the baths, which are +said to be very invigorating. My rooms are near the principal "_Allée_" +or Avenue, leading from the Springs. About half way down is a platform +where the orchestra sit and play three times a day--at seven in the +morning (which is the hour before breakfast, when it is the thing to +take a glass or two of the water, and promenade a little), at four in +the afternoon, when everybody takes their coffee in the open air, and at +seven in the evening. As I don't drink the waters I do not rise early, +and am usually awakened by the strains of the orchestra. There is a +little piazza outside my window where I take my breakfast and supper. +For dinner I go to "table-d'hôte" at a hotel near.--It is a great relief +to get out of Berlin and see something green once more. I find the +weather very cool, however, and one needs warm clothing here. + +There are the loveliest walks all about Pyrmont that you can imagine, +and beautiful wood-paths are cut along the sides of the hills. My +favourite one is round the cone of a small hill to the right of the +town. The path completely girdles it, and you can start and walk round +the hill, returning to the point you set out from. It is like a leafy +gallery, and before and behind you is always this curving vista. +Whenever I take the walk it reminds me of-- + + "Curved is the line of beauty, + Straight is the line of duty; + Follow the last and thou shalt see + The other ever following thee." + +It is the first time I ever succeeded in combining the carved and the +straight line at the same time--because, of course, it is my _duty_ to +take exercise! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + The Brussels Conservatoire. Steiniger. Excursion to Kleinberg. + Giving a Concert. Fräulein Timm. + + + PYRMONT, _August 15, 1874_. + +Deppe has got back from Brussels, and, as you may imagine, he had much +to tell about his flight into the world, particularly as he had also +been to London. He had a delightful time with the professors of the +Brussels Conservatoire, who were all extremely polite to him, and he +heard some talented young pupils. There was one girl about seventeen, +whom he said he would give a good deal to have as _his_ pupil, so gifted +is she, though her playing did not suit him in many respects. He said he +could have made some severe criticisms, but he refrained--partly because +he felt the uselessness of it, partly because he says "it _is_ +extraordinary how amiable one gets when _young ladies_ are in question!" +He was very enthusiastic over the violin classes. "What a bow the +youngsters do draw!" he exclaimed. Dupont, the great piano teacher in +Brussels, must be a man of considerable "_esprit_," judging from the two +of his compositions that I am familiar with--the "Toccata" and the +"Staccato." I used to hear a good deal about him from his pupil Gurickx, +whom I met in Weimar. Certainly Gurickx played magnificently, and with a +_brio_ I have rarely heard equalled. He is like an electric battery. +Quite another school, however, from Deppe's--the severe, the chaste and +the classic! Extreme _purity of style_ is Deppe's characteristic, and +not the passionate or the emotional. For instance, he has scarcely given +me any Chopin, but keeps me among the classics, as he says on that side +my musical culture has been deficient. He says that Chopin has been "so +played to death that he ought to be put aside for twenty years!"--But if +Chopin were really sympathetic to him he could never say _that_! The +truth is, the modern "problematische Natur" has no charms for a +transparent and simple temperament like his. + +Steiniger has been playing most beautifully lately. She has given two +concerts of her own here, and has played at another. Then she rehearsed +with orchestra Mozart's B flat major concerto--the most difficult +concerto in the world, and oh, _so_ exquisite! Though I had long wished +to do so, I never had heard it before, and as I listened I felt as if I +never could leave Deppe until I could play _that_! I wish you could have +heard it. It is sown with difficulties--enough to make your hair stand +on end! Steiniger played it with an ease and perfection truly +astonishing. The notes seemed fairly to run out of her fingers for fun. +The last movement was Mozart all over, just as merry as a cricket!--I +doubt whether anybody can play this concerto adequately who has not +studied with Deppe. The beauty of his method is that the greatest +difficulties become play to you. + +I love to see Deppe direct the orchestra when Steiniger plays a concerto +of Mozart. His clear blue eyes dance in his head and look so sunny, and +he stands so light on his feet that it seems as if he would dance off +himself on the tips of his toes, with his bâton in his hand! He is the +incarnation of Mozart, just as Liszt and Joachim are of Beethoven, and +Tausig was of Chopin. He has a marvellously delicate musical +organization, and an instinct how things ought to be played which +amounts to second sight. Fräulein Steiniger said to him one day: "Herr +Deppe, I don't know why it is, but I can't make the opening bars of this +piece sound right. It doesn't produce the impression it ought." "I know +why," said Deppe. "It is because you don't strike the chord of G minor +before you begin,"--and so it was. When she struck the chord of G minor, +it was the right preparation, and brought you immediately into the mood +for what followed. It _fixed_ the key. + +Aside from music, Deppe, like all artists, has the most childlike +nature, and I think Mozart is so peculiarly sympathetic to him because +he has such a simple and sunny temperament himself. We made a beautiful +excursion the other day in carriages, through the hills, to a little +village far distant, where we drank coffee in the open air. Deppe, who +knows every foot of the ground about Pyrmont, which he has frequented +from his youth up, kept calling our attention to all the points of the +scenery over and over again with the greatest delight, quite forgetting +that he repeated the same thing fifty times. "That little village over +there is called Kleinberg. It has a school and a church, and the +pastor's name is Koehler," he would say to me first. Then he would +repeat it to every one in our carriage. Then he would stand up and call +it over to the carriage behind us. Then when he had got out he said it +to the assembled crowd, and as I walked on in advance with Fräulein +Estleben, the last thing I heard floating over the hill-top was, "The +pastor's name is Koehler,"--so I knew he was still instructing some one +in the fact. "I wonder how often Deppe has repeated that?" I said to +Fräulein Estleben. "At least fifty times," said she, laughing. "I'm +going back to him and ask him once more what the name of the pastor is." +So I went back, and said, "By the way, Herr Deppe, what did you say the +name of the pastor of that village is?" "_Koehler_," said dear old +Deppe, with great distinctness and with such simple good faith that I +felt reproached at having quizzed him, though the others could scarcely +keep their countenances, as they knew what I was after. + +I have been preparing for some time to give a concert of Chamber Music +in the salon of the hotel here, and expect it to take place a week from +to-day. My head feels quite _lame_ from so much practicing, the +consequence, I suppose, of so much listening. I am to play a Quintette, +Op. 87, in E major, by Hummel, for piano and strings, and a Beethoven +Sonata, Op. 12, in E flat, for violin and piano, and the other +instruments will play a Quartette by Haydn in between. It is a beautiful +little programme, I think--every piece perfect of its kind. If I succeed +in this concert as I hope, I shall probably listen to Deppe's implorings +and remain under his guidance another season. Deppe believes that one +_must_ go through successive steps of preparation before one is fitted +to attack the great concert works. I've found out (what he took good +care not to tell me in the beginning!) that his "course" is three +years!! and you can't hurry either him or his method. Your fingers have +got to grow into it.--I do not at all regret, with you, not having +hitherto played in concert; on the contrary, I think it providential +that I did not. You see, you and I started out with wholly impracticable +and ridiculous ideas. We thought that things could be done quickly. +Well, they _can't_ be done quickly and be worth anything. One must keep +an end in view for years and gradually work up to it. The length of time +spent in preparation has to be the same, whether you begin as a child +(which is the best, and indeed the only proper way), or whether you +begin after you have grown up. It is a ten years' labour, take it how +you will. + + * * * + + PYRMONT, _August 15, 1874_. + +My concert came off yesterday evening, and Deppe says it was a complete +success. I did not play any solos, after all, though I had prepared some +beautiful ones, for Deppe said the programme would be too long, and he +was not quite sure of my courage. "You'd be frightened, if you were a +_Herr Gott_!" said he; but, contrary to my usual habit, I wasn't +frightened in the least, and I think I did as well as such a shaky, +trembly concern as I, could have expected, particularly as my hands are +two little fiends who _won't_ play if they don't feel like it, do what I +will to make them!--My programme was _à la_ Joachim (!)--only three +pieces of Chamber Music:-- + + 1. Quintette, Op. 87, E major, Hummel. + 2. Quartette, G major, Haydn. + 3. Sonata for piano and violin, Op. 12, E flat. Beethoven. + +Deppe arranged the whole thing most practically. We had a large _salle_ +in the Hotel Bremen which was admirably proportioned, and a new grand +piano from Berlin. Deppe had only so many chairs placed as he had given +out invitations, and the consequence was that every chair was filled, +and there were no rows of empty seats. My "public" was very musical and +critical, and there were so many good judges there that I wonder I +wasn't nervous; but a sort of inspiration came to me at the moment. + +The musicians who accompanied me were exceedingly good ones for such a +place as Pyrmont, and my strictly _classic_ selections were received +with great favour by the audience! That quintette of Hummel's is a most +charming composition--so flowing and elegant--and one can display a good +deal of virtuosity in the last part of it. I played first and last, and +the quartette in between was performed by the stringed instruments +alone. After I had finished the quintette, Deppe, who was at the extreme +end of the hall, sent me word that I was "doing famously, and that he +was delighted," and this encouraged me so that my sonata went +beautifully, too. When it was over, ever so many people came up and +congratulated me, and Fräulein Timm, Deppe's head teacher in Hamburg, +even complimented me on my "extraordinary facility of execution." I +couldn't help laughing at that, with my stubborn hand which never will +do anything, and which only the most intense study has schooled--but in +truth I was quite surprised myself at the plausible way in which it went +over all difficulties! Quite a number of Deppe's scholars were present, +all of them critics and several of them beautiful pianists. Two nice +American girls, sisters, from the West, came on from Berlin on purpose +for my concert. They helped me dress, and presented me with an exquisite +bouquet. One of them is taking lessons of Deppe, and the other has a +great talent for drawing, and has been two years studying in Berlin. She +says she has only made a "beginning" now, and that she wishes to study +"indefinitely" yet.--So it is in Art! I think her heads are excellent +already. + +After the concert was over, Deppe gave me a little champagne supper, +together with Fräuleins Timm, Steiniger, and these two young ladies. +When he poured out the wine he said he was going to propose a toast to +two ladies; one of them, of course, was myself, "and the other," said +he, "is in America, namely, the friend of Fräulein Fay, whom I judge to +be a woman of genius, so truly and rightly does she feel about art (I've +translated H's letters to him), and so nobly has she sympathized with +and stood by Fräulein Fay.--To Mrs. A., whose acquaintance I long to +make!"--You may be sure I drank to _that_ toast with enthusiasm. Ah, it +was a pleasant evening, after so many years of fruitless toil! The fat +and jolly old landlord came himself to put me into the carriage and to +say that everybody in the audience had expressed their pleasure and +gratification at my performance. I rather regret now that I did not play +my solos, but perhaps it is just as well to leave them until another +time. I have "sprung over one little mound"--to use Deppe's simile--and +got an idea of the impetus that will be necessary to "carry me over the +mountain." + + * * * + + PYRMONT, _September 4, 1874_. + +After the unwonted exaltation of the success of my little concert, I +have been suffering a corresponding reaction, partly because Fräulein +Timm, Deppe's Hamburg assistant, with whom I am now studying, began her +instructions, as teachers always do, by chucking me into a deeper slough +of despond than usual. Consequently, I haven't been very bright, though +I am gradually coming up to the surface again, for I'm pretty hard to +drown! + +Fräulein Timm belongs to the single sisterhood, but is one of the fresh +and placid kind, and as neat as wax. She's got a great big brain and a +remarkable gift for teaching, for which she has a _passion_. I quite +adore her when she gets on her spectacles, for then she looks the +personification of Sagacity! She has been associated with Deppe for +years in teaching, and "keeps all his sayings and ponders them in her +heart." Indeed, she knows his ideas almost better than he does himself, +and carries on the whole circle of pupils that he left in Hamburg when +he came to Berlin. Every now and then he runs down to see how they are +getting on, gives them all lessons, reviews what they have done, and +brings Fräulein Timm all the new pieces he has discovered and fingered. +She also comes occasionally to Berlin to see him, takes a lesson every +day, fills herself with as many new ideas as possible, and then returns +to her post. Together, they form a very strong pair, and I think it a +capital illustration of your theory that men ought to associate women +with them in their work, and that "men should _create_, and women +_perfect_." + +Deppe makes Fräulein Timm and Fräulein Steiniger his partners and +associates in his ideas, and the consequence is they add all their +ingenuity to impart them to others. This spares him much of the tedious +technical work, and leaves him free for the higher spheres of art, as +they take the beginners and prepare them for him. _He_ has made _them_ +magnificent teachers, and they employ their gifts to further _him_. I +don't doubt that through them his method will be perpetuated, and even +if he should die it would not be lost to the world. On the other hand, +he has given them something to live for.--Curious that the +_practicalness_ of this association with women doesn't strike the +masculine mind oftener! + +So I am going down to Hamburg to study for a time with this Fräulein +Timm, as I think she will develop my hand quicker than Deppe, even. +Deppe has always urged me to it, but I never would do it, as I did not +know her personally, and did not wish to leave him. Now that I have +tried her, however, I find he was right, as he _always_ is! At present +she is throwing her whole weight upon my wrist, which I hope will get +limber under it! She has an obstinacy and a perseverance in sticking at +you that drive you almost wild, but make you learn "lots" in the end. I +think my grand trouble all these years has been a stiff wrist and a +heavy arm. I have borne down too heavily on wrist and arm, whereas the +whole weight and power must be just in the tips of the fingers, and the +wrist and arm must be quite light and free, the hand turning upon the +wrist as if it were a pivot. + +Pyrmont is an exquisite little place, and I regret to leave it. At first +I almost perished with loneliness, but now that I have a few +acquaintances here I am enjoying it. It is a fashionable watering place, +but chiefly visited by ladies. There are about a hundred women to one +man! The first week I was here I lived at a Herr S.'s, but finding it +too expensive I looked up another lodging and am now living with a jolly +old maid. I like living with old maids. I think they are much neater +than married women, and they make you more comfortable. As the season is +now over, this one's house is quite empty, and it is exquisitely kept. I +took two rooms in the third story, small but very cozy, and with a +lovely view of the hills. + +We have just had the loveliest illumination I ever saw. It was one +Sunday evening--"Golden Sunday" they call it here, though why they +_should_ call it so, I know not. I accepted the information, however, +without inquiry into first causes, and went out in the evening to +promenade in the Allée with the rest. The Allée is not all on a level, +but descends gradually from the springs to a fountain which is at the +opposite end. Rows and rows of Japanese lanterns were festooned across +the trees. As you walked down the path, you saw the festoons one below +the other. The fountain was illuminated with gas jets behind the water. +You could not see the water till you got close up, and at a distance +only the rows of gas jets were apparent. As you neared it, however, the +watery veil seemed flung over them, like the foamy tulle over a bride. +It was very fascinating to look at, and I kept receding a few paces and +then returning. As I receded, the watery veil would disappear, and as I +approached it would again take form. It reminded me of some people's +characters, of which you see the bright points from the first, and think +you know them so well, but when you draw closer, even in the moments of +greatest intimacy, you always feel a veil between you and them--a thin, +impalpable something which you cannot annihilate, even though you may +see _through_ it. + +We walked up and down the Allée a long time listening to the orchestra, +which was playing. The magnificent great trees looked more beautiful +than ever, with their lower boughs lit up by the lanterns, and their +upper ones disappearing mysteriously into shadow. At last the tapers in +the lanterns burned out one after another, the avenue was wrapped in +gloom, and we finished this poetic evening in the usual prosaic manner +by returning home and going to bed! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + Music in Hamburg. Studying Chamber Music. Absence of Religion in + Germany. South Americans. Deppe once more. A Concert Début. + Postscript. + + + HAMBURG, _February 1, 1875_. + +Hamburg is a lovely city, though I _am_ having such a dreadfully dreary +and stupid time here--partly because my boarding-place is so intensely +disagreeable, and partly because I made up my mind when I came to make +no acquaintances and to do nothing but study. I have stuck to my +resolution, though I'm not sure it is not a mistake, for there is a most +elegant and luxurious society in this ancestral town of ours.[J] + +Life is solid and material here, however, and music is at a low ebb. The +Philharmonic concerts are wretched, and nobody goes to even the few +piano concerts there are. That little Laura Kahrer, now Frau Rappoldi, +that I heard in Weimar at Liszt's, has been wanting to come here with +her husband, who is an eminent violinist, but she has not dared to do +it, because all the musicians tell her she would not make her expenses. +She played at the Philharmonic, too, but since then they won't have any +more piano playing at the Philharmonic. Nobody cares for it, unless +Bülow or Rubinstein or Clara Schumann are the performers. I thought Frau +Rappoldi played magnificently, but I was the only person who _did_ think +so. She made a dead failure here. Everybody was down on her. As to the +criticism, it was about like this: "Frau Rappoldi played quite prettily +and in a lady-like manner, but she had no tone, etc." Poor thing! The +next day when Schubert went to see her she wept bitterly, and well she +might. Schubert is one of the directors of the Philharmonic, and it was +through him she got the chance of playing. He, too, felt awfully cut up +at her want of success. "That is what one gets," said he to me, "by +recommending people. If they don't succeed, _you_ get all the blame for +it." He felt he had burnt his fingers! I think the whole secret of Frau +Rappoldi's want of success was that she did not _look_ pretty. She was +so dowdily dressed, and her hair looked like a Feejee Islander's. People +laughed at her before she began. Too true!--that "dress makes the +woman."[K] + +Deppe's darling Fannie Warburg gave a concert here last month, and she, +also, got a pretty poor criticism, and for the same reason, viz.: people +haven't the musical sense to appreciate her--at least in my opinion. The +action of her hands on the piano is grace itself, and the elasticity of +her wrist is wonderful. Her touch completely realizes Deppe's ideal of +"letting the notes fall from the finger-tips like drops of water," and +she executes better with the left hand, if that be possible, than with +the right! At any rate, there is _no_ difference. It is the most +heavenly enjoyment to hear her, and you feel as if you would like to +have her go on forever. And yet, I don't believe she will make a great +career. She has not fire enough to make the public appreciate the +immensity of her performance. No rush--no _abandon_! She has no +_presence_ either, but is a timid, meek, childlike little +maiden--docility itself, but a _made_ player, as it were, not a +spontaneous one. Such is life! To me, her playing is the purest +music--"_die reine Musik_"--and the bigger the hall the more that _tone_ +of hers rolls out and fills it! + + * * * + + HAMBURG, _March 1, 1875_. + +I wish I could write up Deppe's system for publication, but it is a very +difficult thing to give any adequate idea of. Fräulein Timm tells me it +is only comparatively recently that he has perfected it himself to its +present point (though he has long had the conception of it), and that +accounts for its not being known. He was completely buried in Hamburg, +where there is no scope for art. I believe his ambition is to found a +School of this exquisitely pure and perfect and almost idealized +piano-playing, which may serve as a counterpoise to the warmer and more +sensuous prevailing one--_sculpture_ as contrasted with _painting_! + +I have been chiefly studying _Kammer-Musik_ (Chamber Music) this +winter--that is, trios, quartettes, etc. Fräulein Timm is giving me such +a training as I never had before. She has the most astonishing talent +for teaching, and has reduced it to a science. I don't play anything up +to tempo under her--always slow, slow, _slow_. She really dissects every +tone, and shows me when and why it doesn't sound well. My whole +attention is now bent upon _tone_. Ah, M., _that's_ the thing in +playing!--To bring out the _soul_ there is in the key simply by touching +it, as the great masters do.--It is the pianist's highest art, though +amid the dazzle of piano pyrotechnics the public often forget it. + +I am just finishing Beethoven's third Trio, Op. 1. The last movement is +the loveliest thing! It makes me think of a wood in spring filled with +birds. One minute you hear a lot of gossiping little sparrows twittering +and chippering, and then comes some rare wild bird with a sort of +cadence, and then come others and whistle and call. It is bewitching, +and the most perfect imitation of nature imaginable; gay--_so_ gay! as +only Beethoven can be when he begins to play. Everything is on the wing. +It is, of course, exceedingly difficult, because, like all this pure, +classic music, to make any effect it has to be executed with the utmost +perfection. I am so infatuated with it that when I get through +practicing it, I feel as if I were tipsy! + +These Beethoven trios are a perfect mine in themselves. Each one seems +to be entirely different from all the rest. There are twelve in all, and +Deppe wants me to learn them all. Think what a piece of work! This +enormous amount of literature that you must have to form a +repertoire--the trios, quartettes, quintettes, concertos, etc., it is +that makes it so long before one is a finished artist. And then you must +consider the hours and hours that go to waste on _studies_, just to get +your hand into a condition to play these masterpieces. Oh, the +arduousness of it is incalculable! I often ask myself, "What demon has +tempted me here?" as I sit and drudge at the piano. I play all day, take +a walk with L. in the afternoon, and at night tumble into bed and sleep +like a log--that is, when my hardest of beds and shivering room will +_let_ me sleep. That is my life, day after day. I only see the people of +the house at meals. + +I am the only lady in this family. All the other boarders are very young +men, almost boys, who are here to learn German or commerce. There are +three South Americans, one Portugese, one Brazilian, one Russian and one +Frenchman. I hear Spanish and French all the while, but no English, and +with the German it is very confusing.--I feel very sorry for all these +young fellows, their lives are so bare and disagreeable, and so wholly +devoid of any influence that can make them better or happier. As for our +landlady, it would take a Balzac to do justice to such a combination. +She is a good housekeeper. The cooking is excellent, and my room (when +warm) is pleasant. Indeed, the Hamburg standard of housekeeping is much +higher than in Berlin. Things are _much_ daintier. But her power of +making you physically and mentally uncomfortable in other ways is +unsurpassed. Were it not that my stay is indefinite, and that I have +already moved once, I would not remain here. As it is, I prefer putting +up with it to the trouble and expense of changing; beside which, I have +found that when once you have left your own home-circle, you have to +bear, as a rule, with at least one intensely disagreeable person in +every house. + +My opinion of human nature has not risen since I came abroad, and I +think that this winter has quite cured me of my natural tendency to +skepticism.--I now realize too well what people's characters, both men +and women, may become without religion either in themselves or in those +about them. I suppose there _is_ religion in Germany, but _I_ have seen +very little of it, either in Protestants or Catholics, and the results I +consider simply dreadful! You see, there is _no_ adequate motive to +check the indulgence of _any_ impulse--I have come to the conclusion +that jealousy is the national vice of the Germans. Everybody is jealous +of everybody else, no matter how absurdly or causelessly. Old women are +jealous of young ones, and even sisters in the same family are jealous +of each other to a degree that I couldn't have believed, had I not seen +it. + + * * * + + HAMBURG, _Easter Sunday, 1875_. + +With regard to playing in concert, I find myself doubting whether on +general principles it is best to get one's whole musical training under +one master only, as Fannie Warburg, for instance, has done; for my +experience teaches me that though nearly all masters can give you +something, none can give you everything. If, with my present light, I +could begin my study over again, I should first stay three years with +Deppe, in order to endow the spirit of music that I hope is within me, +with the outward form and perfection of an artist. Next, I should study +a year with Kullak, to give my playing a brilliant _concert dress_, and +finally, I would spend two seasons with Liszt, in order to add the last +ineffable graces--(for never, _never_ should an artist complete a +musical course without going to LISZT, while he is on this earth!)--The +trouble is, however, that one master always feels hurt if you leave him +for another! No one can bear the imputation that he _can't_ "give you +everything." + +But in truth I am getting very impatient to be at home where I can study +by myself, and take as much time as I think necessary to work up my +pieces. Deppe and Fräulein Timm are like Kullak in one thing. They never +will give me time enough, but hurry me on so from one thing to another, +that it is impossible for me to prepare a programme. So I have given up +my plan of a concert in Berlin this spring. They have one set of ideas +and I another, and I see I shall never be able to play in public until I +abandon masters and start out on my own course. Two people never think +exactly alike. Masters can put you on the road, but they can't make you +go. You must do that for yourself. As Dr. V. says, "If you want to do a +thing you have got to _keep_ doing it. You mustn't stop--certainly not!" +Concert-playing, like everything else, is _routine_, and has got to be +learned by little and little, and perhaps, with many half-failures. But +if the "great public" will only tolerate one as a pupil long enough, +eventually, one must succeed. At any rate, IT is probably the best and +the only "master" for me now! + +On Wednesday I return for a while to Berlin, to the American +boarding-house, No. 15 Tauben Strasse, whither you can all direct as +formerly. This winter has been rather a contrast to last. Then I lived +entirely among North Americans, whereas here I am almost exclusively +with South Americans. There are any number of these latter in Hamburg, +and you have no idea how fascinating many of them are--so handsome and +so bright. They all have a talent for music and dancing. Their music is +entirely of a light character, but they have _rhythm_ and grace in a +remarkable degree. When I hear them play I always think of George +Sands's description in her novel "_Malgré-tout_" of the artist Abel--the +hero of the book, and a great violinist. She says, "_Il racla un air sur +son violon avec entrain_."--That is just what these South Americans +do--"_racler!_" They all play the piano just as with us the negro plays +the fiddle, without instruction, apparently, and simply because "it is +their nature to." I saw at once where Gottschalk got his "Banjo" and +"Bananier," and the peculiar style of his compositions generally, and +since I've met so many South Americans I can readily imagine why he +spent so much of his time in South America. I long to go there myself. I +think it must be a fascinating place for an artist. + +One of the South Americans here at the house is a boy of fifteen, named +Juan di Livramento, or, I should say, Juan Moreiro Aranjo di Livramento! +(They all have about a dozen names in the grandiloquent style of the +Spaniards.) This boy is a curious youngster. He is tall and lithe, with +the most magnificent dark eyes I ever saw or conceived, thick silky +black hair, all in a tumble about his head, a delicate and very +expressive face, and a clear olive complexion--a perfect type of a +Spaniard. He seems born to dance the Bolero, like Belinda, in Mrs. +Edwards's novel. It is the prettiest thing to see him do it--and in fact +he does it on all occasions without any reference to propriety, being an +utterly lawless individual. He frequently gets up from the dinner-table, +throws his napkin over his shoulders, snaps his thumbs, and begins a +dance in the corner of the room, between the courses. It has got to be +such an every-day thing that nobody looks surprised or pays any +attention to him. We dine late, and as there are a good many boarders, +it takes some time always to change the plates. Juan, who is like so +much mercury, never can sit still during these intervals. When asked to +ring the bell for the servant, he will spring up like a shot, give it a +violent pull, and then take advantage of being up to dance in the +corner, or at least to cut a few antics, fling his leg over the back of +his chair, and come down astride of it. This is his usual mode of +resuming his seat. + +On the days when he doesn't dance, he keeps up a continual talking. He +will rattle on in Spanish till Herr S. gets desperate, and tries to +reduce him to order. It is a rule that German must be spoken at table, +but Juan thinks it sufficient if he applies the rule only so far as not +to speak Spanish, his native language. He goes to school where, of +course, he learns English and French, and he is always trying to get +off some remarks in these languages. He speaks all wrong, but that does +not cause him the least embarrassment.--On Sundays especially is Juan +perfectly irrepressible, for then Frau S. goes to dine and spend the +evening with her parents, and Herr S. is left to maintain order. He is +an indulgent old man, and very fond of Juan, so that the latter has not +the least fear of him, and I nearly die trying to keep my face straight +when they have one of their scenes. + +"You shall NOT speak Spanish at the table," said poor old S. the other +day, in a rage. Spanish is jargon to him, and Juan had been talking it +for some time at the top of his voice across Herr S., to his friend +Candido, who sat opposite. Juan knew very well that that meant he must +speak German, but instead of that he began in foreign languages, and +said to Herr S., in English, "Do you spoke Russish (Do you speak +Russian)?" + +Herr S., to whom English is as unintelligible as Spanish, naturally +making no reply to this brilliant remark, Juan continued--"'Spring is +Coming,' Poem by James K. Blake," and then he began to recite with much +gesticulation-- + + "Spring is coming, spring is coming, + Birds are singing, insects humming; + Flowers are peeping from their sleeping, + Streams escape from winter's keeping, etc." + +I won't pretend to say what the rest of it was, as his pronunciation was +utterly unintelligible. Herr S. rolled up his eyes and made no further +protest, for he found he only got "out of the frying-pan into the +fire," Juan having a historical anecdote called "The Dead Watch," which +he occasionally substitutes for the poem. + +After dinner he generally has an affectionate turn, and goes round the +table shaking hands with those still seated, or putting his arm around +their necks, and then he seems like some gentle wild animal which comes +and rubs its head up against you, and it is impossible to help loving +him. As soon, however, as T. or anybody thrums a waltz on the piano, he +instantly throws himself into the attitude to dance. He is so very light +on his feet that you don't hear him, and often I am surprised on looking +up, without thinking, to see Juan poised on one toe like a ballet +dancer, and his great eyes shining soft on me like two suns. It is most +peculiar. There are _no_ eyes like the Spanish eyes. Not only have they +so much _fire_, but when their owners are in a sentimental mood, they +can throw a languor and a sort of droop into them that is irresistible. +This is the way Juan does, and though he is too young to be sentimental, +he _looks_ as if he were. One minute he is all ablaze, and the next +perfectly melting.--The other day Frau S. took him to task for his +extreme animation.--"_Junge_," (German for "Boy"), "you mustn't scream +so all over the house. You really are a nuisance." Juan was offended at +this, and began to defend himself. "Why do you scold me," he said. "I'm +always in good humour. I never sulk or find fault with anything. _Ja, +immer vergnügt_ (Yes, always in a good humour), and ready to amuse +everybody, and I never get angry." Frau S. admitted that was true, but +at the same time suggested it would be well for him to remember we were +not all deaf. Juan withdrew in dudgeon.--Well, I suppose you are tired +of hearing about him, but these South Americans are a type by +themselves, and I felt as if I must touch off one of them for the +benefit of the family. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _April 18, 1875_. + +Since my return I have been enjoying extremely what I suppose I must +consider my last lessons with Deppe. After studying with Fräulein Timm I +know much better what he is driving at. The technique seems to be +unfolding to me like a ribbon. So all her _maulings_ were to some +purpose! Yesterday I played him a sonata of Beethoven's and he said, +"God grant that you may still be left to me some time longer! Now you +are really beginning to be my scholar."--And indeed, having studied his +technique so long with Fräuleins Timm and Steiniger, it does seem hard +that I have to leave him! How I wish I could stay on indefinitely and +give myself up to his purely _musical_ side and get the benefit of all +his deep and beautiful ideas. There never _was_ such a teacher! If I +could only come up to his standard I should be perfectly happy. Lucky +girl--that Steiniger! Think of it! She has _nine_ concertos that she +could get up for concert any minute. That's the crushing kind of +repertoire he gives his pupils--so exhaustive and complete in every +department. He knows the whole piano literature, and is continually +fishing up some new or old pearl or other to surprise one with. + +I find Deppe is getting to be much more recognized in Berlin this year +than he was before. He has just been directing a new opera here which +has created quite a sensation, and he is continually engaged in some +great work. Fortunate that I found him out when I did! for he takes +fewer pupils than ever. He says he can't teach people who are not +sympathetic to him. The other day he presented a beautiful overture of +his own composition to the Duke of Mecklenburg, who accepted it in +person and sent Deppe an exquisite pin in token of recognition. When +simple little Deppe gets _that_ stuck in his scarf, he will be a +terrific swell! + +Now for a piece of news! I was paying my French teacher, Mademoiselle +D., a call one evening last week, and I played for her and for a friend +of hers who is very musical, and who gives lessons herself. She at once +said very decidedly that I "ought to be heard in concert." Her brother +is the director of the Philharmonic Society in a place called +Frankfurt-an-der-Oder--a little city not far from here. What should she +do but write to her brother about me, and what should _he_ do but +immediately write up for me to come down and play in a Philharmonic +concert there the first week in May. As I have been so anxious to play +in a concert before leaving Germany, and yet have seen no way to do it, +I am going, of course, and am most grateful to his sister for thinking +of it. But it is always the Unexpected that helps you out! + + * * * + + BERLIN, _May 13, 1875_. + +Well, dear, my little début was a decided success, and I had one encore, +beside being heartily applauded after every piece. I went on to +Frankfurt on Monday morning, and when I got there Herr Oertling, the +Philharmonic Director, was at the station to meet me with a droschkie. +We drove to the Deutches Haus, an excellent hotel, where I was shown +into a large and comfortable room. Here I rested until dinner time, and +after dinner, about five o'clock, Herr Oertling came back. He took me to +the house of a musical friend of his who was to lend me his grand piano, +and there we tried our sonata. As soon as Oertling touched his violin I +saw that he was a superior artist, and that immediately inspired me. His +playing carried me right along, and I think I played well. At all +events, he seemed entirely satisfied, and said, "We could have played +that sonata without rehearsing it." After we finished the sonata, I +played for about an hour, all sorts of things. There were quite a number +of people present to judge of my powers. Herr W., the owner of the +piano, was a remarkable judge of music, and made some excellent +criticisms and suggestions. We stayed there to supper, but I went back +to the hotel early and went to bed about half-past nine, where I slept +like a log till eight the next morning. + +After breakfast Oertling came to take me to try the pianos of a +celebrated manufacturer of uprights. I played there three or four hours. +The maker's name was Gruss, and his pianos were the best uprights I had +ever seen; nearly as powerful as a grand, and with a superb tone and +action. On the wall was a testimonial from Henselt, framed. It seems +Henselt goes to Frankfurt every year to visit a Russian lady there, who +is the grandee of the place and a great patroness of artists. In the +afternoon, Oertling came for me to go and rehearse in the hall. +Everything went beautifully, and I returned to the hotel in good +spirits. By the time I was dressed for the concert, which was to begin +at seven, Oertling appeared again, in evening costume, and presented me +with a bouquet. We drove to the hall through a pouring rain. It was +crowded, notwithstanding, for he had had the assurance to print that the +concert was "to be brilliant through the performance of an American +Virtuosin, named Miss Amy Fay. This young lady has studied with the +greatest masters, and has had the most perfect success everywhere in her +concert tours!" Did you ever!--You can imagine how I felt on reading it +and seeing that I was expected to perform as if I had been on the stage +all my life! Oertling had arranged the programme judiciously. Our sonata +came _first_, so that I plunged right in and didn't have to wait and +tremble! Then came two pieces by the orchestra; next, my three solos in +a row, and a symphony of Haydn closed the programme. The sonata went off +very smoothly. In my first solo I occasionally missed a note, but my +second was without slip, and my third--Chopin's Study in Sixths--was +encored, though I took the tempo too fast. However, the Frau Excellency +von X. said she had frequently heard it from Henselt, but that I played +it "just as well as he did." That's absurd, of course, though not bad +considered as a _compliment_! They all said, "What a pity Henselt wasn't +here!" I said to myself, "What a blessing Henselt wasn't!"--though I +would give much to see him, as he is the greatest piano virtuoso in the +world after Liszt. + +After the concert Oertling and some of the musicians accompanied me to +the hotel, where I was obliged to sit at table and have my health drunk +in champagne till two o'clock in the morning! for you know when the +Germans once begin that sort of thing there's no end to it. They drank +to my health, and then they drank to my future performance in the first +Philharmonic next season, and then they drank to our frequent reunion, +etc., etc. When they had finished I had to respond. So I toasted the +Herr Director and I toasted the piano-maker, and I toasted the +orchestra, and what not. At last I was released and could go to my room. +The next morning I left for Berlin, which I reached in time for dinner, +and as soon as I appeared at table the boarders saluted me with a burst +of applause!--I found it a very pleasant _finale_. + +I translate for you the criticism from the _Frankfurter Zeitung und +Allgemeiner Anzeiger_ for May 11. Herr Oertling sent it to me yesterday: + +"The Philharmonic concert which took place last Friday evening, must be +considered as an excellent recommendation of the active members of that +association to the public. For not only did the playing of the pianist, +Fräulein Amy Fay, give great pleasure to all those who love and +understand music, but there was also no fault to be found with the +interpretations of the orchestra. * * * With regard to the performance +of Fräulein Fay, we were equally charmed by her clear and certain touch +and by her conception of the various solo pieces she played. The concert +opened with the Sonata in E flat major for violin and piano by +Beethoven. The whole effect of the work was a very sympathetic and +satisfactory one, and showed a thoughtful interpretation on the part of +the artist. The beauty of her conception was especially evident in the +Raff "Capriccio," and in Hiller's "Zur Guitarre," given as an encore +upon her recall by the audience, and we can but congratulate the teacher +of the young lady, Herr Ludwig Deppe, of Berlin, upon such a scholar." + + * * * + +[Two weeks after the concert, the relative to whom most of the foregoing +letters were written, joined the writer at Berlin, and the +correspondence came to an end. In the following September, after an +absence of six years, my sister returned home.--My sister hopes that no +American girl who reads this book will be influenced by it rashly to +attempt what she herself undertook, viz.: to be trained in Europe from +an amateur into an artist. Its pages have afforded glimpses, only, of +the trials and difficulties with which a girl may meet when studying art +alone in a foreign land, but they should not therefore be underrated. +Piano teaching has developed immensely in America since the date of the +first of the foregoing letters, and not only such celebrities as Dr. +William Mason, Mr. Wm. H. Sherwood, and Mrs. Rivé King, but various +other brilliant or exquisite pianists in this country are as able to +train pupils for the technical demands of the concert-room as any +masters that are to be found abroad. American teachers best understand +the American temperament, and therefore are by far the best for American +pupils until they have got beyond the pupil stage.--Not manual skill, +but musical insight and conception, wider and deeper musical +comprehension, and "concert style" are what the young artist should now +go to seek in that marvellous and only real home of music--GERMANY.]--ED. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] This was written before the full development of the Thomas +Orchestra. The writer had heard it only in its infancy. + +[B] Christ is risen out of bonds and death. He promises joy and blessing +to all the world, which for this glorifies Him. + +[C] In Mr. Longfellow's Poems of Places is a translation of Gerok's poem +on the subject:-- + + "Over three hundred were counted that day + Riderless horses who joined in the fray, + Over three hundred saddles, O horrible sight! + Were emptied at once in that terrible fight." + +[D] This letter, which was published in _Dwight's Journal of Music_, is +the one alluded to on p. 193. + +[E] Liszt was born in 1811. + +[F] In German, the fourth and fifth fingers. + +[G] See p. 220. + +[H] See p. 294. + +[I] Now Mrs. Sherwood. + +[J] The writer's grandmother was the daughter of a leading Hamburg +merchant who fled with his family to America when Napoleon entered it. + +[K] Frau Rappoldi is now a celebrity. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Music-Study in Germany, by Amy Fay + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY *** + +***** This file should be named 37322-0.txt or 37322-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/3/2/37322/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/37322-0.zip b/37322-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dfa4b0f --- /dev/null +++ b/37322-0.zip diff --git a/37322-8.txt b/37322-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..876a099 --- /dev/null +++ b/37322-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9120 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Music-Study in Germany, by Amy Fay + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Music-Study in Germany + from the Home Correspondence of Amy Fay + +Author: Amy Fay + +Editor: Fay Peirce + +Release Date: September 5, 2011 [EBook #37322] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + + + +MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY + +[Illustration: colophon] + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + +NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS +ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO + +MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED + +LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA +MELBOURNE + +THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD, +TORONTO + + + + +MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY + +FROM + +THE HOME CORRESPONDENCE +OF AMY FAY + +EDITED BY + +MRS. FAY PEIRCE + +AUTHOR OF "CO-OPERATIVE HOUSEKEEPING" + +"The light that never was on sea or land." + +WORDSWORTH + +"Pour admirer assez il faut admirer trop, et un peu d'illusion +est necessaire au bonheur." + +CHERBULIEZ + +WITH A PREFATORY NOTE +BY O. G. SONNECK + +NEW YORK +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY +1922 + +_All rights reserved_ + +COPYRIGHT, +JANSEN, McCLURG & COMPANY +1880. + +COPYRIGHT, 1896, +BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + +Printed August, 1896; reprinted June, 1897; +September, 1900; February, 1903; March, 1905; +June, 1908; July, 1909; August, 1913; April, 1922. + +Norwood Press: +Berwick & Smith, Norwood, Mass., U. S. A. + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE. + + +Comparatively few books on music have enjoyed the distinction of +reissue. Twenty-one editions is an amazing record for a book of so +narrow a subject as "Music Study in Germany." The case of Miss Amy Fay's +volume becomes all the more unusual, if one considers that her letters +were written only for home, not for a public audience and further that +within twenty years from the year of first publication, her observations +had become more or less obsolete. + +The Germany of the years 1869-1875 was quite different from the Germany +of 1900 and certainly of 1912, even down to German table-manners. The +earlier "Spiessbürgertum" of which Miss Fay gives such entertaining +glimpses even in high quarters with their pomp and circumstance, was +rapidly being replaced, at least outwardly, by the more cosmopolitan +culture of the _fin de siècle_, not to mention the ambition for +political, industrial and commercial "Weltmacht" in a nation thitherto +known, perhaps too romantically, as a nation of "Denker und Dichter." + +Most of the heroes of the book are long since dead, Miss Fay included, +who died in 1921. While even as late as 1890, Miss Fay's volume could +have been used as a guide of orientation by the would-be student of +music in Germany, certainly it could no longer serve such a purpose +during the years just prior to the war, when the lone American student +of her book who despised Germany and everything German was definitely in +the ascendency. In other words, her personal observations had ceased to +be applicable except in certain details of ambient and had passed into +the realm of autobiography valuable for historical reading. As a piece +of historical literature proper, I doubt that the book would have +survived the war, because it is lamentably true that the average +American music-student or even cultured lover of music is not +particularly interested in musical history as such. + +To this must be added the indisputable fact that "music study in +Germany" or in France, for that matter, had become a mere matter of +personal taste and predilection, and was not a necessity as in the days +of Miss Fay's amusing experiments with this or that German teacher of +renown. An endless stream of excellent European artists and teachers had +poured into America since then, augmented by the equally broad stream of +native Americans who had learned their _métier_ abroad. Music study in +America thus became an easy matter and many an aspiring virtuoso would +have done more wisely by staying and studying at home, instead of +venturing to a European country with its different language, its +different temperament, its different mode of living, customs and so +forth. Germany, in particular, is still a "marvellous home of music," to +quote an editorial remark of Miss Fay's sister, but it is no longer the +"only real home of music," thanks precisely to such artists as Miss Amy +Fay herself. + +To point out the radical change in conditions in that respect is one +thing, quite another to deny, as some rather zealotic patriots do, that +Europe, Germany included, can still give the American music-student +something which he does not have at home quite in the same manner. +Debate on that subject is futile. Let the American music-student at some +time in his career, but only when he is ripe for further study in a +foreign country, sojourn a few years in Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, +Vienna, Rome, London, and he will profitably encounter, whether it be to +his taste or not, that indefinable something which the old world in +matters of life, art, and art-life possessed as peculiarly its own in +1870, still possesses to-day, and will possess for many, many years to +come. + +What, then, gives to Miss Fay's book its vitality? What is it that +justifies the publisher in keeping the book accessible for the benefit +of those who wish to study music in Germany instead of elsewhere or of +those even who study music in America? + +Of course, there is first of all the charm of Miss Fay's own +personality, the charm of her observations intimately, entertainingly, +and shrewdly expressed. That makes for good reading. Incidentally, it +teaches a student-reader to be observant, which unfortunately many +musicians are not, even in matters of technique on their chosen +instrument. Secondly, the seriousness of purpose of the authoress, the +determination to improve her understanding of art and technique to the +very limit of her natural ability, will act as a stimulating tonic for +him or her who despairs of ever conquering the often so forbidding +difficulties of music. The book will teach patience to Americans, +patience and endurance in endeavor, qualities which are none too +frequent in us. Young America forgets too often that the _Gradus ad +Parnassum_ is not only steep; it is long and rough. + +There is furthermore in these letters that respect for solid +accomplishment of others, that reverential attitude toward the great in +art and toward art itself, without which no musician, however talented, +will ever reach the commanding heights of art. There permeates these +letters the enthusiasm of youth, that perhaps sometimes overshoots its +mark but for which most of us would gladly exchange the more critical +attitude of maturer years. For we learn to appreciate sooner or later +that enthusiasm is the propelling force and the refreshing source of +inspiration. Finally, born of all these elements there appear on the +pages of Miss Fay's letters such fascinating pen-portraits as that of +her revered master, Franz Liszt, the incomparable. Turning the pages of +the volume to refresh my memory and impression of it, I confess that I +skipped quite a few because their interest seemed so remote and +personal, but I found myself absorbing every word Miss Fay had to say in +her chapters about Liszt and his Weimar circle. An enjoyable experience +which one may safely recommend to those who desire first-hand +impressions of the golden days of pianism in Germany, of the romantic, +indeed almost legendary figure of Franz Liszt, and consequently a touch +of the stuff out of which art-novels are made, into the bargain. + + O. G. SONNECK + + + + +PREFACE. + + +In preparing for the public letters which were written only for home, I +have hoped that some readers would find in them the charm of style which +the writer's friends fancy them to possess; that others would think the +description of her masters amid their pupils, and especially Liszt, +worth preserving; while piano students would be grateful for the +information that an analysis of the piano technique has been made, such +as very greatly to diminish the difficulties of the instrument. + +How much of Herr Deppe's piano "method" is original with himself, +pianists must decide. That he has at least made an invaluable _résumé_ +of all or most of their secrets, my sister believes no student of the +instrument who fairly and conscientiously examines into the matter will +deny. + + M. FAY PEIRCE. + +CHICAGO, Dec., 1880. + + + + +PREFACE + +TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. + + +Miss Fay's little book has been so popular in her own country as to have +gone through half a dozen editions, and even in German, into which it +was translated soon after its first appearance, it has had much success. +It is strange that it has not been already published in England, where +music excites so much attention, and where works on musical subjects are +beginning to form a distinct branch of literature. This is the more +remarkable because it is thoroughly readable and amusing, which books on +music too rarely are. The freshness and truth of the letters is not to +be denied. We may laugh at the writer's enthusiasm, at the readiness +with which she changes her methods and gives up all that she has already +learnt at the call of each fresh teacher, at the certainty with which +every new artist is announced as quite the best she ever heard, and at +the glowing and confident predictions--not, alas, apparently always +realised. But no one can laugh at her indomitable determination, and the +artistic earnestness with which she makes the most of each of her +opportunities, or the brightness and ease with which all is described +(in choice American), and each successive person placed before us in his +habit as he lives. Such a gift is indeed a rare and precious one. Will +Miss Fay never oblige us with an equally charming and faithful account +of music and life in the States? Hitherto musical America has been +almost an unknown land to us, described by the few who have attempted it +in the most opposite terms. Their singers we already know well, and in +this respect America is perhaps destined to be the Italy of the future, +if only the artists will consent to learn slowly enough. But on the +subject of American players and American orchestras, and the taste of +the American amateurs, a great deal of curiosity is felt, and we commend +the subject to the serious attention of one so thoroughly able to do it +justice. + + GEORGE GROVE. + +December, 1885. + + + + +PREFACE + +TO THE GERMAN EDITION. + + +Die vorliegenden Briefe einer Amerikanerin in die Heimath, die im +Original bereits in zweiter Auflage erschienen sind, werden, so hoffen +wir, auch dem deutschen Leser nicht minderes Vergnügen, nicht geringere +Anregung als dem amerikanischen gewähren, da sie in unmittelbarer +Frische niedergeschrieben, ein lebendiges Bild von den Beziehungen der +Verfasserin zu den hervorragendsten musikalischen Persönlichkeiten, wie +Liszt, v. Bülow, Tausig, Joachim u. s. w. bieten. + +Wir geben das Buch in wortgetreuer Uebersetzung und haben es nur um +diejenigen Briefe gekürzt, die in Deutschland Allzubekanntes behandeln. +Hingegen glaubten wir die Stellen dem Leser nicht vorenthalten zu +dürfen, welche zwar nicht musikalischen Inhalts sind, uns aber zeigen, +wie manche unserer deutschen Zu-oder Mißstände von Amerikanern +beurtheilt werden. + + Robert Oppenheim, Publisher. + +Berlin, 1882. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +IN TAUSIG'S CONSERVATORY. + +CHAPTER I. + PAGE. + +A GERMAN INTERIOR IN BERLIN. A GERMAN PARTY. JOACHIM. +TAUSIG'S CONSERVATORY. 13 + + +CHAPTER II. + +CLARA SCHUMANN AND JOACHIM. THE AMERICAN MINISTER'S. THE +MUSEUM. THE CONSERVATORY. OPERA. TAUSIG. CHRISTMAS. 25 + + +CHAPTER III. + +TAUSIG AND RUBINSTEIN. TAUSIG'S PUPILS. THE BANCROFTS. A +GERMAN RADICAL. 37 + + +CHAPTER IV. + +OPERA AND ORATORIO IN BERLIN. A TYPICAL AMERICAN. PRUSSIAN +RUDENESS. CONSERVATORY CHANGES. EASTER. 51 + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE THIER-GARTEN. A MILITARY REVIEW. CHARLOTTENBURG. +TAUSIG. BERLIN IN SUMMER. POTSDAM AND BABELSBERG. 64 + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE WAR. GERMAN MEALS. WOMEN AND MEN. TAUSIG'S TEACHING. +TAUSIG ABANDONS HIS CONSERVATORY. DRESDEN. KULLAK. 79 + +WITH KULLAK. + +CHAPTER VII. + +MOVING. GERMAN HOUSES AND DINNERS. THE WAR. CAPTURE OF +NAPOLEON. KULLAK'S AND TAUSIG'S TEACHING. JOACHIM. WAGNER. +TAUSIG'S PLAYING. GERMAN ETIQUETTE. 95 + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CONCERTS. JOACHIM AGAIN. THE SIEGE OF PARIS. PEACE DECLARED. +WAGNER. A WOMAN'S SYMPHONY. OVATION TO WAGNER IN +BERLIN. 111 + + +CHAPTER IX. + +DIFFICULTIES OF THE PIANO. TRIUMPHAL ENTRY OF THE TROOPS. +PARIS. 123 + + +CHAPTER X. + +A RHINE JOURNEY. FRANKFORT. MAINZ. SAIL DOWN THE RHINE. +COLOGNE. BONN. THE SEVEN MOUNTAINS. WORMS. SPIRE. +HEIDELBERG. TAUSIG'S DEATH. 131 + + +CHAPTER XI. + +EISENACH. GOTHA. ERFURT. ANDERNACH. WEIMAR. TAUSIG. 145 + + +CHAPTER XII. + +DINNER-PARTY AND RECEPTION AT MR. BANCROFT'S. AUDITION AT +TAUSIG'S HOUSE. A GERMAN CHRISTMAS. THE JOACHIMS. 157 + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +VISIT TO DRESDEN. THE WIECKS. VON BÜLOW. A CHILD PRODIGY. +GRANTZOW, THE DANCER. 163 + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +A RISING ORGANIST. KULLAK. VON BÜLOW'S PLAYING. A PRINCELY +FUNERAL. WILHELMI'S CONCERT. A COURT BEAUTY. 174 + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE BOSTON FIRE. AGGRAVATIONS OF MUSIC STUDY. KULLAK. +SHERWOOD. HOCH SCHULE. A BRILLIANT AMERICAN. GERMAN +DANCING. 182 + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A GERMAN PROFESSOR. SHERWOOD. THE BARONESS VON S. VON +BÜLOW. A GERMAN PARTY. JOACHIM. THE BARONESS AT HOME. 192 + + +WITH LISZT. + +CHAPTER XVII. + +ARRIVES IN WEIMAR. LISZT AT THE THEATRE.--AT A PARTY. AT +HIS OWN HOUSE. 205 + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +LISZT'S DRAWING-ROOM. AN ARTIST'S WALKING PARTY. LISZT'S +TEACHING. 218 + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +LISZT'S EXPRESSION IN PLAYING. LISZT ON CONSERVATORIES. ORDEAL +OF LISZT'S LESSONS. LISZT'S KINDNESS. 227 + + +CHAPTER XX. + +LISZT'S COMPOSITIONS. HIS PLAYING AND TEACHING OF BEETHOVEN. +HIS "EFFECTS" IN PIANO-PLAYING. EXCURSION TO JENA. A +NEW MUSIC MASTER. 235 + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +LISZT'S PLAYING. TAUSIG. EXCURSION TO SONDERSHAUSEN. 248 + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +FAREWELL TO LISZT! GERMAN CONSERVATORIES AND THEIR METHODS. +BERLIN AGAIN. LISZT AND JOACHIM. 263 + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +KULLAK AS A TEACHER. THE FOUR GREAT VIRTUOSI, CLARA SCHUMANN, +RUBINSTEIN, VON BÜLOW AND TAUSIG. 272 + +WITH DEPPE. + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +GIVES UP KULLAK FOR DEPPE. DEPPE'S METHOD IN TOUCH AND IN +SCALE-PLAYING. FRÄULEIN STEINIGER. PEDAL STUDY. 283 + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +CHORD-PLAYING. DEPPE NO MERE "PEDAGOGUE." SHERWOOD. +MOZART'S CONCERTOS. PRACTICING SLOWLY. THE OPERA BALL. 299 + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +A SET OF BEETHOVEN VARIATIONS. FANNIE WARBURG. DEPPE'S +INVENTIONS. HIS ROOM. HIS AFTERNOON COFFEE. PYRMONT. 311 + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +THE BRUSSELS CONSERVATOIRE. STEINIGER. EXCURSION TO KLEINBERG. +GIVING A CONCERT. FRÄULEIN TIMM. 328 + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +MUSIC IN HAMBURG. STUDYING CHAMBER MUSIC. ABSENCE OF RELIGION +IN GERMANY. SOUTH AMERICANS. DEPPE ONCE MORE. +A CONCERT DEBUT. POSTSCRIPT. 331 + + + + +IN TAUSIG'S CONSERVATORY. + + + + +MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. + +CHAPTER I. + + A German Interior in Berlin. A German Party. Joachim. Tausig's + Conservatory. + + + BERLIN, _November 3, 1869_. + +Behold me at last at No. 26 Bernburger Strasse! where I arrived exactly +two weeks from the day I left New York. Frau W. and her daughter, +Fräulein A. W., greeted me with the greatest warmth and cordiality, and +made me feel at home immediately. The German idea of a "large" room I +find is rather peculiar, for this one is not more than ten or eleven +feet square, and has one corner of it snipped off, so that the room is +an irregular shape. When I first entered it I thought I could not stay +in it, it seemed so small, but when I came to examine it, so ingeniously +is every inch of space made the most of, that I have come to the +conclusion that it will be very comfortable. It is not, however, the +apartment where "the last new novel will lie upon the table, and where +my daintily slippered feet will rest upon the velvet cushion." No! +rather is it the stern abode of the Muses. + +To begin then: the room is spotlessly clean and neat. The walls are +papered with a nice new paper, grey ground with blue figures--a cheap +paper, but soft and pretty. In one corner stands my little bureau with +three deep drawers. Over it is a large looking-glass nicely framed. In +the other corner on the same side is a big sofa which at night becomes a +little bed. Next to the foot of the sofa, against the wall, stands a +tiny square table, with a marble top, and a shelf underneath, on which +are a basin and a minute soap-dish and tumbler. In the opposite corner +towers a huge grey porcelain stove, which comes up to within a few feet +of the ceiling. Next is one stiff cane-bottomed chair on four stiff +legs. Then comes the lop-sided corner of the room, where an upright +piano is to stand. Next there is a little space where hangs the +three-shelved book-case, which will contain my _vast_ library. Then +comes a broad French window with a deep window-seat. By this window is +my sea-chair--by far the most luxurious one in the house! Then comes my +bureau again, and so on _Da Capo_. In the middle is a pretty round +table, with an inlaid centre-piece, and on it is a waiter with a large +glass bottle full of water, and a glass; and this, with one more stiff +chair, completes the furniture of the room. My curtains are white, with +a blue border, and two transparencies hang in the window. My towel-rack +is fastened to the wall, and has an embroidered centre-piece. On my +bureau is a beautiful inkstand, the cover being a carved eagle with +spread wings, perched over a nest with three eggs in it. It is quite +large, and looks extremely pretty under the looking-glass. + +After I had taken off my things, Frau W. and her daughter ushered me +into their parlour, which had the same look of neatness and simplicity +and of extreme economy. There are no carpets on any of the floors, but +they have large, though cheap, rugs. You never saw such a primitive +little household as it is--that of this German lawyer's widow. We think +our house at home small, but I feel as if we lived in palatial +magnificence after seeing how they live here, _i. e._, about as our +dressmakers used to do in the country, and yet it is sufficiently nice +and comfortable. There are two very pretty little rooms opposite mine, +which are yet to be let together. If some friend of mine could only take +them I should be perfectly happy. + +At night my bed is made upon the sofa. (They all sleep on these sofas.) +The cover consists of a feather bed and a blanket. That sounds rather +formidable, but the feather bed is a light, warm covering, and looks +about two inches thick. It is much more comfortable than our bed +coverings in America. I tuck myself into my nest at night, and in the +morning after breakfast, when I return to my +room--_agramento-presto-change!_--my bed is converted into a sofa, my +basin is laid on the shelf, the soap-dish and my combs and brushes are +scuttled away into the drawer; the windows are open, a fresh fire +crackles in my stove, and my charming little bed-room is straightway +converted into an equally charming sitting-room. How does the picture +please you? + +This morning Frau and Fräulein W. went with me to engage a piano, and +they took me also to the conservatory. Tausig is off for six weeks, +giving concerts. As I went up the stairs I heard most beautiful playing. +Ehlert, Tausig's partner, who has charge of the conservatory, and +teaches his pupils in his absence, examined me. After that long voyage I +did not dare attempt anything difficult, so I just played one of Bach's +Gavottes. He said some encouraging words, and for the present has taken +me into his class. I am to begin to-morrow from one o'clock to two. It +is now ten P. M., and tell C. we have had five meals to-day, so Madame +P.'s statement is about correct. The cooking is on the same scale as the +rest of the establishment--a little at a time, but so far very good. We +know nothing at all about rolls in America. Anything so delicious as the +rolls here I never ate in the way of bread. In the morning we had a cup +of coffee and rolls. At eleven we lunched on a cup of bouillon and a +roll. At two o'clock we had dinner, which consisted of soup and then +chickens, potatoes, carrots and bread, with beer. At five we had tea, +cake and toast, and at nine we had a supper of cold meat, boiled eggs, +tea and bread and butter. Fräulein W. speaks English quite nicely, and +is my medium of communication with her mother. I begin German lessons +with her to-morrow. They both send you their compliments, and so you +must return yours. They seem as kind as possible, and I think I am very +fortunate in my boarding place. + +Be sure to direct your letters "Care Frau Geheimräthin W." (Mrs. +Councillor W.), as the German ladies are very particular about their +_titles_! + + * * * + + BERLIN, _November 21, 1869_. + +Since I wrote to you not much of interest has occurred. I am delighted +with Berlin, and am enjoying myself very much, though I am working hard. +I am so thankful that all my sewing was done before I came, for I have +not a minute to spare for it, and here it seems to me all the dresses +fit so dreadfully. It would make me miserable to wear such looking +clothes, and as I can't speak the language, the difficulties in the way +of giving directions on the technicalities of dressmaking would be +terrific. Tell C. he is very wise to continue his German conversation +lessons with Madame P. Even the few that I took prove of immense +assistance to me, as I can understand almost everything that is said to +me, though I cannot answer back. He ought to make one of his lessons +about shopping and droschkie driving, for it is very essential to know +how to ask for things, and to be able to give directions in driving. I +had a very funny experience with a droschkie the other day, but it would +take too long to write it. Frau W. cannot understand English, and she +gets dreadfully impatient when Fräulein A. and I speak it, and always +says "_Deutsch_" in a sepulchral tone, so that I have to begin and say +it all over again in German with A.'s help. + +When I got fairly settled I presented myself and my letters at the +Bancrofts, the B's. and the A's., and was very kindly and cordially +received by them all. Mrs. Bancroft and Mrs. B. have since called in +return, and I have already been to a charming reception at the house of +the latter, and to the grand American Thanksgiving dinner at the Hotel +de Rome, at which Mr. Bancroft presided, and made very happy speeches +both in English and German. I enjoyed both occasions extremely, and made +some pleasant acquaintances. I have also been to one German tea-party +with Frau W. and A., and there I had "the jolliest kind of a time." +There were only twelve invited, but you would have supposed from the +clatter that there were at least a hundred. At the American dinner there +was nothing like the noise of conversation that this little handful kept +up. Before supper it was rather stupid, for the men all retired to a +room by themselves, where they sat with closed doors and played whist +and smoked. It is not considered proper for ladies to play cards except +at home, and I, of course, did not say much, for the excellent reason +that I _couldn't_! At ten o'clock supper was announced, and the +gentlemen came and took us in. Herr J. was my partner. He is a +delightful man, though an elderly one, and knows no end of things, as he +has spent his whole life in study and in travelling. He looks to me like +a man of very sensitive organization, and of very delicate feelings. He +is a tremendous republican, and a great radical in every respect, and +has an unbounded admiration for America. + +As soon as every one was seated at the table with due form and ceremony, +all began to talk as hard as they could, and you have no idea what a +noise they made, and how it increased toward the end with the potent +libations they had. The bill of fare was rather curious. We began with +slices of hot tongue, with a sauce of chestnuts, and it was extremely +nice, too. Then we had venison and boiled potatoes! Then we had a +dessert consisting of fruit, and some delicious cake. There were several +kinds of wine, and everybody drank the greatest quantity. The host and +hostess kept jumping up and going round to everybody, saying: "But you +drink nothing," and then they would insist upon filling up your glass. I +don't dare to think how many times they filled mine, but it seemed to be +etiquette to drink, and so I did as the rest. The repast ended with +coffee, and then the gentlemen lit their cigars, and were in such an +extremely cheerful frame of mind that they all began to sing, and I even +saw two old fellows kiss each other! The venison was delicious, and +nicer than any I ever ate. Herr J. was the only man in the room who +could speak any English, and since then he takes a good deal of interest +in me, and lends me books. Every Sunday Fran W. takes me to her sister's +house to tea. I like to go because I hear so much German spoken there, +and they all take a profound interest in my affairs. They know to a +minute when I get a letter, and when I write one, and every incident of +my daily life. It amuses them very much to see a real live wild Indian +from America. I am soon going to another German party, and I look +forward to it with much pleasure; not that the parties here give me the +same feeling as at home, but they are amusing because they are so +entirely different. + +There is so much to be seen and heard in Berlin that if one has but the +money there is no end to one's resources. There are the opera and the +Schauspielhaus every night, and beautiful concerts every evening, too. +They say that the opera here is magnificent, and the scenery superb, +and they have a wonderful ballet-troupe. So far, however, I have only +been to one concert, and that was a sacred concert. But Joachim +played--and Oh-h, what a tone he draws out of the violin! I could think +of nothing but Mrs. Moulton's voice, as he _sighed_ out those +exquisitely pathetic notes. He played something by Schumann which ended +with a single note, and as he drew his bow across he produced so many +shades that it was perfectly marvellous. I am going to hear him again on +Sunday night, when he plays at Clara Schumann's concert. It will be a +great concert, for she plays much. She will be assisted by Joachim, +Müller, De Ahna, and by Joachim's wife, who has a beautiful voice and +sings charmingly in the serious German style. Joachim himself is not +only the greatest violinist in the world, but one of the greatest that +ever lived. De Ahna is one of the first violinists in Germany, and +Müller is one of the first 'cellists. In fact, this quartette cannot be +matched in Europe--so you see what I am expecting! + +Tausig has not yet returned from his concert tour, and will not arrive +before the 21st of December. I find Ehlert a splendid teacher, but very +severe, and I am mortally afraid of him. Not that he is cross, but he +exacts so much, and such a hopeless feeling of despair takes possession +of me. His first lesson on touch taught me more than all my other +lessons put together--though, to be sure, that is not saying much, as +they were "few and far between." At present I am weltering in a sea of +troubles. The girls in my class are three in number, and they all play +so extraordinarily well that sometimes I think I can never catch up with +them. I am the worst of all the scholars in Tausig's classes that I have +heard, except one, and that is a young man. I know that Ehlert thinks I +have talent, but, after all, talent must go to the wall before such +_practice_ as these people have had, for most of them have studied a +long time, and have been at the piano four and five hours a day. + +It is very interesting in the conservatory, for there are pupils there +from all countries except France. Some of them seem to me splendid +musicians. On Sunday morning (I am sorry to say) once in a month or six +weeks, they have what they call a "Musical Reading." It is held in a +piano-forte ware-room, and there all the scholars in the higher classes +play, so I had to go. Many of the girls played magnificently, and I was +amazed at the technique that they had, and at the artistic manner in +which even very young girls rendered the most difficult music, and all +without notes. It gave me a severe nervous headache just to hear them. +But it was delightful to see them go at it. None of them had the least +fear, and they laughed and chattered between the pieces, and when their +turn came they marched up to the piano, sat down as bold as lions, and +banged away so splendidly! + +You have no idea how hard they make Cramer's Studies here. Ehlert makes +me play them tremendously _forte_, and as fast as I can go. My hand gets +so tired that it is ready to break, and then I say that I cannot go on. +"But you _must_ go on," he will say. It is the same with the scales. It +seems to me that I play them so loud that I make the welkin ring, and he +will say, "But you play always _piano_." And with all this rapidity he +does not allow a note to be missed, and if you happen to strike a wrong +one he looks so shocked that you feel ready to sink into the floor. +Strange to say, I enjoy the lessons in _Zusammenspiel_ (duet-playing) +very much, although it is all reading at sight. Four of us sit down at +two pianos and read duets at sight. Lesmann is a pleasant man, and he +always talks so fast that he amuses me very much. He always counts and +beats time most vigorously, and bawls in your ear, "_Eins--zwei! +Eins--zwei!_" or sometimes, "_Eins!_" only, on the first beat of every +bar. When, occasionally, we all get out, he looks at us through his +glasses, and then such a volley of words as he hurls at us is wonderful +to hear. I never can help laughing, though I take good care not to let +him see me. + +But Weitzmann, the Harmony professor, is the funniest of all. He is the +dearest old man in the world, and it is impossible for him to be cross; +but he takes so much pains and trouble to make his class understand, and +he has the most peculiar way of talking imaginable, and accents +everything he says tremendously. I go to him because Ehlert says I must, +but as I know nothing of the theory of music (and if I did, the names +are so entirely different in German that I never should know what they +are in English) it is extremely difficult for me to understand him at +all. He knew I was an American, and let me pass for one or two lessons +without asking me any questions, but finally his German love of +thoroughness has got the better of him, and he is now beginning to take +me in hand. At the last lesson he wrote some chords on the blackboard, +and after holding forth for some time he wound up with his usual +"_Verstehen Sie wohl--Ja?_ (Do you understand--Yes?)" to the class, who +all shouted "_Ja_," except me. I kept a discreet silence, thinking he +would not notice, but he suddenly turned on me and said, "_Verstehen_ +Sie _wohl--Ja?_" I was as puzzled what to say as the Pharisees were when +they were asked if the baptism of John were of heaven or of men. I knew +that if I said "_Ja_," he might call on me for a proof, and that if I +said "_Nein_," he would undertake to enlighten me, and that I should not +understand him. + +After an instant's consideration I concluded the latter course was the +safer, and so I said, boldly, "_Nein_." "_Kommen Sie hierher!_ (Come +here!)" said he, and to my horror I had to step up to the blackboard in +front of this large class. He harangued me for some minutes, and then +writing some notes on the bass clef, he put the chalk into my hands and +told me to write. Not one word had I understood, and after staring +blankly at the board I said, "_Ich verstehe nicht_ (I don't +understand.)" "_Nein?_" said he, and carefully went over all his +explanation again. This time I managed to extract that he wished me to +write the succession of chords that those bass notes indicated, and to +tie what notes I could. A second time he put the chalk into my hands, +and told me to write the chords. "Heaven only knows what they are!" +thinks I to myself. In my desperation, however, I guessed at the first +one, and uttered the names of the notes in trembling accents, expecting +to have a cannon fired off at my head. Thanks to my lucky star, it +happened to be right. I wrote it on the blackboard, and then as my wits +sharpened I found the other chords from that one, and wrote them all +down right. I drew a long breath of relief as he released me from his +clutches, and sat down hardly believing I had done it. I have not now +the least idea what it was he made me do, but I suppose it will come to +me in the course of the year! As he does not understand a word of +English, I cannot say anything to him unless I can say it in German, and +as he is determined to make me learn Harmony, it would be of no use to +explain that I did not know what he was talking about, for he would +begin all over again, and go on _ad infinitum_. I have got a book on the +Theory of Music, which I am reading with Fräulein W. She has studied +with Weitzmann, also, and when I have caught up with the class I shall +go on very easily. I quite adore Weitzmann. He has the kindest old face +imaginable, and he hammers away so indefatigably at his pupils! The +professors I have described are all thorough and well-known musicians of +Berlin, and I wonder that people could tell us before I came away, and +really seem to believe it, "that I could learn as well in an American +conservatory as in a German one." In comparison with the drill I am now +receiving, my Boston teaching was mere play. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + Clara Schumann and Joachim. The American Minister's. The Museum. + The Conservatory. The Opera. Tausig. Christmas. + + + BERLIN, _December 12, 1869_. + +I heard Clara Schumann on Sunday, and on Tuesday evening, also. She is a +most wonderful artist. In the first concert she played a quartette by +Schumann, and you can imagine how lovely it was under the treatment of +Clara Schumann for the piano, Joachim for the first violin, De Ahna for +the second, and Müller for the 'cello. It was perfect, and I was in +raptures. Madame Schumann's selection for the two concerts was a very +wide one, and gave a full exhibition of her powers in every kind of +music. The Impromptu by Schumann, Op. 90, was exquisite. It was full of +passion and very difficult. The second of the Songs without Words, by +Mendelssohn, was the most fairy-like performance. It is one of those +things that must be tossed off with the greatest grace and smoothness, +and it requires the most beautiful and delicate technique. She played it +to perfection. The terrific Scherzo by Chopin she did splendidly, but +she kept the great octave passages in the bass a little too subordinate, +I thought, and did not give it quite boldly enough for my taste, though +it was extremely artistic. Clara Schumann's playing is very objective. +She seems to throw herself into the music, instead of letting the music +take possession of her. She gives you the most exquisite pleasure with +every note she touches, and has a wonderful conception and variety in +playing, but she seldom whirls you off your feet. + +At the second concert she was even better than at the first, if that is +possible. She seemed full of fire, and when she played Bach, she ought +to have been crowned with diamonds! Such _noble_ playing I never heard. +In fact you are all the time impressed with the nobility and breadth of +her style, and the comprehensiveness of her treatment, and oh, if you +_could_ hear her _scales_! In short, there is nothing more to be desired +in her playing, and she has every quality of a great artist. Many people +say that Tausig is far better, but I cannot believe it. He may have more +technique and more power, but nothing else I am sure. Everybody raves +over his playing, and I am getting quite impatient for his return, which +is expected next week. I send you Madame Schumann's photograph, which is +exactly like her. She is a large, very German-looking woman, with dark +hair and superb neck and arms. At the last concert she was dressed in +black velvet, low body and short sleeves, and when she struck powerful +chords, those large white arms came down with a certain splendor. + +As for Joachim, he is perfectly magnificent, and has amazing _power_. +When he played his solo in that second Chaconne of Bach's, you could +scarcely believe it was only one violin. He has, like Madame Schumann, +the greatest variety of tone, only on the violin the shades can be made +far more delicate than on the piano. + +I thought the second movement of Schumann's Quartette perhaps as +extraordinary as any part of Clara Schumann's performance. It was very +rapid, very _staccato_, and _pianissimo_ all the way through. Not a note +escaped her fingers, and she played with so much magnetism that one +could scarcely breathe until it was finished. You know nothing can be +more difficult than to play staccato so very softly where there is great +execution also. Both of the sonatas for violin and piano which were +played by Madame Schumann and Joachim, and especially the one in A +minor, by Beethoven, were divine. Both parts were equally well +sustained, and they played with so much fire--as if one inspired the +other. It was worth a trip across the Atlantic just to hear those two +performances. + +The Sing-Akademie, where all the best concerts are given, is not a very +large hall, but it is beautifully proportioned, and the acoustic is +perfect. The frescoes are very delicate, and on the left are boxes all +along, which add much to the beauty of the hall, with their scarlet and +gold flutings. Clara Schumann is a great favorite here, and there was +such a rush for seats that, though we went early for our tickets, all +the good parquet seats were gone, and we had to get places on the +_estrade_, or place where the chorus sits--when there is one. But I +found it delightful for a piano concert, for you can be as close to the +performer as you like, and at the same time see the faces of the +audience. I saw ever so many people that I knew, and we kept bowing away +at each other. + +Just think how convenient it is here with regard to public amusements, +for ladies can go anywhere alone! You take a droschkie and they drive +you anywhere for five groschen, which is about fifteen cents. When you +get into the concert hall you go into the _garde-robe_ and take off your +things, and hand them over to the care of the woman who stands there, +and then you walk in and sit down comfortably as you would in a parlour, +and are not roasted in your hat and cloak while at the concert, and +chilled when you go out, as we are in America. Their programmes, too, +are not so unconscionably long as ours, and, in short, their whole +method of concert-giving is more rational than with us. I always enjoy +the garde-robe, for if you have acquaintances you are sure to meet them, +and you have no idea how exciting it is in a foreign city to see anybody +you know. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _December 19, 1869_. + +I suppose you are muttering maledictions on my head for not writing, but +I am so busy that I have no time to answer my letters, which are +accumulating upon my hands at a terrible rate. This week I have been out +every night but one, so that I have had to do all my practicing and +German and Harmony lessons in the day-time; and these, with my daily +hour and a half at the conservatory, have been as much as I could +manage. + +On Monday I went to a party at the Bancroft's, which I enjoyed +extremely. It was a very brilliant affair, and the toilettes were +superb. At the entrance I was ushered in by a very fine servant dressed +in livery. A second man showed me the dressing-room, where my bewildered +sight first rested on a lot of Chinamen in festive attire. I could not +make out for a second what they were, and I thought to myself, "Is it +possible I have mistaken the invitation, and this is a masquerade?" +Another glance showed me that they were Chinese, and it turned out that +Mr. Burlingame, the Chinese Minister, was there, and these men were part +of his suite. The ladies and gentlemen had the same dressing-room, which +was a new feature in parties to me, and as we took off our things the +servant took them and gave us a ticket for them, as they do at the +opera. I should think there were about a hundred persons present. There +were a great many handsome women, and they were beautifully dressed and +much be-diamonded and pearled. Corn-colour seemed to be the fashion, and +there were more silks of that colour than any other. + +Mr. Burlingame seemed to be a very genial, easy man. I was not presented +to him, but stood very near him part of the time. He looks upon the +introduction of the Chinese into our country as a great blessing, and +laughs at the idea of it being an evil. He says that the reason +railroads can't be introduced into China is because the whole country is +one vast grave-yard, and you can't dig any depth without unearthing +human bones, so that there would be a revolution on the part of the +people if it were done now, but it will gradually be brought about. He +travels with a suite of forty attendants, and says he has got all his +treaties here arranged to his wishes, and that Prussia has promised to +follow the United States in everything that they have agreed on with +China. He is going to resign his office in a year and go back to +America, where he wants to get into politics again. Mr. Bancroft +introduced many of the ladies to the Chinese, one of whom could speak +English, and he interpreted to the others. It was very quaint to see +them all make their deep bows in silence when some one was presented to +them. They were in the Chinese costume--Turkish trousers, white silk +coats, or blouses, and red turbans, and their hair braided down their +backs in a long tail that nearly touched their heels. + +On Thursday I went to Dr. A.'s to dinner. He seems to be a very +influential man here, and is a great favorite with the Americans. He has +a great big heart, and I suspect that is the reason of it. Mrs. A., too, +is very lovely. I saw there Mr. Theodore Fay, who used to be our +minister in Switzerland, and who is also an author. He is very +interesting, and the most earnest Christian I ever met. He has the +tenderest sympathies in the world, and in a man this is very striking. +He has a high and beautiful forehead, and a certain spirituality of +expression that appeals to you at once and touches you, also. At least +he makes a peculiar impression on _me_. There is something entirely +different about him from other men, but I don't know what it is, unless +it be his deep religious feeling, which shines out unconsciously. + +Last week I made my first visit to the Museum. It is one of the great +sights of Berlin, but it is so immense that I only saw a few rooms. In +fact there are two Museums--an old and a new. I was in the new one. It +is a perfect treasure house, and the floors alone are a study. All are +inlaid with little coloured marbles, and every one is different in +pattern. One of the most beautiful of the rooms was a large circular +dome-roofed apartment round which were placed the statues of the gods, +and in the centre stood a statue in bronze of one of the former German +kings in a Roman suit of armour. Half way up from the floor ran round a +little gallery in which you could stand and look down over the railing, +and here were placed on the walls Raphael's cartoons, which are +fac-similes of those in the Vatican, and are all woven in arras. They +are very wonderful, and you feel as if you could not look at them long +enough. The contrast is impressive as you look down and see all the +heathen statues standing on the marble floor, each one like a separate +sphinx, and then look up and see all the Christian subjects of Raphael. +The statues are so cold and white and distant, and the pictures are so +warm and bright in colour. They seem to express the difference between +the ancient and the modern religions. We went through the rooms of Greek +and Roman statues, of which there is an immense number, and on the walls +are Greek and Italian landscapes, all done by celebrated painters. + +We had to pass through these rooms rather hastily in order to get a +glimpse of the "Treppen Halle," which is the place where the two grand +stair-cases meet that carry you into the upper rooms of the Museum. +This is magnificent, and is all gilding and decoration. An immense +statue stands by each door, and on the wall are six great pictures by +Kaulbach, three on each side. "The Last Judgment," of which you're seen +photographs, is one of them. I ought to go to the Museum often to see it +properly, but it is such a long distance off that I can't get the time. +Berlin is a very large city, and the distances are as great as they are +in New York. + +At the last "Reading" at the conservatory the four best scholars played +last. One of them was an American, from San Francisco, a Mr. Trenkel, +but who has German parents. He plays exquisitely, and has just such a +poetic musical conception as Dresel, but a beautiful technique, also. He +is a thorough artist, and he looks it, too, as he is dark and pale, and +very striking. I always like to see him play, for he droops his dark +eyes, and his high pale forehead is thrown back, and stands out so well +defined over his black brows. His expression is very serious and his +manner very quiet, and he has a sort of fascination about him. He is a +particular favorite of Tausig's. + +After he played, came a young lady who has been a pupil of Von Bülow for +two years. She plays splendidly, and I could have torn my hair with envy +when she got up, and Ehlert went up to her and shook her hand and told +her before the whole school that she had "_real_ talent." After her came +_my_ favorite, little Fräulein Timanoff, who sat down and did still +better. She is a little Russian, only fifteen, and is still in short +dresses. She has almost white hair, it is so light, and she combs it +straight back and wears it in two long braids down her back, which makes +her look very childish. It is really wonderful to see her! She takes her +seat with the greatest confidence, and plays with all the boldness of an +artist. + +Almost all the scholars in Tausig's class are studying to play in +public, and I should think he would be very proud of all those that I +have heard. There are many scholars in the conservatory, but he teaches +only the most advanced. He only returned to Berlin on Saturday, and I +have not yet seen him, though I am dying to do so, for all the Germans +are wild over his playing. The girls in his class are mortally afraid of +him, and when he gets angry he tells them they play "like a rhinoceros," +and many other little remarks equally pleasing. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _January 11, 1870_. + +Since my last letter I have been quite secluded, and have seen nothing +of the gay world. I have been to the opera twice--once to "_Fantaska_," +a grand ballet, and the second time to "_Trovatore_." The opera house +here is magnificent, and I would that I could go to it every week. It is +extremely difficult to get tickets to it, as the rich Jews manage to get +the monopoly of them and the opera house is crowded every night. It is +the most brilliant building, and so exquisitely painted! All the heads +and figures of the Muses and portraits of composers and poets which +decorate it, are so soft and so beautifully done. The curtain even is +charming. It represents the sea, and great sea monsters are swimming +about with nymphs and Cupids and all sorts of things, and one lovely +nymph floats in the air with a thin gauzy veil which trails along after +her. The scenery and dresses are superb, and I never imagined anything +to equal them. The orchestra, too, plays divinely. + +The singing is the only thing which could be improved. The Lucca, who is +the grand attraction, is a pretty little creature, but I did not find +her voice remarkable. The Berlinese worship her, and whenever Lucca +sings there is a rush for the tickets. Wachtel and Niemann are the star +singers among the men. Niemann I have not heard, but Wachtel we should +not rave over in America. I am in doubt whether indeed the Germans know +what the best singing is. They have most wonderful choruses, but when it +comes to soloists they have none that are really great--like Parepa and +Adelaide Phillips; at least, that is my judgment after hearing the best +singers in Berlin, though as the voice is not my "instrument," I will +not be too confident about it. Everything else is so far beyond what we +have at home that perhaps I unconsciously expect the climax of all--the +solo singing, to be proportionally finer also. + +They have beautiful ballet-dancers here, though. There is one little +creature named Fräulein David, who is a wonderful artist. She does such +steps that it turns one's head to see her. She is as light as down, and +so extremely graceful that when you watch her floating about to the +enchanting ballet music, it is too captivating. There were four other +dancers nearly as good, who were all dressed exactly alike in white +dresses trimmed with pink satin. They would come out first, and dance +all together, sometimes separately and sometimes forming a figure in the +middle of the stage. Then suddenly little David, who was dressed in +white and blue, would bound forward. The others would immediately break +up and retire to the side of the stage, and she would execute a +wonderful _pas seul_. Then _she_ would retire, and the others would come +forward again, and so it went. It was perfectly beautiful. Finally they +all danced together and did everything exactly alike, though little +David could always bend lower, and take the "positions" (as we used to +say at Dio Lewis's,) better than all the rest. + +On Friday I am going to hear Rubinstein play. I suppose he will give a +beautiful concert, as he and Bülow, Tausig and Clara Schumann are the +grand celebrities now on the piano, Liszt having given up playing in +public. After our lesson was over yesterday, Ehlert took his leave, and +left us to wait for TAUSIG--my dear!--who was to hear us each play. He +came in very late, and just before it was time to give his own lesson. +He is precisely like the photograph I sent you, but is very short +indeed--too short, in fact, for good looks--but he has a remarkably +vivid expression of the eyes. He came in, and, scarcely looking at us, +and without taking the trouble to bow even, he turned on me and said, +imperiously, "_Spielen Sie mir Etwas vor_. (Play something for me.)" I +got up and played first an _Etude_, and then he asked for the scales, +and after I had played a few he told me I "had talent," and to come to +his lessons, and I would learn much. I went accordingly the next +afternoon. There were two girls only in the class, but they were both +far advanced. I had never heard either of them play before. The second +one played a fearfully difficult concerto by Chopin, which I once heard +from Mills. It is exquisitely beautiful, and she did it very well. From +time to time Tausig would sweep her off the stool, and play himself, and +he is indeed a perfect wonder! If, as they say, Liszt's trill is "like +the warble of a bird," his is as much so. It is not surprising that he +is so celebrated, and I long to hear him in concert, where he will do +full justice to his powers. He thrills you to the very marrow of your +bones. He is divorced from his wife, and I think it not improbable that +she could not live with him, for he looks as haughty and despotic as +Lucifer, though he has a very winning way with him when he likes. His +playing is spoken of as _sans pareil_. + +I spent a very pleasant Christmas. The family had a pretty little tree, +and we all gave each other presents. It was charming to go out in the +streets the week before. The Germans make the greatest time over +Christmas, and the streets are full of Christmas trees, the shops are +crammed with lovely things, and there are little booths erected all +along the sidewalks filled with toys. They have special cakes and +confections that they prepare only at this season. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + Tausig and Rubinstein. Tausig's Pupils. The Bancrofts. A German + Radical. + + + BERLIN, _February 8, 1870_. + +I have heard both Rubinstein and Tausig in concert since I last wrote. +They are both wonderful, but in quite a different way. Rubinstein has +the greatest power and _abandon_ in playing that you can imagine, and is +extremely exciting. I never saw a man to whom it seemed so easy to play. +It is as if he were just sporting with the piano, and could do what he +pleased with it. Tausig, on the contrary, is extremely restrained, and +has not quite enthusiasm enough, but he is absolutely _perfect_, and +plays with the greatest expression. He is pre-eminent in grace and +delicacy of execution, but seems to hold back his power in a concert +room, which is very singular, for when he plays to his classes in the +conservatory he seems all passion. His conception is so very refined +that sometimes it is a little too much so, while Rubinstein is +occasionally too precipitate. I have not yet decided which I like best, +but in my estimation Clara Schumann as a whole is superior to either, +although she has not their unlimited technique. + +This was Tausig's programme: + + 1. Sonate Op. 53, Beethoven. + + 2. a. Bourrée, Bach. + b. Presto Scherzando, Mendelssohn. + c. Barcarole Op. 60, } + d. Ballade Op. 47, } Chopin. + e. Zwei Mazurkas Op. 59 u 33,} + f. Aufforderung zum Tanz, Weber. + + 3. Kreisleriana Op. 16, 8 Phantasie Stücke, Schumann. + 4. a. Ständchen von Shakespeare nach Schubert, } Liszt. + b. Ungarische Rhapsodie, } + +Tausig's octave playing is the most extraordinary I ever heard. The last +great effect on his programme was in the Rhapsody by Liszt, in an octave +variation. He first played it so _pianissimo_ that you could only just +hear it, and then he repeated the variation and gave it tremendously +_forte_. It was colossal! His scales surpass Clara Schumann's, and it +seems as if he played with velvet fingers, his touch is so very soft. He +played the great C major Sonata by Beethoven--Moscheles' favorite, you +know. His conception of it was not brilliant, as I expected it would be, +but very calm and dreamy, and the first movement especially he took very +_piano_. He did it most beautifully, but I was not quite satisfied with +the last movement, for I expected he would make a grand climax with +those passionate trills, and he did not. Chopin he plays divinely, and +that little Bourrée of Bach's that I used to play, was magical. He +played it like lightning, and made it perfectly bewitching. + +Altogether, he is a great man. But Clara Schumann always puts herself +_en rapport_ with you immediately. Tausig and Rubinstein do not sway you +as she does, and, therefore, I think she is the greater interpreter, +although I imagine the Germans would not agree with me. Tausig has such +a little hand that I wonder he has been able to acquire his immense +virtuosity. He is only thirty years old, and is much younger than +Rubinstein or Bülow. + +The day after Tausig's concert I went, as usual, to hear him give the +lesson to his best class of girls. I got there a little before the hour, +and the girls were in the dressing-room waiting for the young men to be +through with their lesson. They were talking about the concert. "Was it +not beautiful?" said little Timanoff, to me; "I did not sleep the whole +night after it!"--a touch of sentiment that quite surprised me in that +small personage, and made me feel some compunctions, as I had slept +soundly myself. "I have practiced five hours to-day already," she added. +Just then the young men came out of the class-room and we passed into +it. Tausig was standing by the piano. "Begin!" said he, to Timanoff, +more shortly even than usual; "I trust you have brought me a study +_this_ time." He always insists upon a study in addition to the piece. +Timanoff replied in the affirmative, and proceeded to open Chopin's +_Etudes_. She played the great A minor "Winter Wind" study, and most +magnificently, too, starting off with the greatest brilliancy and "go." +I was perfectly amazed at such a feat from such a child, and expected +that Tausig would exclaim with admiration. Not so that Rhadamanthus. He +heard it through without comment or correction, and when Timanoff had +finished, simply remarked very composedly, "So! Have you taken the +_next_ Etude, also?" as if the great A minor were not enough for one +meal! It is eight pages long to begin with, and there is no let-up to +the difficulty all the way through. Afterward, however, he told the +young men that he "could not have done it better" himself. + +Tausig is so hasty and impatient that to be in his classes must be a +fearful ordeal. He will not bear the slightest fault. The last time I +went into his class to hear him teach he was dreadful. Fräulein H. +began, and she has remarkable talent, and is far beyond me. She would +not play _piano_ enough to suit him, and finally he stamped his foot at +her, snatched her hand from the piano, and said: "_Will_ you play +_piano_ or not, for if not we will go no farther?" The second girl sat +down and played a few lines. He made her begin over again several times, +and finally came up and took her music away and slapped it down on the +piano,--"You have been studying this for weeks and you can't play a note +of it; practice it for a month and then you can bring it to me again," +he said. + +The third was Fräulein Timanoff, who is a little genius, I think. She +brought a Sonata by Schubert--the lovely one in A minor--and by the way +he behaved Tausig must have a particular feeling about that particular +Sonata. Timanoff began running it off in her usual nimble style, having +practiced it evidently every minute of the time when she was not +asleep, since the last lesson. She had not proceeded far down the first +page when he stopped her, and began to fuss over the expression. She +began again, but this time with no better luck. A third time, but still +he was dissatisfied, though he suffered her to go on a little farther. +He kept stopping her every moment in the most tantalizing and +exasperating manner. If it had been I, I should have cried, but Timanoff +is well broken, and only flushed deeply to the very tips of her small +ears. From an apple blossom she changed to a carnation. Tausig grew more +and more savage, and made her skip whole pages in his impatience. "Play +here!" he would say, in the most imperative tone, pointing to a half or +whole page farther on. "This I cannot hear!--Go on farther!--It is too +bad to be listened to!" Finally, he struck the music with the back of +his hand, and exclaimed, in a despairing way, "_Kind, es liegt eine +Seele darin. Weiss du nicht es liegt eine_ SEELE _darin_? (Child, +there's a soul in the piece. Don't you know there is a _soul_ in it?)" +To the little Timanoff, who has no soul, and who is not sufficiently +experienced to counterfeit one, this speech evidently conveyed no +particular idea. She ran on as glibly as ever till Tausig could endure +no more, and shut up the music. I was much disappointed, as it was new +to me, and I like to hear Timanoff's little fingers tinkle over the +keys, "Seele" or no "Seele." She has a most accurate and dainty way of +doing everything, and somehow, in her healthy little brain I hardly wish +for _Seele_! + +Last of all Fräulein L. played, and she alone suited Tausig. She is a +Swede, and is the best scholar he has, but she has such frightfully ugly +hands, and holds them so terribly, that when I look at her I cannot +enjoy her playing. Tausig always praises her very much, and she is +tremendously ambitious. + +Tausig has a charming face, full of expression and very sensitive. He is +extremely sharp-sighted, and has eyes in the back of his head, I +believe. He is far too small and too despotic to be fascinating, +however, though he has a sort of captivating way with him when he is in +a good humor. + +I was dreadfully sorry to hear of poor Gottschalk's death. He had a +golden touch, and equal to any in the world, I think. But what a +romantic way to die!--to fall senseless at his instrument, while he was +playing "_La Morte_." It was very strange. If anything more is in the +papers about him you must send it to me, for the infatuation that I and +99,999 other American girls once felt for him, still lingers in my +breast! + +On Saturday night I went for the first time to hear the Berlin Symphony +Kapelle. It is composed only of artists, and is the most splendid music +imaginable. De Ahna, for instance, is one of the violinists, and he is +not far behind Joachim. We have no conception of such an orchestra in +America.[A] The Philharmonic of New York approaches it, but is still a +long way off. This orchestra is so perfect, and plays with such +precision, that you can't realize that there are any performers at all. +It is just a great wave of sound that rolls over you as smooth as glass. +As the concert halls are much smaller here, the music is much louder, +and every man not only plays _piano_ and _forte_ where it is marked, but +he draws the _tone_ out of his violin. They have the greatest pathos, +consequently, in the soft parts, and overwhelming power in the loud. +Where great expression is required the conductor almost ceases to beat +time, and it seems as if the performers took it _ad libitum_; but they +understand each other so well that they play like one man. It is _too_ +ecstatic! I observed the greatest difference in the horn playing. +Instead of coming in in a monotonous sort of way as it does at home, and +always with the same degree of loudness, here, when it is solo, it +begins round and smooth and full, and then gently modulates until the +tone seems to sigh itself out, dying away at last with a little tremolo +that is perfectly melting. I never before heard such an effect. When the +trumpets come in it is like the crack of doom, and you should hear the +way they play the drums. I never _was_ satisfied with the way they +strike the drums in New York and Boston, for it always seemed as if they +thought the parchment would break. Here, sometimes they give such a +sharp stroke that it startles me, though, of course, it is not often. +But it adds immensely to the accent, and makes your heart beat, I can +tell you. They played Schubert's great symphony, and Beethoven's in B +major, and I could scarcely believe my own ears at the difference +between this orchestra and ours. It is as great as between---- and +Tausig. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _March 4, 1870_. + +Tausig is off to Russia to-day on a concert tour, and will not return +until the 1st of May. Out of six months he has been in Berlin about two +and a half! However, as I am not yet in his class it doesn't affect me +much, but I should think his scholars would be provoked at such long +absences. That is the worst of having such a great artist for a master. +I believe we are to have no vacation in the summer though, and that he +has promised to remain here from May until November without going off. +Ehlert and Tausig have had a grand quarrel, and Ehlert is going to leave +the conservatory in April. I am very sorry, for he is an admirable +teacher, and I like him extremely. + +We had another Musical Reading on Sunday, at which I played, but all the +conservatory classes were there, and all the teachers, with Tausig, +also, so it was a pretty hard ordeal. The girls said I turned deadly +pale when I sat down to the piano, and well I might, for here you cannot +play any thing that the scholars have not either played themselves or +are perfectly familiar with, so they criticise you without mercy. Tausig +plays so magnificently that you know beforehand that a thing can never +be more than comparatively good in his eyes. Fräulein L. is the only one +of his pupils that plays to suit him. I do not like her playing so much +myself, because it sounds as if she had tried to imitate him +exactly--which she probably does. It does not seem spontaneous, and she +is an affected creature. They all think 'the world' of her at the +conservatory, and I suppose she _is_ quite extraordinary; but I prefer +Fräulein Timanoff--"_die kleine Person_," as Tausig calls her--and she +is, indeed, a "little person." On Sunday Fräulein L. played the first +part of a Sonata by Chopin, and Tausig was quite enchanted with her +performance. I thought he was going to embrace her, he jumped up so +impetuously and ran over to her. He declared that it could not be better +played, and said he would not hear anything else after that, and so the +school was dismissed, although several had not played that expected to +do so. + +Tausig has one scholar who is a very singular girl--the Fräulein H. I +mentioned to you before, who has studied with Bülow. She is half French +and half German, and speaks both languages. She is full of talent and +cannot be over eighteen, but she is the most intense character, and is a +perfect child of nature. One can't help smiling at everything she does, +because she goes at everything so hard and so unconsciously. When the +other girls are playing she folds her arms and plays with her fingers +against her sides all the time, and when her turn comes she seizes her +music, jumps up, and rushes for the piano as fast as she can. She hasn't +the least timidity, and on Sunday when Tausig called out her name he +scarcely got the words out before she said, "_Ja_," to the great +amusement of the class (for none of us answered to our names) and ran to +the piano. + +She sat down with the chair half crooked, and almost on the side of it, +but she never stopped to arrange herself, but dashed off a prelude out +of her own head, and then played her piece. When she got through she +never changed countenance, but was back in her seat before you could say +"Jack Robinson." She is as passionate as Tausig, and so they usually +have a scene over her lesson. He is always either half amused at her or +very angry, and is terribly severe with her. When he stamps his foot at +her she makes up a face, and the blood rushes up into her head, and I +believe she would beat him if she dared. She always plays as impetuously +as she does everything else, and then he stops his ears and tells her +she makes too much "_Spectakel_" (his favorite expression). Then she +begins over again two or three times, but always in the same way. He +snatches the music from the piano and tells her that is enough. Then the +class bursts out laughing and she goes to her seat and cries. But she is +too proud to let the other girls see her wipe her eyes, and so she sits +up straight, and tries to look unconcerned, but the tears trickle down +her cheeks one after the other, and drop off her chin all the rest of +the hour. By the time she has had a piece for two lessons she comes to +the third, and at last she has managed to tone down enough, and then she +plays it splendidly. She is a savage creature. The girls tell me that +one time she sat down to the piano (a concert-grand) with such violence +as to push the instrument to one side, and began to play with such +vehemence that she burst the sleeve out of her dress behind! She is +going to be an artist, and I told her she must come to America to give +concerts. She said "_Ja_," and immediately wanted to know where I lived, +so she could come and see me. I think she will make a capital concert +player, for she is always excited by an audience, and she has immense +power. I am a mere baby to her in strength. Perhaps when she is ten +years older she will be able to restrain herself within just limits, and +to put in the light and shade as Fräulein L. does. + +Since I last wrote I have been to hear Rubinstein again. He is the +greatest sensation player I know of, and, like Gottschalk, has all sorts +of tricks of his own. His grand aim is to produce an _effect_, so it is +dreadfully exciting to hear him, and at his last concert the first piece +he played--a terrific composition by Schubert--gave me such a violent +headache that I couldn't hear the rest of the performance with any +pleasure. He has a gigantic spirit in him, and is extremely poetic and +original, but for an entire concert he is too much. Give me Rubinstein +for a few pieces, but Tausig for a whole evening. Rubinstein doesn't +care how many notes he misses, provided he can bring out his conception +and make it vivid enough. Tausig strikes _every_ note with rigid +exactness, and perhaps his very perfection makes him at times a little +cold. Rubinstein played Schubert's Erl-König, arranged by Liszt, +_gloriously_. Where the child is so frightened, his hands flew all over +the piano, and absolutely made it shriek with terror. It was enough to +freeze you to hear it. + +Last week I went to a party at Mrs. Bancroft's in honour of Washington's +birthday, and had a lovely time, as I always do when I go there. +Bismarck was present, and wore a coat all decorated with stars and +orders. He is a splendid looking man, and is tall and imposing. No one +could be kinder than Mr. Bancroft. He and Mrs. Bancroft live in a +beautiful house, furnished in perfect taste and full of lovely pictures +and things, and they entertain most charmingly. They seem to do their +utmost for the Americans who are in Berlin, and I am very proud of our +minister. His reputation as our national historian, together with his +German culture and early German associations, all combine to render him +an admirable representative of our country to this haughty kingdom, and +I hear that he is very popular with its selfsatisfied citizens. As for +Mrs. Bancroft, one could hardly be more elegant, or better suited to the +position. Mr. Bancroft is passionately fond of music, and knows what +good music is,--which is of course an additional title to _my_ high +opinion! + +The other day Herr J. called for me to go and take a walk through the +Thier-Garten, and see the skating. It was the first time I had been +there, though it is not far from us, and I was delighted with it. It is +the natural forest, with beautiful walks and drives cut through it, and +statues here and there. We went to see the skating, and it was a lovely +sight. The band was playing, and ladies and gentlemen were skating in +time to the waltz. Many ladies skate very elegantly, and go along with +their hands in their muffs, swaying first to one side and then to the +other. It is grace itself. Carriages and horses pranced slowly around +the edge of the pond, and at last the Prince and Princess Royal came +along, drawn by two splendid black horses. + +The carriage stopped and they got out to walk. "Now," said I to Herr J., +"you must take off your hat"--for everybody takes off his hat to the +Crown Prince. As they passed us he did take it off, but blushed up to +his ears, which I thought rather odd, until he said, in a half-ashamed +tone, "That is the first time in my life that I ever took off my hat to +a Prince." "Well, what did you do it for?" said I. "Because you told me +to," said he. He is such a red hot republican, that even such a little +act of respect as this grated upon him! I only told him in fun, any way, +but I was very much amused to see how he took it. He always raves over +the United States, and says we are the greatest country in the world. He +is a strange man, and you ought to hear his theory of religion. He sets +the Bible entirely aside--like most German cultivated men. We were +talking of it one night, and he said, "We won't speak of that +_blockhead_ Peter, stupid fisherman that he was! but we will pass on to +Paul, who was a man of some education." David, he calls "that rascal +David, etc." Of course, I hold to my own belief, but I can't help +laughing to hear him, it sounds so ridiculous. The world never had any +beginning, he says, and there is no resurrection. We live only for the +benefit of the next generation, and therefore it is necessary to lead +good lives. We inherit the result of our father's labours, and our +children will inherit ours. So we shall go on until the human race comes +to a state of perfection. "And then what?" said I. Oh--then, he didn't +know. Perhaps the world would explode, and go off in meteors. "We _do_ +know," said he, "that there are lost stars. Occasionally a star +disappears and we can't tell what has become of it; and perhaps the +earth will become a wandering star, or a comet. The intervals between +the stars are so great as to admit of a world wandering about--and there +is no police in those regions, I fancy," concluded he, with a shrug of +his shoulders. "Do you really _believe_ that, Herr J.?" I asked. "Oh," +said he, "we won't speak about _beliefs_. Now we are _speculating_!" He +is a delightful companion, and I think he is scrupulously conscientious. +Though he does not profess the Christian faith, he acts up to Christian +principles. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + Opera and Oratorio in Berlin. A Typical American. Prussian + Rudeness. Conservatory Changes. Easter. + + + BERLIN, _March 20, 1870_. + +On Wednesday the Bancrofts most kindly called for me to go to the opera +with them. They came in their carriage, with two horses and footmen, so +it was very jolly, and we bowled rapidly through Unter den Linden (the +Broadway of Berlin), in rather a different manner from the pace I +usually crawl along in a droschkie. They had fine opera glasses, of +course, and we took our seats just as the overture was about to begin, +so that everything was charming except that instead of Lohengrin, which +we had expected to hear, they had changed the opera to Faust, which I +had heard the week before. Faust is, however, a fascinating opera, and +it is beautifully given here, albeit the Germans stick to it that it is +Gounod's Faust and not Goethe's. + +Since I have come here I have a perfect passion for going to the opera, +for everything is done in such superb fashion, and they have the +orchestra of the Symphony Kapelle, which is so splendid that it could +not be better. It is a pity the singers are not equally good, but I +don't believe Germany is the land of great voices. However, the men sing +finely, and the prima donnas have much talent, and _act_ beautifully. +The prima donna on this occasion was Mallinger, the rival of Lucca. She +is especially good as Margaretta. Niemann and Wachtel are the great men +singers. Wachtel was formerly a coachman, but he has a lovely voice. His +acting is not remarkable, but Niemann is superb, and he sings and acts +delightfully. He is very tall and fair, with light whiskers, and golden +hair crowning a noble head, in truth a regular Viking. When he comes out +in his crimson velvet mantle and crimson cap, with a white plume, and +begins singing these delicious love songs to Margaretta, he is perfectly +enchanting! He and Mallinger throw themselves into the long love scene +which fills the third act, and act it magnificently. It was the first +time I ever saw a love scene well done. The fourth act is most +impressive. The curtain rises, and shows the interior of a church. The +candles are burning on the altar, and the priests and acolytes are +standing in their proper order before it. The organ strikes up a fugue +and all the peasants come in and kneel down. Then poor Margaretta comes +in for refuge, but when she kneels to pray a voice is heard which tells +her that for her there is no refuge or hope in heaven or earth. + +This scene Mallinger does so well that it is nature itself. When the +voice is heard she gives a shriek, totters for a moment, and then falls +upon the floor senseless, and O, _so_ naturally that one is entirely +carried away by it. The organ takes up the fugue, and the curtain drops. +The contrast between the two acts makes it all the more effective, for +in the third it is all love and flowers and languishing music, and in +the fourth one is suddenly recalled to the sanctity and severity of the +church; also, after the orchestra this subdued fugue on the organ makes +a very peculiar impression. In the fifth act Margaretta is in prison, +and Faust and Mephistopheles come to rescue her. This is a powerful +scene, for at first she hesitates, and thinks she will go with them, and +then her mind wanders, and she recalls, as in a vision, the happy scenes +of earlier days. They keep urging her, and try to drag her along with +them, but at last she breaks free from them and cries, "To Thee, O, God, +belongs my soul," and falls upon her straw pallet, and dies. Then the +scene changes, and you see four angels gradually floating up to heaven, +supporting her dead body, while the chorus sings: + + "Christ ist erstanden + Aus Tod und Banden + Frieden und Heil verkeisst + Aller Welt er, die ihn preist."[B] + +This ends the opera, which is very exciting throughout. I am going to +read the original as soon as I know a little more German, so that I +shan't have to read with a dictionary. I am just getting able to read +Goethe without one, and think he is the most entrancing writer. There +never could have been a man who understood women so well as he! His +female characters are perfectly captivating, but he is not very +flattering to his own sex, and generally makes them, in love, (what they +are) weak and vacillating. + +I met a very agreeable young countryman at a dinner the other day--a Mr. +P.--and a great contrast to any of Goethe's ill-regulated heroes. He was +the typical American, I thought. Wide awake, bright, with a sharp eye +to business, very republican, with a hearty contempt for titles and a +great respect for women, practical and clear-headed. When the wine was +passed round he refused it, and said he had never drunk a glass of wine +or touched tobacco in his life. I was so amused, for he looked so young. +I said to myself, "probably you are just out of college, and are +travelling before you settle down to a profession." After a while he +said something about his wife. I was a little surprised, but still I +thought "perhaps you have only been married a few months." A little +further on he mentioned his children. I was still more surprised, but +thought he couldn't have more than two; but when Mrs. B. asked him how +many he had, and he said "three living and two dead," adding very +gravely, "I have been twice left childless," I could scarcely help +bursting out laughing, for I had thought him about twenty-one, and these +revelations of a wife and numerous family seemed too preposterous!--But +it was very nice to see such a model countryman, too. It is such men +that make the American greatness. + +After dinner I went with my hostess to hear Mendelssohn's Oratorio of +St. Paul. It is a great work, a little tedious as a whole, but with +wonderfully beautiful numbers interspersed through it. There are several +lovely chorales in it. I was disappointed in the performance, though, +for in the first place there is no organ in the Sing-Akademie, and I +consider the effect of the organ and the drums indispensable to an +oratorio; and in the second, the solos all seemed to me indifferently +sung. The choruses were faultless, however. They understand how to +drill a chorus here! Next Friday I am going to Haydn's "Jahreszeiten," +which I never happened to hear in Boston. + +Germany is a great place for birds and flowers. All winter long we have +quantities of saucy-looking little sparrows here, and they have the most +thievish expression when they fly down for a crumb. I sometimes put +crumbs on my window-sill, and in a short time they are sure to see them. +Then they stand on the edge of a roof opposite, and look from side to +side for a long time, the way birds do. At last they make up their +minds, swoop down on the sill, stretch their heads, give a bold look to +see if I am about, and then snatch a crumb and fly off with it. They +never can get over their own temerity, and always give a chirp as they +fly away with the crumb; whether it is a note of triumph over their +success, or an expression of nervousness, I cannot decide. One cold day +I passed a tree, on every twig of which was a bird. They were holding a +political meeting, I am sure, for they were all jabbering away to each +other in the most excited manner, and each one had his breast bulged +out, and his feathers ruffled. They were "awfully cunning!" + +On Tuesday I went out to Borsig's greenhouse. He is an immensely rich +man here, who makes a specialty of flowers. He lives some way out of +Berlin, and has the largest conservatories here. The inside of the +portico which leads into them is all covered with ivy, which creeps up +on the inside of the walls, and covers them completely. When we came +within, the flowers were arranged in perfect _banks_ all along the +length of the greenhouse, so that you saw one continuous line of +brilliant colours, and oh--the perfume! The hyacinths predominated in +all shades, though there were many other flowers, and many of them new +to me. Camelias were trained, vine fashion, all over the sides of the +greenhouse, and hundreds of white and pink blossoms were depending from +them. All the centre of the greenhouse was a bed of rich earth covered +with a little delicate plant, and at intervals planted with azalea +bushes so covered with blossoms that one could scarcely see the leaves. +At one end was a very large cage filled with brilliant birds, and at the +other was a lovely fountain of white marble--Venus and Cupid supported +on three shells. But I was most struck by the tree ferns, which I had +never before seen. They were perfectly magnificent, and were arranged on +the highest side of the greenhouse with many other rare plants most +artistically mingled in. After we had finished looking at the flowers we +went into a second house, where were palm trees, ferns, cacti and all +sorts of strange things growing, but all placed with the same taste. It +was a beautiful sight, and I never had any idea of the garden of Eden +before. I must try and bring home a pot of the "Violet of the Alps." It +is the most delicate little flower, and looks as if it grew on a high, +cold mountain. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _April 1, 1870_. + +To-day is April Fool's day, and the first real month of spring is begun. +I have not fooled anybody yet, but as soon as dinner is ready, I shall +rush to the window and cry, "There goes the king!" Of course they will +all run to see him, and then I shall get it off on the whole family at +once. I shall wait until the "kleiner Hans," Frau W.'s son, comes home. +I call him the "Kleinen" in derision, for in reality he is immense. I +have been very much struck with the height of the people here. As a rule +they are much taller than Americans, and sometimes one meets perfect +giants in the streets. The Prussian men are often semi-insolent in their +street manners to women, and sometimes nearly knock you off the +sidewalk, from simply not choosing to see you. I suppose this arrogance +is one of the benefits of their military training! They _will_ have the +middle of the walk where the stone flag is laid, no matter what _you_ +have to step off into! + +I went to hear Haydn's Jahreszeiten a few evenings since, and it is the +most charming work--such a happy combination of grave and gay! He wrote +it when he was seventy years old, and it is so popular that one has +great difficulty in getting a ticket for it. The _salon_ was entirely +filled, so that I had to take a seat in the _loge_, where the places are +pretty poor, though I went early, too. The work is sung like an +oratorio, in arias, recitatives and choruses, and is interspersed with +charming little songs. It represents the four seasons of the year, and +each part is prefaced by a little overture appropriate to the passing +of each season into the next. The recitatives are sung by Hanna and +Lucas, who are lovers, and by Simon, who is a friend of both, +apparently. The autumn is the prettiest of the four parts, for it +represents first the joy of the country people over the harvests and +over the fruits. Then comes a splendid chorus in praise of Industry. +After that follows a little love dialogue between Hanna and Lucas, then +a description of a hunt, then a dance; lastly the wine is brought, and +the whole ends with a magnificent chorus in praise of wine. The dance is +too pretty for anything, for the whole chorus sings a waltz, and it is +the gayest, most captivating composition imaginable. The choruses here +are so splendidly drilled that they give the expression in a very vivid +manner, and produce beautiful effects. All the parts are perfectly +accurate and well balanced. But the solo singers are, as I have remarked +in former letters, for the most part, ordinary. + +I took my last lesson of Ehlert yesterday. I am very sorry that he and +Tausig have quarrelled, for he is a splendid teacher. He has taught me a +great deal, and precisely the things that I wanted to know and could not +find out for myself. For instance, those twists and turns of the hands +that artists have, their way of striking the chords, and many other +little technicalities which one must have a master to learn. He always +seemed to take great pleasure in teaching me, and I am most grateful to +him for his encouragement. I think Tausig behaves very strangely to be +off for such a long time. He does not return until the first of May, and +all this month we are to be taught by one of his best scholars until he +comes back and engages another teacher. He has just given concerts at +St. Petersburg, and I am told that at a single one he made six thousand +rubles. They are in an immense enthusiasm there over him. + +Last night I went with Mr. B. to hear Bach's Passion Music. Anything to +equal that last chorus I never heard from voices. I felt as if it ought +to go on forever, and could not bear to have it end. That chorale, "O +Sacred Head now wounded," is taken from it, and it comes in twice; the +second time with different harmonies and without accompaniment. It is +the most exquisite thing; you feel as if you would like to die when you +hear it. But the last chorus carries you straight up to heaven. It +begins: + + "We sit down in tears + And call to thee in the grave, + Rest soft--rest soft." + +It represents the rest of our Saviour after the stone had been rolled +before the tomb, and it is _divine_. Everybody in the chorus was dressed +in black, and almost every one in the audience, so you can imagine what +a sombre scene it was. This is the custom here, and on Good Friday, when +the celebrated "Tod Jesu" by Graun, is performed, they go in black +without exception. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _April 24, 1870_. + +I thought of you all on Easter Sunday, and wondered what sort of music +you were having. I did not go to the English church, as is my wont, but +to the Dom, which is the great church here, and is where all the court +goes. It is an extremely ugly church, and much like one of our old +Congregational meeting-houses; but they have a superb choir of two +hundred men and boys which is celebrated all over Europe. Haupt (Mr. J. +K. Paine's former master) is the organist, and of course they have a +very large organ. I knew, as this was Easter, that the music would be +magnificent, so I made A. W. go there with me, much against her will, +for she declared we should get no seat. The Germans don't trouble +themselves to go to church very often, but on a feast day they turn out +in crowds. + +We got to the church only twenty minutes before service began, and I +confess I was rather daunted as I saw the swarms of people not only +going in but coming out, hopeless of getting into the church. However, I +determined to push on and see what the chances were, and with great +difficulty we got up stairs. There is a lobby that runs all around the +church, just as in the Boston Music Hall. All the doors between the +gallery and the lobby were open, and each was crammed full of people. I +thought the best thing we could do would be to stand there until we got +tired, and listen to the music, and then go. Finally, the sexton came +along, and A. asked him if he could not give us two seats; he shrugged +his shoulders and said, "Yes, if you choose to pass through the crowd." +We boldly said we would, although it looked almost hopeless, and then +made our way through it, followed by muttered execrations. At last the +sexton unlocked a door, and gave us two excellent seats, and there was +plenty of room for a dozen more people; but I don't doubt he frightened +them away just as he would have done us if he could. He locked us in, +and there we sat quite in comfort. + +At ten the choir began to sing a psalm. They sit directly over the +chancel, and a gilded frame work conceals them completely from the +congregation. They have a leader who conducts them, and they sing in +most perfect time and tune, entirely without accompaniment. The voices +are tender and soft rather than loud, and they weave in and out most +beautifully. There are a great many different parts, and the voices keep +striking in from various points, which produces a delicious effect, and +makes them sound like an angel choir far up in the sky. After they had +finished the psalm the organ burst out with a tremendous great chord, +enough to make you jump, and then played a chorale, and there were also +trombones which took the melody. Then all the congregation sang the +chorale, and the choir kept silence. You cannot imagine how easy it is +to sing when the trombones lead, and the effect is overwhelming with the +organ, especially in these grand old chorales. I could scarcely bear it, +it was so very exciting. + +There was a great deal of music, as it was Easter Sunday, and it was +done alternately by the choir and the congregation; but generally the +Dom choir only sings one psalm before the service begins, and therefore +I seldom take the trouble to go there. The rest of the music is entirely +congregational, and they only have trombones on great occasions. We sat +close by the chancel, and the great wax candles flared on the altar +below us, and the Lutheran clergyman read the German so that it sounded +a good deal like Latin. I was quite surprised to see how much like Latin +German _could_ sound, for it has these long, rolling words, and it is +just as pompous. Altogether it made a strange but splendid impression. I +thought if they had only had their choir in the chancel, and in white +surplices, it would have been much more beautiful, but perhaps the music +would not have sounded so fine as when the singers were overhead. The +Berlin churches all look as if religion was dying out here, so old and +bare and ill-cared for, and so few in number. They are only redeemed by +the great castles of organs which they generally have; and it is a +difficult thing to get the post of organist here. One must be an +experienced and well-known musician to do it. They sing no chants in the +service, but only chorales. + +To-night is the last Royal Symphony Concert of this season, and of +course I shall go. This wonderful orchestra carries me completely away. +It is too marvellous how they play! such expression, such _élan!_ I +heard them give Beethoven's Leonora Overture last week in such a fashion +as fairly electrified me. This overture sums up the opera of Fidelio, +and in one part of it, just as the hero is going to be executed, you +hear the post-horn sound which announces his delivery. This they play so +softly that you catch it exactly as if it came from a long distance, and +you cannot believe it comes from the orchestra. It makes you think of +"the horns of elf-land faintly blowing." + +Tausig is expected back this week, and he has indeed been gone long +enough. He is going to give a lesson every Monday to the best scholars +who are not in his class, and as I stand at the head of these I hope to +have a lesson from him every week. This would suit me better than two, +as he is so dreadfully exacting, and it will give me time to learn a +piece well. Then I should have my regular lesson beside from Mr. +Beringer, or whoever he appoints to take Ehlert's place. Beringer, who +is a young man about twenty-five years old, has turned out a capital +teacher, and I am learning much with him. He plays beautifully himself, +and is a great favorite of Tausig's. He has been with him so long that +he teaches his method excellently, and gives me pieces that he has +studied with him. I believe he is to come out at the Gewandhaus, in +Leipsic, in October, and after that he will settle in London. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + The Thier-Garten. A Military Review. Charlottenburg. Tausig. Berlin + in Summer. Potsdam and Babelsberg. + + + BERLIN, _June 5, 1870_. + +We've had the vilest possible weather this spring, but Berlin looks +perfectly lovely now. There are a great many gardens attached to the +houses here. Everything is in bloom, and is laden with the scent of +lilacs and apple blossoms. The streets are planted with lindens and +horse chestnut trees, and on the fashionable street bordering on the +Thier-Garten, all the houses have little lawns in front, carpeted with +the most dazzling green grass, and rising out of it are solid banks of +flowers. The shrubs are planted according to their height, close +together, and one behind the other, and as they are all in blossom you +see these great masses of colour. It is like a gigantic bouquet growing +up before you. + +The Thier-Garten is perfectly beautiful. It is so charming to come upon +this unfenced wood right in the heart of an immense city, with roads and +paths cut all through it, and each over-arched with vivid green as far +as the eye can reach. When you see the gay equipages driving swiftly +through it, and ladies and gentlemen glancing amid the trees on +horseback, it is very romantic. + +Frau W.'s brother, "Uncle S." as I call him, announced the other day +that he was going to take us to Charlottenburg. I had often been told +that I must go there and see the "Mausoleum," but as you know I never +ask for explanations, this did not convey any particular idea to my +mind, and I started out on this excursion in my usual state of blissful +ignorance. We took two droschkies for our party, and meandered slowly +through the Thier-Garten and along the Charlottenburg road till we +arrived at our point of destination. This was announced from afar by an +absurd statue poised on one toe on the top of the castle which stands in +front of the park containing the Mausoleum. + +The first thing we did on alighting was to go into a little beer garden +close by to take coffee. It was a perfect afternoon, and the trees and +flowers were in all their June glory. We sat down around one of those +delightful tables which they always have under the trees in Germany. The +coffee was soon served, hot and strong, and Uncle S. took out a cigar to +complete his enjoyment. Then we began to stroll. We went through a gate +into the grounds surrounding the castle, and after passing through the +orangery emerged into a garden, which soon spread into a beautiful park +filled with magnificent trees, and with beds of flowers cut in the +smooth turf for some distance along the borders of the avenues. We +turned to the right (instead of to the left, which would have brought us +directly to the Mausoleum) in order to see the flowers first, then the +river, and then come round by the pond where the carp are kept. + +The Germans certainly understand laying out parks to perfection. They +are not _too_ rigidly kept, and there is an air of nature about +everything. This Charlottenburg park is a particularly fascinating one. +A dense avenue borders the River Spree, which is broad at this point, +and flows gloomily and silently along. The branches of the trees +overhang the stream, and also lock together across the walk, forming a +leafy avenue before and behind you. We met very few people, scarcely any +one, in fact, and the songs of the birds were the only sounds that broke +the all-pervading calm. The path finally left the river, and we came out +on an open spot, where was a pretty view of the castle through a little +cut in the trees. We sat down on a bench and looked about us for awhile, +and then went up on the bridge which crosses the pond where the carp are +kept. The Germans always feed these carp religiously, and that is a +regular part of the excursion. The fish are very old, many of them, and +we saw some hoary old fellows rise lazily to the surface and condescend +to swallow the morsels of cake that we threw them. They were evidently +accustomed to good living, and, like all swells, considered it only +their due! + +At last we came gradually round towards the Mausoleum. An avenue of +hemlocks led to it--"Trauer-Bäume (mourning-trees)," as the Germans call +them, and it was an exquisite touch of sentiment to make _this_ avenue +of these dark funereal evergreens. At first you see nothing, for the +avenue is long, and you turn into it gay and smiling with the influence +of the birds, the trees, and the flowers fresh upon you. But the +drooping boughs of the sombre hemlocks soon begin to take effect, and +the feeling that comes over one when about half way down it is certainly +peculiar. It seems as if one were passing between a row of tall and +silent _sentinels_ watching over the abode of death! + +Involuntarily you begin repeating from Edgar Poe's haunting poem: + + "Then I pacified Psyche and kissed her, + And conquered her scruples and gloom, + And banished her scruples and gloom, + And we passed to the end of the vista + Till we came to the door of a tomb; + And I said, 'What is written, sweet sister, + On the door of this legended tomb?' + And she said, 'Ulalume, Ulalume, + 'Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume." + +And so, too, does _your_ eye become fixed upon a door at the end of +_this_ vista, which comes nearer and nearer until finally the Mausoleum +takes form round it in the shape of a little Greek temple of polished +brown marble. A small flower garden lies in front of it, and it would +look inviting enough if one did not know what it was. Two officials +stand ready to receive you and conduct you up the steps. + +Within these walls a royal pair lie buried--King Friedrich Wilhelm III. +and his beautiful wife, Luisa, who so calmly withstood the bullying of +Napoleon I. and for whom the Prussians cherish such a chivalrous +affection. They are entombed under the front portion of the temple, and +two slabs in the pavement mark their resting places. These are lit from +above by a window in the roof filled with blue glass, which throws a +subdued and solemn light into the marble chamber. You walk past them to +the other end of the temple, which is cruciform in shape, go up one step +between pillars, and there, in the little white transept, lie upon two +snowy marble couches the sculptured forms of the dead king and queen +side by side. Though this apartment is lit by side windows of plain +glass high up on the walls, so that it is full of the white daylight, +yet the blueish light from the outer room is reflected into it just +enough to heighten the delicacy of the marble and to bestow on +everything an unearthly aspect. + +Queen Luisa was celebrated for her beauty, and the sculptor Rauch, who +knew and adored her, has breathed it all into the stone. There she lay, +as if asleep, her head easily pressing the pillow, her feet crossed and +the outlines of her exquisite form veiled but not concealed by the thin +tissue-like drapery. It covered even the little feet, but they seemed to +define themselves all the more daintily through the muslin. There is no +look of death about her face. She seems more like a bonny "Queen o' the +May," reclining with closed eyes upon her flowery bed. The statue has +been criticised by some on account of this entire absence of the +"_beauté de la mort_." There is no transfigured or glorified look to it. +It is simply that of a beautiful woman in deep repose. But it seems to +me that this is a matter of taste, and that the artist had a perfect +right to represent her as he most felt she was. The king's statue is +clothed in full uniform, and he looks very striking, too, lying there +in all the dignity of manhood and of kingship, with the drapery of his +military cloak falling about him. His features are delicate and regular, +and he is a fit counterpart to his lovely consort. Against the back wall +an altar is elevated on some steps, and there is an endless fascination +in leaning against it and gazing down on those two august forms +stretched out so still before you. On either side of the statues are +magnificent tall candelabra of white marble of very rich and beautiful +design, and appropriate inscriptions from the German Bible run round the +carved and diapered marble walls. Altogether, this garden-park, with its +river, its Mausoleum, its avenue of hemlocks, and its glorious statues +of the king and queen, is one of the most exquisite and ideal +conceptions imaginable. As we returned it was toward sunset. The evening +wind was sighing through the tall trees and the waving grasses. An +indefinable influence hovered in the air. The supernatural seemed to +envelop us, and instinctively we hastened a little as we retraced our +steps. + +When we emerged from the hemlock avenue Uncle S., I thought, seemed +rather relieved, for the contemplation of a future life is not +particularly sympathetic to him! After he had asked me if I did not +think the Mausoleum "_sehr schön_ (very beautiful)," and had ascertained +that I _did_ think so, he restored his equilibrium by taking out another +cigar, which he lighted, and we leisurely made our way through the +garden to our droschkies and drove home. It was quite dark as we were +coming through the Thier-Garten, and it seemed like a forest. The stars +were shining through the branches overhead, and their soothing light +gave the last poetic touch to a lovely day. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _June 26, 1870_. + +Last week the Emperor of Austria was here, and they had a parade in his +honour. The B.'s took me in their carriage to see it. We drove to a +large plain outside the city, and there we saw a mock battle, and all +the manoeuvers of an army--how they advance and retreat, and how they +form and deploy. There was a continual fire of musketry and artillery, +and it was very exciting. The enemy was only imaginary, but the +attacking party acted just as if there were one, and at last it ended +with the taking by storm, which was done by the attacking party rushing +on with one continued cheer, or rather yell, from one end of the lines +to the other. Then they all broke up, the bands played the Russian Hymn, +the King and the Emperor mounted horses and led off a great body of +cavalry, and away we all clattered home--carriages and horses all +together. It was a great sight, and I enjoyed it very much. + +I am going to play before Tausig next Monday, and have been studying +very hard. He praised me very much the last time, and said he would soon +take me into his regular class; but he is such a whimsical creature that +one can't rely on him much. Two of the girls have almost finished their +studies with him, and soon are going to give concerts. I am playing +Scarlatti, which he is _awfully_ particular with, and expect to have my +head taken off. Two of his scholars are playing the same pieces that I +am, and he told one of them that she played "like a nut-cracker." He is +very funny sometimes. The other day one of the young men played the +Pastoral Sonata to him. Tausig gave a sigh, and said, "This _should_ be +a garden of roses, but, as you play it, I see only potato plants." +Scarlatti is charming music. He writes _en suite_ like Bach, and is +still more quaint and full of humour. + +I find Berlin very pleasant, even in summer. Most of the better houses +are made with balconies or bow windows, and around each one they will +have a little frame full of earth in which is planted mignonette, +nasturtiums, geraniums, etc., which trail over the edge, and as you look +up from the street it seems as if the houses were festooned with +flowers. On many of them woodbine is trained so that every window is set +in a deep green frame. All the nice streets have pretty little front +yards in which roses are planted, and I never saw anything like them. +The branches are cut to one thick, straight stem, which is tied to a +stick. They grow very tall, and each one is crowned with a top-knot of +superb roses. Every yard looks like a little orchard of roses, and they +are of every imaginable shade of colour. Every American who comes here +must be struck with the want of beauty in the cities he has left at +home; and it is really shameful, that when our people are so much better +off, and when such immense numbers of them see this European culture +every year, still they do not introduce the same things into our +country. Take Fifth Avenue or Beacon Street, for example, and one won't +see anything the whole length of them but a little green grass and an +occasional woodbine, whereas here they would be adorned with flowers and +all sorts of contrivances to make them beautiful. + +On Thursday a little party of three, including myself, was made up to +take me out to Potsdam. The Museum, Charlottenburg and Potsdam, are, as +Mr. T. B. says, "the three sights of Berlin." I have written you of the +first two, and you shall now have the third. Potsdam is sixteen miles +from here, and it took about as long to go there by train as it does +from Boston to Lynn. It is the royal summer residence. On arriving we +bought a large quantity of cherries and then seated ourselves in a +carriage to drive through the city to Charlottenhof. Here we got out and +walked into a superb park, filled with splendid old trees. The first +thing we saw was a beautiful little building in the Pompeian style. This +was where Humboldt used to stay with the last king and queen in summer. +We went into it and found it the sweetest little place you can imagine. +When we opened the door, instead of a hall was a little court with a +fountain in it and two low, broad staircases (of marble, I think) +sweeping up to the main story. The walls were delicately tinted and +frescoed all round the borders with Pompeian devices. The windows were +of some sort of thin transparent stained glass, through which the light +could penetrate easily, and were also in the Pompeian fashion, with +chariots, and horses, and goddesses, etc. The rooms all opened into +each other, but we were obliged to go through them so hastily that I +could not look at them much in detail. The walls were covered with +lovely pictures, and there were tables inlaid with precious marbles and +all sorts of beautiful things. We saw the table and chair where the king +always sat, just as he had left it, with his papers and drawings; and +the queen's boudoir, with her writing materials and her sewing +arrangements. From her window one looked out on a fountain at the right, +and on the left was a long arcade covered with vines which led to a +garden of roses. + +We opened a door and passed through this arcade, and, after looking at +the flowers, went on through the park until we came to another house, +which was Pompeian, also, or Greek, I couldn't exactly tell which. It +was built only to bathe in. The floors were all of stone, and it was as +cool and fresh as could be. The bath itself was a large semi-circular +place into which one went down by steps. It was large enough to swim in. +Those old peoples understood pretty well how to make themselves +comfortable, didn't they? There was an ancient bath-tub there, set upon +a pedestal, made of some precious stone, which Humboldt had appraised at +half a million of thalers. Outside was a lovely little garden, of +course, and one of the prettiest things I saw was a quantity of those +flowers which only grow in cool, moist places, sheltered under an +awning. The awning was circular, and stretched down to the ground on +three sides, so that one could only see the flowers by standing just in +front. There were any number of lady-slippers of every shade, each +mottled exquisitely with a different colour, and behind them rose other +flowers in regular gradation, and all of brilliant tints. It seemed as +if they were all nestling under a great shaker bonnet, and they looked +as coy and bewitching as possible. I thought it was a charming idea. + +After we left this place we went on until we came to Sans Souci, which +was built simply for the benefit of the orange trees--to give them a +shelter in winter. At least, this was the pretext. It has a most +dazzling effect in the sunshine as you look at it from below. Terrace +rises above terrace, and at the top is this airy white building rising +lightly into the sky, with galleries and towers, groups of statuary, +colonnades, fountains, flowers, and every device one can imagine to make +it look as much like a fairy palace as possible. The great burly orange +trees stand in rows in the gardens in large green pots. Many of them +were in blossom, and cast their heavy perfume on the air. You couldn't +turn your eyes any where that _something_ was not arranged to arrest and +surprise them. Here I saw another way of training roses. Running along +on the green turf was a certain low growing variety, the branches of +which they pin to the earth with a kind of wooden hair-pin, so that it +does not show. They thus lie perfectly flat, and the grass is +_literally_ "carpeted" with them. It was lovely. After we had +sufficiently admired the exterior of the palace, we ascended the flights +of steps which lead up the terraces, and went into it. Outside were the +long galleries where the orange trees stand, and then we passed into +the large and noble rooms. First came the one which is devoted to +Raphael's pictures. Copies of them all hang upon the walls. After we had +gazed at them a long time, we looked at the other apartments, all of +which were furnished in some extraordinary way, but I glanced at them +too hastily to retain any recollection of them. I only remember that one +was all of malachite and gold. + +The next thing we did was to go over the palace originally named "Sans +Souci," where Frederick the Great lived. We saw the benches--ledges +rather--on which his poor pages had to sit in the corridor, and which +were purposely made so narrow in order to prevent their falling asleep +while on duty. The armchair in which he died is there, and the bust of +Charles XII still stands on the floor at the foot of the statue of +Venus, where Frederick placed it in derision, because Charles was a +woman-hater. I think it was a very small piece of malice on Frederick's +part, and in fact he had such a bad heart that none of his relics +interested me in the least. + +After we had seen everything we went to a little restaurant at the foot +of Sans Souci, where we drank beer and coffee and ate cake seated round +a little table under the trees. This fashion that the Germans have of +eating out of doors in summer is perfectly delightful, I think. I laid +in a fresh stock of cherries, though I had already eaten an immense +quantity, but they looked so nice, piled in little pyramids upon a vine +leaf, like the cannon balls at the Cambridge arsenal, that there was no +resisting them. I've thought of you ever since the cherry season began. +They are so extremely cheap here, that two groschens (about six cents) +will buy as many as two persons can eat at one time. We drove from Sans +Souci to Fingstenberg, which is only a place to see a view of the +country. The landscape was perfectly flat, but it had the charm of quiet +cultivation. It was green with beautiful trees, and the river wound +along dotted with white sails, and there were wind-mills turning in +every direction. After we left Fingstenberg we drove down to an inn +where we ordered dinner, and this also was served out of doors. It was +about six o'clock in the evening, and we were all very hungry, so we +enjoyed this part of the programme very much. + +When we had finished our cutlet and green peas we got into the carriage +again, and drove to Babelsberg. This is a little retreat which belongs +to the queen, and where the royal family sometimes passes a few weeks in +summer. We walked through a noble park where the ground swelled upward +on our left and sloped downward on our right. After following the +windings of the road for a long distance, we at last arrived at the +little castle, perched upon a hill-side and embowered in trees. A smart +looking maid showed us through it, and I was more impressed here than by +all I had previously seen. As Balzac says, "People who talk about a +house 'being like a palace' should see one first,"--although, as Herr J. +observed, "Babelsberg is not a palace, but is more like the home of an +English nobleman." It is just a quiet little retreat, but the beauty +with which everything is arranged is quite indescribable. Every window +is planned so that you cannot look out without having something +exquisite before you. Here it will be a little mosaic of rare flowers; +there a fountain, etc. And then the bronzes, the pictures, the rare old +pieces of glass and china, the thousand curious and beautiful objects of +art that one must see over and over again to be able really to take in. +In these castles, too, there are no end of little nooks and crannies +where two or three persons, only, can sit and talk. Dainty little +recesses made for enjoyment. + +I walked into the grand salon and imagined an elegant assemblage of +people in it, with all the means of entertainment at hand. It was a +circular room, and large enough to dance the German in very comfortably. +We went up stairs and through the different apartments. I went into the +Princess Royal's room, and "surveyed my queenly form" in the superb +mirror, and arranged my veil by her toilette glass--which I envied her, +I assure you, for it shone like silver. We saw the cane of Frederick the +Great, with a lion couchant on it--the one which he shook on some +occasion and frightened somebody--(now you know, don't you?) Last of all +we went up into the tower, and after climbing the dizzy staircase, we +stood on the balconies for a long time, and looked over the splendid +park about the country. Altogether, I was enchanted with Babelsberg, and +nothing will suit me now but to have it for the retreat of my old age. I +think I shall apply to be a servant there, for it must be a delightful +situation. The royal family is only a short time there, and the servants +have this exquisite habitation, which is always kept in perfect order, +all the rest of the year, and have nothing to do but show visitors over +it and take in half thalers! + +After we left Babelsberg we took a carriage and drove to the station, +where we got into the cars about half-past nine, and went back to +Berlin. Herr J. had made himself extremely agreeable, and had exerted +himself the whole day on our behalf. We had a most perfect time of its +kind, and I enjoyed every minute of it, but came back in the worst of +spirits, as I generally do. It seems so hard that one can never get +together _all_ the elements of perfect happiness! Here in Babelsberg +everything was so lovely that one could scarcely believe that there had +ever been a "Fall." It seemed as if people _must_ be happy there, and +yet I'm told that the queen is very unhappy. I suppose because she has +such a faithless old husband. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + The War. German Meals. Women and Men. Tausig's Teaching. Tausig + Abandons his Conservatory. Dresden. Kullak. + + + BERLIN, _July 23, 1870_. + +Just now the grand topic of course is this dreadful war that has just +been declared between Prussia and France, and everybody is in the +wildest state of excitement over it. It broke out so very suddenly that +it is only just one week since it has been decided upon, and ever since, +the drafting has been going on, and the streets are filled with +regiments and with droves of horses, cannon, and all the implements of +war. The trains are going out all the time packed with soldiers, and the +railroad stations are the constant scene of weeping women of all +classes, come to see the last of their dear ones. There is such a storm +of indignation against Napoleon that one hears nothing but curses +against him. I am entirely on the German side, and am anxious to see the +result, for between two such great nations, and with so much at stake, +it will be a tremendous struggle. + +We are promised a holiday soon, when I shall have a let-up from +practicing, and only practice three hours a day, instead of five or six. +Don't think I am making extraordinary progress because I practice so +much. I find that the strengthening and equalizing of the fingers is a +terribly slow process, and that it takes much more time to make a step +forward than I expected. You may know how a thing _ought_ to be played, +but it is another matter to get your hands into such a training that +they obey your will. Sometimes I am very much encouraged, and feel as if +I should be an artist "immediately, if not sooner," and at others I fall +into the blackest despair. I don't know but that S. J. was in the right +of it, not to attempt anything, for it is an awful pull when you _do_ +once begin to study! + +I wish S. could come here and spend a winter. I am sure it would be +capital for her health. The Germans have a great idea that you must +"_stärken_ (strengthen)" yourself. So they eat every few hours. When you +first arrive you feel stuffed to bursting all the time, for you +naturally eat heartily at every meal, because, as we only eat three +times a day in America, we are accustomed to take a good deal at once. +Here they have five meals a day, and one has to learn how to take a +little at a time. But it is a pretty good idea, for you are continually +repairing yourself, and you never have such a strain on your system as +to get hungry! The German women are plump roly-polies, as a general +rule, and it is probably in consequence of this continual +"strengthening." One has full opportunity to observe their condition, +for they generally have their dress "_aus-geschnitten_ (square neck)," +as they call it, in order to save collars, and you will see them +strolling along the streets with their dresses out open in front. They +are not handsome--irregular features and muddy complexions being the +rule. The way they neglect their teeth is the worst. They are always +complimenting Americans on what they call our "fine Grecian noses," and, +in fact, since they have said so much about it, I have noticed that +nearly all Americans _have_ straight and reasonably proportioned +noses.--One sees a great many handsome _men_ on the street, +however--many more than we do at home. Perhaps it is because the +Prussian uniform sets them off so, and then their blonde beards and +moustaches give them a _distingué_ air. + +From what you tell me of the shock of our respected friend---- over B.'s +travelling from the West under Mr. S.'s escort, I think the +"conventionalities" are taking too strong a hold in America, and it will +not be many years before they are as strict there as they are here, +where young people of different sexes can never see anything of each +other. I regard it as a shocking system, as the Germans manage it. Young +ladies and gentlemen only see each other in parties, and a young man can +never call on a girl, but must always see her in the presence of the +whole family. I only wonder how marriages are managed at all, for the +sexes seem to live quite isolated from each other. The consequence is, +the girls get a lot of rubbish in their heads, and as for the men, I +know not what they think, for I have not seen any to speak of since I +have been here. You can imagine that with my co-education training and +ideas, I have given Fräulein W.'s moral system a succession of shocks. +She has been fenced up, so to speak, her whole life, and, consequently, +was dumbfounded at the bold stand I take. I cannot resist giving her a +sensation once in a while, so I come out with some strong expression. Do +you know, since I've seen so much of the world I've come to the +conclusion that the New England principle of teaching daughters to be +independent and to look out for themselves from the first, is an +excellent one. I've seen the evil of this German system of never +allowing children to think for themselves. It _does_ make them so +mawkish. A girl here nearly thirty years old will not know where to buy +the simplest thing, or do without her mother any more than a baby. The +best plan is the old-fashioned American one, viz.: Give your children a +"stern sense of duty," and then throw them on their own resources. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _August 6, 1870_. + +Until yesterday I have had no holiday, for I got into Tausig's class +finally, so I had to practice very hard. He was as amiable to me as he +ever can be to anybody, but he is the most trying and exasperating +master you can possibly imagine. It is his principle to rough you and +snub you as much as he can, even when there is no occasion for it, and +you can think yourself fortunate if he does not hold you up to the +ridicule of the whole class. I was put into the class with Fräulein +Timanoff, who is so far advanced that Tausig told her he would not give +her lessons much longer, for that she knew enough to graduate. You can +imagine what an ordeal my first lesson was to me. I brought him a long +and difficult Scherzo, by Chopin, that I had practiced carefully for a +month, and knew well. Fancy how easy it was for me to play, when he +stood over me and kept calling out all through it in German, "Terrible! +Shocking! Dreadful! O Gott! O Gott!" I was really playing it well, too, +and I kept on in spite of him, but my nerves were all rasped and excited +to the highest point, and when I got through and he gave me my music, +and said, "Not at all bad" (very complimentary for him), I rushed out of +the room and burst out crying. He followed me immediately, and coolly +said, "What are you crying for, child? Your playing was not at all bad." +I told him that it was "impossible for me to help it when he talked in +such a way," but he did not seem to be aware that he had said anything. + +And now to show how we all have our troubles, and that blow falls upon +blow--I will tell you that at our last lesson Tausig informed us that he +was _not going to give another lesson to anybody_, and that the +conservatory would be shut up on the first of October!! This is the most +_awful_ disappointment to me, for just as I have worked up to the point +where I am prepared to profit by his lessons, he goes away! I suppose +that he has left Berlin by this time, or that he will very soon, but he +wouldn't tell when or where he was going, and only said that he was +going off, and did not know when he was coming back, or what would +become of him. Of course he _does_ know, but he does not want to be +plagued with applications from scholars for private lessons. I heard +that he was only going to retain two of his scholars, and that one was a +princess and the other a countess. + +He is a perfect rock. I went to his house to see if I could persuade him +to give me private lessons. He came into the room and accosted me in his +sharpest manner, with "_Nun, was ist's?_ (Well, what is it?)" I soon +found that no impression was to be made on him. He only said that when +he happened to be in Berlin, if I would come and play to him, he would +give me his judgment. But I never should venture to do this, for as +likely as not he would be in a bad humour, and send me off--he is such a +difficult subject to come at. I told him I thought it was very hard +after I had come all this way, and had been at so much expense only to +have lessons from him, that I should have to go back without them. He +said he was very sorry, but that most of his scholars came from long +distances, and that he could not show any special favor to me. He asked +me why I insisted upon having lessons from him, and said that Kullak or +Bendel both teach as well as he does. The fact is, he is a capricious +genius, entirely spoiled and unregulated, and the conservatory is a mere +plaything to him. He amused himself with it for a while, and now he is +tired of it, and doesn't like to be bound down to it, and so he throws +it up. Money is no consideration to him. + +It really seems almost as difficult to get a _great_ teacher in Europe +as in America. Tausig is the only celebrity who teaches, and now he has +given up. He rather advised my taking lessons of Bendel, who is a +resident artist here, and a pupil of Liszt's. + +I suffered terribly over Tausig's going off. I heard of it first two +weeks ago, and couldn't sleep or anything. The only consolation I bare +is that I should have been "worn to the bone," as H. C. says, if I had +kept on with him, for all his pupils except little Timanoff, who is at +the age of plump fifteen, look as thin as rails. However--"the +bitterness of death is past!" When one is stopped off in one direction, +there is nothing for it but to turn in another. But it seems as if the +more one tried to accomplish a thing, the thicker hindrances and +difficulties spring up about one, like the dragon's teeth. I suppose I +shall end by going to Kullak. He used to be court pianist here before +Tausig and has had immense experience as a teacher. Indeed, Professor J. +K. Paine recommended me to go to him in the first place, you remember. +If I do, I hope I shall have a better fate than poor young N., whom, +also, Professor Paine recommended to go to Kullak. He could not +stand--or else _under_stand the snubbing and brow-beating they gave him +in Kullak's conservatory, and from being deeply melancholy over it, he +got desperate, and actually committed suicide! + +Germans cannot understand blueness. They are never blue themselves, and +they expect you always to preserve your equanimity, and torment you to +death to know "what is the matter?" when there is nothing the matter, +except that you are in a state of disgust with everything. Moods are +utterly incomprehensible to them. They feel just the same every day in +the year. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _August 21, 1870_. + +I suppose that C. has described to you in full our Dresden visit, and +what a lovely time we had. It was really a poetic five days, as +everything was new to both of us. We were a good deal surprised at many +things in Dresden. In the first place, the beauty of the city struck us +very forcibly, and we both remarked how singular it was that of all the +people we know who have been there no one should have spoken of it. The +Brühl'sche Terrasse is the most lovely promenade imaginable. It runs +along the bank of the Elbe River, which is here quite broad and +handsome, and I always felt myself under a species of enchantment as +soon as we had ascended the broad flight of steps that lead to it. We +always took tea in the open air, and listened to a band of music +playing. The Germans just live in the open air in summer, and it is +perfectly fascinating. They have these gardens everywhere, filled with +trees, under which are little tables and chairs and footstools; and +there you can sit and have dinner or tea served up to you. At night they +are all lighted up with gas. + +It seemed like fairy land, as we sat there in Dresden. The evenings were +soft and balmy, the very perfection of summer weather. The terrace is +quite high above the river, and you look up and down it for a long +distance. The city lies to the left, below you, and the towers rise so +prettily--precisely as in a picture. This air of the culture of +centuries lies over everything, and the soft and lazy atmosphere lulls +the soul to rest. We used to walk until we came to the Belvidere, which +is a large restaurant with a gallery up-stairs running all round it. +There was a band of music, and here we sat and took our tea, and spent +two or three hours, always. The moonlight, the river flowing along and +spanned with beautiful bridges, the thousands of lamps reflected in it +and trembling across the water and under the arches, the infinity of +little steamers and wherries sailing to and fro and brilliantly lighted +up, the music, and the throngs of people passing slowly by, put one into +a delicious and bewildered sort of state, and one feels as if this world +were heaven! + +The day after we arrived we went, of course, to the picture gallery, and +here I was entirely taken by surprise. Nothing one reads or hears gives +one the least idea of the magnificence of the pictures there. I never +knew what a picture was before. The softness and richness of the +colouring, and their exquisite beauty, must be seen to be understood. +The Sistine Madonna fills one with rapture. It is perfectly glorious, +and one can't imagine how the mind of man could have conceived it. One +sees what a flight it was after looking at all the other Madonnas in the +Gallery, many of which are wonderful. But this one soars above them all. +Most of the Madonnas look so stiff, or so old, or so matronly, or so +expressionless, or, at best, as in Corregio's Adoration of the Shepherds +(a magnificent picture), the rapture of the mother only is expressed in +the face. In the Sistine Madonna the virgin looks so young and +innocent--so virgin-like--not like a middle-aged married woman. The +large, wide-open blue eyes have a dewy look in them, as if they had +wept many tears, and yet such an innocence that it makes you think of a +baby whom you have comforted after a violent fit of crying. The majesty +of the attitude, and the perfect repose of the face, upon which is a +look of _waiting_, of ineffable expectancy, are very striking. Mr. T. B. +says it looked to him as though she had been overwhelmed at the +tremendous dignity that had been put upon her, and was yet lost in the +awe of it--which I think an exquisite idea. St. Sixtus, who is kneeling +on the right of the virgin, has an expression of anxious solicitude on +his features. He is evidently interceding with her for the congregation +toward whom his right hand is outstretched, for this picture was +intended to be placed over an altar. The only fault to be found with the +picture, I think, is in the face of Santa Barbara, who kneels on the +left. She looks sweetly down upon the sinners below, but with a slight +self-consciousness. The two cherubs underneath are exquisite. Their +little round faces wear an exalted look, as if their eyes fully took in +the august pair to whom they are upturned. The background of the +picture--all of the faces of angels cloudily painted--gives the +finishing touch to this astounding creation. But you must see it to +realize it. + +Since my return I have finally decided to take private lessons of +Kullak. Kullak is a very celebrated teacher, and plays splendidly +himself, I am told, though he doesn't give concerts any more. He used to +be court pianist here, and has had so much experience in teaching that +I hope a good deal from him, though I don't believe he will equal our +little Tausig, capricious and ill-regulated though he is. Never shall I +forget the _iron_ way he used to stand over those girls, his hand +clenched, determined to _make_ them do it! No wonder they played so! +They didn't dare not to. He told one of the class that "it was _in_ me, +and he could knock it out of me if he had chosen to keep on with me." +And I know he could--and that is what distracts me! + +But just think what a way to behave--to leave his conservatory so, at a +day's notice, in holiday time, without even informing his teachers! He +left everything to be attended to by Beringer. Many of the scholars are +very poor, and have made a great effort to get here in order to learn +his method. Off he went like a shot, because he suddenly got disgusted +with teaching, and he hasn't told a soul where he was going, or how long +he intended to remain away. He wrote to Bechstein, the great piano-maker +here, "I am going away--away--away." He wouldn't condescend to say more. +Mr. Beringer has been to his house to see him on business connected with +the conservatory, but he was flown, and his housekeeper told Beringer +that both letters and telegrams had come for Tausig, and she did not +know where to send them. Did you ever hear of such a capricious +creature? I was so provoked at him that after the first week I ceased to +grieve over his departure. One cannot rely on these great geniuses, but +I hope that, as Kullak makes a business of teaching, and not of playing, +more is to be gained from him. At any rate, he will not be off on these +long absences. + +I am just studying my first concerto. It is Beethoven's C minor, and it +is extremely beautiful. Mr. Beringer tells me that two years is too +short a time to make an artist in; and indeed one does not know how +extremely difficult it is until one tries it. He plays splendidly +himself, and is to make his _début_ in the Gewandhaus in Leipsic, this +October. The best orchestra in Germany is there. Tausig has turned out +five artists from his conservatory this summer. Time will show if any of +them become first class. + +Aunt H. was right in thinking that this would be one of the most +dreadful wars that ever was, though she needn't be anxious on my +account. The Prussians are winning everything, and are pushing on for +Paris as hard as they can go. They have just taken Chalons. The battles +have been _terrible_, and immense numbers have been killed and wounded +on both sides. They have really fought to the death. The spirit of the +two peoples seems to me entirely different. The French seem only to be +possessed by a mad thirst for glory, and manifest a blood-thirstiness +which is perfectly appalling. One reads the most revolting stories in +the papers about their creeping around the battle-field after the battle +is over, and killing and robbing the wounded Prussians, cutting out +their tongues and putting out their eyes. The Prussians are so on the +alert now, however, that I hope few such things can take place. One +Prussian writes that he was lying wounded upon the field of battle, and +another man was not far off in the same helpless condition, when an old +Frenchman came up and clove this other man's head with a hatchet. The +first screamed loudly for help, when a party of Prussians rushed up and +rescued him, and overtook the old man, and shot him. We hear every day +of some dreadful thing. O.'s cousin, who is just my age, and is three +years married, has lost her husband, her favorite brother is fatally +wounded with three balls and lies in the hospital, and her second +brother has a shot in each leg and they don't know whether he will ever +be able to walk again. He is a young fellow nineteen years old. + +In the first days after the war was declared, I felt as if no punishment +could be too hot for Napoleon. The people just gave up everything, and +stood in the streets all day long on each side of the railroad track. +The trains passed every fifteen minutes, packed with the brave fellows +who were going off to lose their lives on a mere pretext. Then there +would be one continual cheering all along as they passed, and all the +women would cry, and the men would execrate Napoleon. The Prussians +don't seem to have any feelings of revenge, but regard the French as a +set of lunatics whom they are going to bring to reason. The hatred of +Napoleon is intense. They regard him as the leader of a people whom he +has willfully blinded, and are determined to make an end of him, if +possible. The Prussian army is such a splendid one that it is difficult +to imagine that it can be overcome. You see everybody under a certain +age is liable to be drafted, and no one is allowed to buy a substitute. +So everybody is interested. Bismarck has two sons who are common +soldiers, and all the ministers together have twelve sons in the war. +Then the King and the Crown Prince being with the army, gives a great +enthusiasm. The Crown Prince has distinguished himself, and seems to +have great military ability. The King was very angry with Prince +Friedrich Carl, because in the last battle he exposed one regiment so +that it was completely mowed down. Only two or three men escaped. But it +makes one groan for the poor Frenchmen when one sees these terrible +great cannon passing by. The largest-sized ones were ordered for the +storming of Metz, and each one requires twenty-four horses to draw it! + + + + +WITH KULLAK. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Moving. German Houses and Dinners. The War. The Capture of + Napoleon. Kullak's and Tausig's Teaching. Joachim. Wagner. Tausig's + Playing. German Etiquette. + + + BERLIN, _September_ 29, 1870. + +I must request you in future to direct your letters to No. 30 +Königgrätzer Strasse, as we move in three days. The people who live on +the floor under us wouldn't bear my practicing for five or six hours +daily, and so Frau W. has looked up another lodging. The German houses +are about as uncomfortable as can be imagined. Only the newest ones have +gas and water-works, or even the ordinary conveniences that _every_ +house has with us. No carpets on the floors, stiff, straight-backed +chairs, precious little fire in cold weather, etc. The rooms have no +closets, and one always has to have a great clumsy wardrobe with wooden +pegs in it, instead of hooks, so that when you go to take down one dress +all the others tumble down, too. In short, the Germans are fifty years +behind us. Of course the rich people have superb houses, but I speak now +of people in ordinary circumstances. I often look back upon the solid +comfort of the Cambridge houses. I think people understand there pretty +well how to live. I shall relish a good dinner when I come home, for +this is the land where what we call "family dinners" are unknown. They +have _parts_ of meals five times a day, but never a complete one. The +meat is dreadful, and I never can tell what kind of an animal it grows +on. They give me two boiled eggs for supper, so I manage to live, but O! +_has_ beefsteak vanished into the land of dreams? and _is_ turkey but +the figment of my disordered imagination? They have delicious bread and +butter, but "man cannot live by bread alone." Mr. F. says that where +_he_ boards they give him "pear soup, and cherry soup, and plum soup!" + +Everything here is saddened by this fearful war. You have no idea how +frightful it is. The men on both sides are just being slaughtered by +thousands. Haven't the Prussians made a magnificent campaign I declare, +I think it is marvellous what they have done. The French haven't had the +smallest success, and have had to give up one tremendous stronghold +after another. It is expected that Metz will surrender in about eight +days. It is a terrific place, and was believed to be impregnable. Over +and over again the poor French have tried to cut through the Prussian +army, and just so often they have been beaten back into the city. +Finally they will have to give over. Their generals must be shameful, +for they have fought to the death, but they can't make any headway +against these formidable Prussians. The German papers say that the +French fire too high, for one thing. They are not such practiced +marksmen as the Germans, and their balls fly over the enemy's heads. The +French are a savage people, however, and cruelty runs in their veins. +One reads the most awful things, but for the credit of human nature it +is to be hoped that the worst of them are not true. + +I believe I have not written to you since the capture of the Emperor +Napoleon, which of course you heard of as soon as it happened. The +Germans, as you may imagine, were completely carried away with the +glorious news, and could scarcely believe in their own good fortune. On +the 3d of September, when I came out to breakfast, Frau W. called out to +me from behind the newspaper, with a face all ablaze with triumph and +excitement, "_Der Kaiser Napoleon ist gefangen_. (The Emperor Napoleon +is taken.)" "_No!_" said I, for it did not seem possible that anything +so great and unexpected _could_ have happened. "It is _true_" said she; +"look at this paper, which I just sent out for." The instant I saw that +Frau W. had been guilty of the unwonted extravagance of purchasing the +morning paper, it became clear to me that Napoleon _must_ have been +taken prisoner. Generally we do not get the paper till it is a day old, +when Frau W. brings it carefully home from her brother's in her +capacious bag. He subscribes for it, and after his family have perused +it, she borrows it for our benefit--an economical arrangement upon which +she frequently congratulates herself. + +I fancy there was little work done or business transacted _that_ day in +Berlin! After I had finished my coffee, I went and stood by the window +and watched the people pour through the streets. Everybody streamed up +Unter den Linden past the palace, their faces full of joy. The street +boys took an active part in the general jollification, and were as +ubiquitous as boys always are when anything extraordinary is going on. +They conceived the brilliant idea of climbing up on the equestrian +statue of Frederick the Great, which is just opposite the palace +windows. The Crown Princess, who was looking out, immediately had it +announced to them that he who got to the top first should receive a +silver cup and some pieces of money. That was all the boys needed. Away +they went, struggling and tumbling over each other like a swarm of bees. +At last one little urchin secured the coveted position, and was +afterward called up to the palace window to receive the prize.--If the +Crown Princess, by the way, were more given to such little acts of +generosity, she would be more popular by far, for the Germans sniff at +her for being too economical. They are the closest possible economisers +themselves, but they despise the trait in foreigners! + +At night there was a grand illumination in honour of the victory, and of +course we all went to see it. Such a time as we had! The whole city was +blazing with light, and all the large firms had put up something +brilliant and striking before their places of business. Stars, eagles, +crosses (after the celebrated "iron cross" of Prussia), beside countless +tapers, were burning away in every direction, and all the carriages and +droschkies in Berlin were slowly crawling along the streets, much +impeded by the dense throng of pedestrians crowding through. All the +private houses were lit up with tapers, and thousands of flags were +flying. Over every public building and railroad station, and on all the +public squares were transparencies in which the substantial form of +_Germania_ flourished extensively, leaning upon her shield, and gazing +sentimentally into vacancy. But I always enjoy "Germania." It seems a +sort of recognition of the feminine element. + +We were in a droschkie, like other people, taking the prescribed tour +round by the Rath-Haus (City-Hall), and were frequently brought to a +stand-still by the crush. At such times we were the target for all the +small boys standing in our neighbourhood. The "Berlinger Junge" is +almost as famous for his talent for repartee as the Paris "Gamin." "Do +be careful!" said one to me; "you will certainly tumble out, your +carriage is going so fast." This was intended as a double sarcasm, for +in the first place we were not in a carriage at all, but in a +second-class droschkie, and in the second place we had been standing +stock still for half an hour, and there was no prospect of getting +started for half an hour more. Many more such little speeches were +addressed to us which we pretended not to hear, though we were secretly +much amused.--It was a strange sort of feeling to be put in the streets +at night with this glare of light, these crowds of people, and this +suppressed excitement in the air. I thought it gave some idea of the Day +of Judgment. + +The women are tremendously patriotic and self-sacrificing, and they seem +to be throwing themselves heart and soul into the war. With the +catholicity of the female sex, however, they could not help taking a +peep at the _French_ prisoners when they came on, but went to the +station to see them arrive, and bestowed many little hospitalities upon +them in the way of cigars, luncheon, etc., at all of which the papers +were patriotically indignant, and indulged in many sarcasms on the "warm +and sympathetic" reception given by the German women to their enemies. +Quite as many women go into nursing as was the case in our own war. I +know one young lady who spends her whole time in the hospitals among the +wounded soldiers, who are all the time being sent on in ambulances. Her +name is Fräulein Hezekiel, and she has received a decoration from the +Government. + +Just after I wrote you last I went to Kullak, as I told you I should, +and engaged him to give me one private lesson a week. He looks about +fifty, and is charming. I am enchanted with him. He plays magnificently, +and is a splendid teacher, but he gives me immensely much to do, and I +feel as if a mountain of music were all the time pressing on my head. He +is so occupied that I have to take my lesson from seven to eight in the +evening. + +Tausig's conservatory closes on the first of October, and I feel very +sorry, for my three grand friends, Mr. Trenkel, Mr. Weber and Mr. +Beringer, are all going away, and I shall be awfully lonely without +them. Weber is very handsome, and has the most splendid forehead I think +I ever saw. He composes like an angel, besides being remarkably clever +in every way. He will be famous some day, I know, and he belongs to the +Music of the Future. Beringer is poetic, passionate and vivid. He has +golden hair and golden eyes, I may say, for they are of a peculiar light +hazel, almost yellow, but with a warmth and sunniness, and often a +tenderness of expression that is extremely fascinating. Weber cannot +speak English, and as he is from Switzerland, he speaks an entirely +different dialect from the Berlinese, so that it took me some time to +understand him. He is a perfect child of nature, and has a great deal of +humour. He and Beringer are devoted friends, and are about my age. +Trenkel is older. He has the blackest hair and eyes, and a dark Italian +skin. He is intellectual and highly cultured, and at the same time such +a very peculiar character that he interested me greatly. Most of his +life has been spent in America: first in Boston, where he seems to know +everybody, and afterwards in San Francisco, whither he is about to +return. He has been studying with Tausig for two years, and is a +heavenly musician, though he hasn't Beringer's great technique and +passion. His conception is more of the Chopin order, extremely finely +shaded and "filed out," as the Germans have it. + +It was so pleasant to have these three musical friends, who all play so +much better than I, as they often met and made lovely music in my little +room. Weber and Beringer took tea with us only yesterday evening. Weber +was in one of his good moods, and played to Beringer and me his most +beautiful compositions for ever so long. We settled ourselves +comfortably, one in two chairs, the other on the sofa, and enjoyed it. +The Andante out of a great sonata he is composing, is perfectly lovely. +It is entirely original, and different from any music I have ever heard. +Then he played the second movement of his symphony, and it is the most +exquisite _morceau_ you can imagine. I asked him to compose a little +piece for me, and so yesterday morning he sat down and wrote seven +mazurkas, one after the other. Whether he actually gives me one is +another matter, for, like all geniuses, he is not very prodigal with his +gifts, and is not very easy to come at. But I would like to have even +four bars written by him, for he is so individual that it would be worth +keeping. + +Weber looks perfectly charming when he plays. He never glances at the +keys, but his large blue eyes gaze dreamily into vacancy, and his noble +brow stands out white and lofty. His conception is extremely musical, +but as he only practices when he feels like it (as he does everything +else), he doesn't come up to the other two. Tausig burst out laughing at +him at his last lesson. That individual, by the way, came back as +suddenly as he went off, but announced that he would give no more +lessons except to these favoured three. All the rest of us had to go +begging. It didn't make so much difference to me, as I had already gone +to Kullak, who is now the first teacher in Germany, as all the greatest +virtuosi have given up teaching. + +Kullak himself is a truly splendid artist, which I had not expected. He +used to have great fame here as a pianist, but I supposed that as he had +given up his concert playing he did not keep it up. I found, however, +that I was mistaken. His playing does not suffer in comparison with +Tausig's even, whom I have so often heard. Why in the world he has not +continued playing in public I can't imagine, but I am told that he was +too nervous. Like all artists, he is fascinating, and full of his whims +and caprices. He knows everything in the way of music, and when I take +my lessons he has two grand pianos side by side, and he sits at one and +I at the other. He knows by heart everything that he teaches, and he +plays sometimes with me, sometimes before me, and shows me all sorts of +ways of playing passages. I am getting no end of ideas from him. I have +enjoyed playing my Beethoven Concerto so much, for he has played all the +orchestral parts. Just think how exciting to have a great artist like +that play second piano with you! I am going to learn one by Chopin next. + +Kullak is not nearly so terrible a teacher as Tausig. He has the +greatest patience and gentleness, and helps you on; but Tausig keeps +rating you and telling you, what you feel only too deeply, that your +playing _is_ "awful." When Tausig used to sit down in his impatient way +and play a few bars, and then tell me to do it just so, I used always to +feel as if some one wished me to copy a streak of forked lightning with +the end of a wetted match. At the last lesson Tausig gave me, however, +he entirely changed his tone, and was extremely sweet to me. I think he +regretted having made me cry at the previous lesson, for just as I sat +down to play, he turned to the class and made some little joke about +these "_empfindliche Amerikanerinnen_ (sensitive Americans)." Then he +came and stood by me, and nothing could have been gentler than his +manner. After I had finished, he sat down and played the whole piece +for me, a thing he rarely does, introducing a magnificent trill in +double thirds, and ending up with some peculiar turn in which he allowed +his virtuosity to peep out at me for a moment. Only for a moment though, +for he is much too proud and has too much contempt for _Spectakel_ to +"show off," so he suppressed himself immediately. It was as if his +fingers broke into the trill in spite of him, and he had to pull them up +with a severe check. Strange, inscrutable being that he is! + + * * * + + BERLIN, _October 13, 1870_. + +My room in our new lodging is a charming one. Quite large, and a front +one, and there is no _vis-á-vis_. We look right over across the street +into Prince Albrecht's Garden. It is very uncommon to have such a nice +outlook, particularly in Berlin. But it is so long since I have lived +among trees that at first it affected my spirits dreadfully. As I sit by +my window and hear the autumn wind rushing through them, and see all the +leaves quivering and shaking, and think that they have only a few short +weeks more to sway in the breeze, it makes me wretched. I suppose that +we shall now have two months of dismal weather. + +I wish you were here to counsel me over my dresses. I have just bought +two--one for a street dress, and the other for demi-evening toilette, +but heaven only knows when they will be done, or how they will fit! You +ought to see the biases of the dresses here! They all go zig-zag. The +Berlin dressmakers are abominable. Mrs.----, of the Legation, told me +that when she first came here she cried over every new dress she had +made, and I could not sufficiently rejoice last winter that I had got +all my things before I sailed. M. E., too, who gets all her best things +from Paris, told M. she was never so happy as when her mother sent her +over an "American dress."--"They are _so_ comfortable and _so_ +satisfactory," said she. + +Yesterday I took my fourth lesson of Kullak. He plays much more to me +than Tausig did, and I am surprised to see how much I have got on in +four weeks. Tausig didn't deign to do more than play occasional +passages, and we had only one piano in the room where he taught. But at +Kullak's there are two grand pianos side by side. He sits at one and I +at the other, and as he knows everything by heart which he teaches, as I +told you, he keeps playing with me or before me, so that I catch it a +great deal better. Sometimes he will repeat a passage over and over, and +I after him, like a parrot, until I get it _exactly_ right. He has this +excessively finished and elegant fantasia style of playing, like +Thalberg or De Meyer. He has great fame as a teacher, and is perhaps +more celebrated in this respect than Tausig, but I was with Tausig too +short a time to judge personally which teaches the best. + +This war is perfectly awful. The men are simply being slaughtered like +cattle. New regiments are all the time being sent on. The Prussians have +taken over two hundred thousand prisoners, to say nothing of the killed +and wounded. But they lose fearful numbers themselves also. It is +expected in a few days that Metz will surrender. It is a tremendous +stronghold, and contains an army of fifty thousand men. But isn't it +extraordinary how disastrous the war has been to the French? They had an +immense army of several hundred thousand men. And then they had all the +advantages of position. The Prussians have had to fight their way +through all these strong defences one after another. They will soon +bombard Paris. As Herr S. says, this war is a disgrace to the +governments. He says that they ought to have united against it (America +included), and to have said that on such an unjust pretext they would +not permit it. I read the other day a most touching letter that was +found on the dead body of a common soldier from his old peasant father. +He said, "What have we poor people done that the _lieber Gott_ visits us +with such fearful judgments? When I got thy letter, my dear son, saying +that thou art safe come out of the last battle with thy brother, I fell +on my knees and thanked God for His goodness." Then he goes on to +describe the joy of his mother and sister and sweetheart, and how he +read his letter to all the neighbours, "who rejoiced much at thy +safety," and his hope and confidence that his son would return alive to +his old father. But in a few days his son fell in another battle, +desperately wounded. He was carried to the house of a lady who did all +she could for him, but he died, and she sent this letter to the paper. +Do you get many of the anecdotes in the American papers? Such as that of +the three hundred and two horses which, at the usual signal after the +battle that called the regiments together, came back riderless? I think +that was very touching in the poor things.[C] Or have you heard of the +Frenchman who, when informed that the Emperor was taken prisoner, coolly +replied: "_Moi aussi!_" But these are already old stories, and you have +doubtless heard them. I think one of the worst incidents of the war is +that bomb that fell into a girls' school at Strasbourg. When one thinks +of innocent young girls having their eyes torn out, and being killed and +wounded, it seems too terrible.--I always pity the poor horses so much. +At the surrender of Sedan, the French forgot to detach them from the +cannon, and to give them food and drink. Finally, frantic with thirst, +they broke themselves loose and rushed wildly through the streets. It +was said that any body could have a horse for the trouble of catching +him. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _November 25, 1870_. + +I went last week to hear Joachim, who lives here, and is giving his +annual series of quartette soirees. Oh! he is a wonderful genius, and +the sublimest artist I have yet heard. I am amazed afresh every time I +hear him. He draws the most extraordinary _tone_ from his violin, and +such a powerful one that it seems sometimes as if several were playing. +Then his expression is so marvellous that he holds complete sway over +his audience from the moment he begins till he ceases. He possesses +magnetic power to the highest degree. + +On Saturday night I went to a superb concert given for the benefit of +the wounded. The royal orchestra played, and as it was in the +Sing-Akademie, where the acoustic is very remarkable, the orchestral +performance seemed phenomenal. Generally, this orchestra plays in the +opera house, which is so much larger that the effect is not so great. +The last thing they played was the "Ritt der Walküren," by Wagner. It +was the first time it was given in Berlin, and it is a wonderful +composition. It represents the ride of the Walküre-maidens into +Valhalla, and when you hear it it seems as if you could really see the +spectral horses with their ghostly riders. It produces the most +unearthly effect at the end, and one feels as if one had suddenly +stepped into Pandemonium. I was perfectly enchanted with it, and +everybody was excited. The "bravos" resounded all over the house. Tausig +played Chopin's E minor concerto in his own glorious style. He did his +very best, and when he got through not only the whole orchestra was +applauding him, but even the conductor was rapping his desk with his +bâton like mad. I thought to myself it was a proud position where a man +could excite enthusiasm in the hearts of these old and tried musicians. +As a specimen of his virtuosity, what do you say to the little feat of +playing the running passage at the end, two pages long, and which was +written for both hands in unison, in octaves instead of single +notes?--Gigantic! [Later Kullak gave this great concerto to my sister to +study, and as she was struggling with its difficulties he said: "Ah yes, +Fräulein, when I think of the time and labour I spent over that concerto +in my youth, I could weep _tears of blood_!"]--ED. + +Yesterday evening I went to a party at the house of a relative of the +M.'s. Madame de Stael was right in saying that etiquette is terribly +severe in Germany. It is downright law, and everybody is obliged to +submit to it. What other people in the world, for example, would insist +on your coming at eight and remaining until nearly four in the morning, +when the party consists of a dozen or twenty people, almost all of them +married and middle-aged, or elderly? I nearly expire of fatigue and +ennui, but they would all take it so ill if I didn't go, that there is +no escape. Last night I came home with such a dreadful nervous headache +from sheer exhaustion, that I could scarcely see. You know in a dancing +party the excitement keeps one up, and one doesn't feel the fatigue +until afterward. But to sit three mortal hours before supper, and keep +up a conversation with a lot of people much older than yourself in whom +you have not the slightest interest, and in a foreign language, when you +wouldn't be brilliant in your own, and then another long three hours at +the supper table, and then _still_ an hour or so afterwards, to an +American mind is terrible! I always groan in spirit when I think how +comfortably I used to jump into the carriage at nine o'clock, in +Cambridge, go to the party, and come home at half-past eleven or +twelve. These long parties are what the Germans call being "_gemüthlig_ +(sociable and friendly)." The French would call them "_assommant_," and +they would be entirely in the right. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Concerts. Joachim again. The Siege of Paris. Peace Declared. + Wagner. A Woman's Symphony. Ovation to Wagner in Berlin. + + + BERLIN, _December 11, 1870_. + +I haven't been doing much of anything lately, except going to concerts, +of which I have heard an immense number, and all of them admirable.--I +wish you _could_ hear Joachim! I went last night to his third soiree, +and he certainly is the wonder of the age. Unless I were to _rave_ I +never could express him. One of his pieces was a quartette by Haydn, +which was perfectly bewitching. The adagio he played so wonderfully, and +drew such a pathetic tone from his violin, that it really went through +one like a knife. The third movement was a jig, and just the gayest +little piece! It flashed like a humming bird, and he played every note +so distinctly and so fast that people were beside themselves, and it was +almost impossible to keep still. It received a tremendous encore. + +Joachim is so bold! You never imagined such strokes as he gives the +violin--such tones as he brings out of it. He plays these great _tours +de force_, his fingers rushing all over the violin, just as Tausig +dashes down on the piano. So free! And then his conception!! It is like +revealing Beethoven in the flesh, to hear him. + +I heard a lady pianist the other day, who is becoming very celebrated +and who plays superbly. Her name is Fräulein Menter, and she is from +Munich. She has been a pupil of Liszt, Tausig and Bülow. Think what a +galaxy of teachers! She is as pretty as she can be, and she looked +lovely sitting at the piano there and playing piece after piece. I +envied her dreadfully. She plays everything by heart, and has a +beautiful conception. She gave her concert entirely alone, except that +some one sang a few songs, and at the end Tausig played a duet for two +pianos with her, in which he took the second piano. Imagine being able +to play well enough for such a high artist as he to condescend to do +such a thing! It was so pretty when they were encored. He made a sign to +go forward. She looked up inquiringly, and then stepped down one step +lower than he. He smiled and applauded her as much as anybody. I thought +it was very gallant in him to stand there and clap his hands before the +whole audience, and not take any of the encore to himself, for his part +was as important as hers, and he is a much greater artist. I was charmed +with her, though. She goes far beyond Mehlig and Topp, though Mehlig, +too, is considered to have a remarkable technique. + +I regret so much that M. will have to go back to America without seeing +Paris--the most beautiful city in the world! Nobody knows how long the +war is going to last. The Prussians have so surrounded Paris that it is +cut off from the country, and can't get any supplies. They have eaten up +all their meat, and now the French are living upon rats, dogs and cats! +Just think how horrid! They catch the rats in the Paris sewers, and +cook them in champagne and eat them. (At least that is the story.) It +seems perfectly inconceivable. The poor things have no milk, no salt, no +butter and no meat. I wonder what they do with all the little babies +whose mothers can't nurse them, and with young children. They will not +give up, however, for they have bread and wine enough to last all +winter, and they declare that Paris is too strong to be taken. Of course +if the Prussians remain where they are, eventually Paris will be starved +out, and will be obliged to surrender. + +It is a difficult position for the Prussians, for they must either +bombard the city, or starve it out. If they bombard it, they must be in +a situation to begin it from all sides, or else the French will break +through their lines, and establish a communication with the rest of +France. Now the circle round Paris is twelve miles long, so that it +would take an enormous army to keep up such a bombardment, and although +the Prussian army _is_ enormous, I don't know whether it is equal to +that, for the French have so much the advantage of position that they +can fire down on the Prussians, and kill them by thousands. On the other +hand, if they starve Paris out, the poor soldiers will have to lie out +in the cold all winter, and many of them will die from the exposure. + +The men are getting very restless from so many weeks of inactivity. +Nobody knows how it is to end. The King is opposed to bombardment, for +aside from the terrible loss of life it would cause, it seems too +inhuman to lay such a splendid city in the dust. Fresh troops are sent +on all the time, and every day the trains pass my windows packed with +soldiers. It seems as if every man in Germany were being called out, and +that looks like bombardment. It is a terrible time, and everybody feels +restless and disturbed. One sees few soldiers on the streets except +wounded ones. I often meet a young man who is wheeled about in a chair, +who has had both legs cut off. The poor fellow looks so sad--and I know +of another who has lost both hands and both feet. + +It is curious to note the condescending attitude taken by people here +toward the French in this war. They never for a moment speak of them as +if they were antagonists on equal ground, but always as if they were a +set of fools bent on their own destruction, who must be properly +chastised and restored to their equilibrium by the Germans. "_Ja!--die +Franzosen!_" the Germans will say with a shrug which implies the deepest +conviction of their entire imbecility. They admit, however, that the +French are an "amusing people," and that "_Paris ist_ DOCH _die +Welt-Stadt_. (Paris is _the_ city of the world.)" + + * * * + + BERLIN, _February 26, 1871_. + +I am going to send you a song out of the Meistersänger, which I think is +one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. It is called Walther's +Traumlied (Walter's Dream Song). The idea of it is that he sees his love +in a dream or vision as she will be when she is his wife. You must +begin to sing in a dreamy way, as if you were in a trance, and then you +must gradually become more and more excited until you end in a grand +gush of passion. You will be quite in the music of the future if you +sing out of the Meistersänger. It is one of Wagner's greatest operas, +and is very beautiful, in my opinion. It caused a grand excitement when +it came out last winter. + +The whole musical world is in a quarrel over Wagner. He is giving a new +direction to music and is finding out new combinations of the chords. +Half the musical world upholds him, and declares that in the future he +will stand on a par with Beethoven and Mozart. The other half are +bitterly opposed to him, and say that he writes nothing but dissonances, +and that he is on an entirely false track. I am on the Wagner side +myself. He seems to me to be a great genius.--Pity he is such a moral +outlaw! + +Since I began this letter Paris has capitulated, and PEACE has been +declared. The anxiety and suspense have lasted so long, however, that +the news did not cause much excitement or enthusiasm. Nothing like that +with which the capture of Napoleon was received. But that was decidedly +_the_ event of the war. The politic Bismarck would not allow the troops +to march triumphantly through Paris, but only permitted them to pass +through as small a corner of it as was consistent with the national +honour. This has caused a good deal of murmuring and discontent among +the Germans.--"Our poor soldiers! after all their fatigues and +hardships, they ought have been allowed the satisfaction of marching +through the city!"--is the general opinion I hear expressed. However, +they will probably acquiesce in Bismarck's wisdom in not triumphing over +a fallen foe when they come to think it over. We are now to have six +weeks of mourning for those who have been killed in the war, and then in +May the army will come back in triumph. The King is to meet them at the +Brandenburger Gate, and lead them up the Linden. All Berlin will be wild +with excitement, and I expect it will be a great sight. The windows on +Unter den Linden are already selling at enormous prices for the +occasion. + +The Germans, by the way, "take no stock" at all in the King's pious +expressions throughout the campaign. They laugh at him greatly for +calling himself victorious "by the grace of God." "Such a nonsense!" +Herr J. says, contemptuously. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _April 22, 1871_. + +I haven't a mortal thing to say, for all the little I have done I +communicated in a letter to N. S. Kullak has been praising my playing +lately, but I cannot believe in it myself. I have been learning a +Ballade of Liszt's. It is beautiful but very hard, and with some +terrific octave passages in it. It has the double roll of octaves in it, +and this is the first time I ever learned how it was done. I am now +studying octaves systematically. Kullak has written three books of them, +and it is an exhaustive work on the subject, and as famous in its way as +the Gradus ad Parnassum. The first volume is only the preparation, and +the exercises are for each hand separately. There are a lot of them for +the thumb alone, for instance. Then there are others for the fourth and +fifth fingers, turning over and under each other in every conceivable +way. Then there are the wrist exercises, and, in short, it is the most +minute and complete work. Kullak himself is celebrated for his octave +playing. That I knew when I was in Tausig's conservatory, as Tausig used +to tell his scholars that they must study Kullak's Octave School. + +Wagner has come to Berlin for a visit, and next week he will have a +grand concert, when some of his compositions are to be brought out, and +he will, himself, conduct. Weitzmann says that he is a great conductor. +I heard his opera of Tannhaüser the other day, and I was perfectly +carried away with the overture, which I had not heard for a long time. +The orchestra played it magnificently, and I think it quite equal to +Beethoven. Wagner's theory is that music is a cry of the mind, and his +compositions certainly illustrate it. All other music pales before it in +passion and intensity. + +Did you read my letter to N. S. in which I told her about Alicia Hund, +who composed and conducted a symphony? That is quite a step for women in +the musical line. She reminded me of M., as she had just such a +high-strung face. All the men were highly disgusted because she was +allowed to conduct the orchestra herself. I didn't think myself that it +was a very _becoming_ position, though I had no prejudice against it. +Somehow, a woman doesn't look well with a bâton in her hand directing a +body of men. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _May 18, 1871_. + +Wagner has just been in Berlin, and his arrival here has been the +occasion of a grand musical excitement. He was received with the +greatest enthusiasm, and there was no end of ovations in his honour. +First, there was a great supper given to him, which was got up by Tausig +and a few other distinguished musicians. Then on Sunday, two weeks ago, +was given a concert in the Sing-Akademie, where the seats were free. As +the hall only holds about fifteen hundred people, you may imagine it was +pretty difficult to get tickets. I didn't even attempt it, but luckily +Weitzmann, my harmony teacher, who is an old friend of Wagner's, sent me +one. + +The orchestra was immense. It was carefully selected from all the +orchestras in Berlin, and Stern, who directed it, had given himself +infinite trouble in training it. Wagner is the most difficult person in +the world to please, and is a wonderful conductor himself. He was highly +discontented with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipsic, which thinks +itself the best in existence, so the Berlinese felt rather shaky. The +hall was filled to overflowing, and finally, in marched Wagner and his +wife, preceded and followed by various distinguished musicians. As he +appeared the audience rose, the orchestra struck up three clanging +chords, and everybody shouted _Hoch!_ It gave one a strange thrill. + +The concert was at twelve, and was preceded by a "greeting" which was +recited by Frau Jachmann Wagner, a niece of Wagner's, and an actress. +She was a pretty woman, "fair, fat and forty," and an excellent speaker. +As she concluded she burst into tears, and stepping down from the stage +she presented Wagner with a laurel crown, and kissed him. Then the +orchestra played Wagner's Faust Overture most superbly, and afterwards +his Fest March from the Tannhäuser. The applause was unbounded. Wagner +ascended the stage and made a little speech, in which he expressed his +pleasure to the musicians and to Stern, and then turned and addressed +the audience. He spoke very rapidly and in that child-like way that all +great musicians seem to have, and as a proof of his satisfaction with +the orchestra he requested them to play the Faust Overture under _his_ +direction. We were all on tiptoe to know how he would direct, and indeed +it was wonderful to see him. He controlled the orchestra as if it were a +single instrument and he were playing on it. He didn't beat the time +simply, as most conductors do, but he had all sorts of little ways to +indicate what he wished. It was very difficult for them to follow him, +and they had to "keep their little eye open," as B. used to say. He held +them down during the first part, so as to give the uncertainty and +speculativeness of Faust's character. Then as Mephistopheles came in, he +gradually let them loose with a terrible crescendo, and made you feel as +if hell suddenly gaped at your feet. Then where Gretchen appeared, all +was delicious melody and sweetness. And so it went on, like a succession +of pictures. The effect was tremendous. + +I had one of the best seats in the house, and could see Wagner and his +wife the whole time. He has an enormous forehead, and is the most +nervous-looking man you can imagine, but has that grim setting of the +mouth that betokens an iron will. When he conducts he is almost beside +himself with excitement. That is one reason why he is so great as a +conductor, for the orchestra catches his frenzy, and each man plays +under a sudden inspiration. He really seems to be improvising on his +orchestra. + +Wagner's object in coming here was to try and get his Nibelungen opera +performed. It is an opera which requires four evenings to get through +with. Did you ever hear of such a thing? He lays out everything on such +a colossal scale. It reminded me of that story they tell of him when he +was a boy. He was a great Shakespeare enthusiast, and wanted to write +plays, too. So he wrote one in which he killed off forty of the +principal characters in the last act! He gave a grand concert in the +opera house here, which he directed himself. It was entirely his own +compositions, with the exception of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which he +declared nobody understood but himself. That rather took down Berlin, +but all had to acknowledge after the concert that they had never heard +it so magnificently played. He has his own peculiar conception of it. +There was a great crowd, and every seat had been taken long before. All +the artists were present except Kullak, who was ill. I saw Tausig +sitting in the front rank with the Baroness von S. There must have been +two hundred players in the orchestra, and they acquitted themselves +splendidly. The applause grew more and more enthusiastic, until it +finally found vent in a shower of wreaths and bouquets. Wagner bowed and +bowed, and it seemed as if the people would never settle down again. At +the end of the concert followed another shower of flowers, and his +Kaiser March was encored. Such an effect! After the tempest of sound of +the introduction the drums came in with a sharp tat-tat-tat-tat-tat! +Then the brass began with the air and came to a crescendo, at last +_blaring_ out in such a way as shivered you to the very marrow of your +bones. It was like an earthquake yawning before you. + +The noise was so tremendous that it was like the roaring of the surf. I +never conceived of anything in music to approach it, and Wagner made me +think of a giant Triton disporting himself amid the billows and tossing +these great waves of sound from one hand to the other. You don't see his +face, of course--nothing but his back, and yet you know every one of his +emotions. Every sinew in his body speaks. He makes the instruments +prolong the tones as no one else does, and the effect is indescribably +beautiful, yet he complains that he never _can_ get an orchestra to +_hold_ the tone as they ought. His whole appearance is of arrogance and +despotism personified. + +By the end of the concert the bouquets were so heaped on the stage in +front of the director's desk, that Wagner had no place left big enough +to stand on without crushing them. Altogether, it was a brilliant +affair, and a great triumph for his friends. He has a great many bitter +enemies here, however. Joachim is one of them, though it seems +unaccountable that a man of his musical gifts should be. Ehlert is also +a strong anti-Wagnerite, and the Jews hate him intensely.--Perhaps his +character has something to do with it, for he has set all laws of +honour, gratitude and morality at defiance all his life long. It is a +dreadful example for younger artists, and I think Wagner is depraving +them. In this country everything is forgiven to audacity and genius, and +I must say that if Germany can teach _us_ Music, we can teach _her_ +morals! + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Difficulties of the Piano. Triumphal Entry of the Troops. Paris. + + + BERLIN, _June 25, 1871_. + +I have been learning Beethoven's G major Concerto lately, and it is the +most horribly difficult thing I've ever attempted. I have practiced the +first movement a whole month, and I can't play it any more than I can +fly. If you hear Miss Mehlig play it, I trust you will take in what a +feat it is. Kullak gave me a regular rating over it at my last lesson, +and told me I must stick to it till I _could_ play it. It requires the +greatest rapidity and facility of execution, and I get perfectly +desperate over it. Kullak took advantage of the occasion to expand upon +all the things an artist must be able to do, until my heart died within +me. "What do you know of double thirds?" said he. I had to admit that I +knew nothing of double thirds, and then he rushed down the piano like +lightning from top to bottom in a scale in double thirds, just as if it +were a common scale. + +In one respect Kullak is a more discouraging teacher than Tausig, for +Tausig only played occasionally before you, where it was absolutely +necessary, and contented himself with scolding and blaming. Kullak, on +the contrary, doesn't scold much, but as he plays continually before and +with you, with him you see how the thing _ought_ to be done, and the +perception of your own deficiencies stands out before you mercilessly. +My constant thought is, "When _will_ my passages pearl? When _will_ my +touch be perfectly equal? When _will_ my octaves be played from a +lightly-hung wrist? When _will_ my trill be brilliant and sustained? +When _will_ my thumb turn under and my fourth finger over without the +slightest perceptible break? When _will_ my arpeggios go up the piano in +that peculiar _roll_ that a genuine artist gives?" etc., etc. All this +gives a heavy heart, and so disinclines me to write that you must excuse +my frequent silences. + +We are having such a horrid cold summer that I sit and shiver all the +time. I wish we could have a little of the hot weather you speak of. I +have put on a muslin dress only once. Berlin is a very severe climate, I +think. + +The week before last was the triumphal entry or "Einzug" of the troops. +They all went past my window, so I had a full view of them. The Emperor +had made immense preparations, for he is very proud of his army. All +along the Königgrätzer Strasse (the street we live in), to the +Brandenburger Gate, a distance of two or three miles, were set tall +poles at intervals of a few feet, connected by wreaths of green. These +were painted red and white, and had gilded pinnacles; they were +surmounted by the Prussian flag, which is black and white, with a black +eagle in the centre. About half way down the poles was set a coat of +arms, with the flags of the older German States grouped about it. As +they were of different colours, the effect was very gay, and they made +a triumphal path of waving banners for the troops to pass under. All +along the last part of the Königgrätzer Strasse, before you come to the +Linden, were set the French cannon which were captured, and on them was +printed the name of the place where the battle was, and one read on them +"Metz, Sedan, Strasburg," etc. All up the Linden, too, the way for the +soldiers was hemmed in on each side with cannon. The mitrailleuses +interested me the most, because they had thirty bores in each one, and +could fire as many balls in succession. In this way, you see, a single +cannon could _rain_ shot. Luckily the French aim so badly that they +couldn't have killed half so many Prussians as they expected. On every +Platz (as the Germans call the squares), were columns and statues set +up, and enormous scaffolds for people to sit on, all decked out with +flags and coloured cloth. In short, the whole city was got up in gala +array, and looked as gay as possible. + +Of course there were thousands of strangers who had come on to see it, +and the streets were crowded. For about a week beforehand there was one +continual stream of people going by our house, and a long line of +carriages and droschkies as far as one could see, creeping along at a +snail's pace behind each other. I got worn out with the noise and +confusion long before the eventful day came. When it _did_ arrive, +already at six o'clock in the morning, when I looked out of my window, +the walls of Prince Albrecht's garden opposite were covered with boys +and men, and there they had to sit until nearly twelve o'clock, with +their legs dangling down, and nothing to eat or drink, before the +procession came by, and _then_ it took four hours to pass! Such is +German endurance, and a still more striking instance of it was shown by +an orchestra stationed on the sidewalk opposite my window. There were no +seats or awnings for them, and there they stood on the stones in the hot +sun for fully six hours, playing every little while on those heavy +French horns and trumpets. Just imagine it! I was astonished that there +was no scaffold erected for them to sit on, and wondered how the poor +fellows could _stand_ it. + +Just before eleven o'clock the gate of Prince Albrecht's garden flew +open, and out he rode, accompanied by a large suite, and they remained +there awaiting the Emperor, who was to ride by on his way to meet the +troops. I wish you could have seen them in their superb uniforms, seated +on their magnificent horses. They looked like knights of the olden time, +with their embroidered saddle-cloths and gay trappings. Preceding the +Emperor came the Empress and all the ladies of the royal family in about +ten carriages, each one with six horses and the Empress's with eight. +The ladies were gorgeously dressed, of course, in light coloured silks +with lace over-dresses. Then came the Emperor and his escort, riding +slowly and majestically along. The enthusiasm was immense as they passed +by, and they were indeed a proud sight. Bismarck, Moltke and Von Roon +rode in one row by themselves. Bismarck looked very imposing in his +uniform entirely of white and silver, with enormous top-boots, and a +brazen helmet surmounted by a silver eagle. There was every variety of +uniform, and the Crown Prince looked very handsome in his. He is a +splendid-looking man, with a very soldierly bearing, and he rides to +perfection. + +The royal party went out to the parade ground, where they met the army, +and then returned at the head of it, riding very slowly. Then, for four +hours, the soldiers poured by at a very quick step. If you could have +seen that _river_ of men roll along, you would have some idea of the +strength of this nation. They were tall for the most part, and their +helmets and guns glittered in the sun. They were dressed in their old +uniforms, just as they came from the field of battle. The people +showered wreaths and bouquets upon them as they passed, and every man +presented a festal appearance with his helmet crowned, a bouquet on the +point of his bayonet, and flowers in his button hole. The Emperor's way +was literally carpeted with flowers, and his grooms rode behind him +picking them up, and hanging the wreaths upon their saddle-bows. +Bismarck, Moltke and Von Roon and all the men of mark during the war +were similarly favoured. + +The army marched along at an astonishingly quick pace. I was surprised +to see them walk so fast, heavily laden as they were with their guns and +knapsacks and blankets, etc. Many of them had been marching a good part +of the night to get to the place of rendezvous, and they had had a +parade early in the morning. A good many of them fainted and had to be +carried out of the ranks, and eight of them died! It was the hottest day +we have had this summer.--I was the most interested in the Uhlanen. They +were the greatest terror of the French, and were light cavalry with no +arms except a large pistol and a lance. Just below the head of the +lance was a little Prussian flag attached, and nearly every one was +splashed with the blood of some poor Frenchman. When one looked at those +terrible spikes, it seemed a most dreadful death, and I don't wonder +that the French lost all courage at the sight of them. You see, being on +horseback and so lightly armed, the Uhlanen could go about like +lightning, and were able to appear suddenly at the most unexpected +points. As I was not on the Linden I did not see the army received at +the Brandenburger Gate by the four hundred young ladies dressed in +white, so I can't give you any account of _that_. Bismarck, who always +knows what to do, took a handful of wreaths from his saddle-bow, and +flung them smilingly over among the welcoming maidens. He is a courtly +creature. I was nearly dead from just looking out of my window, and +listening to the continual music of the bands, and I did not get over +the fatigue and nervous excitement for several days; but I was very +fortunate to be able to see it from the house, for many persons who had +to sit on the scaffolds were dreadfully burned, and were thrown into a +fever by it. You see they weren't allowed to put up their parasols, as +that obscured the view of the people behind them. I had one friend who +suffered awfully with her face, and did not sleep for three nights. She +said it was as if she had been burnt by fire, and the whole skin peeled +off. + +July 4th.--As usual, it is over a week since I began this letter, and I +have just decided to start at once on a summer journey with Mrs. and +Miss V. N., Mr. P. and Mrs., Mr. and Miss S. Kullak is away for his +vacation, so I shall lose no lessons. We shall go first to Cologne and +then to Bonn and Coblentz and down the Rhine. Perhaps we shall get as +far as Heidelberg. We got one of those return tickets, which makes the +journey very cheap; only you are limited to a certain time. We expect to +be gone until the 1st of August. I intend to walk a great deal between +the different points. Where the scenery is picturesque we shall +occasionally walk from station to station. We take no baggage except a +little bag (which we sling over our backs with straps), containing a +change of linen and a brush and comb and tooth brush. We shall wear the +same dress all the time and have our linen washed at the hotel. I +thought it was a good chance for me, and as we shall be a party of +embryo artists, we expect to go along in the Bohemian and happy-go-lucky +style of our class. I think of writing a novel on the way! Won't it be +romantic? Only, unluckily for Miss S. and myself, we shall have no +adorers, as Mr. P. and Miss V. G. are engaged, and Mr. S. is only about +eighteen! + +Just before the Einzug I was at a party at the Bancroft's, and was +standing near a doorway talking to one of N.'s class-mates in Harvard, +when a portly gentleman pushed very rudely between us and stood there +talking to Mr. Bancroft, who was on the other side of me. We gazed at +him for a minute before we went on with our conversation. Presently the +gentleman took his leave and bustled away. "That was the Duke of +Somerset," said Mr. Bancroft to me. I was rather surprised, for I had +just been thinking to myself, "What an unmannerly creature you are!"--I +suppose he had come on to the Einzug. + +Triumphant Berlin, by the way, is rather a contrast to Paris under the +Commune. Such a horrible time as they have been having there! It is +enough to make one's blood run cold to think of it. What insane +barbarians they are--and the worst of it is the part the women take in +it. I saw a picture of Thiers' house which they burnt down. It was a +magnificent mansion, and crammed full of exquisite works of art. Mr. +Bancroft grieved over it, for he had dined there, and knew what +treasures it contained. He said it was one of the most beautiful houses +he had ever been in.--And then the idea of pulling down the column of +the Place Vendome! Napoleon had built it from cannon which he had +captured in his great battles and melted down, so that in a special +manner it was a monument of their victories over other nations. There is +a stupidity about them which makes them perfectly pitiable. + +[In 1848 Saint Beuve wrote the following almost prophetic words: +"Nothing is swifter to decline in crises like the present (the +Revolution of 1848) than civilization. In three weeks the result of many +centuries are lost. Civilization, life, is a thing learned and invented. +* * * * After years of tranquility men are too forgetful of this truth; +they come to think that culture is innate, that it is the same thing as +nature. But in truth barbarism is but a few paces off and begins again +as soon as our hold is slackened."]--ED. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + A Rhine Journey. Frankfort. Mainz. Sail down the Rhine. Cologne. + Bonn. The Seven Mountains. Worms. Spire. Heidelberg. Tausig's + Death. + + +ROLANDSECK AM RHEIN, _July 14, 1871_. + +You will be surprised to get this letter, dated from a little village on +the Rhine, and I shall proceed to tell you how I came here, if the +vilest of vile paper and pens will permit. I wrote a letter to L. just +before I left Berlin, in which I informed her that I meant to go on a +little trip with a party of friends, as Berlin in summer is malarious, +and I felt the need of a change. + +Thursday a week ago we left Berlin and rode straight through to +Frankfort. It was a long journey, and lasted from six o'clock in the +morning until ten at night. I got up at four in the morning in a most +halcyon frame of mind. In fact, I felt as if I were going to get +married, owing to my putting on everything new from top to toe! The +laundress had made such ravages upon my linen that I found myself +suddenly obliged to replenish throughout, and consequently I arrayed +myself with great satisfaction in new stockings, new under-clothes, new +flannel, new skirts, new hat, new veil and new shoes to _boot_! I put on +my black silk short suit, took my bag and shawl, and sallied to the +station, where I found the others waiting for me. + +It was a lovely ride from Berlin to Frankfort, and having been shut up +in a city for nearly two years, the country appeared perfectly charming +and new to me, and every little smiling tuft of daisies had a special +significance. I don't know whether you stopped at Frankfort on your +travels. I fell dead in love with it, and liked it better than any part +of Germany I have seen. It is such a quiet town and has such an air of +elegance, and there are such lovely walks all about. Everything looks so +clean, and the streets are so handsomely laid out, and then there are no +_smells_, as there are in Berlin. The river flows all along the outside +of the city, and the promenade along it is delightful. I went to see the +house where my adorable Goethe was born, and afterward walked over the +bridge over which he used to go to school. There was a gilded cock +perched upon it, which he used to be very fond of as a child. We saw his +statue, and then visited the Museum where was Danecker's great +masterpiece, Ariadne sitting on the Panther. It is the most exquisite +thing, and it is cut out of one solid block of Carrara marble. Through a +pink curtain a rosy light is thrown on it from above, which gives the +marble a delicious tinge. Strange that he should have risen to such a +poetic conception, and never done anything afterwards of importance. + +We went into a great room where life-size pictures of all the Emperors +of Germany were. Some of them are very handsome men, and the Latin +mottoes underneath are very funny. One of them was: "If you don't know +how to hold your tongue, you'll never know the right place to speak." I +hope P. will keep L. well at her Latin and her history, and teach her +something about architecture and mythology, for these one needs to know +when one travels abroad. We only stayed one day in Frankfort, for there +isn't a great deal to be seen there. The afternoon we spent in walking +about and in sitting on logs by the river-side. Oh, what a sweet place +one of those beautiful villas by the swiftly flowing river would be to +live in! + +We left Frankfort at seven P. M., and rode to Mainz, which is only a +ride of two hours, I believe. As we came over the railroad bridge into +the town, we got our first glimpse of the Rhine, and it was a splendid +sight. Our hotel was very near the river, and as our rooms were front +rooms, and three stories up, we had a magnificent view of it. In the +evening it was so fascinating to watch the lights on the water and the +boats plying up and down, that it was long before we could make up our +minds to leave the windows and go to bed. At Mainz we saw our first +cathedral. It is six hundred years old, and had suffered six times by +fire, but it was very fine, notwithstanding. We spent a long time +studying it out. Afterwards we visited another church and ascended a +tower which was built 30, B. C. It seemed almost as firm as the day it +was finished. The view from it is magnificent, and the top of it is all +overgrown with harebells, golden rod and grass. It was very picturesque. + +On Sunday evening we took the boat for Cologne which we reached at four +o'clock in the afternoon. Oh, that sail down the Rhine was too +delicious! The weather was perfect, and everything seemed to me like a +fairy tale. It is one of the most beautiful parts of the Rhine, and it +was too lovely to see those old castles in every degree of ruin, jutting +out over the steep rocks, so high in the air, and then the vineyards +sloping down the hillsides to the water's edge. The whole lay of the +land was so exquisite. I didn't wonder that it is so celebrated, and +that so much has been written about it. A funny old Englishman came and +sat beside me, and we had a long conversation, pretty much as follows: + +Englishman.--"England is no doubt the finest country in the world. You +know the people there are so enormous rich, they can do as they please." +"Ah, indeed," said I, "have you travelled much in Germany?" "O yes! I've +been all over Germany. I come up the Rhine every year," said he. "It's +all very pretty when you've never seen it before, but it's nothing to me +now." "Have you been to Berlin?" asked I. "O yes," said he. "Shouldn't +want to live there. Your Prussians are so confounded arrogant. They +think they're the greatest people in the world." "How did you like +Dresden?" said I. "Stupid hole," said he. "Leipsic?" "Dull town." +"Stuttgardt?" "Quite pretty." "Kissingen?" "'Orrible place, nothing but +fanatics; every other day a Saint's day, and the shops shut up." +"Wiesbaden?" "Very fine place." "Ems?" "Never been to Hems." "Mainz?" +"Nasty hole." "Cologne?" "Stinking place." "Munich?" "Dreadful +unhealthy. They have fevers there, typhus, etc. _I_ call 'em fevers." +"How do you like the Rhine wines?" "Don't like them at all. It's very +seldom a man gets to drink a decent glass of wine here. I don't drink +'em at all. I like a glass of port." "Beer?" "O, the German beer isn't +fit to drink. The English beer is the best in the world. German beer is +'orrible bad stuff. Nothing but slops,--slops!" Here I burst out +laughing, for his flattering descriptions were too much for me. He gave +me a quizzical look and said, "Well, I'm glad I made you laugh. You're +from America, aren't you?" "Yes," said I. "Very unhealthy place, I'm +told." "Indeed? I never heard so," said I. "O yes, _very_!" said he. +Then he went off, and after a long while he returned. "I've been +asleep," said he, "I've slept two hours and a half, all through the fine +scenery." "_What!_" said I, "don't you enjoy it?" "No, I don't enjoy it +at all." Then he told me he lived in Rotterdam, and that I must come to +Holland. He was very complaisant over the Dutch, whom he said were +"nice, decent people, like the English. There's nothing of the German in +them," said he, "they're quite another people--not so +en-_thu_si-_as_tic,"--with a contemptuous air. We got out at Cologne, +and he went on to his dear Rotterdam. So I saw him no more. + +Oh! isn't the Cologne Cathedral magnificent? It quite took my breath +away as I entered it. The priests were just having vespers as we went +in, and there was scarcely a person in the cathedral beside. It was so +solemn and so touching to see them all by themselves intoning the +prayers, their voices swelling and falling in that vast place. And when +the superb organ struck up, and they began to sing a hymn, so wildly +sweet, with an interlude most beautifully worked up at the end of each +line by the organist--as we sat there under those great arches which +soar up to such an immense height, I felt as if I were in Heaven. + + * * * + + ANDERNACH, _July 16, 1871_. + +I believe I left off in my last with our arrival at Cologne, of which I +saw very little, as I was extremely tired, and remained at the hotel. +The Cathedral was, of course, the main point of interest, and that I saw +thoroughly, as I went to it twice, and spent a number of hours each +time. I was entirely carried away by its beauty and grandeur, as +everybody must be. The descriptions I had heard and the photographs I +had seen of it didn't prepare me at all. The _height_ of the great pile +is one of the most astounding things, I think. The three and four story +houses about it look like huts beside it. Beside the Cathedral I only +saw the church where the eleven thousand virgins are buried, but that +was more curious than beautiful.--I was much taken down by the shops in +Cologne, which I think much finer than the Berlin ones, and saw no end +of things in the windows I should like to have bought. The cravats alone +quite turned my head! + +We only spent two days in Cologne, and then sailed for Bonn, which is +but a very short distance. Here we were in a hotel directly upon the +river, and I had a sweet little room quite to myself. The view up and +down the river was superb, and we could see the Seven Mountains most +beautifully. Bonn is the most quiet, sleepy little town you can imagine, +and just the place to study, I should think. We saw the house where +Beethoven was born, a little yellow, two-story house, and then we +visited the Minster, which is nine hundred years old. We saw there a +tomb devoted to the memory of the first architect of the Cologne +Cathedral, with his statue lying upon it. He had a severely beautiful +face, and I could very well imagine him capable of such a great +conception. We had great difficulty in getting a dinner at Bonn, as, +being a university town, the students gobble up everything. Finally, we +found a little restaurant where they got us up one, consisting of steak +and potatoes. After dinner I went to walk with Mr. S. and we ate +cherries all the way, and finally sat down on a bench by the river's +side, where we had an enchanting view. Then we went back to the hotel, +and I went directly to bed. It was delicious to lie there and hear the +little waves washing up outside my window. It is just the place for a +honey-moon--so out of the world as it seems, and with none of the +activity and bustle of other cities. + +At six o'clock the next morning we took the boat, and in about half an +hour we landed at a little town on the side of the river opposite to +Bonn, and began our pedestrian tour through the Seven Mountains, of +which we ascended and descended four. They were all very steep and +difficult to climb, and it reminded me of my trip to Mount Mansfield, +years ago, only _then_ we had horses. We spent the night on one of +them, the Löwenberg (Lion-mountain). This was a funny experience, as all +we five ladies had to sleep in one room, and in one great bed of straw +made up on the floor. The fleas bit us all night, so we did not sleep +_too_ much. I mentioned the little fact to the servant next day, to +which she replied, "Yes, when you aren't used to fleas and bed-bugs, it +_is_ hard to sleep!" I agreed with her perfectly!--Our walk was +enchanting in spite of the difficulty of the ascent, and of the fact +that all of us had satchels slung over our shoulders, and a shawl and +umbrella to carry, which made locomotion rather difficult. We were in +the sylvan shades, following delicious footpaths scented with flowers, +and with the birds singing and trilling as loud as they could over our +heads. + +It was heavenly on the Löwenberg, for the view was glorious on every +side, and it seemed as if we were on the highest peak in the universe. I +sat for hours looking over the lovely country and following the +meanderings of the Rhine. The atmospheric effects produced by the sunset +were wonderful, and when it got to be nine o'clock we saw the lights +twinkle up one by one from the distant villages below like little +earth-stars--reflections of the heavenly ones above. The last mountain +we ascended was the Drachenfels (Dragon-rock), and a fearful pull it +was. The three others had been so easy, comparatively, that we none of +us knew what we were in for. Soon found out, though! It was like trying +to go up a wall, it was so steep. But when we got up we were rewarded, +for the view was superb, and there was an interesting old Roman ruin up +there. We wandered all about, and got an excellent dinner, and then +came down late in the afternoon, took a row boat and rowed across the +Rhine to Rolandseck--a fashionable watering place, and as charming as +German towns have a way of being. + + * * * + + GOTHA, _July 27, 1871_. + +Since I wrote you from Andernach I have been travelling steadily. The +whole party except Mrs. V. N. and myself made a pedestrian tour along +the Rhine from Rolandseck to Bingen, a distance of sixty miles. I +started to walk, but when I had gone fifteen miles I gave out, and was +glad to take the boat. Mrs. V. N. was an invalid and couldn't walk, so I +took charge of her, and we would travel on together. When we got to the +station where we had agreed to wait for the others, I would seat her +somewhere with the bags of the party piled up around her, and then I +would make a sortie, look at the hotels, and engage our rooms. + +We saw the Rhine from Cologne to Worms very thoroughly--for we kept +stopping all along. It is truly magnificent, and nothing can be more +interesting and picturesque than those old ruined castles which look as +if they had grown there. Bingen is the sweetest place, and just the spot +to spend a summer. We travelled from there to Worms, which is a +delightful old city. We were there only an hour or two, but the walk +from the boat to the cars was through the prettiest part of it, I should +judge, and was very romantic, through winding walks overshadowed with +trees. We saw that great Luther monument there, which is most imposing. +The exterior of the Cathedral is splendid, and in quite another style +of architecture from the Cologne Cathedral. From Worms we went to Spire, +in order to see the Cathedral there, which is superb, and very +celebrated. It was founded in 1030 by Conrad the Second, as a burial +place for himself and his successors. It has no stained windows at all, +even in the chancel, which surprised me, but the frescoes and the whole +interior colouring are gorgeous in the extreme. It is in the Romanesque +style of architecture, and is so entirely different from the Cologne +Cathedral that it was very interesting, but there's nothing equal to the +Gothic, after all. + +From Spire we went to Heidelberg. I was enchanted with Heidelberg. It is +the most romantic and beautiful place I was ever in. The Castle is the +prince of ruins. I had made up my mind all along that I was going to +enjoy myself at Heidelberg, for my friend Dr. S. was studying there, and +I knew I should have him to go about with. So I had been urging the +party to go there from the first. As soon as we arrived, off I went to +find him, which I soon accomplished. He was very glad to see me, and put +himself at once at my disposal. You know the S.'s used to live at +Heidelberg, among other places, so he knows it all by heart. After +dinner we all went up to the Castle, of course. I was very sorry that I +had never read Hyperion. We had to ascend a long hill before we got to +it, but the weather was perfect, so we didn't mind. It is so high up +that the view of the town and of the Neckar winding through it, with the +wooded hills on the opposite shore, is panoramic. + +The Castle itself is an enormous ruin, and very richly ornamented. Ivy +two hundred years old climbs over it in great luxuriance. We passed +through a gateway over which stand two stone knights which are said to +change places with each other at midnight, and there are all sorts of +charming stories like that connected with the place. We saw a +beautifully carved stone archway which was put up in a single night, in +honour of somebody's birthday, and a monument with an inscription over +it stood in one corner of the grounds, stating that here had stood some +distinguished personage (I always forget all the names, unluckily, but +"the _principle_ remains the same"), when the Castle was being besieged +by the French. Two balls came from opposite directions, passed close by +him, and struck against each other, miraculously leaving him unharmed! + +After we had walked around the outside of the Castle sufficiently we +went inside. It took us a long time to go over it, it was so large. We +saw the stone dungeon, which was called the "Never Empty," because +somebody was always confined there--a dreadful hole, and it must have +been in perfect darkness--and we saw the great Heidelberg cask which had +a scaffolding on the top of it big enough to dance a quadrille on. But +the finest of everything was the ascending of the tower. Just as we got +to the top of it, and had begun to take in the magnificent scenery, an +orchestra at a little distance below struck up Wagner's "Kaiser March." +It was the one touch which was needed to make the _ensemble_ perfect. On +one side the landscape lay far below us, with the silver river winding +through it; on the other the hills rose behind the Castle to an immense +height, and with the greatest boldness of outline. The tops were thickly +wooded, and lower down the trees were beautifully grouped, and the +velvety turf rolled and swelled to the foot of the Castle. The sun was +just setting in a clear sky, and cast long shadows athwart the scene, +and I thought I had never seen anything more striking. Then to hear +Wagner's Kaiser March by a well-trained orchestra come soaring up, made +a combination such as one gets perhaps not more than once in a +life-time. + +The march is superb, so pompous and majestic, and with delicious +melodies occasionally interwoven through it. Wagner's melodies are so +heavily and intoxicatingly sweet, that they are almost narcotic. His +music excites a set of emotions that no other music does, and he is a +great original. It has the power of expressing longing and aspiration to +a wonderful degree, and it always seems to me as if two impulses were +continually trying to get the mastery. The one is the embodiment of all +those vague yearnings of the soul to burst its prison house, and the +other is the cradling of the body in the lap of pleasure. I always feel +as if I should like to swoon away when I hear his compositions. Then his +harmonies are so strangely seductive, so complicated, so "grossartig," +as the Germans say, and so peculiar! Oh, I have an immense admiration +for him! He thinks that music is not the impersonation of an idea, but +that it _is_ the idea. + +But to return to the Castle.--We stayed up in the tower for some time, +and then we made the tour of the interior. Afterwards we walked and sat +about until all the party thought it was time to go back to the hotel +Dr. S. and I thought we would stay up there to supper. So we went where +the orchestra was playing, which was in an enclosed space near the +Castle. We took our seats at a little table in the open air, and ordered +a delicious little supper, also + + "A bottle of wine + To make us shine" + +in _conversation!_--and so glided by the most ideal evening, as far as +surroundings go, that I ever spent. + +In our hotel at Heidelberg I kept hearing a man play splendidly in the +room below us, and every time we passed his door it was open, and we +could partly see the interior of a charming room with a grand piano in +it, at which he was seated. A pretty woman was always lying back in the +corner of the sofa listening to him, apparently. The presence of a large +wax doll indicated that there must be a child about, and the perfume of +flowers stole through the open doorway. My interest was at once excited +in these people, and I said to myself as I heard this gentleman practice +every day, "This must be some artist passing the summer here and getting +up his winter programme." Accordingly, on Sunday afternoon when he was +playing beautifully, I roused myself up and enquired of a servant who he +was. "Nicolai Rubinstein, from St. Petersburg," replied she. He is the +brother of the great Anton Rubinstein, and is nearly as fine a pianist. +I know a scholar of Tausig's who had studied with him, and Tausig had a +high opinion of him. + +Oh, isn't it _dreadful_? When we were at Bingen we saw the news of +Tausig's DEATH in the paper! He died at Leipsic, on the 17th of July, of +typhus fever, brought on by over-taxing his musical memory. It was a +dreadful blow to me, as you may imagine, and when I think of his +wonderful playing silenced forever, and comparatively in the beginning +of his career, I cannot get reconciled to it. If you could have heard +those matchlessly trained fingers of his, you would be able to +sympathize with me on the subject. I had counted so on hearing him next +winter, for he gave no concerts in Berlin last winter. He was only +thirty-one years old! + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Eisenach. Gotha. Erfurt. Andernach. Weimar. Tausig. + + + BERLIN, _August 15, 1871_. + +Well, here I am back in smelly old Berlin! I really hated to leave +Heidelberg, it was such a paradisiacal spot, but we saw so much that was +beautiful afterwards, that my impression of it has become a little +dimmed. From Heidelberg we went to Eisenach, its rival in a different +way, for here we went over the Wartburg--the Castle famous for having +been the dwelling of the holy St. Elizabeth, and where Luther translated +the Bible and spent ten months of his life disguised as a knight. I saw +his room, a bare and comfortless hole, but with a splendid view from the +windows. The Castle is in good repair, and is a noble pile. I suppose +the Duke of Weimar spends some time there every summer, as it looks as +if it were lived in. It is endlessly interesting. There is a lovely +little chapel in it where Luther used to preach, with everything left in +just as it was in his time--a little gem. The Wartburg is on a very high +hill, and the views from it are superb. Among other things to be seen +from it is the Venusberg, which is the mountain Wagner has introduced in +his famous opera of Tannhäuser. He was so carried away by the Wartburg +when he concealed himself near it, as he was being pursued by the +government to be arrested as a revolutionary, twenty years ago, that he +never rested until he had united the legends of St. Elizabeth and of the +Venusberg in his opera. Liszt, also, wrote an oratorio on St. Elizabeth +as _his_ tribute to the Wartburg. + +From Eisenach we went to Gotha, a lovely place, all shaded with trees, +and surmounted by a very imposing castle, with two immense towers. It is +an enormous edifice, and is surrounded by a magnificent park, through +which goes the slowly winding river. I believe that Gotha belongs to the +Duke of Saxe-Coburg, brother of the Queen of England, or something. At +all events, in the middle of this river is an island where the ducal +family is buried, and it is so thickly planted with trees whose boughs +hang over the water, that their graves are quite shrouded from the +vulgar eye. Pretty idea! The river laps lazily against the grassy slope +which covers the princely ones, and the wind rushing through the trees, +sings their dirge. + +From Gotha we went to Erfurt, where we only spent one night, in order to +see the Cathedral. Erfurt is an Undine of a place, full of running +streams and bridges and mills roaring all about you. I saw one street +with a brook rippling down the very middle of it at a most rattling +pace, and at every little distance two or three stepping stones by which +to cross it. Just think how fascinating for children! I longed to stay +and have a good play there myself. The Erfurt Cathedral is much smaller +than those of Spire and Cologne, but the exterior is wonderfully +beautiful. The transept is a masterpiece, and has fifteen enormous +windows of rich old stained glass going round it. The nave did not +please me so well, because in addition to its not being very rich, the +side aisles were of equal height with the main body of the Cathedral, +and were not sufficiently marked off from it to prevent the roof's +looking like a ceiling. I believe the side aisles were of equal height +with the main aisle in the Cologne Cathedral, but the archways and +pillars cut them off more, so that it had a different effect.--I am more +interested in cathedrals than anything else, and should like to travel +all over Europe and see all the different ones. There is a lovely old +church at Andernach, Roman Catholic, as most of the churches on the +Rhine are. I went there to church one Sunday morning, and stayed through +the service. They had the most powerful church music I've ever heard. +There was an excellent boy choir which sang in unison and led the +congregation, _every person_ of which joined in. The organ was fine, as +was also the organist, and the singing was so universal that the old +church walls rang again. The priest preached an excellent sermon, +too--the best I have heard in Germany. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _August 31, 1871_. + +Germany is a most lovely country, and perfectly delicious to travel +through. I believe I have described all the places we went to excepting +Weimar. Weimar is delightful, and so interesting, because Goethe and +Schiller, Wieland and Herder lived there, and everything is connected +with them, and especially with the first two. There are many fine +statues in the little city, and a delicious great park along the river +which was laid out under Goethe's superintendence.--One group of Goethe +and Schiller standing together in front of the theatre is magnificent. +One hardly knows which to admire the most, Goethe, with his courtly mein +and commanding features, or Schiller, with his extreme ideality and his +head a little thrown back as if to take in inspiration direct from the +sky. It is a most striking conception. + +The palace of the Grand Duke of Weimar is the principal "show" of the +place. It is filled with the richest works of art, and is beautifully +frescoed in rooms devoted each to a particular author, and representing +his most celebrated works. There is the Goethe room, and the Wieland +room, etc. The Wieland room is the most charming thing. The frescoes on +the walls are all illustrative of his "Oberon," which is his most +celebrated work, and one picture represents what happened when Oberon +blew his horn. You must know that when Oberon blows his horn everybody +is obliged to dance. So in this picture he is represented blowing it in +a convent, and all the fat friars and nuns are dancing away like mad. +They look so serious, and as if they didn't want to do it at all, but +their feet _will_ fly up in the air in spite of them. The nuns' slippers +scarcely stick on, and it looks so absurd! I was as highly amused at it +as the mischievous Oberon himself must have been, so delicately has the +artist touched it off. There was another design representing a band of +nymphs dancing in the sky, hand in hand in the twilight, and it was the +most graceful thing!--Their delicate little bare feet with every pretty +turn a foot could have, their clothes and hair streaming in the breeze, +and every attitude so airy. It was _lovely_! The Goethe frescoes were by +another painter, and not so fine, but I prefer pictures to frescoes. +Only one suite of the ducal rooms was frescoed. The others had superb +pictures by the old masters, many of them originals. + +The Duke is an artist himself, and designs a great many pretty things. +For instance, he designed the large candelabra which stood on each side +of one of the doorways,--Cupid peeping through a wreath of thistles and +nettles. He was kneeling on one knee, and pushing them aside with each +hand. It was all done in gilt metal and made a very dainty conceit, +beside being a good illustration of the pains of love! I think the Duke +probably designed some of the picture frames, for they were peculiarly +rich and artistic; for instance, the frames of the original cartoons of +Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper were entirely composed of the leaves and +flowers of the calla lily. The leaves lapped one over the other, and +here and there a lily was laid between. The flowers were done in a +different coloured gilding from the leaves. They were _very_ beautiful. +The pictures were not all hung together, so as to confuse your eye, but +here a gem and there a gem--and O, I saw the most bewitching little +statue there that ever I saw in my life! The subject was "Little Red +Riding Hood," and it stood in the corner of one of the great salons. It +was about two feet high, and represented the most fascinating little +girl you can imagine, clothed in the wolf's skin, which hung down behind +and had formed the little hood. The child herself was quite +indescribable--the daintiest little creature, with the most captivating +expression of innocence and roguishness. If she looked like that I +should have followed the wolf's example and eaten her up! It was really +a perfect little _pearl_ of a statue. I would give anything to possess +it. In short, I wish the Duke of Weimar were my intimate friend, for he +must be a man worth knowing. Now, if I could only play like Liszt!--I +don't wonder Liszt spends so much of his time in Weimar. I am getting +perfectly crazy to hear him, by the way, for everybody says there is +nobody in the world like him, and that he is the only artist who +combines _everything_. He does not play in public any more, but +Weitzmann says that he is amiability itself, and that it would probably +not be difficult for me to get an opportunity to hear him in private. + +In the palace I also saw the little boudoir of the Duchess. It was all +panelled in white satin, and the furniture was of the richest white +brocaded silk. The window frames were of malachite, and one looked out +through the single great plate of glass on to the beautiful park, and +the winding river spanned by a bridge which suggests immediately to your +mind, "Walk over me into the Garden of Paradise, for I was made for your +express benefit!" The park lies on each side of this little river Ilm, +and Goethe's exquisite taste has given it more a look of nature than of +art. It seems as if you were walking in a delicious meadow, the trees +being sometimes grouped together, sometimes growing thickly along the +water's edge. You go in and out of sunshine and shadow, and here and +there are dusky little retreats, and, to borrow Goldsmith's elegant +style,--"the winding walks assume a natural sylvage." Some distance up +the river, on the side of a gentle hill, was a small house in the woods +where Goethe used to live in summer. Here he slept sometimes, and +farther up the hill was a summer house where he took his coffee after +dinner. To the left of this summer house he had had made a long +alley-way or vista of trees whose tops met overhead and formed a leafy +ceiling. It was like a cloister, and here he could pace up and down and +muse. It was a delightful idea. To the right of the summer house was a +small garden, and beyond that was a path which wound through the wood +down to the path below. In one of the rocks there Goethe had had a +little poem cut. I was sorry afterward that I hadn't copied it, it was +so pretty.--But it was such a charming place to read and study, and it +seemed to give me a better impression of him than anything else. + +I saw a piano in the Duke's palace upon which Beethoven had played. It +was a funny little instrument of about five octaves, but it was so +wheezy with age that there wasn't much tone to be got out of it. After +we had finished looking at the palace, we went over to see the ducal +library. Here I saw a superb bust of Goethe as a young man. It was so +handsome that it spurns description. He must have been a perfect Apollo. +I also saw a likeness of him painted upon a cup by some great artist, +for which he sat thirty-four times! The old librarian, who had known +Goethe, said that it was _exactly_ like him, and the miniature painting +was so wonderful that when you looked at it with a magnifying glass it +was only finer and _more_ accurate instead of less so! There was also a +most noble bust of the composer Glück. The face was all scarred with +small-pox, so that the cast must have been moulded from his features +after death, but I never saw such a living, animated, likeness in +marble. It looked as if it were going to speak to you. There was a funny +toy there, nearly three hundred years old. It was a drummer boy, with a +little baby strapped on his back. The librarian wound him up, and then +he beat his drum lustily, rolled his eyes from side to side, and wagged +his head, while the baby on his back hopped up and down. Whenever little +children see it, it scares them, and they begin to cry. It had on a red +flannel coat, and hasn't had a new one since it was made.--"Nearly three +hundred years old, and never had a new coat," is worse than when C. P. +bought himself a trunk, and went round the house saying, "Twenty-seven +years old, and been in twenty-three states of the Union, and _never_ had +a new trunk before!" + +Goethe's house is not exhibited, which I think highly inexcusable in the +Goethe family, but Schiller's is. So we saw that, and what a contrast it +was to the ducal palace!--You go to a small yellow house on one of the +principal streets, enter a little hall by a little door, go up two +flights of a little stair-case, and in the very low-ceilinged third +story was Schiller's home--"home" I say, and the _whole_ of it, so +please take it in! The first room you enter is a sort of ante-room where +photographs are now sold. The next room was the parlour, and of late +years it has been comfortably furnished by the ladies of Weimar in the +usual cheap German taste. The third room was Schiller's study, with an +infinitesimal fourth room, or large closet, opening from it, which was +his sleeping apartment. The study is precisely as he left it, and +nothing could be more bald and bare. No carpet on the floor, the three +windows slightly festooned at the top with a single breadth of Turkey +red, his own portrait and a few wretched prints on the walls--in short, +such a sordid habitation for such a soaring nature as seemed almost +incredible! His writing table, with a globe, inkstand, and pens upon it, +stands at one window, and his wife's tiny little piano with her guitar +on top, is against the wall. There are two or three chairs, and a +wash-stand with a minute washing apparatus. In one corner is the tiny +unpainted wooden bedstead on which he died; a bed not meant to stretch +out in, but to lie, as Germans do, half reclining, and so low, narrow, +plain and mean that I never saw anything like it. In it and hanging on +the wall over it are wreaths which leading German actresses have brought +there as votive offerings to their great national dramatist, their white +satin ribbons yellowing by time. At the foot of the stair-case as you go +out, you see the little walled-up garden at the back of the house where +the poet loved to sit. + +After getting through with the abodes of the living, we visited the +ducal vault where Goethe and Schiller are buried. It is the crypt of a +sort of temple built in the old secluded cemetery in Weimar, and in it +all the coffins are laid in rows on supporters. Goethe and Schiller lie +apart from the others, side by side, near the foot of the stair-case +leading down into the crypt. Their coffins, especially Schiller's, are +covered with wreaths and bouquets brought by strangers and laid there. +Schiller's had on it a garland of silver leaves presented by the women +of Hamburg, and another of leaves of green gauze or crape, on every one +of which was worked in gold thread the name of one of his plays. A great +actress had made it herself as her tribute to his genius. From all I +observe, I should judge that the German people love Schiller much more +than they do Goethe. The dukes and duchesses lie farther back in the +vault in their red velvet coffins, quite unnoticed. So much better is +genius than rank! Hummel is buried also in the cemetery, which is the +most beautiful I ever saw--not stiff and "arranged" like ours, but so +natural! with over-grown foot-paths, and with much fewer and simpler +grave-stones and monuments, and many more vines and flowers and roses +creeping over the graves. We went to Hummel's grave, and had I been +Goethe and Schiller I should much rather have been buried out of doors +like him, amid this sweet half-wild, half-gentle nature, than in that +dismal vault. + +Speaking of Hummel reminds me of Tausig's death. Was it not terrible +that he should have died so young! Such an enormous artist as he was! I +cannot get reconciled to it at all, and he played only twice in Berlin +last winter. + +He was a strange little soul--a perfect misanthrope. Nobody knew him +intimately. He lived all the last part of his life in the strictest +retirement, a prey to deep melancholy. He was taken ill at Leipsic, +whither he had gone to meet Liszt. Until the ninth day they had hopes of +his recovery, but in the night he had a relapse, and died the tenth day, +very easily at the last. His remains were brought to Berlin and he was +buried here. Everything was done to save him, and he had the most +celebrated physicians, but it was useless. So my last hope of lessons +from him again is at an end, you see! I never expect to hear such +piano-playing again. It was as impossible for him to strike one false +note as it is for other people to strike right ones. He was absolutely +infallible. The papers all tell a story about his playing a piece one +time before his friends, from the notes. The music fell upon the keys, +but Tausig didn't allow himself to be at all disturbed, and went on +playing through the paper, his fingers piercing it and grasping the +proper chords, until some one rushed to his aid and set the notes up +again. Oh, he was a wonder, and it is a tragic loss to Art that he is +dead. He was such a _true_ artist, his standard was so immeasurably +high, and he had such a proud contempt for anything approaching +clap-trap, or what he called _Spectakel_. I have seen him execute the +most gigantic difficulties without permitting himself a sign of effort +beyond an almost imperceptible compression of one corner of his +mouth.--And then his touch! Never shall I forget it!--that _rush_ of +silver over the keys. However, he entirely overstrained himself, and his +whole nervous system was completely shattered long before his illness. +He said last winter that the very idea of playing in public was +unbearable to him, and after he had announced in the papers that he +would give four concerts, he recalled the announcement on the plea of +ill health. Then he thought he would go to Italy and spend the winter. +But when he got as far as Naples, he said to himself, "_Nein, hier +bleibst du nicht_ (No, you won't stay here);" and back he came to +Berlin. He doesn't seem to have known what he wanted, himself; his was +an uneasy, tormented, capricious spirit, at enmity with the world. +Perhaps his marriage had something to do with it. His wife was a +beautiful artist, too, and they thought the world of each other, yet +they couldn't live together. But Tausig's whole life was a mystery, and +his reserve was so complete that nobody could pierce it. If I had only +been at the point in music two years ago that I am now, I could have +gone at once into his class. His scholars were most of them artists +already, or had got to that point where they had pretty well mastered +the technique. A number of them came out last winter, and the little +Timanoff played duets with Rubinstein for two pianos, at St. Petersburg. + +Since my return I have gone into the first class in Kullak's +conservatory, instead of taking private lessons of him. I think it will +be of use to me to hear his best pupils play. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + Dinner-Party and Reception at Mr. Bancroft's. Auction at Tausig's + House. A German Christmas. The Joachims. + + + BERLIN, _October 2, 1871_. + +This week I have been to a dinner-party at the Bancroft's. There were +several eminent Germans there, and I was taken out by Bötticher, the +Herr who has arranged all the casts in the Museum, and who knows +everything about Art. He couldn't speak a word of English, so we +_Germaned_ it. We talked about Sappho all through dinner, and he gave me +several details about that young woman which I did not know before. As +C. used to say, we had one of those dinners "such as you read about in +the Arabian Nights," topping off with a glass of my favourite Tokay, +which, I regret to say, I so prolonged the pleasure of drinking, that +finally the signal was given to adjourn to the drawing-room, and I was +obliged to leave my glass standing half full, to be swallowed by the +waiter as soon as my back was turned. Sad, but true! + +On another evening, at a Bancroft reception, I talked with a Miss R., +who was charming. She is twenty-two or three, I should think, very +pretty and extremely elegant, and with the most delicious way of +speaking you can imagine. Such softness of manner and such a +delightfully pitched voice, and then along with this perfect repose, +such a vivid way of describing things! I was immensely taken with her, +and was delighted to have her for a countrywoman. She gave me a +wonderful account of the Island of Java. I had a lot of questions to ask +her, for you remember how persistently I read that book by a naturalist +(Wallace) who went to Java in search of the Bird of Paradise. Miss R. is +so extremely intelligent, and yet so unassuming; and then this high-bred +manner.--I did not have time to hear her talk half enough, and, +unfortunately, her party went away the next day. + +The other day was an auction in poor little Tausig's house, and all his +furniture was sold. It was very handsome, all of solid oak, beautifully +carved. He had spent five thousand thalers on it. His wardrobe was sold, +too, and I don't know how many pairs of his little boots and shoes were +there, his patent leather concert boots among others. His little velvet +coat that he used to wear went with the rest. I saw it lying on a chair. +I came home quite ill, and was laid up two days. It was the fatigue, I +suppose, and miserable reflections. I wanted to buy a picture, but they +were all sold in a lot. He had excellent ones of all the great +composers, down to Liszt and Wagner, hanging over his piano in the room +where he always played. Kullak deplores Tausig's death very deeply. He +had visited him in Leipsic two days before he was taken ill, and said no +one would have dreamed that Tausig was going to die, he looked so well. +Kullak said Tausig was one of the three or four great _special_ +pianists. "Who will interpret to us so again?" said he; and I echoed, +sadly enough, "Who, indeed?" + +Kullak, by the way, is a wonderfully _finished_ teacher. He is a great +friend of Liszt's, and Liszt has taught him a good many things. I doubt, +however, how M. will fare with him, if she is only going to be here a +year. My experience is that it takes fully a year to get started under a +first class master. These great teachers won't take a pupil raw from +America, still less trouble themselves with a scholar who cannot +immediately comprehend. I have written her to-day a three-sheet letter +in which I have set forth the disadvantages of Germany in a sufficiently +forcible manner to prevent her feeling disappointed if she still insists +upon the journey. I have come to the conclusion that I am no criterion +as to other people's impressions. Unless people have an enthusiasm for +art I don't see the least use in their coming abroad. If they cannot +appreciate the _culture_ of Europe, they are much better off in America. +There is no doubt whatever that as to the _comfort_ of every-day life, +we are a long way ahead of every nation, unless perhaps the English, +whom, however, I have not seen. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _December 25, 1871_. + +To-day is Christmas-day, and I have thought much of you all at home, and +have wondered if you've been having an apathetic time as usual. I think +we often spend Christmas in a most shocking fashion in America, and I +mean to revolutionize all that when I get back. So long a time in +Germany has taught me better. Here it is a season of universal joy, and +_everybody_ enters into it. Last night we had a Christmas tree at the +S.'s, as we always do. We went there at half past six, and it was the +prettiest thing to see in every house, nearly, a tree just lighted, or +in process of being so. As a separate family lives on each floor, often +in one house would be three trees, one above the other, in the front +rooms. The curtains are always drawn up, to give the passers-by the +benefit of it. They don't make a fearful undertaking of having a +Christmas tree here, as we do in America, and so they are attainable by +everybody. The tree is small, to begin with, and nothing is put on it +except the tapers and bonbons. It is fixed on a small stand in the +centre of a large square table covered with a white cloth, and each +person's presents are arranged in a separate pile around it. The tree is +only lighted for the sake of beauty, and for the air of festivity it +throws over the thing.--After a crisp walk in the moonlight (which I +performed in the style of "Johnny-look-up-in-the-air," for I was engaged +in staring into house-windows, so far as it was practicable), we sat +down to enjoy a cup of tea and a piece of cake. I had just begun my +second cup, when, Presto! the parlour doors flew open, and there stood +the little green tree, blossoming out into lights, and throwing its +gleams over the well-laden table. There was a general scramble and a +search for one's own pile, succeeded by deep silence and suspense while +we opened the papers. Such a hand shaking and embracing and thanking as +followed! concluding with the satisfactory conviction that we each had +"just what we wanted." Germans do not despise the utilitarian in their +Christmas gifts, as we do, but, between these and their birthday +offerings, expect to be set up for the rest of the year in the +necessaries of life as well as in its superfluities. Presents of +stockings, under-clothes, dresses, handkerchiefs, soaps--nothing comes +amiss. And every one _must_ give to every one else. That is LAW. + +I have just heard a young artist from Vienna who made a great impression +on me. His name is Ignaz Brühl. He is quite exceptional, and has not +only a brilliant technique, but also a peculiar and beautiful +conception.--But the best concert I have heard this season was one given +by Clara Schumann a week ago last Monday. She was assisted by Joachim +and his wife, and _that_ galaxy is indeed unequalled. Frau Joachim sings +deliciously. Not that her voice is so remarkable. You hear such voices +all the time. But she manages it consummately, and sings German songs as +no one but a German _could_ sing them. Indeed I never heard any woman +approach her in unobtrusive yet perfect art. She does not take you by +storm, and when I first came here I did not think much of her, but every +time I hear her I am struck with how exquisite it is. Every word takes +on a meaning, and on this account I think you have to understand the +language before you can realize the beauty of it. One of her songs was +Schumann's "Spring Song," with that rapid _agitato_ accompaniment, you +know.--She came out and started off in it with a half breath and a +tremor just like a bird fluttering up out of its nest, and then went up +on a portamento with _such_ abandon!--like the bird soaring off in its +flight. I never _shall_ forget that effect! Of course it carried you +completely away. + +Beside singing so admirably she is a beauty--a sort of baby beauty--and +when she comes out in a pale pink silk, contrasting with her dark hair +and revealing her imperial neck and arms, she is ravishing. I've been +told she wasn't anything remarkable when Joachim married her. No doubt +dwelling with such a genius has developed her. They say that Joachim has +had such a happy life that he wants to live forever! He certainly does +overtop everything. On this occasion he played Beethoven's great +Kreutzer Sonata for violin and piano, with Clara Schumann, and I thought +it the _most magnificent performance I ever heard_! I perfectly adore +Joachim, and consider him the wonder of the age. It is simple ecstasy to +listen to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Visit to Dresden. The Wiecks. Von Bülow. A Child Prodigy. Grantzow, + the Dancer. + + + BERLIN, _February 10, 1872_. + +A week ago last Monday I went to Dresden with J. L. to visit B. H. We +got there at about five in the afternoon, and were met at the station by +B.'s maid, who conducted us straightway to their house in Christian +Strasse. B. and Mrs. H. received us with the greatest cordiality, and we +had a splendid time. I came home only the day before yesterday, and J. +is still there. The H.'s have a charming lodging, and Mrs. H. is a +capital housekeeper. The _cuisine_ was excellent, and you can imagine +how I enjoyed an American breakfast once more, after nothing but "rolls +and coffee" for two years. B. did everything in her power to amuse us, +and she is the soul of amiability. She kept inviting people to meet us, +and had several tea-parties, and when we had no company she took us to +the theatre or the opera. She invited Marie Wieck (the sister of Clara +Schumann) to tea one night. I was very glad to meet her, for she is an +exquisite artist herself, and plays in Clara Schumann's style, though +her conception is not so remarkable. Her touch is perfect. At B.'s +request she tried to play for us, but the action of B.'s piano did not +suit her, and she presently got up, saying that she could do nothing on +that instrument, but that if we would come to _her_, she would play for +us with pleasure. + +I was in high glee at that proposal, for I was very anxious to see the +famous Wieck, the trainer of so many generations of musicians. Fräulein +Wieck appointed Saturday evening, and we accordingly went. B. had +instructed us how to act, for the old man is quite a character, and has +to be dealt with after his own fashion. She said we must walk in (having +first laid off our things) as if we had been members of the family all +our lives, and say, "Good-evening, Papa Wieck,"--(everybody calls him +Papa). Then we were to seat ourselves, and if we had some knitting or +sewing with us it would be well. At any rate we must have the apparent +intention of spending several hours, for nothing provokes him so as to +have people come in simply to call. "What!" he will say, "do you expect +to know a celebrated man like me in half an hour?" then (very +sarcastically), "perhaps you want my autograph!" He hates to give his +autograph. + +Well, we went through the prescribed programme. We were ushered into a +large room, much longer than it was broad. At either end stood a grand +piano. Otherwise the room was furnished with the greatest simplicity. My +impression is that the floor was a plain yellow painted one, with a rug +or two here and there. A few portraits and bas-reliefs hung upon the +walls. The pianos were of course fine. Frau Wieck and "Papa" received us +graciously. We began by taking tea, but soon the old man became +impatient, and said, "Come! the ladies wish to perform (_vortragen_) +something before me, and if we don't begin we shan't accomplish +anything." He _lives_ entirely in music, and has a class of girls whom +he instructs every evening for nothing. Five of these young girls were +there. He is very deaf, but strange to say, he is as sensitive as ever +to every musical sound, and the same is the case with Clara Schumann. +Fräulein Wieck then opened the ball. She is about forty, I should think, +and a stout, phlegmatic-looking woman. However, she played superbly, and +her touch is one of the most delicious possible. After hearing her, one +is not surprised that the Wiecks think nobody can teach touch but +themselves. She began with a nocturne by Chopin, in F major. I forgot to +say that the old Herr sits in his chair with the air of being on a +throne, and announces beforehand each piece that is to be played, +following it with some comment: _e. g._, "This nocturne I allowed my +daughter Clara to play in Berlin forty years ago, and afterward the +principal newspaper in criticising her performance, remarked: 'This +young girl seems to have much talent; it is only a pity that she is in +the hands of a father whose head seems stuck full of queer new-fangled +notions,'--so new was Chopin to the public at that time." That is the +way he goes on. + +After Fräulein Wieck had finished the nocturne, I asked for something by +Bach, which I'm told she plays remarkably. She said that at the moment +she had nothing in practice by Bach, but she would play me a _gigue_ by +a composer of Bach's time,--Haesler, I think she said, but cannot +remember, as it was a name entirely unknown to me. It was very +brilliant, and she executed it beautifully. Afterward she played the +last movement of Beethoven's Sonata in E flat major, but I wasn't +particularly struck with her conception of that. Then we had a pause, +and she urged me to play. I refused, for as I had been in Dresden a week +and had not practiced, I did not wish to sit down and not do myself +justice. My hand is so stiff, that as Tausig said of himself (though of +him I can hardly believe it), "When I haven't practiced for fourteen +days I can't do anything." The old Herr then said, "Now we'll have +something else;" and got up and went to the piano, and called the young +girls. He made three of them sing, one after the other, and they sang +very charmingly indeed. One of them he made improvise a _cadenza_, and a +second sang the alto to it without accompaniment. He was very proud of +that. He exercises his pupils in all sorts of ways, trains them to sing +any given tone, and "to skip up and down the ladder," as they call the +scale. + +After the master had finished with the singing, Fräulein Wieck played +three more pieces, one of which was an exquisite arrangement by Liszt of +that song by Schumann, "_Du meine Seele_." She ended with a _gavotte_ by +Glück, or as Papa Wieck would say, "This is a gavotte from one of +Glück's operas, arranged by Brahms for the piano. To the superficial +observer the second movement will appear very easy, but in _my_ opinion +it is a very hard task to hit it exactly." I happened to know just how +the thing ought to be played, for I had heard it three times from Clara +Schumann herself. Fräulein Wieck didn't please me at all in it, for she +took the second movement twice as quickly as the first. "Your sister +plays the second movement much slower," said I. "_So?_" said she, "I've +never heard it from her." She then asked, "So slow?" playing it slower. +"Still slower?" said she, beginning a third time, at my continual +disapproval. "_Streng im Tempo_ (in strict time)", said I, nodding my +head oracularly. "_Väterchen_." called she to the old Herr, "Miss Fay +says that Clara plays the second movement _so_ slow," showing him. I +don't know whether this correction made an impression, but he was then +_determined_ that I should play, and on my continued refusal he finally +said that he found it very strange that a young lady who had studied +more than two years in Tausig's and Kullak's conservatories shouldn't +have _one_ piece that she could play before people. This little fling +provoked me, so up I jumped, and saying to myself, "_Kopf in die Höhe, +Brust heraus,--vorwärts!_" (one of the military orders here), I marched +to the piano and played the fugue at the end of Beethoven's A flat +Sonata, Op. 110. They all sat round the room as still as so many statues +while I played, and you cannot imagine how dreadfully nervous I was. I +thought fifty times I would have to stop, for, like all fugues, it is +such a piece that if you once get out you never can get in again, and +Bülow himself got mixed up on the last part of it the other night in his +concert. But I got well through, notwithstanding, and the old master was +good enough to commend me warmly. He told me I must have studied a +great deal, and asked me if I hadn't played a great many _Etuden_. I +informed him in polite German "He'd better believe I had!" + +I should like to study with the Wiecks in my vacation next summer if +they would take me. Perhaps I may. They are considered somewhat +old-fashioned in their style, and I shouldn't wish to exchange Kullak +for them, but they are _such_ veterans that one could not help getting +many valuable ideas from them. Papa Wieck used to be Bülow's master +before he went to Liszt. + +Did I tell you how carried away with Bülow I was? He is magnificent, and +just between Rubinstein and Tausig. I am going to hear him again on +Saturday, and then I'll write you my full opinion about him. He is +famous for his playing of Beethoven, and I wish you could have heard the +Moonlight Sonata from him. One thing he does which is entirely peculiar +to himself. He runs all the movements of a sonata together, instead of +pausing between. It pleased me very much, as it gives a _unity_ of +effect, and seems to make each movement beget the succeeding one. + + +BERLIN, _May 30, 1872_. + +I wish L. were here studying piano with Kullak's son. He has one little +fairy of a scholar ten years old. Her name is Adele aus der Ohe--(isn't +that an old knightly name?)--and it is the most astonishing thing to +hear that child play! I heard her play a concerto of Beethoven's the +other day with orchestral accompaniment and a great cadenza by +Moscheles, absolutely _perfectly_. She never missed a note the whole way +through. I suppose she will become, like Mehlig, a great artist. But +perhaps, like her, she won't have a great conception, but will do +everything mechanically. One never can tell how these child-prodigies +will turn out.--Please don't form any exalted ideas of _my_ playing! I'm +a pretty stupid girl, and go forward slowly. I never expect to play as +Miss Mehlig does. If I can ever get up to Topp, I shall be satisfied. +You wouldn't believe how long it takes to get to be a virtuoso unless +you tried it. Mehlig, you know, studied steadily for ten years, under +the _best_ of teaching all the time, and she had probably more talent to +start with than I have. Miss V. and Mr. G. have been here _five_ years +studying steadily, and they are no farther than I am now. Not so far. It +makes all the difference in the world what kind of hand and wrist a +person has. Mine, you know, were pretty stiff, and then it is a great +disadvantage to begin studying after one is grown up. One ought to be +learning while the hand is forming. + +I am just now learning that A minor concerto of Schumann's that Topp +played at the Handel and Haydn Festival in Boston. The cadenza is tough, +I can tell you. That is the worst of these concertos. There is always a +grand cadenza where you must play all alone and "make a splurge." I +don't know how it feels to be left all at once without any support from +the orchestra. It is bad enough when Kullak lies back in his chair and +ceases accompanying me. He plays with me on two pianos, and I get so +excited that my wrists tremble. He is a magnificent pianist, and his +technique is perfect. There's nothing he can't do. Like all artists, he +is as capricious and exasperating as he can be, and, as the Germans say, +he is "_ein Mal im Himmel und das nächste Mal im Keller_ (one time in +heaven and the next time in the cellar)!" He has a deep rooted prejudice +against Americans, and never loses an opportunity to make a mean remark +about them, and though he has some remarkably gifted ones among his +scholars, he always insists upon it that the Americans have no real +talent. As far as I know anything about his conservatorium just now, his +_most_ talented scholars are Americans. There is a young fellow named +Sherwood, who is only seventeen years old, and he not only plays +splendidly but composes beautifully, also. In my own class Miss B. and I +are far ahead of all the others. Kullak will praise us very +enthusiastically, and then when some one plays particularly badly in the +class he will say to them, "Why, Fräulein, you play exactly as if you +came from America." It makes Miss B. and me so indignant that we don't +know what to do. Of course we can't say anything, for he addresses this +remark in a lofty way to the whole class. Miss V. couldn't bear Kullak, +and the other day, when she and Mr. G. were taking leave of him to go to +America, she let him see it. He said to her, "And when shall I see you +again?" "_Never_," exclaimed she! We have only one way of revenging +ourselves, and that is when he gives us the choice of taking one of his +compositions or a piece by some one else, always to take the other +person's. For instance, he said to me, "Fräulein, you can take +Schumann's concerto or _my_ concerto." I immediately got Schumann's. + +The other night I went to see a great ballet-dancer. Her name is +Fräulein Grantzow, and she is the court dancer at St. Petersburg, where +I've heard that the ballet surpasses everything of the kind in the +world. This danseuse is a wonder, and they say there has never been such +dancing since the days of Fanny Ellsler. She has the figure of a Venus, +and the most expressive face imaginable. When she dances, it is not only +dancing, but a complete representation of character, for she plays a +rôle by her motions just the same as if she were an actress. I have seen +many a ballet, but I never conceived what an art dancing is before. I +saw her in "Esmeralda," a ballet which is arranged from Victor Hugo's +romance and modified for the stage. Fräulein Grantzow took the part of +Esmeralda. In the first act a man is condemned to death, but is pardoned +on condition that one of the women present will promise to marry him. +The women, represented by about fifty ballet dancers, come up one after +the other, contemplate the poor victim, pirouette round him, and reject +him in turn with a gesture of contempt. At last Esmeralda (a gypsy) +comes dancing along, asks what is the matter, and on being told, has +compassion on the poor wretch, and promises to marry him in order to +save him from his fate. + +When the time came for Grantzow to appear, the crowd of dancers +suddenly divided, and she bounded out from the back of the stage. _Such_ +an apparition as she was! In the first place her toilettes surpassed +everything, and she appeared in a fresh dress in every act. In this +first one she had on a most dazzling shade of green gauze for her skirt. +From her waist fell a golden net-work, like a cestus, with little golden +tassels all round. She wore a little scarlet satin jacket all fringed +with gold coins, and a broad golden belt, pointed in front, clasped her +waist. On her head was a tiny scarlet cap, also fringed with coins, and +she had some golden bangles round her neck. In her hand was a tambourine +from which depended four knots of coloured ribbons with long ends. +Shaking her tambourine high in the air, out she sprang like a panther, +made one magnificent circuit all round the stage, and after executing an +immensely difficult _pas_ with perfect ease, she suddenly posed to the +audience in the most ravishing and impossible attitude and with the most +captivating grace conceivable. Anything like her _élan_, her _aplomb_, I +never saw. Such a daring creature! Well, I cannot tell you all the +things she did. She is a perfect Terpsichorean genius. All through the +first act she danced very slowly, merely to show her wonderful grace, +and the beauty and originality of her positions. She had a way of +folding her arms over her breast and dancing with a dreamy step that was +quite different from anybody else, and it produced an entrancing effect. +Through the second and third acts she made a regular crescendo, just to +display her technique and show what she could do. All the other dancers +seemed like blocks of wood in comparison with her.--Fräulein Grantzow is +said to be between thirty-five and thirty-eight years old. As the papers +said, her art shows the perfection that only maturity can give. The men +are all crazy over her, as you may imagine, and she was showered with +bouquets as large as the top of a barrel. The play of her features was +as extraordinary as the play of her muscles. Her whole being seemed to +be the soul of motion. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + A Rising Organist. Kullak. Von Bülow's Playing. A Princely Funeral. + Wilhelmj's Concert. A Court Beauty. + + + BERLIN, _July 1, 1872_. + +Since I have been here X. has gradually developed into a great organ +player, and I fancy he is now one of the first organ virtuosi in the +world. His musical activity is immense, and I don't doubt he will be one +of the great musical authorities here by the time he is a few years +older. He is a good-hearted little demon, the incarnation of German dirt +and good humour, and he pretends to be desperately devoted to me. Last +Sunday he was at M.'s and went home with us afterward. Generally I go in +front with A. or Herr J. and let X. give his arm to M., but this time I +accorded him the honour of taking it myself. He is about a foot shorter +than I am, but he trotted along by my side in a state of high +satisfaction, and asked me what he should play at this concert. I told +him he might play the G Minor Prelude and Fugue, as I had just taken it, +"_but_," said I, "mind you play it well, for I shall study it very hard +during the next fortnight, and I shall know if you strike one false +note. I'll allow you six faults, but if you make one more I'll beat +you." This amused him highly, but he said, "It is a very complicated +fugue, and it isn't so easy to play it perfectly, with all the pedal +passages. What will you do for me if I come off without making _one_ +fault?" I told him there was plenty of time to think about that, and I +didn't believe he could. I have no doubt that he _will_ play it +magnificently, but I love to plague him. I wish that his department were +secular rather than church music, for if he were only a conductor of an +orchestra, or something of that sort, he could give me many a lift. He +doesn't dare play the piano any more since I played to him a few times. +He used nearly to kill me with his extemporizations, for he has no +memory, and so he always had to extemporize. I generally went off into a +secret convulsion of laughter when he went bang! bang! Donner and +Blitz!--splaying all over the key-board. It was the funniest thing I +ever heard, and when I heard him burst forth in such grand style on the +organ, I was perfectly amazed, and couldn't reconcile it with his piano +playing at all. He is a great reader, of course, and can transpose at +sight, and all that sort of thing. I've known him to play accompaniments +at sight in a great concert in the Dom and transpose them at the same +time! + +July 6.--You ask me why I gave up going to the Wiecks in Dresden this +summer.--Because they make everybody begin at the very beginning of +their system and go through it before they give them a piece, and at my +stage of progress that would be losing time. They think nobody can teach +touch but themselves, but Kullak is a much greater musician, and I +should not be willing to exchange him for Fräulein Wieck, who does not +begin to equal him in reputation. Much as Kullak enrages me, I have to +admit that he is a great master, and that he is thoroughly capable of +developing artistic talent to the utmost. He makes Miss B. so provoked +that she had very strong thoughts of going to Stuttgardt. The Stuttgardt +conservatorium is so crowded that it is very difficult to get admission. +Lebert (Mehlig's master,) sent word on her writing to enquire, that he +would only take her on condition that she brought him a letter from +Kullak authorizing her leaving him, as Kullak was a personal friend of +his own, and so great an artist, that only the most important reasons +could justify her giving up his instructions! Of course that put the +stopper on any such movement. + +I've always forgotten to describe Bülow's playing to you, and it is now +so long since I heard him that my impressions of it are not so vivid. He +has the most forcible style I ever heard, and phrases wonderfully. It is +like looking through a stereoscope to hear him. All the points of a +piece seem to start out vividly before you. He makes me think of +Gottschalk a little, for he is full of his airs. His expression is proud +and supercilious to the last degree, and he looks all round at his +audience when he is playing. He always has two grand pianos on the +stage, one facing one way, and one the other, and he plays alternately +on both. His face seems to say to his audience, "You're all cats and +dogs, and I don't care what you think of my playing." Sometimes a look +of infinite humour comes over it, when he is playing a rondo or anything +gay. It is very funny. He has remarkable magnetic power, and you feel +that you are under the sway of a tremendous will. Many persons find +fault with his playing, because they say it is pure intellect (_der +reine Verstand_) but I think he has too much passion to be called purely +intellectual. Still, it is always passion controlled. Beethoven has been +the grand study of his life, and he plays his sonatas as no one else +does. + +If he goes to America next winter, you _must_ hear him thoroughly, +_coûte que coûte_. So I advise you to be saving up your pennies, and be +sure to get a place near the piano so that you can see his face, for it +is a study. I always sit in the second or third row here. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _October 27, 1872_. + +This week has been quite an eventful one. It began on Monday with the +funeral of Prince Albrecht, the youngest brother of the Emperor, and it +was a very imposing spectacle. I was in hopes that Mr. B. would send me +a card of admission to the Dom, where the services were to be held, but +as he didn't, I was obliged to content myself with a sight of the +procession and general arrangement outside. I took my stand on a wagon +with H., and we got an excellent view. There was a roadway built of wood +from the royal Castle to the Dom, carpeted with black, over which the +procession was to pass. We waited about an hour before it came along, +but we were pretty well amused by the gorgeous equipages and liveries of +the different diplomatic corps which dashed past. + +We were on the opposite side of the canal which separated us from the +square in front of the Dom. On the right of the Dom is the Castle, and +the Museum is on the left. All this square was surrounded by military, +for as Prince Albrecht was a Field-Marshal, the funeral had a military +character. They were beautifully arranged, the cavalry on one side and +the infantry on the other, and the different uniforms were contrasted +with each other so as to make the best effects in colour. Both horses +and men stood as if they were carved out of marble, with the greatest +precision of position. A little before eleven the royal carriages rolled +past from the palace to the Castle, with their occupants. Presently the +bells began to toll, and exactly at eleven the procession started. The +Gardes du Corps, which is the Crown Prince's regiment, preceded the +coffin, dressed in white and silver uniforms, with glittering brass +helmets surmounted by silver eagles. The coffin itself was borne on a +catafalque, and drawn by eight horses covered with black velvet +trappings. It was yellow, and was surmounted by a crown of gold. On it +was laid the Prince's sword, helmet, etc., and some flowers. I was too +far away to distinguish the personages that followed. Of course the +Emperor was nearest, and all were on foot. Behind the coffin the +Prince's favorite horse was led, saddled and bridled. All the servants +of his household walked together in silver liveries and with large +triangular hats with long bands of crape hanging down behind. The band +played a chorale, "Jesus, my Refuge," and the bells kept tolling all the +while. At the door of the Dom, the procession was received by the +clergy officiating. The coffin was so heavy that it was rolled down a +platform of boards put up for the purpose. Then it was lifted by sixteen +bearers, the glittering cortége closed round it, and they all swept it +at the open portal. + +We waited until the end of the service, as it was a short one, in order +to hear the eight rounds of firing by the artillery. It was interesting +to see how exactly they all fired the instant the signal was given. +First the musketry on one side, and then the musketry on the other, in +answer to it. The officers galloped and curveted about on their fiery +steeds, and finally, the cannon went boom--boom. The sharp crack of the +rifles made you start, but the sullen roar of the cannon made you +shudder. It gave you some idea of a battle. + +Tuesday night I went to a concert given by a new star in the musical +world, a young violinist named Wilhelmj. He is only twenty-six years +old, and is already said to be one of the greatest virtuosi living, +perhaps _the_ greatest of the romantic school, for Joachim belongs to +the severe classic. All the artists and critics and many of the +aristocracy turned out to hear him. It was his first appearance in +Berlin, and as I looked round the audience and picked out one great +musician after another, I fairly trembled for him. Joachim and de Ahna +were both present, among others, and my adorable Baroness von S. swept +in late, looking more exquisite than ever in black lace over black silk, +with jet ornaments, and her lovely hair curled and done up high on her +aristocratic little head. She was all in mourning for the Prince, even +to a black lace fan with which she occasionally shaded her eyes, so that +her peach-bloomy cheek was just to be discerned through it. She is a +charming pianist herself, I've heard, and is a great patroness of music +and musicians, especially of the "music of the future," and its +creators. I see her at all the concerts. When her face is in perfect +repose she has the most charming expression and a sort of celestial look +in her deep-set blue eyes. She is what the French call _spirituelle_, +and the Germans _geistreich_, but we've no word in our language that +just describes her. + +Well, as I was saying, my head got quite dizzy with thinking what a +trial it was to play before such an audience, but Wilhelmj seemed to +differ from me, for he came confidently down the steps with the +dignified self-poise of an artist who is master of his instrument, and +who knows what he can do. He is extremely handsome, with regular +features, massive overhanging forehead, and with an expression of power +and self-containment. He looked a perfect picture as he stood there so +quietly and played. He hadn't gone far before he made a brilliant +cadenza that took down the house, and there was a general burst of +applause. His _tone_ (which is the grand thing in violin-playing) was +magnificent, and his technique masterly. He didn't play with that +tenderness of feeling and wonderful variety of expression that Joachim +does, but it was as if he didn't care to affect people in that way. It +made me think of Tausig on the piano. He played with the greatest +intensity and _aplomb_, and the strings seemed actually to seethe. +People were taken by storm. The second piece was a concerto by Raff. +Wilhelmj was in the midst of the Andante, and was sawing our hearts with +every saw of his bow, when suddenly a string snapped under the strain of +his passionate fingers. He instantly ceased playing, and retired up the +steps to the back of the stage to put on another string. Unfortunately +he had not brought along an extra one in his pocket, and had to borrow +one from one of the orchestra. Weitzmann, who in his youth was himself +an eminent concert violinist, was amazed at Wilhelmj's temerity. "What +_rashness_," exclaimed he, "and the G string, too!" (one of the most +important). After a pause Wilhelmj came down and began again, but the +string was so out of tune that he retired a second time. He must have +been furious inwardly, one would think, and at his _Berlin_ début, too! +but he came down the third time with the utmost imperturbability, and +got through the concerto. The whole effect of the concert was spoiled, +though, and he had also to change the solos he had intended playing, so +as to avoid the G string as much as possible. Instead of the lovely +Chopin Nocturne in D flat (his own arrangement), he played an Aria by +Bach. He did it so wonderfully that I was really startled.--I never +shall forget the _nuances_ he put into his trill. But at his second +concert, where he _did_ give the Nocturne, it was evident that the +romantic is his great forte, and on a first appearance, and before his +large and critical audience, he should have been heard in that +_genre_.[D] + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + The Boston Fire. Aggravations of Music Study. Kullak. Sherwood. + Hoch Schule. A Brilliant American. German Dancing. + + +BERLIN, _November 24, 1872_. + +All the papers over here have been ringing with the Boston fire, the +horse pestilence, shipwrecks, explosions, etc., until I feel as if all +America were going to the bad. What an awful calamity that fire is! I +can't take it in at all. All the Germans are wondering what our fire +companies are made of that such conflagrations _can_ take place. They +say it would be an impossibility _here_, where the organization is so +perfect. The men are trained to the work for years, and are on the spot +in a twinkling, knowing just what to do. They are as fully convinced of +their super-excellence in the Fire Department as in every other, and +nothing can make them believe that if two or three of their little +fire-engines had been there, and worked by _their_ firemen, the Chicago +and Boston fires could not have been put out! You know their machines +are pumped by _hand_, too, instead of by steam, as ours are, which makes +the assumption all the more ludicrous. It reminds me of a German party I +was at once, where our war was the subject of conversation. "Oh, you +don't know anything about fighting over there," said one gentleman, +nodding at me patronizingly across the table. "If you had had two or +three of _our_ regiments, with one of _our_ generals, your war would +have been finished up in no time!" + +I've had _such_ a vexation to-day that I'm really quite beside myself! I +was to play the first movement of my Rubinstein Concerto in the +conservatory with the orchestra. I've been straining every nerve over it +for several weeks, practicing incessantly, and had learned it perfectly. +When I played it in the class the other day it went beautifully, and I +think even Kullak was satisfied. Well, of course I was anticipating +playing it with the orchestra before an audience, with much pleasure, +and hoped I was going to distinguish myself. Music-director Wuerst and +Franz Kullak always take charge of these orchestra lessons, sometimes +one directing and sometimes the other. I got up early this morning, and +practiced an hour and a half before I went to the conservatory, and I +was there the first of all who were to play concertos. I spoke to Wuerst +and told him what I was to play, and he said "All right." Wouldn't you +have thought now, that he would have let me play first? Not a bit of it. +He first heard the orchestra play a stupid symphony of Haydn's, which +they might just as well have left out. Then he began screaming out to +know if Herr Moszkowski was there? Herr Moszkowski, however, was _not_ +there, and I began to breathe freer, for he is a finished artist, and +has been studying with Kullak for years, and plays in concerts. Of +course if he had played first, it would have been doubly hard for me to +muster up my courage, and you would have thought that Wuerst would have +taken that into consideration. As Moszkowski was absent, I thought I +certainly should be called up next, but another girl received the +preference. She played extremely well, and Wuerst paid her his +compliments, and then took his departure, leaving Franz Kullak to +conduct. Then one of my class played Beethoven's G major concerto most +wretchedly. Poor creature, she was nervous and frightened, and couldn't +do herself any sort of justice. At last it was over, and at last Franz +Kullak sung out, "We will now have Rubinstein's concerto in D minor." + +I got up, went to the piano, wiped off the keys, which were completely +_wet_ from the nervous fingers of those who had preceded me, and was +just going to sit down, when a young fellow approached from the other +side with the same intention. "O, Fräulein Fay, you have the same +concerto? Very well, you can play it the _next_ time. To-day Herr +So-and-So plays it!" Now, did you ever know anything so provoking? I +hoped at least that the young fellow would play it well, and that I +should learn something, but he perfectly _murdered_ it, and there I had +to sit through it all, with the piece tingling at my fingers ends--and +now there's no knowing _when_ I shall play it, as the orchestra lessons +are so seldom and so uncertain. I hope there will be one two weeks from +to-day, but even so I probably shan't do half so well as I should have +done to-day, for the freshness will be all out of the piece, and I've +practiced it so much _now_ that I hate the sound of it, and can't bear +to waste any more time over it. Such is life! I thought this time that I +had taken every precaution to ensure success, for I had risen early +every day, and eaten no end of the "bread of carefulness," and the +result is--nothing at all! Not even a failure. It is the more to be +regretted as to-day was the first Sunday of the month, and I wanted to +go to church, especially as the bad weather kept me at home for two +Sundays. However, I'm determined I _will_ play the concerto _yet_, if I +stake "_Kopf und Kragen_ (head and collar)" on it, as the Germans +say.--But oh, the difficulty of doing _anything_ at all in this world! + +December 18, 1872.--_At last_ I played my Rubinstein concerto a week ago +Sunday with the orchestra, and had the pleasure of being told by +Scharwenka that I had had a brilliant success. Franz Kullak said that my +octave passages were superbly played, and Moszkowski (who, to my +surprise, was playing first violin) applauded. So I was complimented by +the three of whom I stood most in awe. Scharwenka and Moszkowski are +both finished artists and exquisite composers, and play a great deal in +concerts this winter. Scharwenka is very handsome. He is a Pole, and is +very proud of his nationality. And, indeed, there _is_ something +interesting and romantic about being a Pole. The very name conjures up +thoughts of revolutions, conspiracies, bloody executions, masked balls, +and, of _course_, grace, wit and beauty! Scharwenka certainly sustains +the traditions of his race as far as the latter qualification is +concerned. I never talked with him, as I have but a bowing acquaintance +with him, so I don't know what sort of a _mind_ he has, but I find +myself looking at him and saying to myself with a certain degree of +satisfaction, "He is a Pole." Why I should have this feeling I know not, +but I seem to be proud of knowing Poles!--Scharwenka has a clear olive +complexion, oval face, hazel eyes (I _think_) and a mass of brown silky +hair which he wears long, and which falls about his head in a most +picturesque and attractive fashion. He always presides over the piano at +the orchestral lessons in the conservatory on Sunday mornings, and +supplies those parts which are wanting. When concertos are performed he +accompanies. He has a delightful serenity of manner, and sits there with +quiet dignity, his back to the windows, and the light striking through +his fluffy hair. He plays beautifully, and composes after Chopin's +manner. Perhaps he will do greater things and develop a style of his own +by and by. Every winter he gives a concert in Berlin in the +Sing-Akademie. + +By the way, I would not advise your paying any attention to what G. says +about music. She is incapable of forming a correct judgment on the +subject, and she used to provoke me to death with her ignorant and +sweeping criticisms. I continually set her right, but to hear her go on +about music and musicians is much like hearing S. R. and the M. crowd +talk about art. What _can_ be easier or more absurd, than to set +yourself up and say that "nobody satisfies you." _Stuff!_--As for +Kullak, I think a master must be judged by the number of players he +turns out. In the two years that I have studied with him he has formed +six or eight artists to my knowledge, beside no end of pupils who play +extremely well. People come to him from all over the world, and as an +artist himself he ranks first class. + +I must tell you about a new acquaintance I've just made, a Mr. P., a +Harvard man, very fascinating, very brilliant, a great swell, and the +most perfect _dancer_ I ever saw. I first met this phoenix at a +dinner, when he fairly sparkled. He seemed to have the history of all +countries at his tongue's end, and went through revolutions and reigns +in the most rapid way. We had an animated discussion over the Germans, +whom he loathes and despises, and he brought up all the historical +events he could to justify his disgust. I was on the defensive, of +course. "They've no _delicacy_," said P., in his emphatic way, and I had +to give in there. Indeed, I can imagine that to a fastidious creature +like him, imbued, too, with all the Southern chivalry, the Germans would +be startling, to say the least. "Why," he cried, "they help you at table +with their own forks after they've been eating with them! What do you +think my host did to-day? He took a piece of meat that he had begun to +eat, from _his own plate!_ and put it on to mine with _his own fork!!_ +saying, 'Try this, this is a good piece!'--His intentions were +excellent, but it never occurred to him that I shouldn't be delighted to +eat after him."--P. can't bear it when the waiters at the restaurants +pretend to think him a lord and address him as "Herr Graf." "I'll teach +them to _Herr Graf_ me," he said between his teeth, lowering his head, +his eyes flashing dangerous fire. But it is quite likely that they do +suppose him a lord, for he looks it, "every inch." + +I met him again at a reception, and was having a most charming +conversation with him about Goethe, whom he was dissecting in his keen +way, when in came Mr. and Mrs. N. I knew at once that there was an end +of our delightful talk, for though Mrs. N. has a most fascinating and +high-bred husband herself, and is, moreover, extremely jealous of him, +she is never content unless the most agreeable man in the room is +devoted to her, also. Sure enough, she came straight toward us, and took +occasion to whisper some senseless thing in my ear. Of course Mr. P. had +to offer her his seat. She was, however, not quite bare-faced enough to +take it, but she had succeeded in breaking the tête-à-tête and in +distracting his attention. Soon after another gentleman came up to speak +to me, Mr. P. bowed, and for the rest of the evening he was pinned to +Mrs. N.'s side. Such are the satisfactions of parties! Either one does +not meet any one worth talking to, or the conversation is sure to be +interrupted. It takes these women of the world, like Mrs. N., to get the +plums out of the pudding. + +However, seeing him dance gave me almost as much pleasure as talking +with him. He has this air of having danced millions of Germans, and is +grace and elegance incarnate. Just at the end of the party, he asked me +for a turn, and we took three long ones. I never enjoyed dancing so +much. He manages to annihilate his legs entirely, and his arm, though +strong, is so light that you feel yourself borne along like a bubble, +and are only conscious that you are sustained and guided. He inspired me +so that I danced really well, but when he complimented me, I basely +refrained from letting him know it was all owing to him! By a funny +coincidence he is the son of that elegant Mrs. P. who was on the steamer +with me, and his father is very prominent in politics. I remember +perfectly the pride with which Mrs. P. spoke to me of this son, and how +slightly interested I was. He accompanied her to the steamer, and in +fact the first time I saw her was when Mr. T., who was standing by me on +the deck, said, "That was a _mother's_ kiss," as she rapturously +embraced him on taking leave. I didn't notice Mr. P. at all, though he +says he remembers me perfectly standing there. He is going, or has gone, +to Russia, and from there he will rejoin his family in Paris. That is +the worst of being abroad. Charming people pass over your path like +comets and disappear never to be seen again. + +By the way, I now feel equal to anything in the shape of a German dance. +Perhaps that may seem to you a trifling statement; but little do you +know on the subject if it does. If you've ever read "Fitz Boodle's +Confessions," you will remember that he represents the German dancing as +a thing fearful and wonderful to the inexperienced, and how the match +between him and Dorothea was broken off by his falling with her during +the waltz, and rolling over and over. Here _everybody_ dances, old and +young, and you'll see fat old married ladies waddle off with their gray +and spindle-shanked husbands. Declining doesn't help you in the least, +and you are liable to be whisked off without notice by some old fellow +who revolves with you like lightning on the tips of his toes, his +coat-tails flying at an angle of considerably _more_ than forty-five +degrees. Reversing is unknown, and consequently you see the room go +spinning round with you. + +I always thought, though, that if one _could_ take their steps, it might +be pretty good fun. So, after a pause of three years, I finally +concluded this winter to go to some German balls and try it again. The +first one I attended was an artists' ball. There was first a little +concert (at which I played), then a supper at ten o'clock, and then the +dancing began. The dancing cards were handed round at supper, and my +various acquaintances came up to ask me for different dances. The first +one asked me for the Polonaise. "Delighted!" said I;--not that I had the +remotest idea what a "polonaise" was, but I was determined not to +flinch. The second engaged me for the "Quadrille à la Cour," and the +third for the "Rheinlaender," etc., etc. I assented to everything with +outward alacrity, but with some inward trepidation, for I thought it +rather a bold stroke to get up at a large ball and attempt to dance a +string of things I had never heard of! However, I was in luck. The +Polonaise turned out to be merely walking, but in different figures, and +this, before the conclusion of it, makes you continually change partners +until you have promenaded and spoken with every one of the opposite sex +in the room. This is to get the whole party acquainted. When you finally +get back to your own partner, it breaks up with a waltz, and so ends. + +My partner was a young artist, half painter, half musician, and a very +intelligent and in fact charming talker. Like most artists, his dress +was rather at sixes and sevens. He had on a swallow-tailed coat, but it +did not fit him, so I conclude it was borrowed or hired for the +occasion. It was so wide, and so long, that when I saw him dancing with +some one else, I thought I must have made a laughable figure with him, +for he was small into the bargain. However, he had that sunny, +happy-go-lucky way about him that all artists have when they're in good +humour, and he was a capital dancer. When I came back to him at the end +of the Polonaise I started off with a mental "Now for it," for the waltz +was the thing I was most afraid of; but to my surprise, I got on most +beautifully. Emboldened by success, I went on recklessly. "Rheinlaender" +turned out to be the schottisch, and "Quadrille à la Cour" the lancers, +so I was all right. They had to be danced in the German sense of the +word, of course, but with courage it is possible to do it. Since this +ball I have been to two others, and am now pronounced by the gentlemen +to be a finished dancer. I don't know how I learned, but it seemed to +come to me with a sudden inspiration. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + A German Professor. Sherwood. The Baroness von S. Von Bülow. A + German Party. Joachim. The Baroness at Home. + + + BERLIN, _February 25, 1873_. + +At Mr. P.'s we had a charming dinner the other day, which was as +sociable as possible, though we sat thirteen at table. Think what an +oversight! I believe though, that I was the only one who perceived it. I +sat next to a German professor, who is said to speak sixty-four +languages! He had a little compact head, which looked as if it were +stuffed and crammed to the utmost. I reflected a long time which of his +sixty-four languages I should start him on, but finally concluded that +as I spoke English with tolerable fluency we would confine ourselves to +that! He was perfectly delightful to talk to, as all these German +_savans_ are, and I got a lot of new ideas from him. He had been writing +a pamphlet on the subject of love, as considered in various ancient and +modern languages, and in it he proves that the passion of love used to +be quite a different thing from what it is now. All this ideality of +sentiment is entirely modern. + +My friend Miss B. is playing exquisitely now, and Sherwood is going +ahead like a young giant. To-day Kullak said that Sherwood played +Beethoven's E flat major concerto (the hardest of all Beethoven's +concertos) with a perfection that he had rarely heard equalled. So much +for being a genius, for he is still under twenty, and has only been +abroad a year or two. But he studied with our best American master, +William Mason, and played like an artist before he came. But, then, +Sherwood has one enormous advantage that no master on earth can bestow, +and that is, perfect confidence in himself. There's nothing like having +faith in yourself, and I believe _that_ is the kind of faith that "moves +mountains." + +At Mr. Bancroft's grand party for Washington's birthday, last Friday, he +presented me to the Baroness von S., but without telling her that I was +the person who wrote that letter about her and Wilhelmj that M. +published without my knowledge in _Dwight's Journal_. She was as +exquisite as I thought she would be, and is the most bewitching +creature! She is just such a woman as Balzac describes--like Honorine, +for instance. She has "_l'oeil plein de feu_," etc., and is grace and +sentiment personified. + +She was dressed in white silk, cut square neck and trimmed with a lot of +little box-plaited ruffles round the bottom. Round her throat was a +black velvet ribbon, with a necklace of magnificent pearls fastened to +it in festoons and a diamond pendant in the middle. She greeted me with +a ceremonious bow, and began the conversation by complimenting me on an +accompaniment I had been playing. I told her I was studying music here, +and that I had been in Tausig's conservatory a year. As soon as I +mentioned him we got on delightfully, for she was his favourite pupil, +and we talked a good deal about him and Bülow. She said she had heard +Tausig play everything he ever learned, she thought, and that only a +fortnight before his death, he was at her house and played Chopin's +first Sonata. The last movement comes after the well-known Funeral March +(which forms the Adagio) and is very peculiar. It is a continual running +movement with both hands in unison, and it is played all muffled, and +with the soft pedal. Kullak thinks that Chopin meant to express that +after the grave all is dust and ashes, but the Baroness said that Tausig +thought Chopin meant to represent by it the ghost of the departed +wandering about. On this occasion, when Tausig had finished playing it, +he turned and said to her, "That seems to me like the wind blowing over +my grave." A fortnight later he was dead! I asked her if it were not +dreadful that such an artist should have died so young. The most pained +look came into her beautiful eyes, and she said, "I have _never_ been +able to reconcile myself to it." + +The conversation continued in the most charming manner until von Moltke +came up to speak to her on one side and Mr. Bancroft on the other +offered his arm to lead her into the supper-room. "Did you tell her?" +whispered Mr. Bancroft. "No; how could I?" said I. "_You_ ought to tell +her." So I imagine he did tell her, as they went into supper, that I was +the young lady who had described her in the paper. I did not have a +chance to approach her again until just as I was going home. She was +standing in the door-way of an ante-room with Mr. Bancroft, wrapped in +her opera cloak and waiting for her carriage to be announced. I bade Mr. +Bancroft good-night, and as I passed her she put out her hand and said +to me with a meaning look, in her little hesitating English, "I am so +happy to have met you." I told her I owed her an apology, which I hoped +to make another time. "Oh, no," said she, smilingly, "I am very +thankful."--I suppose she meant "very much flattered," or something of +that kind. + +I heard two tremendous concerts of Bülow's lately. Oh, I do hope you'll +hear him some day! He is a colossal artist. I never heard a pianist I +liked so well. He has such perfect mastery, and yet such comprehension +and such sympathy. Among other things, he played Beethoven's last +Sonata. Such a magnificent one as it is! I liked it better than the +Appassionata. + +The other night I went to a party at a General von der G.'s. It was a +"dreadfully" elegant set of people--all countesses, Vons and generals' +wives. Stiff, oh, _how_ stiff! I felt as if the ladies did me a personal +favor every time they spoke to me. They were very handsomely dressed, +and wore their family jewels. There was a great deal of music, and a +certain old Herr von K. sat on a sofa and nodded his head _à la_ +connoisseur, while the officers stood round and scarcely dared to wink. +The formality did not abate till we adjourned to the supper-room, when, +as is always the case in German parties, everybody's tongue suddenly +became loosed.--Germans are the happiest people _at_ supper, and the +most wretched before it, that you ever saw. Their parties are _always_ +"just so." So many hours of propriety beforehand,--the ladies all by +themselves round a centre-table in one room, the young girls discreetly +sandwiched in between with their embroidery, and talking on the most +limited subjects in the most "papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism" +manner--and the men in the other room playing cards. On this occasion, +when we went into supper, there was one large central table covered with +the feast, and then there were little tables standing about, whither you +could retire with your prey when you had once secured it. I got +something, and betook myself to a table in the corner, whither a young +artist, also Miss B. and an officer, the son of the celebrated General +von W., who won the battle of something, speedily followed me. The +artist, Herr Meyer, sat opposite me, and I began to jabber with him, +unmindful of the officer, as I had previously tried him on every subject +in the known world without being able to extract a reply. We gradually +collected a miscellaneous array of plates full of things, when I dropped +one of my spoons on the floor. I picked it up, laid it aside, and began +eating out of one of my other plates. Presently the officer, who had +been glaring at me all the while out of his uniform, rose solemnly and +went to the centre-table and returned. Suddenly I became aware, by my +light being obscured, that he was standing opposite me on the other side +of the table. I glanced up, and remarked that he had a spoon in his +thumb and finger. As he did not offer it, however, it did not occur to +me that it was for me, so I went on eating. After a minute I looked up +again, and he was still standing as if he were pointing a gun, the spoon +between thumb and finger. At last it dawned upon me that he had brought +it for me, so I took it out of his hand and thanked him, whereupon he +resumed his seat. I was so overcome by this unheard-of act of gallantry +on the part of an aristocrat! and an officer!! that I felt I must say +something worthy of the occasion. So after a few minutes I remarked to +him, "Everything tastes very sweet out of _this_ spoon!"--Total silence +and impassibility of countenance on his part.--Miss B., who was sitting +opposite, remarked mischievously, "That was entirely lost, my dear," and +I was so depressed by my failure that I subsided and did not try to +kindle him again. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _April 14, 1873_. + +Colonel B. told me some weeks ago, that Kullak had told him I was ready +for the concert room, and that he would like to have me play at court. +If this is his real opinion _I_ have no evidence of it, for he knows I +am anxious to play in concert before I leave Germany, and yet he does +nothing whatever to bring me forward. It is very discouraging. In this +conservatory there is no stimulus whatever. One might as well be a +machine. + +I propose to go to Weimar the last of this week. It seems very strange +that I shall actually know Liszt at last, after hearing of him so many +years. I am wild to see him! They say everything depends upon the humour +he happens to be in when you come to him. I hope I shall hit upon one +of his indulgent moments. Every one says he gives no lessons. But I hope +at least to play to him a few times, and what is more important, to hear +_him_ play repeatedly. Happy the pianist who can catch even a faint +reflection of his wonderful style! + +Not long ago Mr. Bancroft invited me to drive out to Tegel, Humboldt's +country-seat, near here, with the Joachims, and so I had a three hours +conversation with _that_ idol! He is the most modest, unpretending man +possible. To hear him talk you wouldn't suppose he could play at all. +I've always said to myself that if anything would be heaven, it would be +to play a sonata with Joachim, but have supposed such a thing to be +unattainable--these master-artists are so proud and unapproachable. But +I think now it might not have been so difficult after all, he is so +lovely. Joachim was very quiet during the first part of the excursion, +and I couldn't think how I could get him to talk. At last I mentioned +Wagner, whom I knew he hated. His eyes kindled, and he roused up, and +after that was animated and interesting all the rest of the time! He +said that "Wagner was under the delusion that he was the only man in the +world that understood Beethoven; but it happened there _were_ other +people who could comprehend Beethoven as well as he,"--and indeed, it is +difficult to conceive of any one understanding Beethoven any better than +Joachim. + +Joachim is quite as noble and generous to poor artists as Liszt is, and +constantly teaches them for nothing. He has the greatest enthusiasm for +his class in the Hoch Schule, and I shouldn't think that any one who +wishes to study the violin would _think_ of going any where else. They +say that Joachim possesses beautiful social qualities, also, and has the +faculty of entertaining in his own house charmingly. He brings out what +there is in every one without apparently saying anything himself. + +The Baroness von S. had seemed so cordial and friendly at Mr. Bancroft's +on account of the letter you had published in _Dwight's Journal of +Music_, that I finally made up my mind to the daring act of calling on +her in order to ask her for a letter of introduction to Liszt. She lives +in a palace belonging to the Empress. There is a deep court in front of +it, with lions on the gateway. Before the door stood a soldier on guard. +As I approached, one of the Gardes du Corps (the Crown Prince's +regiment) emerged from the entrance. He was dressed all in white and +silver, with big top boots, and his helmet surmounted by a silver eagle. +He was an officer, and of course all the officers in this regiment +belong to the flower of the nobility. I was rather awed by his imposing +appearance, and advanced timidly to the doors, which were of glass, and +pulled the bell. A tall phantom in livery appeared, as if by magic, and +signed to me to ascend the grand staircase. The walls of it were all +covered with pictures. I went up, and was received by another tall +phantom in livery. I asked him "if the Frau Excellency was to be +spoken." He took my card, and discreetly said, "he would see," at the +same time ushering me into an immense ball-room, where he requested me +to be seated. It was furnished in crimson satin, there were myriads of +mirrors, and the floor was waxed. I took refuge in a corner of it, +feeling very small indeed. Those few minutes of waiting were extremely +uncomfortable, for I didn't know what she would say to my request, as I +had only seen her that one time at Mr. Bancroft's, and was not sure that +she would not regard my coming as a liberty. People are so severe in +their ideas here. + +At last the servant returned and said she would receive me, and led the +way across the ball-room to a door which he opened for me to enter. I +found myself in a large, high room, also furnished in crimson, and in +the centre of which stood two pianos nestled lovingly together. The +Baroness was not there, however, and I saw what seemed to be an endless +succession of rooms opening one out of the other, the doors always +opposite each other. I concluded to "go on till I stopped," and after +traversing three or four, I at last heard a faint murmur of voices, and +entered what I suppose is her _boudoir_. There my divinity was seated in +a little crimson satin sofa, talking to an old fellow who sat on a chair +near her, whom she introduced as Herr Professor Somebody. He had a +small, well-stuffed head, and a pale, observant eye that seemed to say, +"I've looked into everything"--and I should think it _had_ by the way he +conversed. + +The Baroness was attired in an olive-coloured silk, short, and +fashionably made. She was leaning forward as she talked, and toying with +a silver-sheathed dagger which she took from a table loaded with costly +trifles next her. She rose as I came in, and greeted me very cordially, +and asked me to sit down on the sofa by her. I explained to her my +errand, and she immediately said she would give me a letter with the +greatest pleasure. We had a very charming conversation about artists in +general, and Liszt in particular, in which the little professor took a +leading part. He showed himself the connoisseur he looked, and gradually +diverged from the art of music to that of speaking and reading, which he +said was the most difficult of all the arts, because the tone was not +there, but had to be made. He said he had never heard a perfect speaker +or reader in his life. He descanted at great length upon the art of +speaking, and finally, when he paused, the Baroness took my hand and +said, "Where do you live?" I gave her my address, and she said she would +send me the letter. I then rose to go, and she assured me again she +would say all she could to dispose Liszt favourably towards me. I +thanked her, and said good-bye. She waited till I was nearly half across +the next room, and then she called after me, "I'll say lots of pretty +things about you!" That was a real little piece of coquetry on her part, +and she knew that it would take me down! She looked so sweet when she +said it, standing and smiling there in the middle of the floor, the +door-way making a frame for her. A few days afterward I met her in the +street, and she told me she had enjoined it upon Liszt to be amiable to +me, "but," she added, with a mischievous laugh, "I didn't tell him you +wrote so well for the papers." Oh, she is too fascinating for +anything!--She seems just to float on the top of the wave and never to +think. Such exquisite perception and intelligence, and yet lightness! + +The last excitement in Berlin was over the wedding of Prince Albrecht +(the son of the one whose funeral I saw) with the Princess of Altenburg. +When she arrived she made a regular entry into the city in a coach all +gold and glass, drawn by eight superb plumed horses. A band of music +went before her, and she had an escort all in grand equipages. As she +sat on the back seat with the Crown Princess, magnificently dressed, and +bowing from side to side, you rubbed your eyes and thought you saw +Cinderella! + + + + +WITH LISZT. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Arrives in Weimar. Liszt at the Theatre. At a Party. At his own + House. + + + WEIMAR, _May 1, 1873_. + +Last night I arrived in Weimar, and this evening I have been to the +theatre, which is very cheap here, and the first person I saw, sitting +in a box opposite, was Liszt, from whom, as you know, I am bent on +getting lessons, though it will be a difficult thing I fear, as I am +told that Weimar is overcrowded with people who are on the same errand. +I recognized Liszt from his portrait, and it entertained and interested +me very much to observe him. He was making himself agreeable to three +ladies, one of whom was very pretty. He sat with his back to the stage, +not paying the least attention, apparently, to the play, for he kept +talking all the while himself, and yet no point of it escaped him, as I +could tell by his expression and gestures. + +Liszt is the most interesting and striking looking man imaginable. Tall +and slight, with deep-set eyes, shaggy eyebrows, and long iron-gray +hair, which he wears parted in the middle. His mouth turns up at the +corners, which gives him a most crafty and Mephistophelean expression +when he smiles, and his whole appearance and manner have a sort of +Jesuitical elegance and ease. His hands are very narrow, with long and +slender fingers that look as if they had twice as many joints as other +people's. They are so flexible and supple that it makes you nervous to +look at them. Anything like the polish of his manner I never saw. When +he got up to leave the box, for instance, after his adieux to the +ladies, he laid his hand on his heart and made his final bow,--not with +affectation, or in mere gallantry, but with a quiet courtliness which +made you feel that no other way of bowing to a lady was right or proper. +It was most characteristic. + +But the most extraordinary thing about Liszt is his wonderful variety of +expression and play of feature. One moment his face will look dreamy, +shadowy, tragic. The next he will be insinuating, amiable, ironical, +sardonic; but always the same captivating grace of manner. He is a +perfect study. I cannot imagine how he must look when he is playing. He +is all spirit, but half the time, at least, a mocking spirit, I should +say. I have heard the most remarkable stories about him already. All +Weimar adores him, and people say that women still go perfectly crazy +over him. When he walks out he bows to everybody just like a King! The +Grand Duke has presented him with a house beautifully situated on the +park, and here he lives elegantly, free of expense, whenever he chooses +to come to it. + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _May 7, 1873_. + +There isn't a piano to be had in Weimar for love or money, as there is +no manufactory, and the few there were to be disposed of were snatched +up before I got here. So I have lost an entire week in hunting one up, +and was obliged to go first to Erfurt and finally to Leipsic, before I +could find one--and even that was sent over as a favour after much +coaxing and persuasion. I felt so happy when I fairly saw it in my room! +As if I had taken a city! However, I met Liszt two evenings ago at a +little tea-party given by a friend and _protégée_ of his to as many of +his scholars as have arrived, I being asked with the rest. Liszt +promised to come late. We only numbered seven. There were three young +men and four young ladies, of whom three, including myself, were +Americans. Five of the number had studied with Liszt before, and the +young men are artists already before the public. + +To fill up the time till Liszt came, our hostess made us play, one after +the other, beginning with the latest arrival. After we had each +"exhibited," little tables were brought in and supper served. We were in +the midst of it, and having a merry time, when the door suddenly opened +and Liszt appeared. We all rose to our feet, and he shook hands with +everybody without waiting to be introduced. Liszt looks as if he had +been through everything, and has a face _seamed_ with experience. He is +rather tall and narrow, and wears a long abbé's coat reaching nearly +down to his feet. He made me think of an old time magician more than +anything, and I felt that with a touch of his wand he could transform us +all. After he had finished his greetings, he passed into the next room +and sat down. The young men gathered round him and offered him a cigar, +which he accepted and began to smoke. We others continued our nonsense +where we were, and I suppose Liszt overheard some of our brilliant +conversation, for he asked who we were, I think, and presently the lady +of the house came out after Miss W. and me, the two American strangers, +to take us in and present us to him. + +After the preliminary greetings we had some little talk. He asked me if +I had been to Sophie Menter's concert in Berlin the other day. I said +yes. He remarked that Miss Menter was a great favourite of his, and that +the lady from whom I had brought a letter to him had done a good deal +for her. I asked him if Sophie Menter were a pupil of his. He said no, +he could not take the credit of her artistic success to himself. I heard +afterwards that he really had done ever so much for her, but he won't +have it said that he teaches! After he had finished his cigar, Liszt got +up and said, "America is now to have the floor," and requested Miss W. +to play for him. This was a dreadful ordeal for us new arrivals, for we +had not expected to be called upon. I began to quake inwardly, for I had +been without a piano for nearly a week, and was not at all prepared to +play to him, while Miss W. had been up since five o'clock in the +morning, and had travelled all day. However, there was no getting off. A +request from Liszt is a command, and Miss W. sat down, and acquitted +herself as well as could have been expected under the circumstances. +Liszt waved his hand and nodded his head from time to time, and seemed +pleased, I thought. He then called upon Leitert, who played a +composition of Liszt's own most beautifully. Liszt commended him and +patted him on the back. As soon as Leitert had finished, I slipped off +into the back room, hoping Liszt would forget all about me, but he +followed me almost immediately, like a cat with a mouse, took both my +hands in his, and said in the most winning way imaginable, +"_Mademoiselle, vous jouerez quelque-chose, n'est-ce-pas?_" I can't give +you any idea of his _persuasiveness_, when he chooses. It is enough to +decoy you into anything. It was such a desperate moment that I became +reckless, and without even telling him that I was out of practice and +not prepared to play, I sat down and plunged into the A flat major +Ballade of Chopin, as if I were possessed. The piano had a splendid +touch, luckily. Liszt kept calling out "Bravo" every minute or two, to +encourage me, and somehow, I got through. When I had finished, he +clapped his hands and said, "Bravely played." He asked with whom I had +studied, and made one or two little criticisms. I hoped he would shove +me aside and play it himself, but he didn't. + +Liszt is just like a monarch, and no one dares speak to him until he +addresses one first, which I think no fun. He did not play to us at all, +except when some one asked him if he had heard R. play that afternoon. +R. is a young organist from Leipsic, who telegraphed to Liszt to ask him +if he might come over and play to him on the organ. Liszt, with his +usual amiability, answered that he might. "Oh," said Liszt, with an +indescribably comic look, "he improvised for me a whole half-hour in +this style,"--and then he got up and went to the piano, and without +sitting down he played some ridiculous chords in the middle of the +key-board, and then little trills and turns high up in the treble, which +made us all burst out laughing. Shortly after I had played I took my +leave. Liszt had gone into the other room to smoke, and I didn't care to +follow him, as I saw that he was tired, and had no intention of playing +to us. Our hostess told Miss W. and me to "slip out so that he would not +perceive it." Yesterday Miss W. went to see him, and he asked her if she +knew that Miss "Fy," and told her to tell me to come to him. So I shall +present myself to-morrow, though I don't know how the lion will act when +I beard him in his den. + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _May 21, 1873_. + +Liszt is so _besieged_ by people and so tormented with applications, +that I fear I should only have been sent away if I had come without the +Baroness von S.'s letter of introduction, for he admires her extremely, +and I judge that she has much influence with him. He says "people fly in +his face by dozens," and seem to think he is "only there to give +lessons." He gives _no_ paid lessons whatever, as he is much too grand +for that, but if one has talent enough, or pleases him, he lets one come +to him and play to him. I go to him every other day, but I don't play +more than twice a week, as I cannot prepare so much, but I listen to the +others. Up to this point there have been only four in the class besides +myself, and I am the only new one. From four to six P. M. is the time +when he receives his scholars. The first time I went I did not play to +him, but listened to the rest. Urspruch and Leitert, the two young men +whom I met the other night, have studied with Liszt a long time, and +both play superbly. Fräulein Schultz and Miss Gaul (of Baltimore), are +also most gifted creatures. + +As I entered Liszt's salon, Urspruch was performing Schumann's Symphonic +Studies--an immense composition, and one that it took at least half an +hour to get through. He played so splendidly that my heart sank down +into the very depths. I thought I should never get on _there_! Liszt +came forward and greeted me in a very friendly manner as I entered. He +was in very good humour that day, and made some little witticisms. +Urspruch asked him what title he should give to a piece he was +composing. "_Per aspera ad astra_," said Liszt. This was such a good hit +that I began to laugh, and he seemed to enjoy my appreciation of his +little sarcasm. I did not play that time, as my piano had only just +come, and I was not prepared to do so, but I went home and practiced +tremendously for several days on Chopin's B minor sonata. It is a great +composition, and one of his last works. When I thought I could play it, +I went to Liszt, though with a trembling heart. I cannot tell you what +it has cost me every time I have ascended his stairs. I can scarcely +summon up courage to go there, and generally stand on the steps awhile +before I can make up my mind to open the door and go in! + +This day it was particularly trying, as it was really my first serious +performance before him, and he speaks so very indistinctly that I +feared I shouldn't understand his corrections, and that he would get out +of patience with me, for he cannot bear to explain. I think he hates the +trouble of speaking German, for he mutters his words and does not half +finish his sentences. Yesterday when I was there he spoke to me in +French all the time, and to the others in German,--one of his funny +whims, I suppose. + +Well, on this day the artists Leitert and Urspruch, and the young +composer Metzdorf, who is always hanging about Liszt, were in the room +when I came. They had probably been playing. At first Liszt took no +notice of me beyond a greeting, till Metzdorf said to him, "Herr Doctor, +Miss Fay has brought a sonata." "Ah, well, let us hear it," said Liszt. +Just then he left the room for a minute, and I told the three gentlemen +that they ought to go away and let me play to Liszt alone, for I felt +nervous about playing before them. They all laughed at me and said they +would not budge an inch. When Liszt came back they said to him, "Only +think, Herr Doctor, Miss Fay proposes to send us all home." I said I +could not play before such great artists. "Oh, that is healthy for you," +said Liszt, with a smile, and added, "you have a very choice audience, +now." I don't know whether he appreciated how nervous I was, but instead +of walking up and down the room as he often does, he sat down by me like +any other teacher, and heard me play the first movement. It was +frightfully hard, but I had studied it so much that I managed to get +through with it pretty successfully. Nothing could exceed Liszt's +amiability, or the trouble he gave himself, and instead of frightening +me, he inspired me. Never was there such a delightful teacher! and he is +the first sympathetic one I've had. You feel so _free_ with him, and he +develops the very spirit of music in you. He doesn't keep nagging at you +all the time, but he leaves you your own conception. Now and then he +will make a criticism, or play a passage, and with a few words give you +enough to think of all the rest of your life. There is a delicate +_point_ to everything he says, as subtle as he is himself. He doesn't +tell you anything about the technique. That you must work out for +yourself. When I had finished the first movement of the sonata, Liszt, +as he always does, said "Bravo!" Taking my seat, he made some little +criticisms, and then told me to go on and play the rest of it. + +Now, I only half knew the other movements, for the first one was so +extremely difficult that it cost me all the labour I could give to +prepare that. But playing to Liszt reminds me of trying to feed the +elephant in the Zoological Garden with lumps of sugar. He disposes of +whole movements as if they were nothing, and stretches out gravely for +more! One of my fingers fortunately began to bleed, for I had practiced +the skin off, and that gave me a good excuse for stopping. Whether he +was pleased at this proof of industry, I know not; but after looking at +my finger and saying, "Oh!" very compassionately, he sat down and played +the whole three last movements himself. That was a great deal, and +showed off all his powers. It was the first time I had heard him, and I +don't know which was the most extraordinary,--the Scherzo, with its +wonderful lightness and swiftness, the Adagio with its depth and pathos, +or the last movement, where the whole key-board seemed to "_donnern und +blitzen_ (thunder and lighten)." There is such a vividness about +everything he plays that it does not seem as if it were mere music you +were listening to, but it is as if he had called up a real, living +_form_, and you saw it breathing before your face and eyes. It gives +_me_ almost a ghostly feeling to hear him, and it seems as if the air +were peopled with spirits. Oh, he is a perfect wizard! It is as +interesting to see him as it is to hear him, for his face changes with +every modulation of the piece, and he looks exactly as he is playing. He +has one element that is most captivating, and that is, a sort of +delicate and fitful mirth that keeps peering out at you here and there! +It is most peculiar, and when he plays that way, the most bewitching +little expression comes over his face. It seems as if a little spirit of +joy were playing hide and go seek with you. + +On Friday Liszt came and paid me a visit, and even played a little on my +piano.--Only think what an honour! At the same time he told me to come +to him that afternoon and play to him, and invited me also to a matinee +he was going to give on Sunday for some countess of distinction who was +here for a few days. None of the other scholars were asked, and when I +entered the room there were only three persons in it beside Liszt. One +was the Grand Duke himself, the other was the Countess von M. (born a +Russian Princess), and the third was a Russian minister's wife. They +were all four standing in a little knot, speaking in French together. I +had no idea who they were, as the Grand Duke was in morning costume, and +had no star or decoration to distinguish him. I saw at a glance, +however, that they were all swells, and so I didn't speak to any of +them, luckily, though it was an even chance that I had not said +something to avoid the awkwardness of standing there like a post, for I +had been told beforehand that Liszt never introduced people to each +other. Liszt greeted me in a very friendly manner, and introduced me to +the countess, but she was so dreadfully set up that it was impossible to +get more than a few icy words out of her. I was thankful enough when +more people arrived, so that I could retire to a corner and sit down +without being observed, for it was a very uncomfortable situation to be +standing, a stranger, close to four fashionables and not dare to speak +to _any_ of them because they did not address me. + +After the company was all assembled, it numbered eighteen persons, +nearly all of whom were titled. I was the only unimportant one in it. +Liszt was so sweet. He kept coming over to where I sat and talking to +me, and promised me a ticket for a private concert where only his +compositions were to be performed. He seemed determined to make me feel +at home. He played five times, but no _great_ work, which was a +disappointment to me, particularly as the last three times he played +duetts with a leading Weimar artist named Lassen, who was present. He +made me come and turn the leaves. Gracious! how he _does_ read! It is +very difficult to turn for him, for he reads ever so far ahead of what +he is playing, and takes in fully five bars at a glance, so you have to +guess about where you _think_ he would like to have the page over. Once +I turned it too late, and once too early, and he snatched it out of my +hand and whirled it back.--Not quite the situation for timorous me, was +it? + +May 21.--To-day being my birthday, I thought I must go to Liszt by way +of celebration. I wasn't really ready to play to him, but I took his +second Ballade with me, and thought I'd ask him some questions about +some hard places in it. He insisted upon my playing it. When we came in +he looked indisposed and nervous, and there happened to be a good many +artists there. We always lay our notes on the table, and he takes them, +looks them over, and calls out what he'll have played. He remarked this +piece and called out "_Wer spielt diese grosse mächtige Ballade von +mir?_ (Who plays this great and mighty ballad of mine?)" I felt as if he +had asked "Who killed Cock Robin?" and as if I were the one who had done +it, only I did not feel like "owning up" to it quite so glibly as the +sparrow had, for Liszt seemed to be in very bad humour, and had roughed +the one who had played before me. I finally mustered up my courage and +said "_Ich_," but told him I did not know it perfectly yet. He said, "No +matter; play it." So I sat down, expecting he would take my head off, +but, strange to say, he seemed to be delighted with my playing, and said +that I had "quite touched him." Think of that from Liszt, and when I was +playing his own composition! When I went out he accompanied me to the +door, took my hand in both of his and said, "To-day you've covered +yourself with glory!" I told him I had only _begun_ it, and I hoped he +would let me play it again when I knew it better. "What," said he, "I +must pay you a still greater compliment, must I?" "Of course," said I. +"_Il faut vouz gâter?_" "Oui," said I. He laughed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Liszt's Drawing-room. An Artist's Walking Party. Liszt's Teaching. + + + WEIMAR, _May 29, 1873_. + +I am having the most heavenly time in Weimar, studying with Liszt, and +sometimes I can scarcely realize that I am at that summit of my +ambition, to be _his_ pupil! It was the Baroness von S.'s letter that +secured it for me, I am sure. He is so overrun with people, that I think +it is a wonder he is civil to anybody, but he is the most amiable man I +ever knew, though he _can_ be dreadful, too, when he chooses, and he +understands how to put people outside his door in as short a space of +time as it can be done. I go to him three times a week. At home Liszt +doesn't wear his long abbé's coat, but a short one, in which he looks +much more artistic. His figure is remarkably slight, but his head is +most imposing.--It is _so_ delicious in that room of his! It was all +furnished and put in order for him by the Grand Duchess herself. The +walls are pale gray, with a gilded border running round the room, or +rather two rooms, which are divided, but not separated, by crimson +curtains. The furniture is crimson, and everything is so +_comfortable_--such a contrast to German bareness and stiffness +generally. A splendid grand piano stands in one window (he receives a +new one every year). The other window is always wide open, and looks +out on the park. There is a dove-cote just opposite the window, and the +doves promenade up and down on the roof of it, and fly about, and +sometimes whirr down on the sill itself. That pleases Liszt. His +writing-table is beautifully fitted up with things that all match. +Everything is in bronze--ink-stand, paper-weight, match-box, etc., and +there is always a lighted candle standing on it by which he and the +gentlemen can light their cigars. There is a carpet on the floor, a +rarity in Germany, and Liszt generally walks about, and smokes, and +mutters (he can never be said to _talk_), and calls upon one or other of +us to play. From time to time he will sit down and play himself where a +passage does not suit him, and when he is in good spirits he makes +little jests all the time. His playing was a complete revelation to me, +and has given me an entirely new insight into music. You cannot +conceive, without hearing him, how poetic he is, or the thousand +_nuances_ that he can throw into the simplest thing, and he is equally +great on all sides. From the zephyr to the tempest, the whole scale is +equally at his command. + +But Liszt is not at all like a master, and cannot be treated like one. +He is a monarch, and when he extends his royal sceptre you can sit down +and play to him. You never can ask him to play anything for you, no +matter how much you're dying to hear it. If he is in the mood he will +play, if not, you must content yourself with a few remarks. You cannot +even offer to play yourself. You lay your notes on the table, so he can +see that you _want_ to play, and sit down. He takes a turn up and down +the room, looks at the music, and if the piece interests him, he will +call upon you. We bring the same piece to him but once, and but once +play it through. + +Yesterday I had prepared for him his _Au Bord d'une Source_. I was +nervous and played badly. He was not to be put out, however, but acted +as if he thought I had played charmingly, and then he sat down and +played the whole piece himself, oh, _so_ exquisitely! It made me feel +like a wood-chopper. The notes just seemed to ripple off his fingers' +ends with scarce any perceptible motion. As he neared the close I +remarked that that funny little expression came over his face which he +always has when he means to surprise you, and he suddenly took an +unexpected chord and extemporized a poetical little end, quite different +from the written one.--Do you wonder that people go distracted over him? + +Weimar is a lovely little place, and there are most beautiful walks all +about. Ascension being a holiday here, all we pianists made up a walking +party out to Tiefurt, about two miles distant. We went in the afternoon +and returned in the evening. The walk lay through the woods, and was +perfectly exquisite the whole way. As we came back in the evening the +nightingales were singing, and I could not help wishing that P. were +there to hear them, as he has such a passion for birds. There are +cuckoos here, too, and you hear them calling "cuckoo, cuckoo." Metzdorf +and I danced on the hard road, to the edification of all the others. In +Tiefurt we partook of a magnificent collation consisting of a mug of +beer, brown bread and sausage! Some of the party preferred coffee, among +whom was Metzdorf, who made us laugh by sticking the coffee-pot into his +inside coat pocket as soon as he had poured out his first cup, in order +to make sure that the others didn't take more than their share; he would +coolly take it out, help himself, and put it back again. The servant who +waited got frightened, and thought he was going to steal it. Afterwards +when we were playing games and wanted the door shut, the host came and +opened it, and would not allow us to shut it, because he said we might +carry off something! How's that! + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _June 6, 1873_. + +When I first came there were only five of us who studied with Liszt, but +lately a good many others have been there. Day before yesterday there +came a young lady who was a pupil of Henselt in St. Petersburg. She is +immensely talented, only seventeen years old, and her name is Laura +Kahrer. It is a very rare thing to see a pupil of Henselt, for it is +very difficult to get lessons from him. He stands next to Liszt. This +Laura Kahrer plays everything that ever was heard of, and she played a +fugue of her own composition the other day that was really vigorous and +good. I was quite astonished to hear how she had worked it up. She has +made a grand concert tour in Russia. I never saw such a hand as she had. +She could bend it backwards till it looked like the palm of her hand +turned inside out. She was an interesting little creature, with dark +eyes and hair, and one could see by her Turkish necklace and numerous +bangles that she had been making money. She played with the greatest +_aplomb_, though her touch had a certain roughness about it to my ear. +She did not carry me away, but I have not heard many pieces from her. + +However, all playing sounds barren by the side of Liszt, for _his_ is +the living, breathing impersonation of poetry, passion, grace, wit, +coquetry, daring, tenderness and every other fascinating attribute that +you can think of! I'm ready to hang myself half the time when I've been +to him. Oh, he is the most phenomenal being in every respect! All that +you've heard of him would never give you an idea of him. In short, he +represents the whole scale of human emotion. He is a many-sided prism, +and reflects back the light in all colours, no matter how you look at +him. His pupils _adore_ him, as in fact everybody else does, but it is +impossible to do otherwise with a person whose genius flashes out of him +all the time so, and whose character is so winning. + +One day this week, when we were with Liszt, he was in such high spirits +that it was as if he had suddenly become twenty years younger. A student +from the Stuttgardt conservatory played a Liszt Concerto. His name is +V., and he is dreadfully nervous. Liszt kept up a little running fire of +satire all the time he was playing, but in a good-natured way. I +shouldn't have minded it if it had been I. In fact, I think it would +have inspired me; but poor V. hardly knew whether he was on his head or +on his feet. It was too funny. Everything that Liszt says is so +striking. For instance, in one place where V. was playing the melody +rather feebly, Liszt suddenly took his seat at the piano and said, "When +_I_ play, I always play for the people in the gallery [by the gallery he +meant the cock-loft, where the rabble always sit, and where the places +cost next to nothing], so that those persons who pay only five groschens +for their seat also hear something." Then he began, and I wish you could +have heard him! The sound didn't seem to be very _loud_, but it was +penetrating and far-reaching. When he had finished, he raised one hand +in the air, and you seemed to see all the people in the gallery drinking +in the sound. That is the way Liszt teaches you. He presents an _idea_ +to you, and it takes fast hold of your mind and sticks there. Music is +such a real, visible thing to him, that he always has a symbol, +instantly, in the material world to express his idea. One day, when I +was playing, I made too much movement with my hand in a rotatory sort of +a passage where it was difficult to avoid it. "Keep your hand still, +Fräulein," said Liszt; "_don't make omelette_." I couldn't help +laughing, it hit me on the head so nicely. He is far too sparing of his +playing, unfortunately, and, like Tausig, only sits down and plays a few +bars at a time, generally. It is dreadful when he stops, just as you are +at the height of your enjoyment, but he is so thoroughly _blasé_ that he +doesn't care to show off, and doesn't like to have any one pay him a +compliment. Even at the court it annoyed him so that the Grand Duchess +told people to take no notice when he rose from the piano. + +On the same day that Liszt was in such high good-humour, a strange lady +and her husband were there who had made a long journey to Weimar, in the +hope of hearing him play. She waited patiently for a long time through +the lesson, and at last Liszt took compassion on her, and sat down with +his favourite remark that "the young ladies played a great deal better +than he did, but he would try his best to imitate them," and then played +something of his own so wonderfully, that when he had finished we all +stood there like posts, feeling that there was _nothing_ to be said. But +he, as if he feared we might burst out into eulogy, got up instantly and +went over to a friend of his who was standing there, and who lives on an +estate near Weimar, and said, in the most commonplace tone imaginable, +"By the way, how about those eggs? Are you going to send me some?" It +seems to be not only a profound bore to him, but really a sort of +sensitiveness on his part. How he can bear to hear _us_ play, I cannot +imagine. It must grate on his ear terribly, I think, because everything +_must_ sound expressionless to him in comparison with his own marvellous +conception. I assure you, no matter how beautifully we play any piece, +the minute Liszt plays it, you would scarcely recognize it! His touch +and his peculiar use of the pedal are two secrets of his playing, and +then he seems to dive down in the most hidden thoughts of the composer, +and fetch them up to the surface, so that they gleam out at you one by +one, like stars! + +The more I see and hear Liszt, the more I am lost in amazement! I can +neither eat nor sleep on those days that I go to him. All my musical +studies till now have been a mere going to school, a preparation for +him. I often think of what Tausig said once: "Oh, compared with Liszt, +we other artists are all blockheads." I did not believe it at the time, +but I've seen the truth of it, and in studying Liszt's playing, I can +see where Tausig got many of his own wonderful peculiarities. I think he +was the most like Liszt of all the army that have had the privilege of +his instruction.--I began this letter on Sunday, and it is now Tuesday. +Yesterday I went to Liszt, and found that Bülow had just arrived. None +of the other scholars had come, for a wonder, and I was just going away, +when Liszt came out, asked me to come in a moment, and introduced me to +Bülow. There I was, all alone with these two great artists in Liszt's +_salon_! Wasn't _that_ a situation? I only stayed a few minutes, of +course, though I should have liked to spend hours, but our conversation +was in the highest degree amusing while I _was_ there. Bülow had just +returned from his grand concert tour, and had been in London for the +first time. In a few months he had given one hundred and twenty +concerts! He is a fascinating creature, too, like all these master +artists, but entirely different from Liszt, being small, quick, and airy +in his movements, and having one of the boldest and proudest foreheads I +ever saw. He looks like strength of will personified. Liszt gazed at +"his Hans," as he calls him, with the fondest pride, and seemed +perfectly happy over his arrival. It was like his beautiful courtesy to +call me in and introduce me to Bülow instead of letting me go away. He +thought I had come to play to him, and was unwilling to have me take +that trouble for nothing, though he must have wished me in Jericho. You +would think I paid him a hundred dollars a lesson, instead of _his_ +condescending to sacrifice his valuable time to _me_ for nothing. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Liszt's Expression in Playing. Liszt on Conservatories. Ordeal of + Liszt's Lessons. Liszt's Kindness. + + + WEIMAR, _June 19, 1873_. + +In Liszt I can at last say that my ideal in _something_ has been +realized. He goes far beyond all that I expected. Anything so perfectly +beautiful as he looks when he sits at the piano I never saw, and yet he +is almost an old man now.[E] I enjoy him as I would an exquisite work of +art. His personal magnetism is immense, and I can scarcely bear it when +he plays. He can make me cry all he chooses, and that is saying a good +deal, because I've heard so much music, and _never_ have been affected +by it. Even Joachim, whom I think divine, never moved me. When Liszt +plays anything pathetic, it sounds as if he had been through everything, +and opens all one's wounds afresh. All that one has ever suffered comes +before one again. Who was it that I heard say once, that years ago he +saw Clara Schumann sitting in tears near the platform, during one of +Liszt's performances?--Liszt knows well the influence he has on people, +for he always fixes his eyes on some one of us when he plays, and I +believe he tries to wring our hearts. When he plays a passage, and goes +_pearling_ down the key-board, he often looks over at me and smiles, to +see whether I am appreciating it. + +But I doubt if he feels any particular emotion himself, when he is +piercing you through with his rendering. He is simply hearing every +tone, knowing exactly what effect he wishes to produce and how to do it. +In fact, he is practically two persons in one--the listener and the +performer. But what immense self-command that implies! No matter how +fast he plays you always feel that there is "plenty of time"--no need to +be anxious! You might as well try to move one of the pyramids as fluster +_him_. Tausig possessed this repose in a technical way, and his touch +was marvellous; but he never drew the tears to your eyes. He could not +wind himself through all the subtle labyrinths of the heart as Liszt +does. + +Liszt does such bewitching little things! The other day, for instance, +Fräulein Gaul was playing something to him, and in it were two runs, and +after each run two staccato chords. She did them most beautifully, and +struck the chords immediately after. "No, no," said Liszt, "after you +make a run you must wait a minute before you strike the chords, as if in +admiration of your own performance. You must pause, as if to say, 'How +nicely I did that.'" Then he sat down and made a run himself, waited a +second, and then struck the two chords in the treble, saying as he did +so "Bra-_vo_," and then he played again, struck the other chord, and +said again "Bra-_vo_," and positively, it was as if the piano had softly +applauded! That is the way he plays everything. It seems as if the piano +were speaking with a _human_ tongue. + +Our class has swelled to about a dozen persons now, and a good many +others come and play to him once or twice and then go. As I wrote to L. +the other day, that dear little scholar of Henselt, Fräulein Kahrer, was +one, but she only stayed three days. She was a most interesting little +creature, and told some funny stories about Henselt, who she says has a +most violent temper, and is very severe. She said that one day he was +giving a lesson to Princess Katherina (whoever that is), and he was so +enraged over her playing that he snatched away the music, and dashed it +to the ground. The Princess, however, did not lose her equanimity, but +folded her arms and said, "Who shall pick it up?" And he had to bend and +restore it to its place. + +I've never seen Liszt look angry but once, but then he was terrific. +Like a lion! It was one day when a student from the Stuttgardt +conservatory attempted to play the Sonata Appassionata. He had a good +deal of technique, and a moderately good conception of it, but still he +was totally inadequate to the work--and indeed, only a _mighty_ artist +like Tausig or Bülow ought to attempt to play it. It was a hot +afternoon, and the clouds had been gathering for a storm. As the +Stuttgardter played the opening notes of the sonata, the tree-tops +suddenly waved wildly, and a low growl of thunder was heard muttering in +the distance. "Ah," said Liszt, who was standing at the window, with his +delicate quickness of perception, "a fitting accompaniment." (You know +Beethoven wrote the Appassionata one night when he was caught in a +thunder-storm.) If Liszt had only played it himself, the whole thing +would have been like a poem. But he walked up and down the room and +forced himself to listen, though he could scarcely bear it, I could see. +A few times he pushed the student aside and played a few bars himself, +and we saw the passion leap up into his face like a glare of sheet +lightning. Anything so magnificent as it was, the little that he _did_ +play, and the startling individuality of his conception, I never heard +or imagined. I felt as if I did not know whether I were "in the body or +out of the body."--GLORIOUS BEING! He is a two-edged sword that cuts +through everything. + +The Stuttgardter made some such glaring mistakes, not in the notes, but +in rhythm, etc., that at last Liszt burst out with, "You come from +Stuttgardt, and play like _that_!" and then he went on in a tirade +against conservatories and teachers in general. He was like a +thunder-storm himself. He frowned, and bent his head, and his long hair +fell over his face, while the poor Stuttgardter sat there like a beaten +hound. Oh, it was awful! If it had been I, I think I should have +withered entirely away, for Liszt is always so amiable that the contrast +was all the stronger.--"_Aber das geht Sie nichts an_ (But this does not +concern you)," said he, in a conciliatory tone, suddenly stopping +himself and smiling. "_Spielen Sie weiter_ (Play on)."--He meant that it +was not at the student but at the conservatories that he had been angry. + +Liszt hasn't the nervous irritability common to artists, but on the +contrary his disposition is the most exquisite and tranquil in the +world. We have been there incessantly, and I've never seen him ruffled +except two or three times, and then he was tired and not himself, and it +was a most transient thing. When I think what a little savage Tausig +often was, and how cuttingly sarcastic Kullak could be at times, I am +astonished that Liszt so rarely loses his temper. He has the power of +turning the best side of every one outward, and also the most marvellous +and instant appreciation of what that side is. If there is _anything_ in +you, you may be sure that Liszt will know it. Whether he chooses to let +you think he does, may, however, be another matter. + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _July 15, 1873_. + +Liszt is such an immense, inspiring force that one has to try and stride +forward with him at double rate, even if with double expenditure, too! +To-day I'm more dead than alive, as we had a lesson from him yesterday +that lasted four hours. There were twenty artists present, all of whom +were anxious to play, and as he was in high good-humour, he played ever +so much himself in between. It was perfectly magnificent, but exhausting +and exciting to the last degree. When I come home from the lessons I +fling myself on the sofa, and feel as if I never wanted to get up again. +It is a fearful day's work every time I go to him. First, four hours' +practice in the morning. Then a nervous, anxious feeling that takes away +my appetite, and prevents me from eating my dinner. And then several +hours at Liszt's, where one succession of concertos, fantasias, and all +sorts of tremendous things are played. You never know before whom you +must play there, for it is the musical headquarters of the world. +Directors of conservatories, composers, artists, aristocrats, all come +in, and you have to bear the brunt of it as best you can. The first +month I was here, when there were only five of us, it was quite another +matter, but now the room is crowded every time. + +Liszt gave a matinee the other day at which I played a "Soirée de +Vienne," by Tausig--awfully hard, but very brilliant and peculiar. I +don't know how I ever got through it, for I had only been studying it a +few days, and didn't even know it by heart, nor had I played it to +Liszt. He only told me the evening before, too, about eight +o'clock--"To-morrow I give a matinee; bring your Soirée de Vienne." I +rushed home and practiced till ten, and then I got up early the next +morning and practiced a few hours. The matinee was at eleven o'clock. +First, Liszt played himself, then a young lady sang several songs, then +there was a piece for piano and flute played by Liszt and a flutist, and +then I came. I was just as frightened as I could be! Metzdorf (my +Russian friend) and Urspruch sat down by me to give me courage, and to +turn the leaves, but Liszt insisted upon turning himself, and stood +behind me and did it in his dexterous way. He says it is an art to turn +the leaves properly! He was _so_ kind, and whenever I did anything well +he would call out "_charmant!_" to encourage me. It is considered a +great compliment to be asked to play at a matinee, and I don't know why +Liszt paid it to me at the expense of others who were there who play far +better than I do--among them a young lady from Norway, lately come, who +is a most _superb_ pianist. She was a pupil of Kullak's, too, but it is +four years since she left him, and she has been concertizing a good +deal. Yesterday she played Schumann's A minor concerto magnificently. I +was surprised that Liszt had not selected her, but one can never tell +what to expect from Liszt. With him "nothing is to be presumed on or +despaired of"--as the proverb says. He is so full of moods and phases +that you have to have a very sharp perception even to begin to +understand him, and he can cut you all up fine without your ever +guessing it. He rarely mortifies any one by an open snub, but what is +perhaps worse, he manages to let the rest of the class know what he is +thinking while the poor victim remains quite in darkness about it!--Yes, +he can do very cruel things. + +After all, though, people generally have their own assurance to thank, +or their own want of tact, when they do not get on with Liszt. If they +go to him full of themselves, or expecting to make an impression on +_him_, or merely for the sake of saying they have been with him, instead +of presenting themselves to sit at his feet in humility, as they ought, +and learn whatever he is willing to impart--he soon finds it out, and +treats them accordingly. Some one once asked Liszt, what he would have +been had he not been a musician. "The first diplomat in Europe," was the +reply. With this Machiavellian bent it is not surprising that he +sometimes indulges himself in playing off the conceited or the obtuse +for the benefit of the bystanders. But the real _basis_ of his nature is +compassion. _The bruised reed he does not break, nor the humble and +docile heart despise!_ + +Fräulein Gaul tells a characteristic story about the "Meister," as we +call Liszt. When she first came to him a year or two ago, she brought +him one day Chopin's B flat minor Scherzo--one of those stock pieces +that every artist _must_ learn, and that has also been thrummed to death +by countless tyros. Liszt looked at it, and to her fright and dismay +cried out in a fit of impatience, "No, I _won't_ hear it!" and dashed it +angrily into the corner. The next day he went to see her, apologized for +his outburst of temper, and said that as a penance for it he would force +himself to give her not one, but two or three lessons on the Scherzo, +and in the most minute and careful manner--which accordingly he did! +Fancy any music teacher you ever heard of, so humbling himself to a +little girl of fifteen, and then remember that Tausig, the greatest of +modern virtuosi, said of Liszt, "No mortal can measure himself with +Liszt. He dwells upon a solitary height." + +But you need not fear that I am "giving up American standards" because I +reverence Liszt so boundlessly. Everything is topsy-turvy in Europe +according to _our_ moral ideas, and they don't have what we call "men" +over here. But they _do_ have artists that we cannot approach! It is as +a Master in Art that I look at and write of Liszt, and his mere presence +is to his pupils such stimulus and joy, that when I leave _him_ I shall +feel I have left the best part of my life behind! + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Liszt's Compositions. His Playing and Teaching of Beethoven. His + "Effects" in Piano-playing. Excursion to Jena. A New Music Master. + + + WEIMAR, _July 24, 1873_. + +Liszt is going away to-day. He was to have left several days ago, but +the Emperor of Austria or Russia (I don't know which), came to visit the +Grand Duke, and of course Liszt was obliged to be on hand and to spend a +day with them. He is such a grandee himself that kings and emperors are +quite matters of course to him. Never was a man so courted and spoiled +as he! The Grand Duchess herself frequently visits him. But he never +allows anyone to ask him to play, and even she doesn't venture it. That +is the only point in which one sees Liszt's sense of his own greatness; +otherwise his manner is remarkably unassuming. + +Liszt will be gone until the middle of August, and I shall be thankful +to have a few weeks of repose, and to be able to study more quietly. +With him one is at high pressure all the time, and I have gained a good +many more ideas from him than I can work up in a hurry. In fact, Liszt +has revealed to me an entirely new idea of piano-playing. He is a +wonderful _composer_, by the way, and that is what I was unprepared for +in him. His oratorio of _Christus_ was brought out here this summer, and +many strangers and celebrities came to hear it, Wagner among others. It +was magnificent, and one of the noblest, and decidedly the grandest +oratorio that I ever heard. I've never had time to write home about it, +for I felt that it required a dissertation in itself to do it justice. I +wish it could be performed in Boston, for his orchestral and choral +works, I am sorry to say, make their way very slowly in Germany. "Liszt +helped Wagner," said he to me, sadly, "but who will help Liszt? though, +compared with Opera it is as much harder for Oratorio to conquer a place +as it is for a pianist to achieve success when compared to a singer." So +he feels as if things were against him, though his heart and soul are so +bound up in sacred music, that he told me it had become to him "the only +thing worth living for." He really seems to care almost nothing for his +piano-playing or for his piano compositions. + +And yet, what beauty is there in those compositions! In Berlin I had +always been taught that Liszt was a would-be composer, that he could not +write a melody, that he had no originality, and that his compositions +were merely glitter to dazzle the eyes of the public. How unjust and +untrue have I found all these assertions to be! Here I have an +opportunity of hearing his piano works _en masse_, and day by day (since +all the young artists are playing them), and my previous ideas have been +entirely reversed. If Liszt is _anything_, he is _original_. One can see +that at a glance, simply by imagining his music taken out. Where is +there anything that would fill its place? When artists wish to make an +"effect" and stir up the public--"to fuse the leaden thousands," as +Chopin expressed it--what do they play? LISZT!--Not only is his music +brilliant--not only does he pour this wealth of pearls and diamonds down +the key-board, but his pieces rise to great climaxes, are grandiose in +style, overleap all boundaries, and whirl you away with the vehemence of +passion. Then what lightness of touch in the lesser _morceaux_, where he +is often the acme of tenderness, grace and fairy-like sportiveness, +while in the melancholy ones, what subtle feeling after the emotions +curled up in the remote corners of the heart! They are so rich in +harmony, so weird, so wild, that when you hear them you are like a +sea-weed cast upon the bosom of the ocean. And then what could be more +deep and poetic than Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert's and Wagner's +songs? They are altogether exquisite. Finally, Liszt's compositions +stand the severest test of merit. They _wear_ well. You can play them a +long time and never weary of them. In short, they embrace every element +_except_ the classic, and the question is, whether these airy or intense +ideas that appeal to you through their veils of shimmer and sheen are +not a sort of classics in their own way! + +Liszt's Christus is arranged for piano for four hands, and I wish I had +it, and also Bülow's great edition of Beethoven's sonatas--Oh! you +cannot _conceive_ anything like Liszt's playing of Beethoven. When _he_ +plays a sonata it is as if the composition rose from the dead and stood +transfigured before you. You ask yourself, "Did _I_ ever play that?" But +it bores him so dreadfully to hear the sonatas, that though I've heard +him teach a good many, I haven't had the courage to bring him one. I +suppose he is sick of the sound of them, or perhaps it is because he +feels obliged to be conscientious in teaching Beethoven! + +When one of the young pianists brings Liszt a sonata, he puts on an +expression of resignation and generally begins a half protest which he +afterward thinks better of.--"Well, go on," he will say, and then he +proceeds to be very strict. He always teaches Beethoven with notes, +which shows how scrupulous he is about him, for, of course, he knows all +the sonatas by heart. He has Bülow's edition, which he opens and lays on +the end of the grand piano. Then as he walks up and down he can stop and +refer to it and point out passages, as they are being played, to the +rest of the class. Bülow probably got many of his ideas from Liszt. One +day when Mr. Orth was playing the Allegro of the Sonata Op. 110, Liszt +insisted upon having it done in a particular way, and made him go back +and repeat it over and over again. One line of it is particularly hard. +Liszt made every one in the class sit down and try it. Most of them +failed, which amused him.--"Ah, yes," said he, laughing, "when I once +begin to play the pedagogue I am not to be outdone!" and then he related +as an illustration of his "pedagogism" a little anecdote of a former +pupil of his, now an eminent artist. "I liked young M. very much," said +he. "He played beautifully, but he was inclined to be lazy and to take +things easily. One morning he brought me Chopin's E minor concerto, and +he rather skimmed over that difficult passage in the middle of the first +movement as if he hadn't taken the trouble really to study it. His +execution was not clean. So I thought I would give him a lesson, and I +kept him playing those two pages over and over for an hour or two until +he had mastered them. His arms must have been ready to break when he got +through! At the next lesson there was no M. I sent to know why he did +not appear. He replied that he had been out hunting and had hurt his arm +so that he could not play. At the lesson following he accordingly +presented himself with his arm in a sling. But I always suspected it was +a stratagem on his part to avoid playing, and that nothing really ailed +him. He had had enough for one while," added Liszt, with a mischievous +smile. + +On Monday I had a most delightful tête-à-tête with Liszt, quite by +chance. I had occasion to call upon him for something, and, strange to +say, he was alone, sitting by his table and writing. Generally all sorts +of people are up there. He insisted upon my staying a while, and we had +the most amusing and entertaining conversation imaginable. It was the +first time I ever heard Liszt really talk, for he contents himself +mostly with making little jests. He is full of _esprit_. We were +speaking of the faculty of mimicry, and he told me such a funny little +anecdote about Chopin. He said that when he and Chopin were young +together, somebody told him that Chopin had a remarkable talent for +mimicry, and so he said to Chopin, "Come round to my rooms this evening +and show off this talent of yours." So Chopin came. He had purchased a +blonde wig ("I was very blonde at that time," said Liszt), which he put +on, and got himself up in one of Liszt's suits. Presently an +acquaintance of Liszt's came in, Chopin went to meet him instead of +Liszt, and took off his voice and manner so perfectly, that the man +actually mistook him for Liszt, and made an appointment with him for the +next day--"and there I was in the room," said Liszt. Wasn't that +remarkable? + +Another evening I was there about twilight and Liszt sat at the piano +looking through a new oratorio, which had just come out in Paris upon +"Christus," the same subject that his own oratorio was on. He asked me +to turn for him, and evidently was not interested, for he would skip +whole pages and begin again, here and there. There was only a single +lamp, and _that_ rather a dim one, so that the room was all in shadow, +and Liszt wore his Merlin-like aspect. I asked him to tell me how he +produced a certain effect he makes in his arrangement of the ballad in +Wagner's _Flying Dutchman_. He looked very "_fin_" as the French say, +but did not reply. He never gives a direct answer to a direct question. +"Ah," said I, "you won't tell." He smiled, and then immediately played +the passage. It was a long arpeggio, and the effect he made was, as I +had supposed, a pedal effect. He kept the pedal down throughout, and +played the beginning of the passage in a grand _rolling_ sort of manner, +and then all the rest of it with a very pianissimo touch, and so +lightly, that the continuity of the arpeggios was destroyed, and the +notes seemed to be just _strewn_ in, as if you broke a wreath of flowers +and scattered them according to your fancy. It is a most striking and +beautiful effect, and I told him I didn't see how he ever thought of it. +"Oh, I've invented a great many things," said he, +indifferently--"_this_, for instance,"--and he began playing a double +roll of octaves in chromatics in the bass of the piano. It was very +grand, and made the room reverberate. "Magnificent," said I. "Did you +ever hear me do a storm?" said he. "No." "Ah, you ought to hear me do a +storm! Storms are my _forte_!" Then to himself between his teeth, while +a weird look came into his eyes as if he could indeed rule the blast, +"_Da_ KRACHEN _die Bäume_ (Then _crash_ the trees!)" + +How ardently I wished he _would_ "play a storm," but of course he +_didn't_, and he presently began to trifle over the keys in his _blasé_ +style. I suppose he couldn't quite work himself up to the effort, but +that look and tone told how Liszt _would_ do it.--Alas, that we poor +mortals here below should share so often the fate of Moses, and have +only a glimpse of the Promised Land, and that without the consolation of +being Moses! But perhaps, after all, the vision is better than the +reality. We see the _whole land_, even if but at a distance, instead of +being limited merely to the spot where our foot treads. + +Once again I saw Liszt in a similar mood, though his expression was this +time _comfortably_ rather than _wildly_ destructive. It was when +Fräulein Remmertz was playing his E flat concerto to him. There were two +grand pianos in the room, and she was sitting at one, and he at the +other, accompanying and interpolating as he felt disposed. Finally they +came to a place where there were a series of passages beginning with +both hands in the middle of the piano, and going in opposite directions +to the ends of the key-board, ending each time in a short, sharp chord. +"_Alles zum Fenster hinaus werfen_ (Pitch everything out of the +window)," said he, in a cozy, easy sort of way, and he began playing +these passages and giving every chord a whack as if he _were_ splitting +everything up and flinging it out, and that with such enjoyment, that +you felt as if you'd like to bear a hand, too, in the work of general +demolition! But I never shall forget Liszt's look as he so lazily +proposed to "pitch everything out of the window." It reminded me of the +expression of a big tabby-cat as it sits and purrs away, blinking its +eyes and seemingly half asleep, when suddenly--!--! out it strikes with +both its claws, and woe be to whatever is within its reach! Perhaps, +after all, the secret of Liszt's fascination is this power of intense +and wild emotion that you feel he possesses, together with the most +perfect control over it. + +Liszt sometimes strikes wrong notes when he plays, but it does not +trouble him in the least. On the contrary, he rather enjoys it. He +reminds me of one of the cabinet ministers in Berlin, of whom it is said +that he has an amazing talent for making blunders, but a still more +amazing one for getting out of them and covering them up. Of Liszt the +first part of this is not true, for if he strikes a wrong note it is +simply because he chooses to be careless. But the last part of it +applies to him eminently. It always amuses him instead of disconcerting +him when he comes down squarely _wrong_, as it affords him an +opportunity of displaying his ingenuity and giving things such a turn +that the false note will appear simply a key leading to new and +unexpected beauties. An accident of this kind happened to him in one of +the Sunday matinees, when the room was full of distinguished people and +of his pupils. He was rolling up the piano in arpeggios in a very grand +manner indeed, when he struck a semi-tone short of the high note upon +which he had intended to end. I caught my breath and wondered whether he +was going to leave us like that, in mid-air, as it were, and the harmony +unresolved, or whether he would be reduced to the humiliation of +correcting himself like ordinary mortals, and taking the right chord. A +half smile came over his face, as much as to say--"Don't fancy that +_this_ little thing disturbs me,"--and he instantly went meandering down +the piano in harmony with the false note he had struck, and then rolled +deliberately up in a second grand sweep, _this_ time striking true. I +never saw a more delicious piece of cleverness. It was so quick-witted +and so exactly characteristic of Liszt. Instead of giving you a chance +to say, "He has made a mistake," he forced you to say, "He has shown how +to get out of a mistake." + +Another day I heard him pass from one piece into another by making the +finale of the first one play the part of prelude to the second. So +exquisitely were the two woven together that you could hardly tell where +the one left off and the other began.--Ah me! _Such_ a facile grace! +_Nobody_ will ever equal him, with those rolling basses and those +flowery trebles. And then his Adagios! When you hear him in one of +_those_, you feel that his playing has got to that point when it is +purified from all earthly dross and is an exhalation of the soul that +mounts straight to heaven. + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _August 8, 1873_. + +The other day we all made an excursion to Jena, which is about three +hours' drive from here. We went in carriages in a long train, and pulled +up at a hotel named The Bear. There we took our second breakfast. There +was to be a concert at five in a church, where some of Liszt's music was +to be performed. After breakfast we went to the church, where Liszt met +us, and the rehearsal took place. After the rehearsal we went to dinner. +We had three long tables which Liszt arranged to suit himself, his own +place being in the middle. He always manages every little detail with +the greatest tact, and is very particular never to let two ladies or two +gentlemen sit together, but always alternately a lady and a gentleman. +"_Immer eine bunte Reihe machen_ (Always have a little variety)," said +he. The dinner was a very entertaining one to me, because I could +converse with Liszt and hear all he said, as he was nearly opposite me. +I was in very high spirits that day, and as Kellerman, Bendix and +Urspruch were all near me, too, we had endless fun. We had new potatoes +for dinner, boiled with their skins on, and Liszt threw one at me, and I +caught it. There was another young artist there from Brussels named +Gurickx, whom I didn't know, because he spoke only French, and as I do +not speak it, we had never exchanged words in the class. I wasn't paying +any attention to him, therefore, when suddenly my left-hand neighbour +touched my arm. I looked round and he handed me a flower made of bread +"from Monsieur Gurickx." I wish you could have seen it! It had the +effect of a tube rose. Every little leaf and petal was as delicately +turned as if nature herself had done it. The bread was fresh, and +Gurickx had worked it between his fingers to the consistency of clay, +and then modelled these little flowers which he stuck on to a stem. It +was so artistically done, and it was such a dainty little thing to do, +that I saw at once that he was interesting and that he possessed that +marvellous French taste. + +Since then we have become very good friends, and he is teaching me to +speak French. He plays beautifully, and was trained in the famous +Brussels conservatory, of which Dupont is the head. Servais also got his +musical education there. They both advise me to go there for a year, as +Dupont is a very great master indeed, and Brussels is the very home and +centre of art and taste of every description--a "little Paris"--but more +earnest, more German. Gurickx went through the art-school in Brussels as +well as the conservatory, so that he paints as well as plays, and he had +quite a struggle with himself to decide to which art he should devote +himself. His style is the grandiose and fiery. Rubinstein is his model, +and he plays Liszt's Rhapsodies as I never heard any one else. He brings +out all their power, brilliancy and careering wildness, and makes the +greatest sensation of them. Such tremendous sweeping chords! Liszt +himself doesn't play the chords as well as Gurickx;--perhaps because he +does not care now to exert the strength. + +But to return to Jena. After dinner Liszt said, "Now we'll go to +Paradise." So we put on our things, and proceeded to walk along the +river to a place called Paradise, on account of its loveliness. We +passed the University, on one corner of which is a tablet with "W. von +Goethe" written against the wall of the room which Goethe occupied. It +seemed strange to me to be passing the room of my beloved Goethe, with +our equally beloved Liszt!--This walk along the river was enchanting. +The current was very rapid, and the willows were all blowing in the +breeze. There is an odd triangular-shaped hill that rises on one side +very boldly and abruptly, called the Fox's Head. The way was under a +double row of tall trees, which met at the top and formed a green arch +over our heads. It was all breeze and freshness, and the sunlight struck +picturesquely aslant the hill-sides. I started to walk with Liszt, but +he was so surrounded that it was difficult to get near him, so I walked +instead with an interesting young artist named O., who was at once +extraordinarily ugly and extremely clever. + +After our walk we went to the concert, which was lovely, and then at +seven we were all invited to tea at the house of a friend of Liszt's. He +was a very tall man, and he had a very tall and hospitable daughter, +nearly as big as himself, who received us very cordially. The tea was +all laid on tables in the garden, and the sausages were cooking over a +fire made on the grounds. We sat down pell-mell, anywhere, I next to +Liszt, who kept putting things on my plate. When supper was over he +retreated to a little summer house with some of his friends, to smoke. +We sauntered round the grass plat in front of it until Liszt called us +to come in and sit by him, which we did until he was ready to go. + +I've heard of a new music master lately. When my friend Miss B. was +here, she told me that she had met a "Herr Director Deppe" in Berlin, +after I left, and had told him all about me and my struggle to conquer +the piano. He seemed very much interested and said, "O, if she had only +come to me! _I_ would have helped her," and from all I can hear I think +he must be the man for me. He is interested in Sherwood, who used to +talk to me about him last winter. Sherwood says he is wholly +disinterested and devoted to art, and lives entirely in music, and that +he is a noble-hearted man, and the "most musical person he ever met." +Sherwood often wavers between him and Kullak, and Deppe would like to +teach Sherwood if he could, simply out of interest for him.--Deppe has a +pupil whom he has trained entirely himself, and whom he is going to +bring out next winter. Sherwood says he never heard anything so +beautiful as her playing. She is spending the summer near Deppe, and he +hears her play the programme she is going to give in Berlin next winter, +every day. Think what immense certainty that must give! + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + Liszt's Playing. Tausig. Excursion to Sondershausen. + + WEIMAR, _August 23, 1873_. + +Liszt has returned from his trip, and I have played to him twice this +week, and am to go again on Monday. He praised me very much on Tuesday, +and said I played admirably. I knew he was pleased, because whenever he +corrected me he would say, "_Nein, Kindchen_" in such a gentle way! +"_Kind_" is the German for child, and "_Kindchen_" is a diminutive, and +whenever he calls you that you can tell he has a leaning toward you. + +This week is the first time that I have been able to play to him without +being nervous, or that my fingers have felt warm and natural. It has +been a fearful ordeal, truly, to play there, for not only was Liszt +himself present, but such a crowd of artists, all ready to pick flaws in +your playing, and to say, "She hasn't got much talent." I am so glad +that I stayed until Liszt's return, for now the rush is over, and he has +much more time for those of us who are left, and plays a great deal more +himself. Yesterday he played us a study of Paganini's, arranged by +himself, and also his Campanella. I longed for M., as she is so fond of +the Campanella. Liszt gave it with a velvety softness, clearness, +brilliancy and pearliness of touch that was inimitable. And oh, his +grace! _Nobody_ can compare with him! Everybody else sounds heavy +beside him! + +However, I have felt some comfort in knowing that it is not Liszt's +genius alone that makes him such a player. He has gone through such +technical studies as no one else has except Tausig, perhaps. He plays +everything under the sun in the way of _Etuden_--has played them, I +mean. On Tuesday I got him talking about the composers who were the +fashion when he was a young fellow in Paris--Kalkbrenner, Herz, +etc.--and I asked him if he could not play us something by Kalkbrenner. +"O yes! I must have a few things of Kalkbrenner's in my head still," and +then he played part of a concerto. Afterward he went on to speak of +Herz, and said: "I'll play you a little study of Herz's that is +infamously hard. It is a stupid little theme," and then he played the +theme, "but _now_ pay attention." Then he played the study itself. It +was a most hazardous thing, where the hands kept crossing continually +with great rapidity, and striking notes in the most difficult positions. +It made us all laugh; and Liszt hit the notes every time, though it was +disgustingly hard, and as he said himself, "he used to get all in a heat +over it." He had evidently studied it so well that he could never forget +it. He went on to speak of Moscheles and of his compositions. He said +that when between thirty and forty years of age, Moscheles played +superbly, but as he grew older he became too old-womanish and set in his +ways--and then he took off Moscheles, and played his Etuden in his +style. It was very funny. But it showed how Liszt has studied +_everything_, and the universality of his knowledge, for he knows +Tausig's and Rubinstein's studies as well as Kalkbrenner and Herz. There +cannot be many persons in the world who keep up with the whole range of +musical literature as he does. + +Liszt loved Tausig as his own child, and is always delighted when we +play any of his music. His death was an awful blow to Liszt, for he used +to say, "He will be the inheritor of my playing." I suppose he thought +he would live again in him, for he always says, "Never did such talent +come under my hands." I would give anything to have seen them together, +for Tausig was a wonderfully clever and captivating man, and I can +imagine he must have fascinated Liszt. They say he was the naughtiest +boy that ever was heard of, and caused Liszt no end of trouble and +vexation; but he always forgave him, and after the vexation was past +Liszt would pat him on the head and say, "_Carlchen, entweder wirst du +ein grosser Lump oder ein grosser Meister_ (You'll turn out either a +great blockhead or a great master)." That is Liszt all over. He is so +indulgent that in consideration of talent he will forgive anything. + +Tausig's father, who was himself a music-master, took him to Liszt when +he was fourteen years old, hoping that Liszt would receive the little +marvel as a pupil and protégé. + +But Liszt would not even hear the boy play. "I have had," he declared +positively, "enough of child prodigies. They never come to much." +Tausig's father apparently acquiesced in the reply, but while he and +Liszt were drinking wine and smoking together, he managed to smuggle the +child on to the piano-stool behind Liszt, and signed to him to begin to +play. The little Tausig plunged into Chopin's A flat Polonaise with such +fire and boldness that Liszt turned his eagle head, and after a few bars +cried, "I take him!" I heard Liszt say once that he could not endure +child prodigies. "I have no time," said he, "for these artists _die_ +WERDEN _sollen_ (that _are_ to be)!" + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _September 9, 1873_. + +This week has been one of great excitement in Weimar, on account of the +wedding of the son of the Grand Duke. All sorts of things have been +going on, and the Emperor and Empress came on from Berlin. There have +been a great many rehearsals at the theatre of different things that +were played, and of course Liszt took a prominent part in the +arrangement of the music. He directed the Ninth Symphony, and played +twice himself with orchestral accompaniments. One of the pieces he +played was Weber's Polonaise in E major, and the other was one of his +own Rhapsodies Hongroises. Of these I was at the rehearsal. When he came +out on the stage the applause was tremendous, and enough in itself to +excite and electrify one. I was enchanted to have an opportunity to hear +Liszt as a concert player. The director of the orchestra here is a +beautiful pianist and composer himself, as well as a splendid conductor, +but it was easy to see that he had to get all his wits together to +follow Liszt, who gave full rein to his imagination, and let the _tempo_ +fluctuate as he felt inclined. As for Liszt, he scarcely _looked_ at the +keys, and it was astounding to see his hands go rushing up and down the +piano and perform passages of the utmost rapidity and difficulty, while +his head was turned all the while towards the orchestra, and he kept up +a running fire of remarks with them continually. "You violins, strike in +_sharp_ here." "You trumpets, not too loud there," etc. He did +everything with the most immense _aplomb_, and without seeming to pay +any attention to his hands, which moved of themselves as if they were +independent beings and had their own brain and everything! He never did +the same thing twice alike. If it were a scale the first time, he would +make it in double or broken thirds the second, and so on, constantly +surprising you with some new turn. While you were admiring the long roll +of the wave, a sudden spray would be dashed over you, and make you catch +your breath! No, never was there such a player! The nervous intensity of +his touch takes right hold of you. When he had finished everybody +shouted and clapped their hands like mad, and the orchestra kept up such +a _fanfare_ of applause, that the din was quite overpowering. Liszt +smiled and bowed, and walked off the stage indifferently, not giving +himself the trouble to come back, and presently he quietly sat down in +the parquet, and the rehearsal proceeded. The concert itself took place +at the court, so that I did not hear it. Metzdorf was there, however, +and he said that Liszt played fabulously, of course, but that he was +not as inspired as he was in the morning, and did not make the same +effect. + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _September 15, 1873_. + +The other day an excursion was arranged to Sondershausen, a town about +three hours' ride from Weimar in the cars. There was to be a concert +there in honour of Liszt, and a whole programme of his music was to be +performed. About half a dozen of the "Lisztianer"--as the Weimarese dub +Liszt's pupils--agreed to go, I, of course, being one. Liszt himself, +the Countess von X. and Count S. were to lead the party. The morning we +started was one of those perfect autumnal days when it is a delight +simply to _live_. + +After breakfast I hurried off to the station, where I met the others, +everybody being in the highest spirits. Liszt and his titled friends +travelled in a first class carriage by themselves. The rest of us went +second class, in the next carriage behind. We were very gay indeed, and +the time did not seem long till we arrived at Sondershausen, where we +exchanged our seats in the cars for seats in an omnibus, and drove to +the principal hotel. There were not sufficient accommodations for us +all, owing to the number of strangers who had come to the festival, so +Mrs. S. and I went to a smaller hotel in a more distant part of the town +to engage rooms, intending to return and dine with Liszt and the rest. +Just as our noisy vehicle clattered up to the inn and some of the +gentlemen jumped out to arrange matters, the solemn strains of a chorale +were heard from a church close by, with its grand and rolling organ +accompaniment. Somehow it made me feel sad to hear it, and a sense of +the _transitoriness_ of things came over me. It seemed like one of those +voices from the other world that call to us now and then. + +After we had engaged our rooms, we drove back to the hotel where Liszt +was staying, and where we were to dine immediately. It was in the centre +of the town, and directly opposite the palace, which rose boldly on a +sort of eminence with great flights of stone steps sweeping down to the +road on each side. It looked quite imposing. An avenue wound up the hill +to the right of it. In the dining-room of the hotel a long table was +spread and all the places were carefully set. My place was next Count S. +and not far from Liszt. So I was very well seated. Everybody began +talking at once the minute dinner was served, as they always do at table +in Germany. Toward the close of it were the usual number of toasts in +honour of Liszt, to which he responded in rather a bored sort of way. I +don't wonder he gets tired of them, for it is always the same thing. He +did not seem to be in his usual spirits, and had a fatigued air. + +After dinner he said, "Now let us go and see Fräulein Fichtner." +Fräulein Fichtner was the young lady who was going to play his concerto +in A major at the concert that evening. She is a well-known pianist in +Germany, and is both pretty and brilliant. We started in a procession, +which is the way one always walks with Liszt. It reminds me of those +snow-balls the boys roll up at home--the crowd gathers as it proceeds! +When we got to the house we entered an obscure corridor and began to +find our way up a dark and narrow staircase. Some one struck a wax +match. "Good!" called out Liszt, in his sonorous voice. "_Leuchten Sie +voraus_ (Light us up)." When we got to the top we pulled the bell and +were let in by Fräulein Fichtner's mother. Fräulein Fichtner herself +looked no ways dismayed at the number of her guests, though we had the +air of coming to storm the house. She gaily produced all the chairs +there were, and those who could not find a seat had to stand! She was in +Weimar for a few days this summer. So we had all met her before, and I +had once heard her play some duets by Schumann with Liszt, who enjoyed +reading with "Pauline," as he calls her. It is to her that Raff has +dedicated his exquisite "_Maerchen_ (Fairy story)." She is a sparkling +brunette, with a face full of intelligence. They say she writes charming +little poems and is gifted in various ways. Not to tire her for the +concert we only stayed about twenty minutes. + +Going back, Liszt indulged in a little graceful _badinage_ apropos of +the concerto. You know he has written two concertos. The one in E flat +is much played, but this one in A very rarely. It is exceedingly +difficult and is one of the few of his compositions that it interests +Liszt to know that people play. "I should write it otherwise if I wrote +it now," he explained to me as we were walking along. "Some passages are +very troublesome (_haecklig_) to execute. I was younger and less +experienced when I composed it," he added, with one of those +illuminating smiles "like the flash of a dagger in the sun," as Lenz +says. + +When we reached the hotel everybody went in to take a siesta--that +"Mittags-Schlaf" which is law in Germany. I did not wish to sleep and +felt like exploring the old town. So Count S. and I started on a walk. +Sondershausen is a dreamy, sleepy place, with so little life about it +that you hardly realize there are any people there at all. It is +pleasantly situated, and gentle hills and undulations of land are all +about it, but it seems as if the town had been dead for a long time and +this were its grave over which one was quietly walking. We took the road +that wound past the castle. It was embowered in trees, and behind the +castle were gardens and conservatories. The road descended on the other +side, and we followed it till we came unexpectedly upon a little +circular park. Such a deserted, widowed little park it seemed! Not a +soul did we encounter as we wandered through its paths. Bordering them +were great quantities of berry-laden snow-berry bushes, of which I am +very fond. The park had a sort of rank and unkempt aspect, as if it were +abandoned to itself. The very stream that went through it flowed +sluggishly along, and as if it hadn't any particular object in life.--I +enjoyed it very much, and it was very restful to walk about it. One felt +there the truth of R.'s favourite saying, "It doesn't make any +difference. _Nothing_ makes any difference." + +Count S. rattled on, but I didn't hear more than half of what he said. +He is a pleasure-loving man of the world, fond of music, but a perfect +materialist, and untroubled by the "_souffle vers le beau_" which +torments so many people. At the same time he is appreciative and very +amusing, and one has no chance to indulge in melancholy with _him_. We +sauntered about till late in the afternoon, and then returned to the +hotel for coffee before going to the concert, which began at seven. The +concert hall was behind the palace and seemed to form a part of it. +Liszt, the Countess von X., and Count S. sat in a box, aristocratic-fashion. +The rest of us were in the parquet. I was amazed at the orchestra, which +was very large and played gloriously. It seemed to me as fine as that of +the Gewandhaus in Leipsic, though I suppose it cannot be.--"Why has no +one ever mentioned this orchestra to me?" I asked of Kellermann, who sat +next, "and how is it one finds such an orchestra in such a place?" "Oh," +said he, "this orchestra is very celebrated, and the Prince of +Sondershausen is a great patron of music." This is the way it is in +Germany. Every now and then one has these surprises. You never know when +you are going to stumble upon a jewel in the most out-of-the-way corner. + +We were all greatly excited over Fräulein Fichtner's playing, and it +seemed very jolly to be behind the scenes, as it were, and to have one +of our own number performing. We applauded tremendously when she came +out. She was not nervous in the least, but began with great _aplomb_, +and played most beautifully. The concerto made a generally dazzling and +difficult impression upon me, but did not "take hold" of me +particularly. I do not know how Liszt was pleased with her rendering of +it, for I had no opportunity of asking him. She also played his +Fourteenth Rhapsody with orchestral accompaniment in most bold and +dashing style. Fräulein Fichtner is more in the bravura than in the +sentimental line, and she has a certain breadth, grasp, and freshness. +The last piece on the programme was Liszt's Choral Symphony, which was +magnificent. The chorus came at the end of it, as in the Ninth Symphony. +Mrs. S. said she was familiar with it from having heard Thomas's +orchestra play it in New York.--That orchestra, by the way, from what I +hear, seems to have developed into something remarkable. It is a great +thing for the musical education of the country to have such an +organization travelling every winter. And what a revelation is an +orchestra the first time one hears it, even if it be but a poor +one!--Music come bodily down from Heaven! And here in their musical +darkness, the Americans in the provinces are having an orchestra of the +very highest excellence burst upon them in full splendour. What _could_ +be more American? They always have the best or none! + +At nine o'clock in the evening the concert was over, and we all returned +to the hotel for supper. We were all desperately hungry after so much +music and enthusiasm. Everybody wanted to be helped at once, and the +waiters were nearly distracted. Count S. sat next me and was very funny. +He kept rapping the table like mad, but without any success. Finally he +exclaimed, "_Jetzt geh'_ ICH _auf Jagd_ (Now _I'm_ going hunting)!" and +sprang up from his chair, rushed to the other end of the dining-room, +possessed himself of some dishes the waiters were helping, and returned +in triumph. I couldn't help laughing, and he made a great many jokes at +the expense of the waiters and everybody else. I could not hear any of +Liszt's conversation, which I regretted, but he seemed in a quiet mood. +I do not think he is the same when he is with aristocrats. He must be +among _artists_ to unsheathe his sword. When he is with "swells," he is +all grace and polish. He seems only to toy with his genius for their +amusement, and he is never serious. At least this is as far as _my_ +observation of him goes on the few occasions I have seen him in the +_beau monde_. The presence of the proud Countess von X. at Sondershausen +kept him, as it were, at a distance from everybody else, and he was not +overflowing with fun and gayety as he was at Jena. She, of course, did +not go with us to see Fräulein Fichtner, which was fortunate. After +supper one and all went to bed early, quite tired out with the day's +excitement. + +This haughty Countess, by the way, has always had a great fascination +for me, because she looks like a woman who "has a history." I have often +seen her at Liszt's matinees, and from what I hear of her, she is such a +type of woman as I suppose only exists in Europe, and such as the +heroines of foreign novels are modelled upon. She is a widow, and in +appearance is about thirty-six or eight years old, of medium height, +slight to thinness, but exceedingly graceful. She is always attired in +black, and is utterly careless in dress, yet nothing can conceal her +innate elegance of figure. Her face is pallid and her hair dark. She +makes an impression of icy coldness and at the same time of tropical +heat. The pride of Lucifer to the world in general--entire abandonment +to the individual. I meet her often in the park, as she walks along +trailing her "sable garments like the night," and surrounded by her four +beautiful boys--as Count S. says, "each handsomer than the other." They +have such romantic faces! Dark eyes and dark curling hair. The eldest is +about fourteen and the youngest five. + +The little one is too lovely, with his brown curls hanging on his +shoulders! I never shall forget the supercilious manner in which the +Countess took out her eye-glass and looked me over as I passed her one +day in the park. Weimar being such a "_kleines Nest_ (little nest)," as +Liszt calls it, every stranger is immediately remarked. She waited till +I got close up, then deliberately put up this glass and scrutinized me +from head to foot, then let it fall with a half-disdainful, +half-indifferent air, as if the scrutiny did not reward the trouble.--I +was so amused. Her arrogance piques all Weimar, and they never cease +talking about her. I can never help wishing to see her in a fashionable +toilet. If she is so _distinguée_ in rather less than ordinary dress, +what _would_ she be in a Parisian costume? I mean as to grace, for she +is not pretty.--But as a psychological study, she is more interesting, +perhaps, as she is. She always seems to me to be gradually going to +wreck--a burnt-out volcano, with her own ashes settling down upon her +and covering her up. She is very highly educated, and is preparing her +eldest son for the university herself. What a subject she would have +been for a Balzac! + +We stayed over the next day in Sondershausen, as there was to be another +orchestral concert--this time with a miscellaneous programme. Fräulein +Fichtner had already departed, but the first violinist played +Mendelssohn's famous concerto for violin.--Not in Wilhelmj's masterly +style, but extremely well. We took the train for Weimar about five P. M. +Going back I was in the carriage with Liszt. He sat opposite me, and +gradually began to talk. The conversation turned upon Weitzmann, my +former harmony teacher, who, you remember, was so determined to make me +learn. Liszt remarked upon the extent of his knowledge and said, "If I +were not so old I should like to go to school again to Weitzmann." He +was talking to Weitzmann one day, he said, and Weitzmann proposed to him +that he should write a canon. "I sat down and worked over it a good +while, but finally gave it up.--I know not why, but I never had any +success in writing canons. Weitzmann then sat down, and in half an hour +had produced two excellent ones." He gave this as an instance of +Weitzmann's readiness.--A canon, you know, is a sort of musical puzzle. +The right hand plays the theme. The left hand takes it up a little later +and imitates the right. The two interweave, and the theme forms the +melody and the accompaniment at the same time, according as it is played +by the right or left hand--something on the principle of singing rounds. +The difficulty consists in avoiding monotony with this continual +iteration of the theme, which can be brought on at different intervals, +inverted, etc., at will. It seems to be more a mathematical than a +musical style of composition. I should suppose that _Bach_ could fire +off canons without end! He developed it in every imaginable +form.--Liszt, however, is of rather a different school! + +We got back to Weimar about eight in the evening, and this delicious +excursion, like all others, _had to end_. But the quiet old town, with +its musical name and its great orchestra, will long remain in my memory. + +Adieu, Sondershausen! + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + Farewell to Liszt! German Conservatories and their Methods. Berlin + Again. Liszt and Joachim. + + + WEIMAR, _September 24, 1873_. + +We had our last lesson from Liszt a few days ago, and he leaves Weimar +next week. He was so hurried with engagements the last two times that he +was not able to give us much attention. I played my Rubinstein concerto. +He accompanied me himself on a second piano. We were there about six +o'clock P. M. Liszt was out, but he had left word that if we came we +were to wait. About seven he came in, and the lamps were lit. He was in +an awful humour, and I never saw him so out of spirits. "How is it with +our concerto?" said he to me, for he had told me the time before to send +for the second piano accompaniment, and he would play it with me. I told +him that unfortunately there existed no second piano part. "Then, child, +you've fallen on your head, if you don't know that at least you must +have a second copy of the concerto!" I told him I knew it by heart. +"Oh!" said he, in a mollified tone. So he took my copy and played the +orchestra part which is indicated above the piano part, and I played +without notes. I felt inspired, for the piano I was at was a magnificent +grand that Steinway presented to Liszt only the other day. Liszt was +seated at another grand facing me, and the room was dimly illuminated +by one or two lamps. A few artists were sitting about in the shadow. It +was at the twilight hour, "_l'heure du mystère_," as the poetic Gurickx +used to say, and in short, the occasion was perfect, and couldn't happen +so again. You see we always have our lessons in the afternoon, and it +was a mere chance that it was so late this time. So I felt as if I were +in an electric state. I had studied the piece so much that I felt +perfectly sure of it, and then with Liszt's splendid accompaniment and +his beautiful face to look over to--it was enough to bring out +everything there was in one. If he had only been himself I should have +had nothing more to desire, but he was in one of his bitter, sarcastic +moods. However, I went rushing on to the end--like a torrent plunging +down into darkness, I might say--for it was the end, too, of my lessons +with Liszt! + +In answer to your musical questions, I don't know that there is much to +be told about conservatories of which you are not aware. The one in +Stuttgardt is considered the best; and there the pupils are put through +a regular graded method, beginning with learning to hold the hand, and +with the simplest five finger exercises. There are certain things, +studies, etc., which _all_ the scholars have to learn. That was also the +case in Tausig's conservatory. First we had to go through Cramer, then +through the Gradus ad Parnassum, then through Moscheles, then Chopin, +Henselt, Liszt and Rubinstein. I haven't got farther than Chopin, +myself, but when I went to Kullak I studied Czerny's School for +Virtuosen a whole year, which is the book he "swears by." I'm going on +with them this winter. It takes years to pass through them all, but when +you _have_ finished them, you are an artist. + +I think myself the "Schule des Virtuosen" is indispensable, much as I +loathe it. First, there is nothing like it for giving you a technique. +It consists of passages, generally about two lines in length, which +Czerny has the face to request you to play from twenty to thirty times +successively. You can imagine at that rate how long it takes you to play +through one page! Tedious to the _last_ degree! But it greatly equalizes +and strengthens the fingers, and makes your execution smooth and +elegant. It teaches you to take your time, or as the Germans call it, it +gives you "_Ruhe_ (repose)," the _grand sine qua non_! You learn to +"play out" your passages ("_aus-spielen_," as Kullak is always saying); +that is, you don't hurry or blur over the last notes, but play clearly +and in strict time to the end of the passage. I saw Lebert, the head of +the Stuttgardt conservatory, here this summer, and had several long +conversations with him, and he told me he considered Bach the best +study, and put the Well-Tempered Clavichord at the foundation of +everything. The Stuttgardters study Bach every day, and I think it a +capital plan myself. I have begun doing it, too. It was a great thing +for me, that quarter of Bach that I took with Mr. Paine in Cambridge, +and was one of your inspirations, when you "builded better than you +knew."--I never _saw_ a person with such an instinct to find out the +right thing as you have! If it hadn't been for that, I should never +have got so familiarized with Bach, or got into the way of studying him +for myself, as I have done a great deal. It is as great for the fingers +as it is "good for the soul." Lenz, in his sketch of Chopin, says that +Chopin told him when he prepared for a concert he never studied his own +compositions at all, but shut himself up and practiced Bach! + +However, I suppose it comes to the same thing in the end if one studies +Bach, Czerny, or Gradus, only you must _keep at_ one of them all the +while. The grand thing is to have each of your five fingers go "dum, +dum," an equal number of times, which is the principle of all three! +Tausig was for Gradus, you know, and practiced it himself every day. He +used to transpose the studies in different keys, and play just the same +in the left hand as in the right, and enhance their difficulties in +every way, but _I_ always found them hard enough as they were written! +Bach strengthens the fingers and makes them independent. Czerny +equalizes them and gives an easy and elegant execution, and Gradus is +not only good for finger technique--it trains the arm and wrist also, +and gives a much more powerful execution. + +I think that in all conservatories they have at least six lessons a +week, two solo, two in reading at sight, and two in composition. Then +there are often lectures held on musical subjects by some of the +Professors, or by some one who is engaged for that purpose. All large +conservatories have an orchestra, composed generally out of the scholars +themselves, with a few professionals hired to eke out deficiencies. With +this the best piano scholars play their concertos once a month, or once +in six weeks. The number of public representations varies in every +conservatory. In the Hoch Schule in Berlin they have two yearly in the +Sing-Akademie. Kullak _professes_ to have _one_, but he has so little +interest in his scholars that he omits it when it suits his convenience. +In Stuttgardt I believe they have four. I don't know much about the +interior arrangements of Kullak's conservatory, because I only went to +his own class. I lived too far away to attempt the theory and +composition class. Liszt says that Kullak's pupils are always the best +schooled of any, which rather surprised me, because there is a certain +intimacy between him and Stuttgardt, and he always recommends scholars +to the Stuttgardt conservatory. + + +The Stuttgardters do have immense technique, and I think they are better +taught how to study. It strikes me as if Stuttgardt were the place to +get the machine in working order, but I rather think that Kullak trains +the head more. There is a young American here named Orth, who studied +two years with Kullak, then he spent a year in Stuttgardt, and now he is +going to return to Kullak. He says he thinks that not Lebert, but +Pruckner, is the real backbone of the Stuttgardt conservatory, but that +even with _him_ one year is sufficient. Fräulein Gaul, on the contrary, +with whom Lebert has taken the greatest possible pains, thinks him a +magnificent master, and certainly he has developed her admirably. It is +probably with him as with them all. If they take a fancy to you, they +will do a great deal for you; if not, _nothing_! Liszt is no exception +to this rule. I've seen him snub and entirely neglect young artists of +the most remarkable talent and virtuosity, merely because they did not +please him personally. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _October 8, 1873_. + +_Voilà!_ as Liszt always says. Here I am back again in old Berlin, and +if I ever felt "like a cat in a strange garret," I do now. I left dear +little Weimar two days ago, and parted from our adored Liszt a week ago +to-day. He has gone to Rome. _Never_ did I feel leaving anybody or any +place so much, and Berlin seems to me like a great roaring wilderness. +The distances are so _endless_ here. You either have to kill yourself +walking, or else spend a fortune in droschkies. The houses all seem to +me as if they had grown. There is an immense number of new ones going up +on all sides, and the noise, and the crowd, and the confusion are enough +to set one distracted, after the idyllic life I've been leading. Ah, +well! _Es war eben_ ZU _schön!_ (It was _too_ beautiful!) + +Yesterday and to-day I've been looking about for a new boarding-place. +I've had two invitations to dinner since my return, but everybody and +everything seems so dull and stupid, prosaic and tedious to me, that I +declined them both, and haven't given any of my friends my address until +I have had a little time to let myself down gradually from the delights +of Weimar. + +Liszt was kindness itself when the time came to say good-bye, but I +could scarcely get out a word, nor could I even thank him for all he had +done for me. I did not wish to break down and make a scene, as I felt I +should if I tried to say anything. So I fear he thought me rather +ungrateful and matter-of-course, for he couldn't know that I was feeling +an excess of emotion which kept me silent. I miss going to him +inexpressibly, and although I heard my favourite Joachim last night, +even _he_ paled before Liszt. He is on the violin what Liszt is on the +piano, and is the only artist worthy to be mentioned in the same breath +with him. + +Like Liszt, he so vitalizes everything that I have to take him in all +over again every time I hear him. I am always astonished, amazed and +delighted afresh, and even as I listen I can hardly believe that the man +_can_ play so! But Liszt, in addition to his marvellous playing, has +this unique and imposing personality, whereas at first Joachim is not +specially striking. Liszt's face is all a play of feature, a glow of +fancy, a blaze of imagination, whereas Joachim is absorbed in his +violin, and his face has only an expression of fine discrimination and +of intense solicitude to produce his artistic effects. Liszt never looks +at his instrument; Joachim never looks at anything else. Liszt is a +complete actor who intends to carry away the public, who never forgets +that he is before it, and who behaves accordingly. Joachim is totally +oblivious of it. Liszt subdues the people to him by the very way he +walks on to the stage. He gives his proud head a toss, throws an +electric look out of his eagle eye, and seats himself with an air as +much as to say, "Now I am going to do just what I please with you, and +you are nothing but puppets subject to my will." He said to us in the +class one day, "When you come out on the stage, look as if you didn't +care a rap for the audience, and as if you knew more than any of them. +That's the way I used to do.--Didn't that provoke the critics though!" +he added, with an ineffable look of malicious mischief. So you see his +principle, and that was precisely the way he did at the rehearsal in the +theatre at Weimar that I wrote to you about. Joachim, on the contrary, +is the quiet gentleman-artist. He advances in the most unpretentious +way, but as he adjusts his violin he looks his audience over with the +calm air of a musical monarch, as much as to say, "I repose wholly on my +art, and I've no need of any 'ways or manners.'" In reality I admire +Joachim's principle the most, but there is something indescribably +fascinating and subduing about Liszt's willfulness. You feel at once +that he is a great genius, and that you _are_ nothing but his puppet, +and somehow you take a base delight in the humiliation! The two men are +intensely interesting, each in his own way, but they are extremes. + +[Beside his playing and his compositions, what Liszt has done for music +and for musicians, and why, therefore, he stands so pre-eminently the +greatest and the best beloved master in the musical world, may appear to +the general reader in the following extract taken from a translation in +_Dwight's Journal_, Oct. 23, 1880, of "Franz Liszt, a Musical Character +Portrait" by La Mara, in the _Gartenlaube_: "We must count it among the +exceptional merits of Liszt, that he has paved the way to recognition +for innumerable aspirants, as he always shows an open heart and open +hands to all artistic strivings. He was the first and most active +furtherer of the immense Bayreuth enterprise, and the chief founder of +the Musical Societies or Unions that flourish throughout Germany. And +for how many noble and philanthropic objects has he not exerted his +artistic resources! If, during his earlier virtuoso career, he made his +genius serve the advantage of others far more than his own--saving out +of the millions that he earned only a modest sum for himself, while he +alone contributed many thousands for the completion of Cologne +Cathedral, for the Beethoven monument at Bonn, and for the victims of +the Hamburg conflagration--so since the close of his career as a pianist +his public artistic activity has been exclusively consecrated to the +benefit of others, to artistic undertakings, or to charitable objects. +Since the end of 1847, not a penny has come into his own pocket either +through piano-playing and conducting, or through teaching. All this, +which has yielded such rich capital and interest to others, has cost +only sacrifice of time and money to himself."]--ED. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + Kullak as a Teacher. The Four Great Virtuosi, Clara Schumann, + Rubinstein, Von Bülow, and Tausig. + + + BERLIN, _November 7, 1873_. + +I've been in a sort of mental apathy since I got back--the result, I +suppose, of so much artistic excitement all summer. Of course I am +practicing very hard, and I am taking private lessons of Kullak again. I +played him my Rubinstein concerto two weeks ago and told him I wanted to +play it in a concert. He says I need more power in it in many places, +and by practicing it every day I hope I shall at last work up to it, as +I've conquered the technical difficulties in it. There were two pages in +it I thought I never _could_ master. It is the same with all concertos. +They are fearfully difficult things to play, and far more difficult, _I_ +think, than solos are, because the effort is so sustained. They are to +me the most interesting things to listen to of all, and I can't imagine +how you can think that piano and orchestra are "not made to go +together." However, I never myself appreciated concertos until I came to +Germany. Kullak is the most awfully discouraging teacher that can be +imagined. When you play to him, it is like looking at your skin through +a magnifying glass. All your faults seem to start out and glare at you. +I don't think, though, that I ever fairly do myself justice when I play +to him, because he has a sort of benumbing effect on me, and I feel to +him something the way that Owen did to old Peter in Hawthorne's story of +"The Artist of the Beautiful." I can't help acknowledging the truth of +his observations even when I am wincing under them, and I yet feel at +the same time that he does not wholly get at the soul of the thing. +Kullak is _so_ pedantic! He _never_ overlooks a technical imperfection, +and he ties you down to the technique so that you never can give rein to +your imagination. He sits at the other piano, and just as you are +rushing off he will strike in himself and say, "Don't hurry, Fräulein," +or something like that, and then you begin to think about holding back +your fingers and playing every note even, etc. Now I never expect to get +that perfection of technique that all these artists have who have been +training throughout their childhood while their hand was forming. +Kullak's own technique is magnificent, but now that I've graduated, as +it were, he ought to let me play my own way, and not expect me to play +as _he_ does, and then I could produce my own effects. That is just the +difference between him and Liszt. Liszt's grand principle is, to leave +you your freedom, and when you play to him, you feel like a Pegasus +caracoling about in the air. When you play to Kullak, you feel as if +your wings were suddenly clipped, and as if you were put into harness to +draw an express wagon! However, I don't think it would be well to go to +Liszt without having been through such a training first, for you want to +know what you are about when you study with _him_. You must have a good +solid _basis_ upon which to raise his airy super-structures. Kullak I +regard as the basis. + +You ask me in your letter to write you a comparison--a summing +up--between Clara Schumann, Bülow, Tausig and Rubinstein, but I don't +find it very easy to do, as they are all so different. Clara Schumann is +entirely a classic player. Beethoven's sonatas, and Bach, too, she plays +splendidly; but she doesn't seem to me to have any _finesse_, or much +poetry in her playing. There's nothing subtle in her conception. She has +a great deal of fire, and her whole style is grand, finished, perfectly +rounded off, solid and satisfactory--what the Germans call _gediegen_. +She is a _healthy_ artist to listen to, but there is nothing of the +analytic, no Balzac or Hawthorne about her. Beethoven's Variations in C +minor are, perhaps, the best performance I ever heard from her, and they +are immensely difficult, too; I thought she did them better than Bülow, +in spite of Bülow's being such a great Beethovenite. I think she repeats +the same pieces a good deal, possibly because she finds the modern +fashion of playing everything without notes very trying. I've even heard +that she cries over the necessity of doing it; and certainly it is a +foolish thing to make a point of, with so very great an artist as Clara +Schumann.--If people could _only_ be allowed to have their own +individuality! + +Bülow's playing is more many-sided, and is chiefly distinguished by its +great vigor; there is no end to his nervous energy, and the more he +plays, the more the interest increases. He is my favourite of the four. +But he plays Chopin just as well as he does Beethoven, and Schumann, +too. Altogether he is a superlative pianist, though by no means unerring +in his performance. I've heard him get dreadfully mixed up. I think he +trusts _too_ much to his memory, and that he does not prepare +sufficiently. He plays everything by heart, and such programmes! He +always hits the nail plump on the head, and such a grasp as he has! His +chords take firm hold of you. For instance, in the beginning of the two +last movements of the Moonlight Sonata, you should hear him run up that +arpeggio in the right hand so lightly and pianissimo, every note so +delicately articulated, and then _crash-smash_ on those two chords on +the top! And when he plays Bach's gavottes, gigues, etc., in the English +Suites, a laughing, roguish look comes over his face, and he puts the +most indescribable drollery and originality into them. You see that "he +sees the point" so well, and that makes _you_ see it, too. Yes, it is +good fun to hear Bülow do these things.--Perhaps the best summing up of +his peculiar greatness would be to say that he impresses you as using +the instrument only to express ideas. With him you forget all about the +piano, and are absorbed only in the thought or the passion of the piece. + +Rubinstein you've heard. Most people put him next to Liszt. Your finding +him cold surprised me, for if there is a thing he is celebrated here +for, it is the fire and passion of his playing, and for his imagination +and spontaneity. I think that Tausig, Bülow, and Clara Schumann, all +three, have it all cut and dried beforehand, how they are going to play +a piece, but Rubinstein creates at the instant. He plays without _plan_. +Probably the afternoon you heard him he did not feel in the mood, and +so was not at his best. As a composer he far outranks the other three. + +Tausig resembled Liszt more in that subtlety which Liszt has, and +consequently he was a better Chopin player than anybody else except +Liszt. I never shall forget his playing of Chopin's great Ballade in G +minor the very first time I heard him in concert. It is a divine +composition, and his rendering of it was not only all warmth and +fervour; it was also so wonderfully poetic that it fairly cast a spell +upon the audience, and a minute or two went by before they could begin +to applaud. It was like a dream of beauty suspended in the air before +you--floating there--and you didn't want to disturb it. Tausig had an +intense love for Chopin, and always wished he could have known him. I +think that he had more virtuosity, and yet more delicacy of feeling, +than either Rubinstein or Bülow. His finish, perfection, and above all +his touch, were above anything. But, except in Chopin, he was cold, at +least in the concert room. In the conservatory he seemed to be a very +passionate player; but, somehow, in public that was not the case. +Unfortunately, I had studied so little at that time, that I don't feel +as if I were competent to judge him. He was Liszt's favourite, and Liszt +said, "He will be the inheritor of my playing;" but I doubt if this +would have been, for the winter before Tausig died, Kullak remarked to +me that his playing became more and more "dry" every year, probably on +account of his morbid aversion to "Spectakel," as he called it; whereas +Liszt gives the reins to the emotions always. + +When I was in Weimar I heard a great deal about Tausig's _escapades_ +when he was studying there as a boy. They say he was awfully wild and +reckless at that time, and Liszt paid his debts over and over again. +Sometimes in aristocratic parties, when Liszt did not feel like playing +himself, he would tell Tausig to play, and perhaps Tausig would not feel +like it, either. He had the most enormous strength in his fingers, +though his hands were small, and he would go to the piano and pretend he +was going to play, and strike the first chords with such a crash that +three or four strings would snap almost immediately, and then, of +course, the piano was used up for the evening! + +Tausig's father once procured him a splendid grand piano from Leipsic, +and shortly after, Tausig whittled off the corners of all the keys, so +as to make them more difficult to strike, and his father had to pay a +large sum to have them repaired. Another time he was presented with a +set of chess-men, and the next day some one on visiting him observed the +pieces all lying about the floor. "Why, Tausig, what has happened to +your chess-men?" "Oh, I wanted to see if they were easily broken, so I +knocked up the board." He seemed to be possessed with a spirit of +destruction. Gottschal told me that one time when Tausig was "hard up" +for money, he sold the score of Liszt's Faust for five thalers to a +servant, along with a great pile of his own notes. The servant disposed +of them to some waste-paper man, and Gottschal, accidentally hearing of +it, went to the man and purchased them. Then he went to Liszt to tell +him that he had the score. As it happened the publisher had written for +it that very day and Liszt was turning the house upside down, looking +for it everywhere. + +At that time he was living in an immense house on a hill here, that they +call the Altenburg. Liszt occupied the first floor, a princely friend +the second, and the top story was one grand ball-room in which were +generally nine grand pianos standing. They used to give the most +magnificent entertainments, and Liszt spent thirty thousand thalers a +year. He lived like a prince in those days--very different from his +present simplicity. Well, he was in an awful state of mind because his +score was nowhere to be found. "A whole year's labor lost!" he cried, +and he was in such a rage, that when Gottschal asked him for the third +time what he was looking for, he turned and stamped his foot at him and +said, "You confounded fellow, can't you leave me in peace, and not +torment me with your stupid questions?" Gottschal knew perfectly well +what was wanting, but he wished to have a little fun out of the matter. +At last he took pity on Liszt, and said, "Herr Doctor, _I_ know what +you've lost. It is the score to your Faust." "Oh," said Liszt, changing +his tone immediately, "do you know anything of it?" "Of course I do," +said Gottschal, and proceeded to unfold Master Tausig's performance, and +how he had rescued the precious music. Liszt was transported with joy +that it was found, and called up-stairs, "Carolina, Carolina, we're +saved! Gottschal has rescued us;" and then Gottschal said that Liszt +embraced him in his transport, and could not say or do enough to make up +for his having been so rude to him. Well, you would have supposed that +it was now all up with Master Tausig; but not at all. A few days +afterward was Tausig's birthday, and Carolina took Gottschal aside, and +begged him to drop the subject of the note stealing, for Liszt doted so +on his Carl that he wished to forget it. Sure enough, Liszt kissed Carl +and congratulated him on his birthday, and consoled himself with his +same old observation, "You'll either turn out a great blockhead, my +little Carl, or a great master." + +Tausig had a great ambition to be a composer, and in his early youth he +published a number of compositions. Later on he became intensely +critical of his own work, and finally bought up all the copies he could +lay hands on and burnt them! This is entirely characteristic of his +sense of perfection, which was extreme, and may serve as an example to +young composers who are ambitious of saying something in music, when +very often they have nothing to say! Indeed, I am often amazed at the +temerity with which men will rush into print, quite oblivious of the +fact that it requires enormous talent to produce even a short piece of +music that is worth anything. Only a genius can do it. + +Tausig, in my opinion, _did_ possess exceptional genius in composition, +though he left but few works behind him to attest it. Prominent among +these are his unique arrangements of three of Strauss's Waltzes. He had +a passion for philosophy, and was deeply read in Kant and Hegel. These +"arrangements" betray his metaphysical and tentative turn, and could +only have been the product of the highest mental force and culture. +Calling the waltz itself the warp of the composition, then through its +simple threads we find darting backwards and forwards a subtle, +complicated and tragic mind, an exquisitely refined and delicate +sentiment, and a piquante, aerial fancy, until finally is wrought a +brilliant and bewildering transcription--transfiguration rather--of +endless fascination and tantalizing beauty, which no one but a virtuoso +can play and no one but a connoisseur can comprehend. In a peculiar +manner his music leaves a _stamp_ upon the heart, and to those who can +appreciate it, Tausig, as a composer, is a deep and irreparable +loss.--If he had not original ideas of his own, he certainly possessed +the power of putting an entirely new face on those of others. + + + + +WITH DEPPE. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + Gives up Kullak for Deppe. Deppe's Method in Touch and in + Scale-Playing. Fräulein Steiniger. Pedal Study. + + + BERLIN, _December 11, 1873_. + +Since I last wrote you I have taken a very important step, which is +_this_: After taking three or four lessons of Kullak I HAVE GIVEN HIM +UP! and am now studying under a new master. His name is Herr +Capelmeister Deppe. I suppose you will all think me crazed, but I think +I know what I am about. He seems to me a very remarkable man, and is to +me the most satisfactory teacher I've had yet. Of course I don't count +in the unapproachable Liszt when I say that, for Liszt is no +"_professeur du piano_," as he himself used scornfully to remark. + +I made Herr Deppe's acquaintance quite by chance, at a musical party +given for Anna Mehlig by an American gentleman living here. I had often +heard of him, and was very anxious to know him, but somehow had never +compassed it. He is a conductor, to begin with, and I have often seen +him conduct orchestral concerts. In fact, that was what he first came to +Berlin for, a few years ago--to conduct Stern's orchestral concerts +during the latter's absence in Italy. Deppe is an accomplished +conductor, and I have never heard Beethoven's second Overture to Leonora +sound as I have under his bâton. + +But it was Sherwood who first called my attention to him as a teacher. +He rushed into my room one day, and said, "Oh, I've just heard the most +beautiful playing that ever I heard in my life!" I asked him who it was +that had taken him so by storm, and he said it was a young English girl +named Fannie Warburg, and that she was a pupil of Deppe's. "Well, what +is it about her that is so remarkable," said I. "Oh, _everything_!--execution, +expression, style, touch--all are _perfect_! I never heard anything to +equal her, and I feel as if I never wanted to touch the piano again." + +This was such strong language for Sherwood, who is generally very +critical and anything but enthusiastic, that my interest was immediately +excited. He went on to tell me that Deppe had been training this young +English girl, now only eighteen years of age, with the greatest care, +for six years, and that he had such an interest in her that he did not +confine himself to giving her lessons only, but set himself to form her +whole musical taste by taking her to the best concerts and to hear the +great operas, calling her attention to every peculiarity of structure in +a composition, and giving her all sorts of hints which only a man of +profound musical culture _could_ give. Sherwood said, moreover, that in +summer he made her go to Pyrmont, which is a watering place near +Hanover, where he goes himself every year, and that there he heard her +play _every day_ Mozart's concertos and all sorts of things. I thought +to myself at the time that the man who would take so much trouble for a +pupil as that, would have been just the one for me, for it was easy to +see that Deppe was teaching more for the love of Art than for love of +money--a rare thing in these materialistic days! Afterward, you know, +Miss B. spoke to me about him in Weimar, and I wrote you what she said. + +Well, as I was saying, I went to this musical party given to Anna +Mehlig, where there were a number of musicians and critics. I was +listening to Mehlig play, when suddenly Sherwood, who was also present, +stole up to me and said, "Come into the next room and be introduced to +Deppe." At these magic words I started, and immediately did as I was +bid. I found Deppe in one corner looking about him in an absent sort of +way. He was a man of medium height, with a great big brain, keen blue +eyes and delicate little mouth, and he had a most cheery and sunny +expression. He shook hands, and then we sat down and got into a most +animated conversation--all about music. I told him how interested I was +by all I had heard of him--how I had returned to Kullak for a last +trial--how tired I was of his eternal pedagogism, and how I should like +to study with _him_. + +He asked me what my chief difficulty was, whereupon I answered "the +technique, of course." He smiled, and said "that was the smallest +difficulty, and that anybody could master execution if they knew how to +attack it, unless there was some want of proper development of the +hand." I said I had studied very hard, but that I hadn't mastered it, +and that there was always some hard place in every piece which I +couldn't get the better of. He said he was sure he could remedy the +deficiency, and that if I would show him my hand without a glove, he +could tell directly what I was capable of. I wouldn't pull it off, +however, because I was afraid he might find some radical defect or +weakness in it, but I was so charmed with the way he made light of the +technique, and with the absolute certainty he seemed to have that I +could overcome it, that I promised him that I would go and play to him +the following Wednesday. + +Accordingly on the following Wednesday I presented myself. I had +expected to stay about half an hour, but I ended by staying _three solid +hours_, and we talked as fast as we could all the while, too! So you may +imagine we had a good deal to say. He lives in two little rooms on the +Königgrätzer Strasse, only four doors from the W.'s, where I boarded for +so long. Now if I had only known I was close to such a teacher! We must +often have passed each other in the street, and where _was_ my good +angel that he did not touch my arm and say, "There's the man for +you?"--Frightful to think how near one may be to one's best happiness, +or even salvation, and not know it! + +Deppe's front room was pretty much filled up with a grand piano, which, +as well as the chairs and most other articles of furniture, was covered +with music. I glanced over the pieces a little, and there was nearly +every set of Etudes under the sun, it seemed to me, as well as concertos +and pieces by all the great composers, fingered and marked with pencil +in the most minute way. It was enough simply to turn the leaves, to see +what a study he must have made of everything he gave his scholars. His +inner room had double doors to it to prevent the sound from penetrating. +I rapped at the outside one, and presently I heard a great turning and +rattling of keys, and then they opened, and Deppe was before me. He put +out his hand in the most cordial and friendly way, and greeted me with +the most winning smile in the world. I took off my things and began to +play to him. He listened quietly, and without interrupting me. When I +had finished he told me that my difficulties were principally mechanical +ones--that I had conception and style, but that my execution was uneven +and hurried, my wrist stiff, the third and fourth fingers[F] very weak, +the tone not full and round enough, that I did not know how to use the +pedal, and finally, that I was too nervous and flurried. + +"If possible, you must get over this agitation," said he. "_Hören Sie +Sich spielen_ (Listen to your own playing). You have talent enough to +get over all your difficulties if you will be patient, and do just as I +tell you." "I will do anything," I said. "Very good. But I warn you that +you will have to give up all playing for the present except what I give +you to study, and _those_ things you must play very slowly." + +This was a pleasant prospect, as I was just preparing to give a concert +in Berlin, under Kullak's auspices, and had already got my programme +half learned! But I had "invoked the demon," and I felt bound to give +the required pledge.--So here I am, after four years abroad with the +"greatest masters," going back to first principles, and beginning with +five-finger exercises! I had never been given any particular rule for +holding my hand, further than the general one of curving the fingers and +lifting them very high. Deppe objects to this extreme lifting of the +fingers. He says it makes a _knick_ in the muscle, and you get all the +strength simply from the finger, whereas, when you lift the finger +moderately high, the muscle from the whole arm comes to bear upon it. +The tone, too, is entirely different. Lifting the finger so very high, +and striking with force, stiffens the wrist, and produces a slight jar +in the hand which cuts off the singing quality of the tone, like closing +the mouth suddenly in singing. It produces the effect of a blow upon the +key, and the tone is more a sharp, quick tone; whereas, by letting the +finger just fall--it is fuller, less loud, but more penetrating. I +suppose the hammer falls back more slowly from the string, and that +makes the tone _sing_ longer. + +Don't you remember my saying that Liszt had such an extraordinary way of +playing a melody? That it did not seem to be so loud and cut-out as most +artists make it, and yet it was so penetrating? Well, dear, _there_ was +the secret of it! "_Spielen Sie mit dem Gewicht_ (Play with weight)," +Deppe will say. "Don't strike, but let the fingers _fall_. At first the +tone will be nearly inaudible, but with practice it will gain every day +in power."--After Deppe had directed my attention to it, I remembered +that I had never seen Liszt lift up his fingers so fearfully high as the +other schools, and especially the Stuttgardt one, make such a point of +doing.[G] That is where Mehlig misses it, and is what makes her playing +so sharp and cornered at times. When you lift the fingers so high you +cannot bind the tones so perfectly together. There is always a break. +Deppe makes me listen to every tone, and carry it over to the next one, +and not let any one finger get an undue prominence over the other--a +thing that is immensely difficult to do--so I have given up all pieces +for the present, and just devote myself to playing these little +exercises right. + +Deppe not only insists upon the fingers being as curved as possible, so +that you play exactly on the tips of them, but he turns the hand very +much out, so as to make the knuckles of the third and fourth fingers +higher than those of the first and second, and as he does _not_ permit +you to throw out the elbow in doing this, the _turn must be made from +the wrist_. The _thumb_ must also be slightly curved, and quite free +from the hand. Many persons impede their execution by not keeping the +thumb independent enough of the rest of the hand. The moment it +contracts, the hand is enfeebled. The object of turning the hand outward +is to favour the third and fourth fingers, and give them a higher fall +when they are lifted. This strengthens them very much. It also looks +much prettier when the outer edge of the hand is high, and one of +Deppe's grand mottoes is, "When it _looks_ pretty then it is right." + +After Deppe had put me through five-finger exercises on the foregoing +principles, and taught me to lift each finger and let it fall with a +perfectly loose wrist, (a most deceitful point, by the way, for it took +me a long while to distinguish when I was stiffening the wrist +involuntarily and when I wasn't,) he proceeded to the scale. He always +begins with the one in E major as the most useful to practice. His +principle in playing the scale is _not_ to turn the thumb under! but to +turn a little on each finger end, pressing it firmly down on the key, +and screwing it round, as it were, on a pivot, till the next finger is +brought over its own key. In this way he prepares for the thumb, which +is kept free from the hand and slightly curved.--He told me to play the +scale of E major slowly with the right hand, which I did. He curved his +hand round mine, and told me as long as I played right, his hand would +not interfere with mine. I played up one octave, and then I wished to go +on by placing my first finger on F sharp. To do that I naturally turned +my hand outward, so as to make the step from my thumb on E to F sharp +with the first, but it came bang up against Deppe's hand like a sort of +blockade. "Go on," said Deppe. "I can't, when you keep your hand right +in the way," said I. "My hand isn't in the way," said he, "but _your_ +hand is out of position." + +So I started again. This time I reflected, and when I got my third +finger on D sharp, I kept my hand slanting from left to right, but I +prepared for the turning under of the thumb, and for getting my first +finger on F sharp, by turning my wrist sharply out. That brought my +thumb down on the note and prepared me instantly for the next step. In +fact, my wrist carried my finger right on to the sharp without any +change in the position of the hand, thus giving the most perfect legato +in the world, and I continued the whole scale in the same manner. Just +try it once, and you'll see how ingenious it is--only one must be +careful not to throw out the elbow in turning out the wrist. As in the +ascending scale one has to turn the thumb under twice in every octave, +Deppe's way of playing avoids twice throwing the hand out of position as +one does by the old way of playing straight along, and the smoothness +and rapidity of the scale must be much greater. The direction of the +hand in running passages is always a little oblique. + +Don't you remember my telling you that Liszt has an inconceivable +lightness, swiftness and smoothness of execution? When Deppe was +explaining this to me, I suddenly remembered that when he was playing +scales or passages, his fingers seemed to lie across the keys in a +slanting sort of way, and to execute these rapid passages almost without +any perceptible motion. Well, dear, _there_ it was again! As Liszt is a +great experimentalist, he probably does all these things by instinct, +and without reasoning it out, but that is why nobodys else's playing +sounds like his. Some of his scholars had most dazzling techniques, and +I used to rack my brains to find out how it was, that no matter how +perfectly anybody else played, the minute Liszt sat down and played the +same thing, the previous playing seemed rough in comparison. I'm sure +Deppe is the only master in the world who has thought that out; though, +as he says himself, it is the egg of Columbus--"when you know it!" + +Deppe always begins the scale in the middle of the piano, and plays up +three octaves with the right, and down three octaves with the left hand. +He says that all the difficulty is in going up, and that coming back is +perfectly easy, as all you have to do is to let the fingers run! He +always makes me play each hand separately at first, and very slowly, and +then both hands together in contrary direction, gradually quickening the +tempo. After that in thirds, sixths, octaves, etc. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _December 25, 1873_. + +As you may imagine, this is anything but a "Merry Christmas" for me, for +I am simply the most completely _bouleversée_ mortal in this world! Here +I was a month ago preparing to give a concert of my own. Then I have the +good or bad luck to make Herr Deppe's acquaintance, and to find out how +I "ought" to have been studying for the last four years. I give up +Kullak and my concert plan, thinking I'll study with Deppe and come out +under his auspices. After two lessons with him, comes your letter with +the news of this awful national panic in it.--_Could_ anything be worse +for a person who has really _conscientiously_ tried to attain her +object? I'm like the professor who gave some lectures to prove a certain +theory, and when he got to the fourteenth, he decided it was false, and +devoted the remaining ones to pulling it all down! + +However, after practicing the scale on Deppe's principles, I find that +they open the road to an ease, rapidity, sureness and elegance of +execution which, with my stiff hand, I've not been able to see even in +the dim distance before! One of his grand hobbies is _tone_, and he +never lets me play a note without listening to it in the closest manner, +and making it sound what he calls "_bewüsst_ (conscious)."--No more +mechanical "straying of the hands over the keys (as the novelists always +say of their heroines) thinking of all sorts of things the while," but +instead, a close pinning down of the whole attention to hear whether one +finger predominates over the other, and to note the effect produced. I +was perfectly amazed to see how many little ugly habits I had to correct +of which I had not been the least aware. It seems as though my ears had +been opened for the first time! Such concentration is very exhausting, +and after two or three hours' practice I feel as if I should drop off +the chair. + +I forgot to say before, that Deppe enjoins sitting very low--that +is--not higher than a common chair. He says one may have "the soul of an +angel," and yet if you sit high, the tone will not sound poetic. +Moreover, in a low seat the fingers have to work a great deal more, +because you can't assist them by bringing the weight of your arm to +bear. "Your elbow must be _lead_ and your wrist a _feather_." Of course +the seat must be modified to suit the person. I prefer a low seat +myself, and have even had my piano-chair cut off two inches. + +Before definitely deciding to give up Kullak and come to _him_, Deppe +insisted that I should hear one of his scholars play. Fannie Warburg is +in England on a visit, so I could not hear _her_, but he has another +young lady pupil of whom he is very proud, named Fräulein Steiniger. +This young lady had been originally a pupil of Kullak's, and I had heard +her play once in his conservatory. She was a girl of a good deal of +talent, but not a genius. Deppe said that when she came to him she had +all my defects, only worse. She has been studying with him in the most +tremendous manner for fifteen months, and he wanted me to see what he +had made of her in that time. She was going to play in a concert in +Lübeck, and he was to rehearse her pieces with her on Saturday for the +last time. He begged me to come then, and accordingly I went. + +I was very much struck by her playing, which was remarkable, not so much +for sentiment or poetry, of which she had little, but for the _mastery_ +she had over the instrument, and for the perfection with which she did +everything. There was a clarity and limpidity about her trills and runs +which surprised and delighted. Her left hand was as able as the right, +and had a way of taking up a variation like nothing at all and running +along with it through the most complicated passages, which almost made +you laugh with pleasure! There was a wonderful vitality, elasticity and +_snap_ to her chords which impressed me very much, and a unity of effect +about her whole performance of any composition which I don't remember to +have heard from the pupils of other masters. The position of the hand +was exquisite, and all difficulties seemed to melt away like snow or to +be surmounted with the greatest ease. I saw at a glance that Deppe is a +magnificent teacher, and I believe that he has originated a school of +his own. + +Fräulein Steiniger played a charming Quintette by Hummel, a beautiful +Suite by Raff, a Prelude and Fugue by Bach, and two Studies, and all, as +it seemed to me, exactly as they _ought_ to be played. After she had +finished, we had a long talk about Kullak. She said she staid with him +year after year, doing her very best, and never arriving at anything. At +last, as he did nothing for her, she resolved to strike out for herself, +and went to Deppe, who was at that time conducting Stern's orchestral +concerts, and asked him if he would not allow her to play in one of +them. Deppe received her with his characteristic kindness and +cordiality, but told her that before he could promise he must first hear +her in private, and he set a time for the purpose. + +She had prepared Beethoven's great E flat Concerto, which everybody +plays here. It is as difficult for Deppe to listen to that concerto as +it is for Liszt to hear Chopin's B flat minor Scherzo. "We poor +conductors!" he will exclaim, "will the artists _always_ keep bringing +us Beethoven's E flat Concerto? Why not, for once, the B flat, or a +Mozart concerto? _Then_ we should say '_Ja, mit Vergnügen_ (Yes, with +pleasure).' _Aber Jeder will grossartig spielen heutzutage_ (But +everybody wants to play on a grand scale now-a-days). The mighty rushing +torrent is the fashion, but who can do the wimpling, dimpling streamlet? +Nobody has any fingers for the _kleine Passagen_ (little fine +passages). Sie _haben_, Alle, _keine Finger_ (_None_ of them have any +fingers)." He then winds up by saying _he_ is the only man in Germany +who knows how to give them "fingers." "_Ich weiss worauf es ankommt_ +(_I_ know what it depends on)!" + +Nevertheless, he listened patiently for the thousandth time to the E +flat concerto, as Steiniger played it. He then quietly called her +attention to the fact that _she_ had "no fingers," and she was in +perfect despair. He saw that she was energetic and willing to work, and +he at once took her in hand and began to drill her. She withdrew +entirely from society and devoted herself to practicing, following his +directions implicitly. She is now a beautiful artist, and he chalks out +every step of her career. I don't doubt she will play in the Gewandhaus +in Leipsic eventually, which is the height of every artist's ambition, +and stamps you as "finished." Then you are recognized all over the +world. Deppe does not mean to let her play here till she has first +played in many little places and succeeded. As he said to me the other +day, "When you wish to spring over tall mountains, you must first jump +over little mounds (_kleine Graben_.)" He counsels me to take a lesson +of this young lady every day for a time, so as to get over the technical +part quickly. + +As for Deppe's young protégée, Fannie Warburg, whom he has formed +completely, everybody says that she is wonderful. Fräulein Steiniger +says that when you hear her play you feel almost as if it were something +holy, it is so perfect and so extraordinarily spiritual. She is only +eighteen. Deppe showed me the list of compositions that she has already +played in concerts elsewhere, and I was astonished at the variety and +compass of it. Every great composer was represented. + +Among other refinements of his teaching, Deppe asked me if I had ever +made any pedal studies. I said "No--nobody had ever said anything to me +about the pedal particularly, except to avoid the use of it in runs, and +I supposed it was a matter of taste." He picked out that simple little +study of Cramer in D major in the first book--you know it well--and +asked me to play it. I had played that study to Tausig, and he found no +fault with my use of the pedal; so I sat down thinking I could do it +right. But I soon found I was mistaken, and that Deppe had very +different ideas on the subject. He sat down and played it phrase by +phrase, pausing between each measure, to let it "sing." I soon saw that +it is possible to get as great a virtuosity with the pedal as with +anything else, and that one must make as careful a study of it. You +remember I wrote to you that one secret of Liszt's effects was his use +of the pedal,[H] and how he has a way of disembodying a piece from the +piano and seeming to make it float in the air? He makes a spiritual form +of it so perfectly visible to your inward eye, that it seems as if you +could almost hear it breathe! Deppe seems to have almost the same idea, +though he has never heard Liszt play. "The Pedal," said he, "is the +_lungs_ of the piano." He played a few bars of a sonata, and in his +whole method of binding the notes together and managing the pedal, I +recognized Liszt. The thing floated!--Unless Deppe wishes the chord to +be very brilliant, he takes the pedal _after_ the chord instead of +simultaneously with it. This gives it a very ideal sound.--You may not +believe it, but it is _true_, that though Deppe is no pianist himself, +and has the funniest little red paws in the world, that don't look as if +they could do anything, he's got that same touch and quality of tone +that Liszt has--that indescribable _something_ that, when he plays a few +chords, merely, makes the tears rush to your eyes. It is too heavenly +for anything. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + Chord-Playing. Deppe no "Mere Pedagogue." Sherwood. Mozart's + Concertos. Practicing Slowly. The Opera Ball. + + + BERLIN, _January 2, 1874_. + +When I had got the principle of the scale pretty well into my head, what +should Deppe rummage out but Czerny's "_Schule der Geläufigkeit_ (School +of Velocity)," which I hadn't looked at since the days of my childhood +and fondly flattered myself I had done with forever. (We none of us know +what stands before us!) After having studied Cramer, Gradus and Chopin, +you may imagine it was rather a come down to have to take to the School +of Velocity again! And to study it _very_ slowly and with one hand +only!! That was adding insult to injury. Deppe knows what he is about, +though. He began picking out passages here and there all through the +book, and making me play them, stretching from the thumb and turning on +the fingers as often as possible. After I have mastered the passages I +am to learn a whole study, first with each hand alone, and then with +both together! + +Deppe next proceeded to teach me how to strike chords. I had to learn to +raise my hands high over the key-board, and let them fall without any +resistance on the chord, and _then sink with the wrist_, and take up the +hand exactly over the notes, keeping the hand extended. There is quite +a little knack in letting the hand fall so, but when you have once got +it, the chord sounds much richer and fuller.--And so on, _ad infinitum_. +Deppe had thought out the best way of doing _everything_ on the +piano--the scale, the chord, the trill, octaves, broken octaves, broken +thirds, broken sixths, arpeggios, chromatics, accent, rhythm--all! He +says that the principle of the scale and of the chord are directly +opposite. "In playing the scale you must gather your hand into a +nut-shell, as it were, and play on the finger tips. In taking the chord, +on the contrary, you must spread the hands as if you were going to ask a +blessing." This is particularly the case with a wide interval. He told +me if I ever heard Rubinstein play again to observe how he strikes his +chords. "Nothing cramped about _him_! He spreads his hands as if he were +going to take in the universe, and takes them up with the greatest +freedom and _abandon_!" Deppe has the greatest admiration for +Rubinstein's _tone_, which he says is unequaled, but he places Tausig +above him as an artist. He said Tausig used to come to his room and play +to him, and he took off Tausig's little half bow and way of seating +himself at the piano and beginning at once, without prelude or wasting +of words, very funnily! He would scarcely take time to say "_Guten +Abend_ (Good Evening)." Deppe thinks Tausig played some things +matchlessly, but that in others he was dry and soulless. Clara Schumann, +he says, is the most "musical" of all the great artists--and you +remember how immensely struck I was with Natalie Janotha, who is her +pupil, and plays just like her. + +From my telling you so much about technicalities, you must not think +Deppe only a pedagogue. He is in reality the soul of music, and all +these things are only "means to an end." As he says himself, "I always +hear the music the people _don't_ play." No pianist ever entirely suited +him, and this it was that set him to examining the instrument in order +to see what was the matter with it. He made friends with the great +virtuosi, and studied their ways of playing, and the result of all his +observation is that "Piano playing is the only thing where there is +something to be done." He declares that there is so much musical talent +going to waste in the world that it is "lying all about the streets," +and he has a most ingenious way of accounting for the fact that there +are so many great pianists in spite of their not knowing _his_ +method:--"Gifted people," he says, "play by the grace of God; but +_everybody_ could master the technique on _my_ system!!" + +To show you that it is not alone my judgment of Deppe--four of Kullak's +best pupils, including Sherwood! left him for Deppe, after I did. They +got so uneasy from what I told them, that they went to see Deppe, and as +soon as they heard Fräulein Steiniger play, they had to admit that she +had got hold of some secrets of which they knew nothing. Sherwood, you +know, is a positive genius, yet he is beginning all over again, too. In +short, we are all unanimous, while Deppe, on his side, is much gratified +at having some American pupils.--He flatters himself that we will +introduce all his cherished ideas into our "new and progressive +country." + +Ah, if I had only studied with Deppe before I went to Weimar! When I was +there I didn't play half as often to Liszt as I might have done, kind +and encouraging as he always was to me, for I always felt I wasn't +_worthy_ to be _his_ pupil! But if I had known Deppe four years ago, +what might I not have been now? After I took my first lesson of Deppe +this thought made me perfectly wretched. I felt so dreadfully that I +cried and cried. When I woke up in the morning I began to cry again. I +was so afflicted that at last my landlady, who is very kind and +sympathetic, asked me what ailed me. I told her I felt so dreadfully to +think I had met the person I ought to have met four years ago, at the +last minute, so.--"On the contrary, you ought to rejoice that you have +met him _at all_," said she. "Many persons go through life without ever +meeting the person they wish to, or they don't know him when they +do."--Sensible woman, Frau von H.!--After that I stopped fretting, and +tried to believe that there _is_ "a divinity that shapes our ends, +rough-hew them how we may." + + * * * + + BERLIN, _February 12, 1874_. + +I am now taking three lessons a week from Fräulein Steiniger and one +lesson of Deppe himself, and he says I am almost through the technical +preparation, though I still practice only with one hand, and _very_ +slowly all the time. Fräulein Steiniger says that she also practiced +slowly all the time for six months, as I am now doing. In fact, she +completely forgot how to play _fast_, and one day when Deppe finally +said to her in the lesson, "Now play fast for once," she could not do +it, and had to learn it all over again. Of course she very soon got her +hand in again, and now she has the most beautiful execution, and can +play _anything_ perfectly. + +Deppe wants me to play a Mozart concerto for two pianos with Fräulein +Steiniger, the first thing I play in public. Did you know that Mozart +wrote _twenty_ concertos for the piano, and that nine of them are +masterpieces? Yet nobody plays them. Why? Because they are too hard, +Deppe says, and Lebert, the head of the Stuttgardt conservatory, told me +the same thing at Weimar. I remember that the musical critic of the +_Atlantic Monthly_ remarked that "we should regard Mozart's passages and +cadenzas as child's play now-a-days." _Child's play_, indeed! That +critic, whoever it is, "had better go to school again," as C. always +says! + +Deppe is remarkable in Mozart, and has studied him more than anybody +else, I fancy. Indeed, to turn over his concertos, and see how he has +_fingered_ them alone, is enough to make you dizzy. He is always saying, +"You must hear Fannie Warburg play a Mozart concerto. _She_ can do it!" +and, indeed, I am most anxious to hear her. + +It is ludicrous to hear Deppe talk about the artists that everybody else +thinks so great. Having been a director of an orchestra for years, he +has constantly directed their concerts, and he weighs them in a +relentless balance! The other day he gave me Mendelssohn's Concerto in +G minor, and just at the end of the first movement is a fearful +break-neck passage for both hands. "There!" cried Deppe, "that's a good +healthy place. _Nehmen Sie_ DAS _für Ihr tägliches Gebet_ (Take _that_ +for your daily prayer). When you can play it eight times in succession +without missing a note, I'll be satisfied. That is one of the places +that when the pianists come to, they get their foot hard on to the pedal +and hold on to it--_Herr Gott!_ how they hold on to it--and so _lie_ +themselves through." He said he never heard anyone do it right except +those to whom he had taught it. Steiniger played it for me the other day +and it so astonished my ears that I felt like saying, "_Herr Gott!_" +too. It was as if some one had snatched up a handful of hail and dashed +it all over me. Br-r-r-zip! how it did go!--Like a bundle of rockets +touched off one after the other. And yet this concerto is one of those +things that everybody thrums, and is one of the regular pieces you must +have in your repertoire. Deppe was quite shocked to find I had never +learned it. + +My lesson usually lasts three hours! Nothing Deppe hates like being +hurried over a lesson. He likes to have plenty of time to express all +his ideas and tell you a good many anecdotes in between! I usually take +my lessons from seven till ten in the evening. Then he puts on his coat +and saunters along with me on his way to his "Kneipe," or beer-garden, +for he is far too sociable to go to bed without having taken a friendly +glass of beer with some one. Every block or so he will stand stock still +and impress some musical point upon my mind, and will often harangue me +for five or ten minutes before moving on. It seems to be impossible to +him to walk and _talk_ at the same time! In this way you may imagine it +takes me a good while to get home. + +On Tuesday there is to be a grand ball at the opera house which the +Emperor and the whole court grace with their presence, and lead off the +first Polonaise. There are two of these grand public balls every winter. +The tickets are sold, and it is the sole occasion where the public can +have the felicity of gazing upon royalty in close proximity. I have +never been, though all my German friends have been dinning it into my +ears for the last four years that I ought to go and see it, for the +decorations are magnificent. This year there is to be but one, as the +Emperor is not very well, and I expect it will be as much as one's life +is worth to get in and get out again, such is the rush! + +The German officers waltz perfectly, and with great spirit and elegance. +Dancing is a part of their military training and they are obliged to +learn it. But they are not very comfortable partners, for one rubs one's +face against their epaulets unless they are just the right height, and +you've no rest for your left hand. They take only two turns round the +room and then stop a moment or two to fan you and rest--then they take +two more. The consequence is, one never gets fairly going before one has +to stop. At first I used to think the effect of so many people whirling +round in the same direction dizzying and monotonous. But when I became +accustomed to it, the continual reversing of the Americans who come to +Berlin struck me as angular, in contrast to the graceful German +circling. It is not "the thing" here for the girls to look flushed and +disordered--skirts torn, and hair out of crimp--as our belles do at the +end of an evening. They retire from the ball-room with their dresses in +faultless condition, so that going to parties in Germany must cost the +_pater familias_ considerably less than with us! The floor is never so +crowded with dancers at one time, and as they are going in the same +direction, they don't run into each other as our couples do. On the +other hand, they don't have such a "good time" out of it as do our +girls, with their long five and ten minute turns to those delicious +waltzes! Strange, that though Germany is the native home of the waltz, +and the Vienna waltzes surpass all others, the Schottisch or +Rhinelaender should be their favourite dance. They dance it very +gracefully and rythmically. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _March 1, 1874_. + +I went the other evening to the Opera ball I wrote you of in my last. +The whole opera house, stage and all, was floored over, and +magnificently decorated with evergreens, mirrors, fountains, and +flowers. The tickets are sold for some charitable purpose. Only nice +people can get in, because the whole thing is systematically arranged, +and nobody can give their tickets to anybody else. I got mine through +Mr. Bancroft, and I went with two other ladies and a gentleman. + +We went very early, so as to get a box to sit in, and _never_ shall I +forget the first effect of the ball-room! That immense polished floor +stretching out like one vast mirror or sheet of ice, the fountains +flashing at the sides, the walls wreathed with green, a big orchestra +sitting in the balcony at each end, and about a hundred pairs of +magnificently dressed ladies and gentlemen descending the stairs into +the rooms and promenading about. Light, diamonds, colour, everywhere. +Oh, it was perfectly fairy-like! The floor was built over the tops of +the chairs in the parquette, and the entrance was through the royal box, +which is just in the centre of the opera house, facing the stage. This +box is like a large recess, of course, and not like the ordinary boxes. +There was an entrance on each side, coming in from the corridor, and a +flight of broad steps, carpeted, had been improvised, which led from it +down to the floor. It looked perfectly dazzling to see the pairs come in +from both sides at once and descend the steps, and the ladies' dresses +were displayed to perfection. Such toilets I never saw. The women were +covered with lace, feathers, and diamonds. The simpler dresses were of +tarletane (mine included!) but as they were quite fresh they gave a very +dressy air. We had a splendid box, first rank, and the second from the +proscenium boxes on the left, in which sat the royal family. In the box +between us and the latter sat the wife of the French ambassador with the +Countess von Seidlewitz and her sister, and behind them was a formidable +array of magnificent-looking officers in full uniform, their breasts +flashing with stars and orders and silver chains. + +The Countess von Seidlewitz is a famous court beauty and is lady of +honour to the Princess Carl (sister of the Empress). She sat just next +to me, as only the partition of the box was between us, and she was the +most beautiful woman I saw--perfectly imperial, in fact--white and +magnificent as a lily. Her features were perfectly regular, and she had +a proudly-cut mouth, and such dazzling little teeth! Then, her arms, +neck, and shape were exquisite. She wore the severest kind of dress, and +one that only such beauty could have borne. It was a white silk, with an +immense train, of course, and without overskirt--simply caught up in a +great puff behind. The waist was made with a small basque, but very low, +and with very short sleeves. Round the neck was a white bugle fringe, +and there were two or three rows of this fringe in front, graduating to +the waist, smaller and smaller, and going round the basque. All the +front breadth of the skirt was laid in folds of satin, in groups of +three, and on the edge of every third row was the fringe again, +graduating wider and wider toward the bottom. In her hair she wore a +wreath of white verbenas or (snow-balls) and green leaves. Her sole +ornament was a magnificent diamond locket and ear-rings of some curious +design, the locket depending from a very fine gold chain, which +challenged all observers to notice the faultlessness of her neck. One +sly bit of coquetry was visible in two natural flowers, +lilies-of-the-valley, with their leaves, which she had stuck in her +corsage so that they should rest against her neck and show that they +were not whiter than her skin.--You see there were no folds anywhere, +as there was no overskirt, but the whole dress hung in long lines and +showed the contour of the figure. Nothing but these fringes (which +gleamed and waved with every motion) relieved it--not even a bit of +black velvet anywhere, for the lace round the neck was drawn through +with a white silk thread. There was another lady in the same box whose +dress was very beautiful, too, though she herself was not. It was a +green silk with green tulle overdress puffed, and with ears of silver +wheat scattered over it. The tunic was of silver crape, the bottom cut +in scallops and trimmed with silver wheat. A wisp of wheat was knotted +round her neck for a necklace, and a perfect sheaf of it in her hair. It +was an exquisite dress. + +At ten o'clock everybody had arrived--about two thousand people. The +orchestra struck up the Polonaise, and the court descended from the box +to make the tour of the floor (_i. e._, only the members of the royal +family with their ladies of honour). The Emperor was not very well, so +he remained in his box, but the Empress led off with the Duke of +Edinburgh, who happened to be here. She was dressed in lavender satin, +covered with the most superb white lace. Her hair was done in braids on +the top of her head, very high, and upon it was fastened a double +coronet of diamonds, stuck on in stars, etc., which flashed like so many +small suns. Round her neck depended from a black velvet band, strings of +diamonds of great size and magnificence. It really almost made you start +when your eye caught them unexpectedly! The Empress is a very +elegant-looking woman, and is every inch a queen. She moved with stately +step, bowing and bowing graciously from side to side to the crowd which +parted and bent before her, and was followed by the Crown Prince and +Princess, the Princess Carl, the Princess Friedrich Carl (a beauty) and +her daughters, and I don't know who all, with their ladies of honour. +When the Countess von Seidlewitz came along, with her fringes waving and +gleaming in front of her, she shone out from all the rest, and, in fact, +from the whole two thousand guests, like the planet Venus among the +other stars.--Stunning! + +The orchestra banged away its loudest, and it was quite exciting. The +three balconies were crowded with people, and all the boxes. The box of +the diplomatic corps was just opposite us, and our gay little Mrs. F. +sat in it dressed in white satin. Some of my friends came and stood +under my box and tried to get me to come down, but I would not, for I +knew I should lose my place if I did, and, indeed, I would not want to +dance there unless my dress were something superlative. You see, all the +swells sat in their boxes and gazed right down on the dancers, who had a +circular place roped off for them. De Rilvas, the Spanish minister, +looked so fine, however, with his broad blue ribbon across his breast +and his gold cross depending from his neck, that I should have liked +very well to have made the tour of the room with him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + A Set of Beethoven Variations. Fannie Warburg. Deppe's Inventions. + His Room. His Afternoon Coffee. Pyrmont. + + + BERLIN, _April 30, 1874_. + +I wish you were here now so that I could play you a set of little +variations by Beethoven called, "I've only got a little hut." They are +_bewitching_, and I think I can now play them so as to express (as Deppe +says) "that he had indeed nothing but his little hut, but was quite +happy in it." In the last variation he dances a waltz in his little hut! +I have learned a great deal from these tiny variations, taught in +Deppe's inimitable fashion. When I first took them to him I began +playing the second of the variations--which is rather plaintive and +seems to indicate that the proprietor of the little hut had a misgiving +that there _might_ be a better abode somewhere on the earth--with a +great deal of "expression," as I thought. I soon found out I was +overdoing it, however, and that it is not always so easy to define where +good expression stops and bad style begins. "Why do you make those notes +stick out so?" asked Deppe, as I was giving vent to my "soul-longings," +(as P. says). "Learn to paint in _grossen Flaechen_ (great surfaces)." +He made me play it again perfectly legato, and with no one note +"sticking out" more than another. I saw at once that he was right about +it, and that the effect was much better, while it took nothing from the +real sentiment of the piece. It was one of those cases where a simple +statement was all that was necessary. Anything more detracted from +rather than added to it. + +I have at last heard Fannie Warburg in a Mozart concerto, for she has +got back from England. How she did play it! To say that the passages +"pearled," would be saying nothing at all. Why, the piano just _warbled_ +them out like a nightingale! The last movement had the infectious gayety +that Mozart's things often have, with a magnificent cadenza by himself. +She rendered it so perfectly, and with such naïve light-heartedness, +that none of us could resist it, and we all finally burst into a laugh! +There was a little orchestra accompanying, which Deppe had got together +and was directing. When she got to the cadenza, he laid down his bâton, +and retired to lean against the door and enjoy it. She did it in the +most masterly manner, and O, it was _so_ difficult! I thought of the +Boston critic, who considered Mozart's compositions "child's play." They +_are_ child's play--that is, they are _nothing at all_ if they are not +faultlessly played, and every fault _shows_, which is the reason so few +attempt them. Your hand must be "in order," as Deppe says, to do it. + +Fannie Warburg is a sweet little eighteen-year-old maiden. A shy little +bud of a girl without any vanity or self-consciousness. She has a lovely +hand for the piano, and the way she uses it is perfectly exquisite. It +is small and plump, but strong, with firm little fingers. Every muscle +is developed, and indeed it could not be otherwise, after such a six +years' training. One of Deppe's rules is that when you raise the finger +the knuckle must not stick out. The finger must "sit firm +(_fest-sitzen_) in the joint." Fannie Warburg's fingers "_sitzen_" so +"_fest_" that when she plays she positively has a little row of dimples +where her knuckles ought to be. It looks too pretty for anything--just +like a baby's hand. She does not seem to have the slightest ambition, +however, and I doubt whether she will ever do anything with her music +after she leaves Deppe. Her mother was from Hamburg, and had taken +lessons of Deppe there when they were both quite young. She thought him +such a remarkable teacher that she declared her daughter should have no +other master. So when Fannie was twelve years old she brought her to +him, and he has been giving her lessons ever since--something like +Samuel's mother bringing him to the Temple, wasn't it?--and indeed when +I go into Deppe's shabby little room I always feel as if I were in a +little Temple of Music! I like to see the furniture all bestrewn with +it, and Deppe himself seated at his table surrounded with piles of +manuscript, pen in hand, going over and arranging them, bringing order +out of chaos. Other orchestra leaders are always writing and begging him +to lend them his copies of Oratorios, etc. + +Deppe has all sorts of practical little ideas peculiar to himself. For +instance, he has invented a candlestick to stand on a grand piano. In +shape it is curved, like those things for candles attached to upright +pianos, but with a weighted foot to hold it firm. It is a capital +invention, for you put one each side of the music-rack, and then you can +turn it so as to throw the light on your music, just as you can turn +those on the upright pianos. It is on the same principle, only with the +addition of the foot. It is much more convenient than a lamp, because it +doesn't rattle, and you can throw the light on the page so much +better.--Then he always insists on our having our pieces bound +separately, in a cover of stout blue paper, such as copy books are bound +in. He entirely disapproves of binding music in books. "Who will lug a +great heavy book along?" he will ask, "and besides, they don't lie open +well." + +The other day Deppe told me he wanted me to come and hear Fräulein +Steiniger take her lesson, as she had some interesting pieces to play. I +found her already there when I arrived. Deppe was in an uncommonly good +humour, and kept making little jokes. She played a string of things, and +finally ended off with Liszt's arrangement of the Spinning Song from +Wagner's Flying Dutchman. Deppe is dreadfully fussy about this piece, +and made some such subtle and telling points regarding the _conception_ +of the composition, that they were worthy of Liszt himself. I mean to +learn it, and when I come home I will play it to you as Deppe taught it +to Steiniger, and you will see how fascinating it is. I know you'll be +carried away with it. + +Toward the end of the lesson it was growing rather late, and time also +for Deppe's coffee, which beverage you know the Germans always drink +late in the afternoon, accompanied with cakes. He had just laid down his +violin, as he and Fräulein Steiniger had played a sonata together, and +had seated himself at the piano to show her about some passage or other. +Deeply absorbed, he was haranguing her as hard as he could, when the +maid of all work suddenly entered with the coffee on a tray, and was +apparently about to set it down on the piano in close proximity to the +violin. "_Herr Gott, nicht auf die Violin!_ (Good gracious, not on the +violin!)" exclaimed Deppe, springing frantically up and rescuing the +beloved instrument. "Where then?" said the girl. "Oh, anywhere, only not +on the violin." She set it down on a chair and vanished. There were only +three chairs in the room, and the sofa was covered with music. Fräulein +Steiniger occupied one chair, I the second, and the coffee the third. +Deppe glanced around in momentary bewilderment, and then sat himself +plump down on the floor, took his coffee, stretched out his legs, and +began stirring it imperturbably. "But Herr Deppe!" remonstrated +Steiniger. "Well," said he, with his light-hearted laugh, "what else can +I do when I have no chair?" There was no carpet on the floor, which was +an ordinary painted one, and he looked funny enough, sitting there, but +he enjoyed his coffee just as well!--After he had finished drinking it, +the shades of night were falling, and it occurred to him it would be +well to illuminate his apartment. He is the happy possessor of five +minute lamps and candlesticks, no two of which are the same height. The +lamps are two in number, and are about as big as the smallest sized +fluid lamp that we used in old times to go to bed by. The three +candlesticks are of china, and adorned with designs in decalcomania--probably +the handiwork of grateful pupils, for in Germany there is no present +like a "_Hand-Arbeit_ (something done by the hand of the giver)." It is +the correct thing to give a gentleman. When Fräulein Steiniger and I +only are present, Deppe usually considers the two lamps sufficient. But +if others are there and he is going to have some music in the evening, +he will produce the three minute candlesticks, with an end of candle in +each, light them, and dispose them in various parts of the room. When, +however, as on great occasions, the five lamps and candlesticks are +supplemented by two _more_ candles on the piano in the curved +candlesticks of Deppe's own invention, the blaze of light is something +tremendous to our unaccustomed eyes! Nothing short of the Tuileries or +the "Weisser Saal" at the palace here could equal it! + + * * * + + BERLIN, _May 31, 1874_. + +This season with Deppe has been of such immense importance to me, that I +don't know _what_ sum of money I would take in exchange for it. By +practicing in his method the tone has an entirely different sound, being +round, soft and yet penetrating, while the execution of passages is +infinitely facilitated and perfected. In fact, it seems to me that in +time one could attain anything by it, but time it _will_ have. One has +to study for months very slowly and with very simple things, to get into +the way of playing so, and to be able to think about each finger as you +use it--to "_feel_ the note and make it conscious." Deppe won't let me +finish anything at present, so I can't tell how far along I am myself. +His principle is, never to learn a piece completely the first time you +attack it, but to master it three-quarters, and then let it lie as you +would fruit that you have put on a shelf to ripen;--afterward, take it +up again and finish it. The principle _may_ be a good one, but it +prevents my ever having anything to play for people, and consequently I +have ceased playing in company entirely. In fact, I find it impossible, +and I don't see how Sherwood manages it. _He_ has a whole repertoire, +and sits down and plays piece after piece deliciously. But then he is a +perfect genius, and will make a sensation when he comes out. He has that +natural repose and imperturbability that are everything to an artist, +but which, unfortunately, so few of us possess. His compositions, too, +are exquisite, and so poetical! Mrs. Wrisley,[I] of Boston, and Fräulein +Estleben, of Sweden, who left Kullak when I did, are also gifted +creatures, whereas I think I am only a steady old poke-along, who +_won't_ give up! Sherwood, however, is head and shoulders above all of +us. + +[The following extract, taken from the report in the _Musical Review_ of +Mr. Sherwood's address before the Music Teachers' National Association +in Buffalo, in June, 1880, would seem to show that whether this +distinguished young virtuoso, now by far the leading American +concert-pianist, gained his ideas on the study of touch and tone from +Herr Deppe or not, he certainly endorses them in both his playing and +his teaching:--"It makes a great deal of difference whether a piano be +struck with a stick, with mechanical fingers, or with fingers that are +full of life and magnetism. I have examined Rubinstein's hand and arm, +and found that they are not only full of life and magnetism, but that +they are extremely elastic, and the fingers are so soft that the bones +are scarcely felt. Can practice produce these qualities? I believe so, +and I make it a point both with my pupils and myself to practice slow +motions. It is much easier to strike quickly than slowly, but practice +in the slow movement will develop both muscular and nervous power. And +the tone obtained by this motion is much better than that obtained by +striking. The mechanical practice in vogue at Leipsic and other European +conservatories often fails because the subject of æsthetics and tone +beauties are neglected." See pp. 288, 302-3, 334.]--ED. + +My lessons with Deppe are a genuine musical excitement to me, always. In +every one is something so new and unexpected--something that I never +dreamed of before--that I am lost in astonishment and admiration. The +weeks fly by like days before I know it. Deppe gives me the most +beautiful music, and never wastes time over things which will be of no +use to me afterward. Every piece has an _aim_, and is lovely, also, to +play to people. Now, in Tausig's and Kullak's conservatories I wasted +quantities of time over things which are beautiful enough, and do to +play to one's self, but which are not in the least effective to play to +other people either in the parlour or in the concert-room--as Bach's +Toccata in C, for example. Such things take a good while to learn, and +are of no practical advantage afterward. But Deppe has an organized +_plan_ in everything he does. + +In my study with Kullak when I had any special difficulties, he only +said, "Practice always, Fräulein. _Time_ will do it for you some day. +Hold your hand any way that is easiest for you. You can do it in _this_ +way--or in _this_ way"--showing me different positions of the hand in +playing the troublesome passage--"or you can play it with the _back_ of +the hand if that will help you any!" But Deppe, instead of saying, "Oh, +you'll get this after years of practice," shows me how to conquer the +difficulty _now_. He takes a piece, and while he plays it with the most +wonderful _fineness_ of conception, he cold-bloodedly dissects the +mechanical elements of it, separates them, and tells you how to use your +hand so as to grasp them one after the other. In short, he makes the +technique and the conception _identical_, as of course they ought to be, +but I never had any other master who trained his pupils to attempt it. + +Deppe also hears me play, I think, in the true way, and as Liszt used to +do: that is, he never interrupts me in a piece, but lets me go through +it from beginning to end, and _then_ he picks out the places he has +noted, and corrects or suggests. These suggestions are always something +which are not simply for that piece alone, but which add to your whole +artistic experience--a _principle_, so to speak. So, without meaning any +disparagement to the splendid masters to whom I owe all my previous +musical culture, I cannot help feeling that I have at last got into the +hands not of a mere piano virtuoso, however great, but, rather, of a +profound musical _savant_--a man who has been a violinist, as well as a +director, and who, without being a player himself, has made such a study +of the piano, that probably all pianists except Liszt might learn +something from him. You may all think me "enthusiastic," or even _wild_, +as much as you like; but whether or not I ever conquer my own block of a +hand--which has every defect a hand _can_ have!--when I come home and +begin teaching you all on Deppe's method, you'll succumb to the genius +and beauty of it just as completely as I have. You will _then_ all admit +I was RIGHT! + +July 22.--I have finally made up my mind to go to Pyrmont when Deppe +does, and spend several weeks, keeping right on with my lessons, and +perhaps, giving a little concert there. I have always had a curiosity to +visit one of the German watering places, as I'm told they are extremely +pleasant. + + * * * + + PYRMONT, _August 1, 1874_. + +Here I am in Pyrmont, and there's no knowing where I shall turn up next! +Fräulein Steiniger got here before me, but Deppe has not yet arrived +from Brussels, whither he has gone to be present at the yearly +exhibition of the Conservatoire there. He has been appointed one of the +judges on piano-playing. Pyrmont is a lovely little place. It is in a +valley surrounded by hills, heavily wooded, and has a beautiful park, as +all German towns have, no matter how small. The avenues of trees surpass +anything I ever saw. The soil has something peculiar about it, and is +particularly adapted to trees. They grow to an immense height, and their +stems look so strong, and their foliage is so tremendously luxuriant, +that it seems as if they were ready to burst for very life! + +Fräulein Steiniger went with me to look up some rooms. Every family in +Pyrmont takes lodgers, so that it is not difficult to find good +accommodations. The women are renowned for being good housekeepers and +their rooms are charmingly fitted up, but the prices are very high, as +they live the whole year on what they make in summer. People come here +to drink the waters of the springs, and to take the baths, which are +said to be very invigorating. My rooms are near the principal "_Allée_" +or Avenue, leading from the Springs. About half way down is a platform +where the orchestra sit and play three times a day--at seven in the +morning (which is the hour before breakfast, when it is the thing to +take a glass or two of the water, and promenade a little), at four in +the afternoon, when everybody takes their coffee in the open air, and at +seven in the evening. As I don't drink the waters I do not rise early, +and am usually awakened by the strains of the orchestra. There is a +little piazza outside my window where I take my breakfast and supper. +For dinner I go to "table-d'hôte" at a hotel near.--It is a great relief +to get out of Berlin and see something green once more. I find the +weather very cool, however, and one needs warm clothing here. + +There are the loveliest walks all about Pyrmont that you can imagine, +and beautiful wood-paths are cut along the sides of the hills. My +favourite one is round the cone of a small hill to the right of the +town. The path completely girdles it, and you can start and walk round +the hill, returning to the point you set out from. It is like a leafy +gallery, and before and behind you is always this curving vista. +Whenever I take the walk it reminds me of-- + + "Curved is the line of beauty, + Straight is the line of duty; + Follow the last and thou shalt see + The other ever following thee." + +It is the first time I ever succeeded in combining the carved and the +straight line at the same time--because, of course, it is my _duty_ to +take exercise! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + The Brussels Conservatoire. Steiniger. Excursion to Kleinberg. + Giving a Concert. Fräulein Timm. + + + PYRMONT, _August 15, 1874_. + +Deppe has got back from Brussels, and, as you may imagine, he had much +to tell about his flight into the world, particularly as he had also +been to London. He had a delightful time with the professors of the +Brussels Conservatoire, who were all extremely polite to him, and he +heard some talented young pupils. There was one girl about seventeen, +whom he said he would give a good deal to have as _his_ pupil, so gifted +is she, though her playing did not suit him in many respects. He said he +could have made some severe criticisms, but he refrained--partly because +he felt the uselessness of it, partly because he says "it _is_ +extraordinary how amiable one gets when _young ladies_ are in question!" +He was very enthusiastic over the violin classes. "What a bow the +youngsters do draw!" he exclaimed. Dupont, the great piano teacher in +Brussels, must be a man of considerable "_esprit_," judging from the two +of his compositions that I am familiar with--the "Toccata" and the +"Staccato." I used to hear a good deal about him from his pupil Gurickx, +whom I met in Weimar. Certainly Gurickx played magnificently, and with a +_brio_ I have rarely heard equalled. He is like an electric battery. +Quite another school, however, from Deppe's--the severe, the chaste and +the classic! Extreme _purity of style_ is Deppe's characteristic, and +not the passionate or the emotional. For instance, he has scarcely given +me any Chopin, but keeps me among the classics, as he says on that side +my musical culture has been deficient. He says that Chopin has been "so +played to death that he ought to be put aside for twenty years!"--But if +Chopin were really sympathetic to him he could never say _that_! The +truth is, the modern "problematische Natur" has no charms for a +transparent and simple temperament like his. + +Steiniger has been playing most beautifully lately. She has given two +concerts of her own here, and has played at another. Then she rehearsed +with orchestra Mozart's B flat major concerto--the most difficult +concerto in the world, and oh, _so_ exquisite! Though I had long wished +to do so, I never had heard it before, and as I listened I felt as if I +never could leave Deppe until I could play _that_! I wish you could have +heard it. It is sown with difficulties--enough to make your hair stand +on end! Steiniger played it with an ease and perfection truly +astonishing. The notes seemed fairly to run out of her fingers for fun. +The last movement was Mozart all over, just as merry as a cricket!--I +doubt whether anybody can play this concerto adequately who has not +studied with Deppe. The beauty of his method is that the greatest +difficulties become play to you. + +I love to see Deppe direct the orchestra when Steiniger plays a concerto +of Mozart. His clear blue eyes dance in his head and look so sunny, and +he stands so light on his feet that it seems as if he would dance off +himself on the tips of his toes, with his bâton in his hand! He is the +incarnation of Mozart, just as Liszt and Joachim are of Beethoven, and +Tausig was of Chopin. He has a marvellously delicate musical +organization, and an instinct how things ought to be played which +amounts to second sight. Fräulein Steiniger said to him one day: "Herr +Deppe, I don't know why it is, but I can't make the opening bars of this +piece sound right. It doesn't produce the impression it ought." "I know +why," said Deppe. "It is because you don't strike the chord of G minor +before you begin,"--and so it was. When she struck the chord of G minor, +it was the right preparation, and brought you immediately into the mood +for what followed. It _fixed_ the key. + +Aside from music, Deppe, like all artists, has the most childlike +nature, and I think Mozart is so peculiarly sympathetic to him because +he has such a simple and sunny temperament himself. We made a beautiful +excursion the other day in carriages, through the hills, to a little +village far distant, where we drank coffee in the open air. Deppe, who +knows every foot of the ground about Pyrmont, which he has frequented +from his youth up, kept calling our attention to all the points of the +scenery over and over again with the greatest delight, quite forgetting +that he repeated the same thing fifty times. "That little village over +there is called Kleinberg. It has a school and a church, and the +pastor's name is Koehler," he would say to me first. Then he would +repeat it to every one in our carriage. Then he would stand up and call +it over to the carriage behind us. Then when he had got out he said it +to the assembled crowd, and as I walked on in advance with Fräulein +Estleben, the last thing I heard floating over the hill-top was, "The +pastor's name is Koehler,"--so I knew he was still instructing some one +in the fact. "I wonder how often Deppe has repeated that?" I said to +Fräulein Estleben. "At least fifty times," said she, laughing. "I'm +going back to him and ask him once more what the name of the pastor is." +So I went back, and said, "By the way, Herr Deppe, what did you say the +name of the pastor of that village is?" "_Koehler_," said dear old +Deppe, with great distinctness and with such simple good faith that I +felt reproached at having quizzed him, though the others could scarcely +keep their countenances, as they knew what I was after. + +I have been preparing for some time to give a concert of Chamber Music +in the salon of the hotel here, and expect it to take place a week from +to-day. My head feels quite _lame_ from so much practicing, the +consequence, I suppose, of so much listening. I am to play a Quintette, +Op. 87, in E major, by Hummel, for piano and strings, and a Beethoven +Sonata, Op. 12, in E flat, for violin and piano, and the other +instruments will play a Quartette by Haydn in between. It is a beautiful +little programme, I think--every piece perfect of its kind. If I succeed +in this concert as I hope, I shall probably listen to Deppe's implorings +and remain under his guidance another season. Deppe believes that one +_must_ go through successive steps of preparation before one is fitted +to attack the great concert works. I've found out (what he took good +care not to tell me in the beginning!) that his "course" is three +years!! and you can't hurry either him or his method. Your fingers have +got to grow into it.--I do not at all regret, with you, not having +hitherto played in concert; on the contrary, I think it providential +that I did not. You see, you and I started out with wholly impracticable +and ridiculous ideas. We thought that things could be done quickly. +Well, they _can't_ be done quickly and be worth anything. One must keep +an end in view for years and gradually work up to it. The length of time +spent in preparation has to be the same, whether you begin as a child +(which is the best, and indeed the only proper way), or whether you +begin after you have grown up. It is a ten years' labour, take it how +you will. + + * * * + + PYRMONT, _August 15, 1874_. + +My concert came off yesterday evening, and Deppe says it was a complete +success. I did not play any solos, after all, though I had prepared some +beautiful ones, for Deppe said the programme would be too long, and he +was not quite sure of my courage. "You'd be frightened, if you were a +_Herr Gott_!" said he; but, contrary to my usual habit, I wasn't +frightened in the least, and I think I did as well as such a shaky, +trembly concern as I, could have expected, particularly as my hands are +two little fiends who _won't_ play if they don't feel like it, do what I +will to make them!--My programme was _à la_ Joachim (!)--only three +pieces of Chamber Music:-- + + 1. Quintette, Op. 87, E major, Hummel. + 2. Quartette, G major, Haydn. + 3. Sonata for piano and violin, Op. 12, E flat. Beethoven. + +Deppe arranged the whole thing most practically. We had a large _salle_ +in the Hotel Bremen which was admirably proportioned, and a new grand +piano from Berlin. Deppe had only so many chairs placed as he had given +out invitations, and the consequence was that every chair was filled, +and there were no rows of empty seats. My "public" was very musical and +critical, and there were so many good judges there that I wonder I +wasn't nervous; but a sort of inspiration came to me at the moment. + +The musicians who accompanied me were exceedingly good ones for such a +place as Pyrmont, and my strictly _classic_ selections were received +with great favour by the audience! That quintette of Hummel's is a most +charming composition--so flowing and elegant--and one can display a good +deal of virtuosity in the last part of it. I played first and last, and +the quartette in between was performed by the stringed instruments +alone. After I had finished the quintette, Deppe, who was at the extreme +end of the hall, sent me word that I was "doing famously, and that he +was delighted," and this encouraged me so that my sonata went +beautifully, too. When it was over, ever so many people came up and +congratulated me, and Fräulein Timm, Deppe's head teacher in Hamburg, +even complimented me on my "extraordinary facility of execution." I +couldn't help laughing at that, with my stubborn hand which never will +do anything, and which only the most intense study has schooled--but in +truth I was quite surprised myself at the plausible way in which it went +over all difficulties! Quite a number of Deppe's scholars were present, +all of them critics and several of them beautiful pianists. Two nice +American girls, sisters, from the West, came on from Berlin on purpose +for my concert. They helped me dress, and presented me with an exquisite +bouquet. One of them is taking lessons of Deppe, and the other has a +great talent for drawing, and has been two years studying in Berlin. She +says she has only made a "beginning" now, and that she wishes to study +"indefinitely" yet.--So it is in Art! I think her heads are excellent +already. + +After the concert was over, Deppe gave me a little champagne supper, +together with Fräuleins Timm, Steiniger, and these two young ladies. +When he poured out the wine he said he was going to propose a toast to +two ladies; one of them, of course, was myself, "and the other," said +he, "is in America, namely, the friend of Fräulein Fay, whom I judge to +be a woman of genius, so truly and rightly does she feel about art (I've +translated H's letters to him), and so nobly has she sympathized with +and stood by Fräulein Fay.--To Mrs. A., whose acquaintance I long to +make!"--You may be sure I drank to _that_ toast with enthusiasm. Ah, it +was a pleasant evening, after so many years of fruitless toil! The fat +and jolly old landlord came himself to put me into the carriage and to +say that everybody in the audience had expressed their pleasure and +gratification at my performance. I rather regret now that I did not play +my solos, but perhaps it is just as well to leave them until another +time. I have "sprung over one little mound"--to use Deppe's simile--and +got an idea of the impetus that will be necessary to "carry me over the +mountain." + + * * * + + PYRMONT, _September 4, 1874_. + +After the unwonted exaltation of the success of my little concert, I +have been suffering a corresponding reaction, partly because Fräulein +Timm, Deppe's Hamburg assistant, with whom I am now studying, began her +instructions, as teachers always do, by chucking me into a deeper slough +of despond than usual. Consequently, I haven't been very bright, though +I am gradually coming up to the surface again, for I'm pretty hard to +drown! + +Fräulein Timm belongs to the single sisterhood, but is one of the fresh +and placid kind, and as neat as wax. She's got a great big brain and a +remarkable gift for teaching, for which she has a _passion_. I quite +adore her when she gets on her spectacles, for then she looks the +personification of Sagacity! She has been associated with Deppe for +years in teaching, and "keeps all his sayings and ponders them in her +heart." Indeed, she knows his ideas almost better than he does himself, +and carries on the whole circle of pupils that he left in Hamburg when +he came to Berlin. Every now and then he runs down to see how they are +getting on, gives them all lessons, reviews what they have done, and +brings Fräulein Timm all the new pieces he has discovered and fingered. +She also comes occasionally to Berlin to see him, takes a lesson every +day, fills herself with as many new ideas as possible, and then returns +to her post. Together, they form a very strong pair, and I think it a +capital illustration of your theory that men ought to associate women +with them in their work, and that "men should _create_, and women +_perfect_." + +Deppe makes Fräulein Timm and Fräulein Steiniger his partners and +associates in his ideas, and the consequence is they add all their +ingenuity to impart them to others. This spares him much of the tedious +technical work, and leaves him free for the higher spheres of art, as +they take the beginners and prepare them for him. _He_ has made _them_ +magnificent teachers, and they employ their gifts to further _him_. I +don't doubt that through them his method will be perpetuated, and even +if he should die it would not be lost to the world. On the other hand, +he has given them something to live for.--Curious that the +_practicalness_ of this association with women doesn't strike the +masculine mind oftener! + +So I am going down to Hamburg to study for a time with this Fräulein +Timm, as I think she will develop my hand quicker than Deppe, even. +Deppe has always urged me to it, but I never would do it, as I did not +know her personally, and did not wish to leave him. Now that I have +tried her, however, I find he was right, as he _always_ is! At present +she is throwing her whole weight upon my wrist, which I hope will get +limber under it! She has an obstinacy and a perseverance in sticking at +you that drive you almost wild, but make you learn "lots" in the end. I +think my grand trouble all these years has been a stiff wrist and a +heavy arm. I have borne down too heavily on wrist and arm, whereas the +whole weight and power must be just in the tips of the fingers, and the +wrist and arm must be quite light and free, the hand turning upon the +wrist as if it were a pivot. + +Pyrmont is an exquisite little place, and I regret to leave it. At first +I almost perished with loneliness, but now that I have a few +acquaintances here I am enjoying it. It is a fashionable watering place, +but chiefly visited by ladies. There are about a hundred women to one +man! The first week I was here I lived at a Herr S.'s, but finding it +too expensive I looked up another lodging and am now living with a jolly +old maid. I like living with old maids. I think they are much neater +than married women, and they make you more comfortable. As the season is +now over, this one's house is quite empty, and it is exquisitely kept. I +took two rooms in the third story, small but very cozy, and with a +lovely view of the hills. + +We have just had the loveliest illumination I ever saw. It was one +Sunday evening--"Golden Sunday" they call it here, though why they +_should_ call it so, I know not. I accepted the information, however, +without inquiry into first causes, and went out in the evening to +promenade in the Allée with the rest. The Allée is not all on a level, +but descends gradually from the springs to a fountain which is at the +opposite end. Rows and rows of Japanese lanterns were festooned across +the trees. As you walked down the path, you saw the festoons one below +the other. The fountain was illuminated with gas jets behind the water. +You could not see the water till you got close up, and at a distance +only the rows of gas jets were apparent. As you neared it, however, the +watery veil seemed flung over them, like the foamy tulle over a bride. +It was very fascinating to look at, and I kept receding a few paces and +then returning. As I receded, the watery veil would disappear, and as I +approached it would again take form. It reminded me of some people's +characters, of which you see the bright points from the first, and think +you know them so well, but when you draw closer, even in the moments of +greatest intimacy, you always feel a veil between you and them--a thin, +impalpable something which you cannot annihilate, even though you may +see _through_ it. + +We walked up and down the Allée a long time listening to the orchestra, +which was playing. The magnificent great trees looked more beautiful +than ever, with their lower boughs lit up by the lanterns, and their +upper ones disappearing mysteriously into shadow. At last the tapers in +the lanterns burned out one after another, the avenue was wrapped in +gloom, and we finished this poetic evening in the usual prosaic manner +by returning home and going to bed! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + Music in Hamburg. Studying Chamber Music. Absence of Religion in + Germany. South Americans. Deppe once more. A Concert Début. + Postscript. + + + HAMBURG, _February 1, 1875_. + +Hamburg is a lovely city, though I _am_ having such a dreadfully dreary +and stupid time here--partly because my boarding-place is so intensely +disagreeable, and partly because I made up my mind when I came to make +no acquaintances and to do nothing but study. I have stuck to my +resolution, though I'm not sure it is not a mistake, for there is a most +elegant and luxurious society in this ancestral town of ours.[J] + +Life is solid and material here, however, and music is at a low ebb. The +Philharmonic concerts are wretched, and nobody goes to even the few +piano concerts there are. That little Laura Kahrer, now Frau Rappoldi, +that I heard in Weimar at Liszt's, has been wanting to come here with +her husband, who is an eminent violinist, but she has not dared to do +it, because all the musicians tell her she would not make her expenses. +She played at the Philharmonic, too, but since then they won't have any +more piano playing at the Philharmonic. Nobody cares for it, unless +Bülow or Rubinstein or Clara Schumann are the performers. I thought Frau +Rappoldi played magnificently, but I was the only person who _did_ think +so. She made a dead failure here. Everybody was down on her. As to the +criticism, it was about like this: "Frau Rappoldi played quite prettily +and in a lady-like manner, but she had no tone, etc." Poor thing! The +next day when Schubert went to see her she wept bitterly, and well she +might. Schubert is one of the directors of the Philharmonic, and it was +through him she got the chance of playing. He, too, felt awfully cut up +at her want of success. "That is what one gets," said he to me, "by +recommending people. If they don't succeed, _you_ get all the blame for +it." He felt he had burnt his fingers! I think the whole secret of Frau +Rappoldi's want of success was that she did not _look_ pretty. She was +so dowdily dressed, and her hair looked like a Feejee Islander's. People +laughed at her before she began. Too true!--that "dress makes the +woman."[K] + +Deppe's darling Fannie Warburg gave a concert here last month, and she, +also, got a pretty poor criticism, and for the same reason, viz.: people +haven't the musical sense to appreciate her--at least in my opinion. The +action of her hands on the piano is grace itself, and the elasticity of +her wrist is wonderful. Her touch completely realizes Deppe's ideal of +"letting the notes fall from the finger-tips like drops of water," and +she executes better with the left hand, if that be possible, than with +the right! At any rate, there is _no_ difference. It is the most +heavenly enjoyment to hear her, and you feel as if you would like to +have her go on forever. And yet, I don't believe she will make a great +career. She has not fire enough to make the public appreciate the +immensity of her performance. No rush--no _abandon_! She has no +_presence_ either, but is a timid, meek, childlike little +maiden--docility itself, but a _made_ player, as it were, not a +spontaneous one. Such is life! To me, her playing is the purest +music--"_die reine Musik_"--and the bigger the hall the more that _tone_ +of hers rolls out and fills it! + + * * * + + HAMBURG, _March 1, 1875_. + +I wish I could write up Deppe's system for publication, but it is a very +difficult thing to give any adequate idea of. Fräulein Timm tells me it +is only comparatively recently that he has perfected it himself to its +present point (though he has long had the conception of it), and that +accounts for its not being known. He was completely buried in Hamburg, +where there is no scope for art. I believe his ambition is to found a +School of this exquisitely pure and perfect and almost idealized +piano-playing, which may serve as a counterpoise to the warmer and more +sensuous prevailing one--_sculpture_ as contrasted with _painting_! + +I have been chiefly studying _Kammer-Musik_ (Chamber Music) this +winter--that is, trios, quartettes, etc. Fräulein Timm is giving me such +a training as I never had before. She has the most astonishing talent +for teaching, and has reduced it to a science. I don't play anything up +to tempo under her--always slow, slow, _slow_. She really dissects every +tone, and shows me when and why it doesn't sound well. My whole +attention is now bent upon _tone_. Ah, M., _that's_ the thing in +playing!--To bring out the _soul_ there is in the key simply by touching +it, as the great masters do.--It is the pianist's highest art, though +amid the dazzle of piano pyrotechnics the public often forget it. + +I am just finishing Beethoven's third Trio, Op. 1. The last movement is +the loveliest thing! It makes me think of a wood in spring filled with +birds. One minute you hear a lot of gossiping little sparrows twittering +and chippering, and then comes some rare wild bird with a sort of +cadence, and then come others and whistle and call. It is bewitching, +and the most perfect imitation of nature imaginable; gay--_so_ gay! as +only Beethoven can be when he begins to play. Everything is on the wing. +It is, of course, exceedingly difficult, because, like all this pure, +classic music, to make any effect it has to be executed with the utmost +perfection. I am so infatuated with it that when I get through +practicing it, I feel as if I were tipsy! + +These Beethoven trios are a perfect mine in themselves. Each one seems +to be entirely different from all the rest. There are twelve in all, and +Deppe wants me to learn them all. Think what a piece of work! This +enormous amount of literature that you must have to form a +repertoire--the trios, quartettes, quintettes, concertos, etc., it is +that makes it so long before one is a finished artist. And then you must +consider the hours and hours that go to waste on _studies_, just to get +your hand into a condition to play these masterpieces. Oh, the +arduousness of it is incalculable! I often ask myself, "What demon has +tempted me here?" as I sit and drudge at the piano. I play all day, take +a walk with L. in the afternoon, and at night tumble into bed and sleep +like a log--that is, when my hardest of beds and shivering room will +_let_ me sleep. That is my life, day after day. I only see the people of +the house at meals. + +I am the only lady in this family. All the other boarders are very young +men, almost boys, who are here to learn German or commerce. There are +three South Americans, one Portugese, one Brazilian, one Russian and one +Frenchman. I hear Spanish and French all the while, but no English, and +with the German it is very confusing.--I feel very sorry for all these +young fellows, their lives are so bare and disagreeable, and so wholly +devoid of any influence that can make them better or happier. As for our +landlady, it would take a Balzac to do justice to such a combination. +She is a good housekeeper. The cooking is excellent, and my room (when +warm) is pleasant. Indeed, the Hamburg standard of housekeeping is much +higher than in Berlin. Things are _much_ daintier. But her power of +making you physically and mentally uncomfortable in other ways is +unsurpassed. Were it not that my stay is indefinite, and that I have +already moved once, I would not remain here. As it is, I prefer putting +up with it to the trouble and expense of changing; beside which, I have +found that when once you have left your own home-circle, you have to +bear, as a rule, with at least one intensely disagreeable person in +every house. + +My opinion of human nature has not risen since I came abroad, and I +think that this winter has quite cured me of my natural tendency to +skepticism.--I now realize too well what people's characters, both men +and women, may become without religion either in themselves or in those +about them. I suppose there _is_ religion in Germany, but _I_ have seen +very little of it, either in Protestants or Catholics, and the results I +consider simply dreadful! You see, there is _no_ adequate motive to +check the indulgence of _any_ impulse--I have come to the conclusion +that jealousy is the national vice of the Germans. Everybody is jealous +of everybody else, no matter how absurdly or causelessly. Old women are +jealous of young ones, and even sisters in the same family are jealous +of each other to a degree that I couldn't have believed, had I not seen +it. + + * * * + + HAMBURG, _Easter Sunday, 1875_. + +With regard to playing in concert, I find myself doubting whether on +general principles it is best to get one's whole musical training under +one master only, as Fannie Warburg, for instance, has done; for my +experience teaches me that though nearly all masters can give you +something, none can give you everything. If, with my present light, I +could begin my study over again, I should first stay three years with +Deppe, in order to endow the spirit of music that I hope is within me, +with the outward form and perfection of an artist. Next, I should study +a year with Kullak, to give my playing a brilliant _concert dress_, and +finally, I would spend two seasons with Liszt, in order to add the last +ineffable graces--(for never, _never_ should an artist complete a +musical course without going to LISZT, while he is on this earth!)--The +trouble is, however, that one master always feels hurt if you leave him +for another! No one can bear the imputation that he _can't_ "give you +everything." + +But in truth I am getting very impatient to be at home where I can study +by myself, and take as much time as I think necessary to work up my +pieces. Deppe and Fräulein Timm are like Kullak in one thing. They never +will give me time enough, but hurry me on so from one thing to another, +that it is impossible for me to prepare a programme. So I have given up +my plan of a concert in Berlin this spring. They have one set of ideas +and I another, and I see I shall never be able to play in public until I +abandon masters and start out on my own course. Two people never think +exactly alike. Masters can put you on the road, but they can't make you +go. You must do that for yourself. As Dr. V. says, "If you want to do a +thing you have got to _keep_ doing it. You mustn't stop--certainly not!" +Concert-playing, like everything else, is _routine_, and has got to be +learned by little and little, and perhaps, with many half-failures. But +if the "great public" will only tolerate one as a pupil long enough, +eventually, one must succeed. At any rate, IT is probably the best and +the only "master" for me now! + +On Wednesday I return for a while to Berlin, to the American +boarding-house, No. 15 Tauben Strasse, whither you can all direct as +formerly. This winter has been rather a contrast to last. Then I lived +entirely among North Americans, whereas here I am almost exclusively +with South Americans. There are any number of these latter in Hamburg, +and you have no idea how fascinating many of them are--so handsome and +so bright. They all have a talent for music and dancing. Their music is +entirely of a light character, but they have _rhythm_ and grace in a +remarkable degree. When I hear them play I always think of George +Sands's description in her novel "_Malgré-tout_" of the artist Abel--the +hero of the book, and a great violinist. She says, "_Il racla un air sur +son violon avec entrain_."--That is just what these South Americans +do--"_racler!_" They all play the piano just as with us the negro plays +the fiddle, without instruction, apparently, and simply because "it is +their nature to." I saw at once where Gottschalk got his "Banjo" and +"Bananier," and the peculiar style of his compositions generally, and +since I've met so many South Americans I can readily imagine why he +spent so much of his time in South America. I long to go there myself. I +think it must be a fascinating place for an artist. + +One of the South Americans here at the house is a boy of fifteen, named +Juan di Livramento, or, I should say, Juan Moreiro Aranjo di Livramento! +(They all have about a dozen names in the grandiloquent style of the +Spaniards.) This boy is a curious youngster. He is tall and lithe, with +the most magnificent dark eyes I ever saw or conceived, thick silky +black hair, all in a tumble about his head, a delicate and very +expressive face, and a clear olive complexion--a perfect type of a +Spaniard. He seems born to dance the Bolero, like Belinda, in Mrs. +Edwards's novel. It is the prettiest thing to see him do it--and in fact +he does it on all occasions without any reference to propriety, being an +utterly lawless individual. He frequently gets up from the dinner-table, +throws his napkin over his shoulders, snaps his thumbs, and begins a +dance in the corner of the room, between the courses. It has got to be +such an every-day thing that nobody looks surprised or pays any +attention to him. We dine late, and as there are a good many boarders, +it takes some time always to change the plates. Juan, who is like so +much mercury, never can sit still during these intervals. When asked to +ring the bell for the servant, he will spring up like a shot, give it a +violent pull, and then take advantage of being up to dance in the +corner, or at least to cut a few antics, fling his leg over the back of +his chair, and come down astride of it. This is his usual mode of +resuming his seat. + +On the days when he doesn't dance, he keeps up a continual talking. He +will rattle on in Spanish till Herr S. gets desperate, and tries to +reduce him to order. It is a rule that German must be spoken at table, +but Juan thinks it sufficient if he applies the rule only so far as not +to speak Spanish, his native language. He goes to school where, of +course, he learns English and French, and he is always trying to get +off some remarks in these languages. He speaks all wrong, but that does +not cause him the least embarrassment.--On Sundays especially is Juan +perfectly irrepressible, for then Frau S. goes to dine and spend the +evening with her parents, and Herr S. is left to maintain order. He is +an indulgent old man, and very fond of Juan, so that the latter has not +the least fear of him, and I nearly die trying to keep my face straight +when they have one of their scenes. + +"You shall NOT speak Spanish at the table," said poor old S. the other +day, in a rage. Spanish is jargon to him, and Juan had been talking it +for some time at the top of his voice across Herr S., to his friend +Candido, who sat opposite. Juan knew very well that that meant he must +speak German, but instead of that he began in foreign languages, and +said to Herr S., in English, "Do you spoke Russish (Do you speak +Russian)?" + +Herr S., to whom English is as unintelligible as Spanish, naturally +making no reply to this brilliant remark, Juan continued--"'Spring is +Coming,' Poem by James K. Blake," and then he began to recite with much +gesticulation-- + + "Spring is coming, spring is coming, + Birds are singing, insects humming; + Flowers are peeping from their sleeping, + Streams escape from winter's keeping, etc." + +I won't pretend to say what the rest of it was, as his pronunciation was +utterly unintelligible. Herr S. rolled up his eyes and made no further +protest, for he found he only got "out of the frying-pan into the +fire," Juan having a historical anecdote called "The Dead Watch," which +he occasionally substitutes for the poem. + +After dinner he generally has an affectionate turn, and goes round the +table shaking hands with those still seated, or putting his arm around +their necks, and then he seems like some gentle wild animal which comes +and rubs its head up against you, and it is impossible to help loving +him. As soon, however, as T. or anybody thrums a waltz on the piano, he +instantly throws himself into the attitude to dance. He is so very light +on his feet that you don't hear him, and often I am surprised on looking +up, without thinking, to see Juan poised on one toe like a ballet +dancer, and his great eyes shining soft on me like two suns. It is most +peculiar. There are _no_ eyes like the Spanish eyes. Not only have they +so much _fire_, but when their owners are in a sentimental mood, they +can throw a languor and a sort of droop into them that is irresistible. +This is the way Juan does, and though he is too young to be sentimental, +he _looks_ as if he were. One minute he is all ablaze, and the next +perfectly melting.--The other day Frau S. took him to task for his +extreme animation.--"_Junge_," (German for "Boy"), "you mustn't scream +so all over the house. You really are a nuisance." Juan was offended at +this, and began to defend himself. "Why do you scold me," he said. "I'm +always in good humour. I never sulk or find fault with anything. _Ja, +immer vergnügt_ (Yes, always in a good humour), and ready to amuse +everybody, and I never get angry." Frau S. admitted that was true, but +at the same time suggested it would be well for him to remember we were +not all deaf. Juan withdrew in dudgeon.--Well, I suppose you are tired +of hearing about him, but these South Americans are a type by +themselves, and I felt as if I must touch off one of them for the +benefit of the family. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _April 18, 1875_. + +Since my return I have been enjoying extremely what I suppose I must +consider my last lessons with Deppe. After studying with Fräulein Timm I +know much better what he is driving at. The technique seems to be +unfolding to me like a ribbon. So all her _maulings_ were to some +purpose! Yesterday I played him a sonata of Beethoven's and he said, +"God grant that you may still be left to me some time longer! Now you +are really beginning to be my scholar."--And indeed, having studied his +technique so long with Fräuleins Timm and Steiniger, it does seem hard +that I have to leave him! How I wish I could stay on indefinitely and +give myself up to his purely _musical_ side and get the benefit of all +his deep and beautiful ideas. There never _was_ such a teacher! If I +could only come up to his standard I should be perfectly happy. Lucky +girl--that Steiniger! Think of it! She has _nine_ concertos that she +could get up for concert any minute. That's the crushing kind of +repertoire he gives his pupils--so exhaustive and complete in every +department. He knows the whole piano literature, and is continually +fishing up some new or old pearl or other to surprise one with. + +I find Deppe is getting to be much more recognized in Berlin this year +than he was before. He has just been directing a new opera here which +has created quite a sensation, and he is continually engaged in some +great work. Fortunate that I found him out when I did! for he takes +fewer pupils than ever. He says he can't teach people who are not +sympathetic to him. The other day he presented a beautiful overture of +his own composition to the Duke of Mecklenburg, who accepted it in +person and sent Deppe an exquisite pin in token of recognition. When +simple little Deppe gets _that_ stuck in his scarf, he will be a +terrific swell! + +Now for a piece of news! I was paying my French teacher, Mademoiselle +D., a call one evening last week, and I played for her and for a friend +of hers who is very musical, and who gives lessons herself. She at once +said very decidedly that I "ought to be heard in concert." Her brother +is the director of the Philharmonic Society in a place called +Frankfurt-an-der-Oder--a little city not far from here. What should she +do but write to her brother about me, and what should _he_ do but +immediately write up for me to come down and play in a Philharmonic +concert there the first week in May. As I have been so anxious to play +in a concert before leaving Germany, and yet have seen no way to do it, +I am going, of course, and am most grateful to his sister for thinking +of it. But it is always the Unexpected that helps you out! + + * * * + + BERLIN, _May 13, 1875_. + +Well, dear, my little début was a decided success, and I had one encore, +beside being heartily applauded after every piece. I went on to +Frankfurt on Monday morning, and when I got there Herr Oertling, the +Philharmonic Director, was at the station to meet me with a droschkie. +We drove to the Deutches Haus, an excellent hotel, where I was shown +into a large and comfortable room. Here I rested until dinner time, and +after dinner, about five o'clock, Herr Oertling came back. He took me to +the house of a musical friend of his who was to lend me his grand piano, +and there we tried our sonata. As soon as Oertling touched his violin I +saw that he was a superior artist, and that immediately inspired me. His +playing carried me right along, and I think I played well. At all +events, he seemed entirely satisfied, and said, "We could have played +that sonata without rehearsing it." After we finished the sonata, I +played for about an hour, all sorts of things. There were quite a number +of people present to judge of my powers. Herr W., the owner of the +piano, was a remarkable judge of music, and made some excellent +criticisms and suggestions. We stayed there to supper, but I went back +to the hotel early and went to bed about half-past nine, where I slept +like a log till eight the next morning. + +After breakfast Oertling came to take me to try the pianos of a +celebrated manufacturer of uprights. I played there three or four hours. +The maker's name was Gruss, and his pianos were the best uprights I had +ever seen; nearly as powerful as a grand, and with a superb tone and +action. On the wall was a testimonial from Henselt, framed. It seems +Henselt goes to Frankfurt every year to visit a Russian lady there, who +is the grandee of the place and a great patroness of artists. In the +afternoon, Oertling came for me to go and rehearse in the hall. +Everything went beautifully, and I returned to the hotel in good +spirits. By the time I was dressed for the concert, which was to begin +at seven, Oertling appeared again, in evening costume, and presented me +with a bouquet. We drove to the hall through a pouring rain. It was +crowded, notwithstanding, for he had had the assurance to print that the +concert was "to be brilliant through the performance of an American +Virtuosin, named Miss Amy Fay. This young lady has studied with the +greatest masters, and has had the most perfect success everywhere in her +concert tours!" Did you ever!--You can imagine how I felt on reading it +and seeing that I was expected to perform as if I had been on the stage +all my life! Oertling had arranged the programme judiciously. Our sonata +came _first_, so that I plunged right in and didn't have to wait and +tremble! Then came two pieces by the orchestra; next, my three solos in +a row, and a symphony of Haydn closed the programme. The sonata went off +very smoothly. In my first solo I occasionally missed a note, but my +second was without slip, and my third--Chopin's Study in Sixths--was +encored, though I took the tempo too fast. However, the Frau Excellency +von X. said she had frequently heard it from Henselt, but that I played +it "just as well as he did." That's absurd, of course, though not bad +considered as a _compliment_! They all said, "What a pity Henselt wasn't +here!" I said to myself, "What a blessing Henselt wasn't!"--though I +would give much to see him, as he is the greatest piano virtuoso in the +world after Liszt. + +After the concert Oertling and some of the musicians accompanied me to +the hotel, where I was obliged to sit at table and have my health drunk +in champagne till two o'clock in the morning! for you know when the +Germans once begin that sort of thing there's no end to it. They drank +to my health, and then they drank to my future performance in the first +Philharmonic next season, and then they drank to our frequent reunion, +etc., etc. When they had finished I had to respond. So I toasted the +Herr Director and I toasted the piano-maker, and I toasted the +orchestra, and what not. At last I was released and could go to my room. +The next morning I left for Berlin, which I reached in time for dinner, +and as soon as I appeared at table the boarders saluted me with a burst +of applause!--I found it a very pleasant _finale_. + +I translate for you the criticism from the _Frankfurter Zeitung und +Allgemeiner Anzeiger_ for May 11. Herr Oertling sent it to me yesterday: + +"The Philharmonic concert which took place last Friday evening, must be +considered as an excellent recommendation of the active members of that +association to the public. For not only did the playing of the pianist, +Fräulein Amy Fay, give great pleasure to all those who love and +understand music, but there was also no fault to be found with the +interpretations of the orchestra. * * * With regard to the performance +of Fräulein Fay, we were equally charmed by her clear and certain touch +and by her conception of the various solo pieces she played. The concert +opened with the Sonata in E flat major for violin and piano by +Beethoven. The whole effect of the work was a very sympathetic and +satisfactory one, and showed a thoughtful interpretation on the part of +the artist. The beauty of her conception was especially evident in the +Raff "Capriccio," and in Hiller's "Zur Guitarre," given as an encore +upon her recall by the audience, and we can but congratulate the teacher +of the young lady, Herr Ludwig Deppe, of Berlin, upon such a scholar." + + * * * + +[Two weeks after the concert, the relative to whom most of the foregoing +letters were written, joined the writer at Berlin, and the +correspondence came to an end. In the following September, after an +absence of six years, my sister returned home.--My sister hopes that no +American girl who reads this book will be influenced by it rashly to +attempt what she herself undertook, viz.: to be trained in Europe from +an amateur into an artist. Its pages have afforded glimpses, only, of +the trials and difficulties with which a girl may meet when studying art +alone in a foreign land, but they should not therefore be underrated. +Piano teaching has developed immensely in America since the date of the +first of the foregoing letters, and not only such celebrities as Dr. +William Mason, Mr. Wm. H. Sherwood, and Mrs. Rivé King, but various +other brilliant or exquisite pianists in this country are as able to +train pupils for the technical demands of the concert-room as any +masters that are to be found abroad. American teachers best understand +the American temperament, and therefore are by far the best for American +pupils until they have got beyond the pupil stage.--Not manual skill, +but musical insight and conception, wider and deeper musical +comprehension, and "concert style" are what the young artist should now +go to seek in that marvellous and only real home of music--GERMANY.]--ED. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] This was written before the full development of the Thomas +Orchestra. The writer had heard it only in its infancy. + +[B] Christ is risen out of bonds and death. He promises joy and blessing +to all the world, which for this glorifies Him. + +[C] In Mr. Longfellow's Poems of Places is a translation of Gerok's poem +on the subject:-- + + "Over three hundred were counted that day + Riderless horses who joined in the fray, + Over three hundred saddles, O horrible sight! + Were emptied at once in that terrible fight." + +[D] This letter, which was published in _Dwight's Journal of Music_, is +the one alluded to on p. 193. + +[E] Liszt was born in 1811. + +[F] In German, the fourth and fifth fingers. + +[G] See p. 220. + +[H] See p. 294. + +[I] Now Mrs. Sherwood. + +[J] The writer's grandmother was the daughter of a leading Hamburg +merchant who fled with his family to America when Napoleon entered it. + +[K] Frau Rappoldi is now a celebrity. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Music-Study in Germany, by Amy Fay + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY *** + +***** This file should be named 37322-8.txt or 37322-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/3/2/37322/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Music-Study in Germany + from the Home Correspondence of Amy Fay + +Author: Amy Fay + +Editor: Fay Peirce + +Release Date: September 5, 2011 [EBook #37322] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<p class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="347" height="550" alt="image of the book's cover" title="image of the book's cover" /> +</p> + +<table border="2" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CONTENTS">CONTENTS</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p class="cb">MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY</p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/colophon.png" width="120" height="38" alt="colophon" title="colophon" /> +</p> + +<p class="cb"> +<small>THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br /> +NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS<br /> +ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO<br /> +MACMILLAN & CO., L<small>IMITED</small><br /> +LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA<br /> +MELBOURNE<br /> +THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, L<small>TD</small>,<br /> +TORONTO</small> +</p> + +<h1> +MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY</h1> + +<p class="cb"><small>FROM</small><br /> +<br /> +THE HOME CORRESPONDENCE<br /> +OF AMY FAY</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p class="cb">EDITED BY<br /> +<br /> +MRS. FAY PEIRCE<br /> +Author of "C<small>O-OPERATIVE</small> H<small>OUSEKEEPING</small>"</p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left">"The light that never was on sea or land."</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><small>WORDSWORTH</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"Pour admirer assez il faut admirer trop, et un peu d'illusion</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">est necessaire au bonheur."</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><small>CHERBULIEZ</small></td></tr> +</table> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p class="c">W<small>ITH A</small> P<small>REFATORY</small> N<small>OTE</small><br /> +B<small>Y</small> O. G. SONNECK</p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<p class="cb">NEW YORK<br /> +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br /> +1922<br /> +<br /> +<i><small>All rights reserved</small></i></p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p class="c"><small>C<small>OPYRIGHT</small>,<br /> +JANSEN, McCLURG & COMPANY<br /> +1880.<br /> +———<br /> +<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1896,<br /> +By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.</span><br /> +<br /> +Printed August, 1896; reprinted June, 1897;<br /> +September, 1900; February, 1903; March, 1905;<br /> +June, 1908; July, 1909; August, 1913; April, 1922.<br /> +<br /> +Norwood Press:<br /> +Berwick & Smith, Norwood, Mass., U. S. A.<br /></small> +</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<h3><a name="PREFATORY_NOTE" id="PREFATORY_NOTE"></a>PREFATORY NOTE.</h3> + +<p>C<small>OMPARATIVELY</small> few books on music have enjoyed the +distinction of reissue. Twenty-one editions is an amazing +record for a book of so narrow a subject as "Music +Study in Germany." The case of Miss Amy Fay's volume +becomes all the more unusual, if one considers that +her letters were written only for home, not for a public +audience and further that within twenty years from the +year of first publication, her observations had become +more or less obsolete.</p> + +<p>The Germany of the years 1869-1875 was quite different +from the Germany of 1900 and certainly of 1912, +even down to German table-manners. The earlier +"Spiessbürgertum" of which Miss Fay gives such entertaining +glimpses even in high quarters with their pomp +and circumstance, was rapidly being replaced, at least +outwardly, by the more cosmopolitan culture of the <i>fin +de siècle</i>, not to mention the ambition for political, industrial +and commercial "Weltmacht" in a nation +thitherto known, perhaps too romantically, as a nation +of "Denker und Dichter."</p> + +<p>Most of the heroes of the book are long since dead, +Miss Fay included, who died in 1921. While even +as late as 1890, Miss Fay's volume could have been +used as a guide of orientation by the would-be student of +music in Germany, certainly it could no longer serve +such a purpose during the years just prior to the war, +when the lone American student of her book who despised +Germany and everything German was definitely in the +ascendency. In other words, her personal observations +had ceased to be applicable except in certain details of +ambient and had passed into the realm of autobiography +valuable for historical reading. As a piece of historical +literature proper, I doubt that the book would have survived +the war, because it is lamentably true that the average +American music-student or even cultured lover of music +is not particularly interested in musical history as such.</p> + +<p>To this must be added the indisputable fact that +"music study in Germany" or in France, for that matter, +had become a mere matter of personal taste and predilection, +and was not a necessity as in the days of Miss +Fay's amusing experiments with this or that German +teacher of renown. An endless stream of excellent European +artists and teachers had poured into America +since then, augmented by the equally broad stream of +native Americans who had learned their <i>métier</i> abroad. +Music study in America thus became an easy matter and +many an aspiring virtuoso would have done more wisely +by staying and studying at home, instead of venturing +to a European country with its different language, its +different temperament, its different mode of living, customs +and so forth. Germany, in particular, is still a +"marvellous home of music," to quote an editorial remark +of Miss Fay's sister, but it is no longer the "only +real home of music," thanks precisely to such artists as +Miss Amy Fay herself.</p> + +<p>To point out the radical change in conditions in that +respect is one thing, quite another to deny, as some rather +zealotic patriots do, that Europe, Germany included, can +still give the American music-student something which +he does not have at home quite in the same manner. Debate +on that subject is futile. Let the American music-student +at some time in his career, but only when he is +ripe for further study in a foreign country, sojourn a few +years in Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, Vienna, Rome, +London, and he will profitably encounter, whether it be +to his taste or not, that indefinable something which the +old world in matters of life, art, and art-life possessed as +peculiarly its own in 1870, still possesses to-day, and will +possess for many, many years to come.</p> + +<p>What, then, gives to Miss Fay's book its vitality? +What is it that justifies the publisher in keeping the book +accessible for the benefit of those who wish to study music +in Germany instead of elsewhere or of those even who +study music in America?</p> + +<p>Of course, there is first of all the charm of Miss Fay's +own personality, the charm of her observations intimately, +entertainingly, and shrewdly expressed. That +makes for good reading. Incidentally, it teaches a student-reader +to be observant, which unfortunately many +musicians are not, even in matters of technique on their +chosen instrument. Secondly, the seriousness of purpose +of the authoress, the determination to improve her +understanding of art and technique to the very limit of +her natural ability, will act as a stimulating tonic for him +or her who despairs of ever conquering the often so forbidding<a name="page_000" id="page_000"></a> +difficulties of music. The book will teach patience +to Americans, patience and endurance in endeavor, +qualities which are none too frequent in us. Young +America forgets too often that the <i>Gradus ad Parnassum</i> +is not only steep; it is long and rough.</p> + +<p>There is furthermore in these letters that respect for +solid accomplishment of others, that reverential attitude +toward the great in art and toward art itself, without +which no musician, however talented, will ever reach the +commanding heights of art. There permeates these +letters the enthusiasm of youth, that perhaps sometimes +overshoots its mark but for which most of us would gladly +exchange the more critical attitude of maturer years. +For we learn to appreciate sooner or later that enthusiasm +is the propelling force and the refreshing source of inspiration. +Finally, born of all these elements there appear +on the pages of Miss Fay's letters such fascinating +pen-portraits as that of her revered master, Franz Liszt, +the incomparable. Turning the pages of the volume to +refresh my memory and impression of it, I confess that +I skipped quite a few because their interest seemed so +remote and personal, but I found myself absorbing every +word Miss Fay had to say in her chapters about Liszt and +his Weimar circle. An enjoyable experience which one +may safely recommend to those who desire first-hand +impressions of the golden days of pianism in Germany, +of the romantic, indeed almost legendary figure of Franz +Liszt, and consequently a touch of the stuff out of which +art-novels are made, into the bargain.</p> + +<p class="r">O. G. S<small>ONNECK</small><br /> +</p> + +<h3>PREFACE.</h3> + +<p class="cb">——</p> + +<p>I<small>N</small> preparing for the public letters which were written +only for home, I have hoped that some readers would find in +them the charm of style which the writer's friends fancy +them to possess; that others would think the description of +her masters amid their pupils, and especially Liszt, worth +preserving; while piano students would be grateful for the +information that an analysis of the piano technique has been +made, such as very greatly to diminish the difficulties of the +instrument.</p> + +<p>How much of Herr Deppe's piano "method" is original +with himself, pianists must decide. That he has at least +made an invaluable <i>résumé</i> of all or most of their secrets, my +sister believes no student of the instrument who fairly and +conscientiously examines into the matter will deny.</p> + +<p class="r">M. FAY PEIRCE.</p> + +<p>C<small>HICAGO</small>, Dec., 1880.</p> + +<p><a name="page_002" id="page_002"></a></p> + +<p><a name="page_003" id="page_003"></a></p> + +<h3>PREFACE<br /> +TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.</h3> + +<p class="cb">——</p> + +<p>M<small>ISS</small> F<small>AY'S</small> little book has been so popular in her own +country as to have gone through half a dozen editions, and +even in German, into which it was translated soon after its +first appearance, it has had much success. It is strange that +it has not been already published in England, where music +excites so much attention, and where works on musical subjects +are beginning to form a distinct branch of literature. +This is the more remarkable because it is thoroughly readable +and amusing, which books on music too rarely are. +The freshness and truth of the letters is not to be denied. +We may laugh at the writer's enthusiasm, at the readiness +with which she changes her methods and gives up all that +she has already learnt at the call of each fresh teacher, at +the certainty with which every new artist is announced as +quite the best she ever heard, and at the glowing and confident +predictions—not, alas, apparently always realised. +But no one can laugh at her indomitable determination, +and the artistic earnestness with which she makes the most +of each of her opportunities, or the brightness and ease +with which all is described (in choice American), and each +successive person placed before us in his habit as he lives. +Such a gift is indeed a rare and precious one. Will Miss +Fay never oblige us with an equally charming and faithful<a name="page_004" id="page_004"></a> +account of music and life in the States? Hitherto musical +America has been almost an unknown land to us, described +by the few who have attempted it in the most opposite +terms. Their singers we already know well, and in this +respect America is perhaps destined to be the Italy of the +future, if only the artists will consent to learn slowly enough. +But on the subject of American players and American +orchestras, and the taste of the American amateurs, a great +deal of curiosity is felt, and we commend the subject to the +serious attention of one so thoroughly able to do it justice.</p> + +<p class="r">GEORGE GROVE.<br /> +</p> + +<p>December, 1885.<a name="page_005" id="page_005"></a></p> + +<h3>PREFACE<br /><br /> +TO THE GERMAN EDITION.</h3> + +<p class="cb">——</p> + +<p>Die vorliegenden Briefe einer Amerikanerin in die Heimath, die +im Original bereits in zweiter Auflage erschienen sind, werden, so +hoffen wir, auch dem deutschen Leser nicht minderes Vergnügen, +nicht geringere Anregung als dem amerikanischen gewähren, da sie +in unmittelbarer Frische niedergeschrieben, ein lebendiges Bild von +den Beziehungen der Verfasserin zu den hervorragendsten musikalischen +Persönlichkeiten, wie Liszt, v. Bülow, Tausig, Joachim +u. s. w. bieten.</p> + +<p>Wir geben das Buch in wortgetreuer Uebersetzung und haben es +nur um diejenigen Briefe gekürzt, die in Deutschland Allzubekanntes +behandeln. Hingegen glaubten wir die Stellen dem Leser +nicht vorenthalten zu dürfen, welche zwar nicht musikalischen Inhalts +sind, uns aber zeigen, wie manche unserer deutschen Zu-oder +Mißstände von Amerikanern beurtheilt werden.</p> + +<p class="r">Robert Oppenheim, Publisher.</p> + +<p>Berlin, 1882.</p> + +<p><a name="page_006" id="page_006"></a></p> + +<p><a name="page_007" id="page_007"></a></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary=""> + +<tr><th colspan="2" align="center"><big><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</big>.</th></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><big><a href="#IN_TAUSIGS_CONSERVATORY">IN TAUSIG'S CONSERVATORY.</a></big></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" colspan="2"><small>PAGE.</small></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">A German Interior in Berlin. A German Party. Joachim.<br /> +Tausig's Conservatory.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_013">13</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Clara Schumann and Joachim. The American Minister's. The<br /> +Museum. The Conservatory. Opera. Tausig. Christmas.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_025">25</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Tausig and Rubinstein. Tausig's Pupils. The Bancrofts. A<br /> +German Radical.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_037">37</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Opera and Oratorio in Berlin. A Typical American. Prussian<br /> +Rudeness. Conservatory Changes. Easter.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_051">51</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Thier-Garten. A Military Review. Charlottenburg.<br /> +Tausig. Berlin in Summer. Potsdam and Babelsberg.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_064">64</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The War. German Meals. Women and Men. Tausig's Teaching.<br /> +Tausig Abandons his Conservatory. Dresden. Kullak.</span> </td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_079">79</a><a name="page_008" id="page_008"></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><big><a href="#WITH_KULLAK">WITH KULLAK.</a></big></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Moving. German Houses and Dinners. The War. Capture of<br /> +Napoleon. Kullak's and Tausig's Teaching. Joachim. Wagner.<br /> +Tausig's Playing. German Etiquette.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_095">95</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Concerts. Joachim again. The Siege of Paris. Peace Declared.<br /> +Wagner. A Woman's Symphony. Ovation to Wagner in<br /> +Berlin.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_111">111</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Difficulties of the Piano. Triumphal Entry of the Troops.<br /> +Paris.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_123">123</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Rhine Journey. Frankfort. Mainz. Sail down the Rhine.<br /> +Cologne. Bonn. The Seven Mountains. Worms. Spire.<br /> +Heidelberg. Tausig's Death.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_131">131</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Eisenach. Gotha. Erfurt. Andernach. Weimar. Tausig.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_145">145</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Dinner-Party and Reception at Mr. Bancroft's. Audition at<br /> +Tausig's House. A German Christmas. The Joachims.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_157">157</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Visit to Dresden. The Wiecks. Von Bülow. A Child Prodigy.<br /> +Grantzow, the Dancer.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_163">163</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Rising Organist. Kullak. Von Bülow's Playing. A Princely<br /> +Funeral. Wilhelmi's Concert. A Court Beauty.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_174">174</a><a name="page_009" id="page_009"></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Boston Fire. Aggravations of Music Study. Kullak.<br /> +Sherwood. Hoch Schule. A Brilliant American. German<br /> +Dancing.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_182">182</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">A German Professor. Sherwood. The Baroness von S. Von<br /> +Bülow. A German Party. Joachim. The Baroness at Home.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_192">192</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><big><a href="#WITH_LISZT">WITH LISZT.</a></big></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Arrives in Weimar. Liszt at the Theatre.—At a Party. At<br /> +his own House.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_205">205</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Liszt's Drawing-room. An Artist's Walking Party. Liszt's<br /> +Teaching.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_218">218</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Liszt's Expression in Playing. Liszt on Conservatories. Ordeal<br /> +of Liszt's Lessons. Liszt's Kindness.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_227">227</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Liszt's Compositions. His Playing and Teaching of Beethoven.<br /> +His "Effects" in Piano-playing. Excursion to Jena. A<br /> +New Music Master.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_235">235</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Liszt's Playing. Tausig. Excursion to Sondershausen.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_248">248</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Farewell to Liszt! German Conservatories and their Methods.<br /> +Berlin again. Liszt and Joachim.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_263">263</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Kullak as a Teacher. The Four Great Virtuosi, Clara Schumann,<br /> +Rubinstein, Von Bülow and Tausig.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_272">272</a><a name="page_010" id="page_010"></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><big><a href="#WITH_DEPPE">WITH DEPPE.</a></big></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Gives up Kullak for Deppe. Deppe's Method in Touch and in<br /> +Scale-playing. Fräulein Steiniger. Pedal Study.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_283">283</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chord-playing. Deppe no mere "Pedagogue." Sherwood.<br /> +Mozart's Concertos. Practicing Slowly. The Opera Ball.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_299">299</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Set of Beethoven Variations. Fannie Warburg. Deppe's<br /> +Inventions. His Room. His Afternoon Coffee. Pyrmont.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_311">311</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Brussels Conservatoire. Steiniger. Excursion to Kleinberg.<br /> +Giving a Concert. Fräulein Timm.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_328">328</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Music in Hamburg. Studying Chamber Music. Absence of Religion<br /> +in Germany. South Americans. Deppe Once More.<br /> +A Concert Debut. Postscript.</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_331">331</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<h2><a name="IN_TAUSIGS_CONSERVATORY" id="IN_TAUSIGS_CONSERVATORY"></a>IN TAUSIG'S CONSERVATORY.</h2> + +<p><a name="page_012" id="page_012"></a></p> + +<p><a name="page_013" id="page_013"></a></p> + +<h1>MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY.</h1> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">A German Interior in Berlin. A German Party. Joachim.<br /> +Tausig's Conservatory.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>November 3, 1869</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Behold me at last at No. 26 Bernburger Strasse! +where I arrived exactly two weeks from the day I left +New York. Frau W. and her daughter, Fräulein A. +W., greeted me with the greatest warmth and cordiality, +and made me feel at home immediately. The German +idea of a "large" room I find is rather peculiar, for +this one is not more than ten or eleven feet square, +and has one corner of it snipped off, so that the room +is an irregular shape. When I first entered it I thought +I could not stay in it, it seemed so small, but when +I came to examine it, so ingeniously is every inch of +space made the most of, that I have come to the conclusion +that it will be very comfortable. It is not, however, +the apartment where "the last new novel will lie upon +the table, and where my daintily slippered feet will rest +upon the velvet cushion." No! rather is it the stern +abode of the Muses.<a name="page_014" id="page_014"></a></p> + +<p>To begin then: the room is spotlessly clean and neat. +The walls are papered with a nice new paper, grey ground +with blue figures—a cheap paper, but soft and pretty. In +one corner stands my little bureau with three deep drawers. +Over it is a large looking-glass nicely framed. In the +other corner on the same side is a big sofa which at +night becomes a little bed. Next to the foot of the +sofa, against the wall, stands a tiny square table, with a +marble top, and a shelf underneath, on which are a +basin and a minute soap-dish and tumbler. In the +opposite corner towers a huge grey porcelain stove, which +comes up to within a few feet of the ceiling. Next is +one stiff cane-bottomed chair on four stiff legs. Then +comes the lop-sided corner of the room, where an upright +piano is to stand. Next there is a little space where +hangs the three-shelved book-case, which will contain +my <i>vast</i> library. Then comes a broad French window +with a deep window-seat. By this window is my sea-chair—by +far the most luxurious one in the house! +Then comes my bureau again, and so on <i>Da Capo</i>. In +the middle is a pretty round table, with an inlaid centre-piece, +and on it is a waiter with a large glass bottle full +of water, and a glass; and this, with one more stiff +chair, completes the furniture of the room. My curtains +are white, with a blue border, and two transparencies +hang in the window. My towel-rack is fastened to +the wall, and has an embroidered centre-piece. On my +bureau is a beautiful inkstand, the cover being a carved +eagle with spread wings, perched over a nest with three +eggs in it. It is quite large, and looks extremely pretty +under the looking-glass.<a name="page_015" id="page_015"></a></p> + +<p>After I had taken off my things, Frau W. and her +daughter ushered me into their parlour, which had the +same look of neatness and simplicity and of extreme +economy. There are no carpets on any of the floors, but +they have large, though cheap, rugs. You never saw +such a primitive little household as it is—that of this +German lawyer's widow. We think our house at home +small, but I feel as if we lived in palatial magnificence +after seeing how they live here, <i>i. e.</i>, about as our dressmakers +used to do in the country, and yet it is sufficiently +nice and comfortable. There are two very pretty little +rooms opposite mine, which are yet to be let together. +If some friend of mine could only take them I should +be perfectly happy.</p> + +<p>At night my bed is made upon the sofa. (They all +sleep on these sofas.) The cover consists of a feather +bed and a blanket. That sounds rather formidable, but +the feather bed is a light, warm covering, and looks +about two inches thick. It is much more comfortable +than our bed coverings in America. I tuck myself into +my nest at night, and in the morning after breakfast, +when I return to my room—<i>agramento-presto-change!</i>—my +bed is converted into a sofa, my basin is laid on +the shelf, the soap-dish and my combs and brushes +are scuttled away into the drawer; the windows are +open, a fresh fire crackles in my stove, and my charming +little bed-room is straightway converted into an +equally charming sitting-room. How does the picture +please you?</p> + +<p>This morning Frau and Fräulein W. went with me +to engage a piano, and they took me also to the conservatory.<a name="page_016" id="page_016"></a> +Tausig is off for six weeks, giving concerts. +As I went up the stairs I heard most beautiful playing. +Ehlert, Tausig's partner, who has charge of the conservatory, +and teaches his pupils in his absence, examined +me. After that long voyage I did not dare attempt anything +difficult, so I just played one of Bach's Gavottes. +He said some encouraging words, and for the present has +taken me into his class. I am to begin to-morrow from +one o'clock to two. It is now ten P. M., and tell C. we +have had five meals to-day, so Madame P.'s statement +is about correct. The cooking is on the same scale as +the rest of the establishment—a little at a time, but so +far very good. We know nothing at all about rolls in +America. Anything so delicious as the rolls here I +never ate in the way of bread. In the morning we had +a cup of coffee and rolls. At eleven we lunched on a +cup of bouillon and a roll. At two o'clock we had dinner, +which consisted of soup and then chickens, potatoes, +carrots and bread, with beer. At five we had tea, +cake and toast, and at nine we had a supper of cold +meat, boiled eggs, tea and bread and butter. Fräulein +W. speaks English quite nicely, and is my medium +of communication with her mother. I begin German +lessons with her to-morrow. They both send you their +compliments, and so you must return yours. They seem +as kind as possible, and I think I am very fortunate in +my boarding place.</p> + +<p>Be sure to direct your letters "Care Frau Geheimräthin +W." (Mrs. Councillor W.), as the German +ladies are very particular about their <i>titles</i>!<a name="page_017" id="page_017"></a></p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>November 21, 1869</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Since I wrote to you not much of interest has occurred. +I am delighted with Berlin, and am enjoying +myself very much, though I am working hard. I am so +thankful that all my sewing was done before I came, for +I have not a minute to spare for it, and here it seems to +me all the dresses fit so dreadfully. It would make me +miserable to wear such looking clothes, and as I +can't speak the language, the difficulties in the way of +giving directions on the technicalities of dressmaking +would be terrific. Tell C. he is very wise to continue +his German conversation lessons with Madame P. +Even the few that I took prove of immense assistance +to me, as I can understand almost everything +that is said to me, though I cannot answer back. He +ought to make one of his lessons about shopping and +droschkie driving, for it is very essential to know how to +ask for things, and to be able to give directions in driving. +I had a very funny experience with a droschkie +the other day, but it would take too long to write it. +Frau W. cannot understand English, and she gets dreadfully +impatient when Fräulein A. and I speak it, and +always says "<i>Deutsch</i>" in a sepulchral tone, so that I +have to begin and say it all over again in German with +A.'s help.</p> + +<p>When I got fairly settled I presented myself and my +letters at the Bancrofts, the B's. and the A's., and was very +kindly and cordially received by them all. Mrs. Bancroft +and Mrs. B. have since called in return, and I have already +been to a charming reception at the house of the latter, and<a name="page_018" id="page_018"></a> +to the grand American Thanksgiving dinner at the Hotel +de Rome, at which Mr. Bancroft presided, and made very +happy speeches both in English and German. I enjoyed +both occasions extremely, and made some pleasant +acquaintances. I have also been to one German tea-party +with Frau W. and A., and there I had "the jolliest +kind of a time." There were only twelve invited, but you +would have supposed from the clatter that there were at +least a hundred. At the American dinner there was nothing +like the noise of conversation that this little handful +kept up. Before supper it was rather stupid, for the men all +retired to a room by themselves, where they sat with closed +doors and played whist and smoked. It is not considered +proper for ladies to play cards except at home, and I, of +course, did not say much, for the excellent reason that I +<i>couldn't</i>! At ten o'clock supper was announced, and +the gentlemen came and took us in. Herr J. was +my partner. He is a delightful man, though an elderly +one, and knows no end of things, as he has spent his +whole life in study and in travelling. He looks to me +like a man of very sensitive organization, and of very +delicate feelings. He is a tremendous republican, and a +great radical in every respect, and has an unbounded +admiration for America.</p> + +<p>As soon as every one was seated at the table with due +form and ceremony, all began to talk as hard as they +could, and you have no idea what a noise they made, and +how it increased toward the end with the potent libations +they had. The bill of fare was rather curious. We +began with slices of hot tongue, with a sauce of chestnuts, +and it was extremely nice, too. Then we had venison<a name="page_019" id="page_019"></a> +and boiled potatoes! Then we had a dessert consisting +of fruit, and some delicious cake. There were +several kinds of wine, and everybody drank the greatest +quantity. The host and hostess kept jumping up and +going round to everybody, saying: "But you drink +nothing," and then they would insist upon filling up +your glass. I don't dare to think how many times they +filled mine, but it seemed to be etiquette to drink, and +so I did as the rest. The repast ended with coffee, and +then the gentlemen lit their cigars, and were in such an +extremely cheerful frame of mind that they all began +to sing, and I even saw two old fellows kiss each other! +The venison was delicious, and nicer than any I ever +ate. Herr J. was the only man in the room who +could speak any English, and since then he takes a good +deal of interest in me, and lends me books. Every Sunday +Fran W. takes me to her sister's house to tea. +I like to go because I hear so much German spoken +there, and they all take a profound interest in my affairs. +They know to a minute when I get a letter, and when I +write one, and every incident of my daily life. It amuses +them very much to see a real live wild Indian from +America. I am soon going to another German party, +and I look forward to it with much pleasure; not that +the parties here give me the same feeling as at home, +but they are amusing because they are so entirely different.</p> + +<p>There is so much to be seen and heard in Berlin that +if one has but the money there is no end to one's resources. +There are the opera and the Schauspielhaus every +night, and beautiful concerts every evening, too. They<a name="page_020" id="page_020"></a> +say that the opera here is magnificent, and the scenery +superb, and they have a wonderful ballet-troupe. So far, +however, I have only been to one concert, and that was +a sacred concert. But Joachim played—and Oh-h, what +a tone he draws out of the violin! I could think of +nothing but Mrs. Moulton's voice, as he <i>sighed</i> out those +exquisitely pathetic notes. He played something by +Schumann which ended with a single note, and as he +drew his bow across he produced so many shades that it +was perfectly marvellous. I am going to hear him +again on Sunday night, when he plays at Clara Schumann's +concert. It will be a great concert, for she +plays much. She will be assisted by Joachim, Müller, +De Ahna, and by Joachim's wife, who has a beautiful +voice and sings charmingly in the serious German +style. Joachim himself is not only the greatest violinist +in the world, but one of the greatest that ever +lived. De Ahna is one of the first violinists in Germany, +and Müller is one of the first 'cellists. In fact, +this quartette cannot be matched in Europe—so you +see what I am expecting!</p> + +<p>Tausig has not yet returned from his concert +tour, and will not arrive before the 21st of December. +I find Ehlert a splendid teacher, but very +severe, and I am mortally afraid of him. Not that he +is cross, but he exacts so much, and such a hopeless +feeling of despair takes possession of me. His first +lesson on touch taught me more than all my other +lessons put together—though, to be sure, that is not +saying much, as they were "few and far between." +At present I am weltering in a sea of troubles. The<a name="page_021" id="page_021"></a> +girls in my class are three in number, and they all +play so extraordinarily well that sometimes I think +I can never catch up with them. I am the worst of +all the scholars in Tausig's classes that I have heard, +except one, and that is a young man. I know that +Ehlert thinks I have talent, but, after all, talent must +go to the wall before such <i>practice</i> as these people have +had, for most of them have studied a long time, and +have been at the piano four and five hours a day.</p> + +<p>It is very interesting in the conservatory, for there +are pupils there from all countries except France. +Some of them seem to me splendid musicians. On +Sunday morning (I am sorry to say) once in a month +or six weeks, they have what they call a "Musical +Reading." It is held in a piano-forte ware-room, and +there all the scholars in the higher classes play, so I +had to go. Many of the girls played magnificently, +and I was amazed at the technique that they had, and +at the artistic manner in which even very young girls +rendered the most difficult music, and all without +notes. It gave me a severe nervous headache just to +hear them. But it was delightful to see them go at +it. None of them had the least fear, and they laughed +and chattered between the pieces, and when their turn +came they marched up to the piano, sat down as bold +as lions, and banged away so splendidly!</p> + +<p>You have no idea how hard they make Cramer's +Studies here. Ehlert makes me play them tremendously +<i>forte</i>, and as fast as I can go. My hand gets so +tired that it is ready to break, and then I say that I +cannot go on. "But you <i>must</i> go on," he will say.<a name="page_022" id="page_022"></a> +It is the same with the scales. It seems to me that I +play them so loud that I make the welkin ring, and +he will say, "But you play always <i>piano</i>." And with +all this rapidity he does not allow a note to be missed, +and if you happen to strike a wrong one he looks so +shocked that you feel ready to sink into the floor. +Strange to say, I enjoy the lessons in <i>Zusammenspiel</i> +(duet-playing) very much, although it is all reading +at sight. Four of us sit down at two pianos and read +duets at sight. Lesmann is a pleasant man, and he +always talks so fast that he amuses me very much. +He always counts and beats time most vigorously, and +bawls in your ear, "<i>Eins—zwei! Eins—zwei!</i>" or sometimes, +"<i>Eins!</i>" only, on the first beat of every bar. +When, occasionally, we all get out, he looks at us +through his glasses, and then such a volley of words as +he hurls at us is wonderful to hear. I never can help +laughing, though I take good care not to let him see +me.</p> + +<p>But Weitzmann, the Harmony professor, is the funniest +of all. He is the dearest old man in the world, and +it is impossible for him to be cross; but he takes so +much pains and trouble to make his class understand, +and he has the most peculiar way of talking imaginable, +and accents everything he says tremendously. I +go to him because Ehlert says I must, but as I know +nothing of the theory of music (and if I did, the names +are so entirely different in German that I never should +know what they are in English) it is extremely difficult +for me to understand him at all. He knew I was +an American, and let me pass for one or two lessons<a name="page_023" id="page_023"></a> +without asking me any questions, but finally his German +love of thoroughness has got the better of him, +and he is now beginning to take me in hand. At the +last lesson he wrote some chords on the blackboard, +and after holding forth for some time he wound up +with his usual "<i>Verstehen Sie wohl—Ja?</i> (Do you +understand—Yes?)" to the class, who all shouted "<i>Ja</i>," +except me. I kept a discreet silence, thinking he +would not notice, but he suddenly turned on me and +said, "<i>Verstehen</i> Sie <i>wohl—Ja?</i>" I was as puzzled +what to say as the Pharisees were when they were +asked if the baptism of John were of heaven or of +men. I knew that if I said "<i>Ja</i>," he might call on +me for a proof, and that if I said "<i>Nein</i>," he would +undertake to enlighten me, and that I should not understand +him.</p> + +<p>After an instant's consideration I concluded the latter +course was the safer, and so I said, boldly, "<i>Nein</i>." +"<i>Kommen Sie hierher!</i> (Come here!)" said he, and to +my horror I had to step up to the blackboard in front of +this large class. He harangued me for some minutes, +and then writing some notes on the bass clef, he put +the chalk into my hands and told me to write. Not +one word had I understood, and after staring blankly +at the board I said, "<i>Ich verstehe nicht</i> (I don't +understand.)" "<i>Nein?</i>" said he, and carefully went +over all his explanation again. This time I managed +to extract that he wished me to write the succession +of chords that those bass notes indicated, and to tie +what notes I could. A second time he put the +chalk into my hands, and told me to write the<a name="page_024" id="page_024"></a> +chords. "Heaven only knows what they are!" thinks +I to myself. In my desperation, however, I guessed +at the first one, and uttered the names of the notes in +trembling accents, expecting to have a cannon fired +off at my head. Thanks to my lucky star, it happened +to be right. I wrote it on the blackboard, and then +as my wits sharpened I found the other chords from +that one, and wrote them all down right. I drew a +long breath of relief as he released me from his +clutches, and sat down hardly believing I had done +it. I have not now the least idea what it was he made +me do, but I suppose it will come to me in the course +of the year! As he does not understand a word of +English, I cannot say anything to him unless I can say +it in German, and as he is determined to make me learn +Harmony, it would be of no use to explain that I did not +know what he was talking about, for he would begin +all over again, and go on <i>ad infinitum</i>. I have got a +book on the Theory of Music, which I am reading +with Fräulein W. She has studied with Weitzmann, +also, and when I have caught up with the class I shall +go on very easily. I quite adore Weitzmann. He has +the kindest old face imaginable, and he hammers +away so indefatigably at his pupils! The professors I +have described are all thorough and well-known musicians +of Berlin, and I wonder that people could tell +us before I came away, and really seem to believe it, +"that I could learn as well in an American conservatory +as in a German one." In comparison with the +drill I am now receiving, my Boston teaching was +mere play.<a name="page_025" id="page_025"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Clara Schumann and Joachim. The American Minister's.<br /> +The Museum. The Conservatory. The Opera.<br /> +Tausig. Christmas.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>December 12, 1869</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I heard Clara Schumann on Sunday, and on Tuesday +evening, also. She is a most wonderful artist. In the +first concert she played a quartette by Schumann, and +you can imagine how lovely it was under the treatment +of Clara Schumann for the piano, Joachim for +the first violin, De Ahna for the second, and Müller +for the 'cello. It was perfect, and I was in raptures. +Madame Schumann's selection for the two concerts +was a very wide one, and gave a full exhibition of her +powers in every kind of music. The Impromptu by +Schumann, Op. 90, was exquisite. It was full of passion +and very difficult. The second of the Songs without +Words, by Mendelssohn, was the most fairy-like performance. +It is one of those things that must be +tossed off with the greatest grace and smoothness, and +it requires the most beautiful and delicate technique. +She played it to perfection. The terrific Scherzo by +Chopin she did splendidly, but she kept the great +octave passages in the bass a little too subordinate, I +thought, and did not give it quite boldly enough for +my taste, though it was extremely artistic. Clara +Schumann's playing is very objective. She seems to<a name="page_026" id="page_026"></a> +throw herself into the music, instead of letting the +music take possession of her. She gives you the most +exquisite pleasure with every note she touches, and +has a wonderful conception and variety in playing, but +she seldom whirls you off your feet.</p> + +<p>At the second concert she was even better than at +the first, if that is possible. She seemed full of fire, +and when she played Bach, she ought to have been +crowned with diamonds! Such <i>noble</i> playing I never +heard. In fact you are all the time impressed with +the nobility and breadth of her style, and the comprehensiveness +of her treatment, and oh, if you <i>could</i> +hear her <i>scales</i>! In short, there is nothing more to +be desired in her playing, and she has every quality of +a great artist. Many people say that Tausig is far +better, but I cannot believe it. He may have more +technique and more power, but nothing else I am sure. +Everybody raves over his playing, and I am getting +quite impatient for his return, which is expected next +week. I send you Madame Schumann's photograph, +which is exactly like her. She is a large, very German-looking +woman, with dark hair and superb neck and +arms. At the last concert she was dressed in black +velvet, low body and short sleeves, and when she +struck powerful chords, those large white arms came +down with a certain splendor.</p> + +<p>As for Joachim, he is perfectly magnificent, and +has amazing <i>power</i>. When he played his solo in that +second Chaconne of Bach's, you could scarcely believe +it was only one violin. He has, like Madame Schumann, +the greatest variety of tone, only on the violin<a name="page_027" id="page_027"></a> +the shades can be made far more delicate than on the +piano.</p> + +<p>I thought the second movement of Schumann's +Quartette perhaps as extraordinary as any part of Clara +Schumann's performance. It was very rapid, very <i>staccato</i>, +and <i>pianissimo</i> all the way through. Not a note +escaped her fingers, and she played with so much magnetism +that one could scarcely breathe until it was finished. +You know nothing can be more difficult than +to play staccato so very softly where there is great +execution also. Both of the sonatas for violin and +piano which were played by Madame Schumann and +Joachim, and especially the one in A minor, by Beethoven, +were divine. Both parts were equally well +sustained, and they played with so much fire—as if +one inspired the other. It was worth a trip across the +Atlantic just to hear those two performances.</p> + +<p>The Sing-Akademie, where all the best concerts are +given, is not a very large hall, but it is beautifully +proportioned, and the acoustic is perfect. The frescoes +are very delicate, and on the left are boxes all +along, which add much to the beauty of the hall, with +their scarlet and gold flutings. Clara Schumann is a +great favorite here, and there was such a rush for +seats that, though we went early for our tickets, all the +good parquet seats were gone, and we had to get +places on the <i>estrade</i>, or place where the chorus sits—when +there is one. But I found it delightful for a +piano concert, for you can be as close to the performer +as you like, and at the same time see the faces of the +audience. I saw ever so many people that I knew, +and we kept bowing away at each other.<a name="page_028" id="page_028"></a></p> + +<p>Just think how convenient it is here with regard to +public amusements, for ladies can go anywhere alone! +You take a droschkie and they drive you anywhere +for five groschen, which is about fifteen cents. When +you get into the concert hall you go into the <i>garde-robe</i> +and take off your things, and hand them over to +the care of the woman who stands there, and then you +walk in and sit down comfortably as you would in a +parlour, and are not roasted in your hat and cloak +while at the concert, and chilled when you go out, as +we are in America. Their programmes, too, are not +so unconscionably long as ours, and, in short, their +whole method of concert-giving is more rational than +with us. I always enjoy the garde-robe, for if you +have acquaintances you are sure to meet them, and +you have no idea how exciting it is in a foreign city to +see anybody you know.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>December 19, 1869</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I suppose you are muttering maledictions on my +head for not writing, but I am so busy that I have no +time to answer my letters, which are accumulating +upon my hands at a terrible rate. This week I have +been out every night but one, so that I have had to +do all my practicing and German and Harmony lessons +in the day-time; and these, with my daily hour and a +half at the conservatory, have been as much as I could +manage.</p> + +<p>On Monday I went to a party at the Bancroft's, +which I enjoyed extremely. It was a very brilliant<a name="page_029" id="page_029"></a> +affair, and the toilettes were superb. At the entrance +I was ushered in by a very fine servant dressed in livery. +A second man showed me the dressing-room, +where my bewildered sight first rested on a lot of +Chinamen in festive attire. I could not make out for +a second what they were, and I thought to myself, +"Is it possible I have mistaken the invitation, and +this is a masquerade?" Another glance showed me +that they were Chinese, and it turned out that Mr. +Burlingame, the Chinese Minister, was there, and these +men were part of his suite. The ladies and gentlemen +had the same dressing-room, which was a new +feature in parties to me, and as we took off our things +the servant took them and gave us a ticket for them, +as they do at the opera. I should think there were +about a hundred persons present. There were a great +many handsome women, and they were beautifully +dressed and much be-diamonded and pearled. Corn-colour +seemed to be the fashion, and there were more +silks of that colour than any other.</p> + +<p>Mr. Burlingame seemed to be a very genial, easy +man. I was not presented to him, but stood very +near him part of the time. He looks upon the introduction +of the Chinese into our country as a great +blessing, and laughs at the idea of it being an evil. +He says that the reason railroads can't be introduced +into China is because the whole country is one vast +grave-yard, and you can't dig any depth without unearthing +human bones, so that there would be a revolution +on the part of the people if it were done now, +but it will gradually be brought about. He travels<a name="page_030" id="page_030"></a> +with a suite of forty attendants, and says he has got +all his treaties here arranged to his wishes, and that +Prussia has promised to follow the United States in +everything that they have agreed on with China. He +is going to resign his office in a year and go back to +America, where he wants to get into politics again. +Mr. Bancroft introduced many of the ladies to the +Chinese, one of whom could speak English, and he +interpreted to the others. It was very quaint to see +them all make their deep bows in silence when some +one was presented to them. They were in the Chinese +costume—Turkish trousers, white silk coats, or blouses, +and red turbans, and their hair braided down their +backs in a long tail that nearly touched their heels.</p> + +<p>On Thursday I went to Dr. A.'s to dinner. He +seems to be a very influential man here, and is a great +favorite with the Americans. He has a great big +heart, and I suspect that is the reason of it. Mrs. A., +too, is very lovely. I saw there Mr. Theodore Fay, +who used to be our minister in Switzerland, and who +is also an author. He is very interesting, and the +most earnest Christian I ever met. He has the tenderest +sympathies in the world, and in a man this is very +striking. He has a high and beautiful forehead, and a +certain spirituality of expression that appeals to you at +once and touches you, also. At least he makes a peculiar +impression on <i>me</i>. There is something entirely +different about him from other men, but I don't know +what it is, unless it be his deep religious feeling, which +shines out unconsciously.</p> + +<p>Last week I made my first visit to the Museum. It<a name="page_031" id="page_031"></a> +is one of the great sights of Berlin, but it is so +immense that I only saw a few rooms. In fact there +are two Museums—an old and a new. I was in the new +one. It is a perfect treasure house, and the floors +alone are a study. All are inlaid with little coloured +marbles, and every one is different in pattern. One +of the most beautiful of the rooms was a large circular +dome-roofed apartment round which were placed the +statues of the gods, and in the centre stood a statue +in bronze of one of the former German kings in a +Roman suit of armour. Half way up from the floor +ran round a little gallery in which you could stand +and look down over the railing, and here were placed +on the walls Raphael's cartoons, which are fac-similes +of those in the Vatican, and are all woven in arras. +They are very wonderful, and you feel as if you could +not look at them long enough. The contrast is +impressive as you look down and see all the heathen +statues standing on the marble floor, each one like a +separate sphinx, and then look up and see all the +Christian subjects of Raphael. The statues are so +cold and white and distant, and the pictures are so +warm and bright in colour. They seem to express the +difference between the ancient and the modern religions. +We went through the rooms of Greek and +Roman statues, of which there is an immense number, +and on the walls are Greek and Italian landscapes, all +done by celebrated painters.</p> + +<p>We had to pass through these rooms rather hastily +in order to get a glimpse of the "Treppen Halle," +which is the place where the two grand stair-cases<a name="page_032" id="page_032"></a> +meet that carry you into the upper rooms of the +Museum. This is magnificent, and is all gilding and +decoration. An immense statue stands by each door, +and on the wall are six great pictures by Kaulbach, +three on each side. "The Last Judgment," of which +you're seen photographs, is one of them. I ought to +go to the Museum often to see it properly, but it is +such a long distance off that I can't get the time. +Berlin is a very large city, and the distances are as +great as they are in New York.</p> + +<p>At the last "Reading" at the conservatory the four +best scholars played last. One of them was an American, +from San Francisco, a Mr. Trenkel, but who has +German parents. He plays exquisitely, and has just +such a poetic musical conception as Dresel, but a +beautiful technique, also. He is a thorough artist, and +he looks it, too, as he is dark and pale, and very striking. +I always like to see him play, for he droops his +dark eyes, and his high pale forehead is thrown back, +and stands out so well defined over his black brows. +His expression is very serious and his manner very +quiet, and he has a sort of fascination about him. He +is a particular favorite of Tausig's.</p> + +<p>After he played, came a young lady who has been a pupil +of Von Bülow for two years. She plays splendidly, +and I could have torn my hair with envy when she got +up, and Ehlert went up to her and shook her hand and +told her before the whole school that she had "<i>real</i> +talent." After her came <i>my</i> favorite, little Fräulein +Timanoff, who sat down and did still better. She +is a little Russian, only fifteen, and is still in short<a name="page_033" id="page_033"></a> +dresses. She has almost white hair, it is so light, and +she combs it straight back and wears it in two long +braids down her back, which makes her look very +childish. It is really wonderful to see her! She +takes her seat with the greatest confidence, and plays +with all the boldness of an artist.</p> + +<p>Almost all the scholars in Tausig's class are studying +to play in public, and I should think he would be +very proud of all those that I have heard. There are +many scholars in the conservatory, but he teaches +only the most advanced. He only returned to Berlin +on Saturday, and I have not yet seen him, though I +am dying to do so, for all the Germans are wild over +his playing. The girls in his class are mortally afraid +of him, and when he gets angry he tells them they +play "like a rhinoceros," and many other little remarks +equally pleasing.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>January 11, 1870</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Since my last letter I have been quite secluded, and +have seen nothing of the gay world. I have been to +the opera twice—once to "<i>Fantaska</i>," a grand ballet, +and the second time to "<i>Trovatore</i>." The opera house +here is magnificent, and I would that I could go to it +every week. It is extremely difficult to get tickets to +it, as the rich Jews manage to get the monopoly of +them and the opera house is crowded every night. It +is the most brilliant building, and so exquisitely +painted! All the heads and figures of the Muses and +portraits of composers and poets which decorate it, are<a name="page_034" id="page_034"></a> +so soft and so beautifully done. The curtain even is +charming. It represents the sea, and great sea monsters +are swimming about with nymphs and Cupids +and all sorts of things, and one lovely nymph floats in +the air with a thin gauzy veil which trails along after +her. The scenery and dresses are superb, and I never +imagined anything to equal them. The orchestra, too, +plays divinely.</p> + +<p>The singing is the only thing which could be improved. +The Lucca, who is the grand attraction, is a +pretty little creature, but I did not find her voice remarkable. +The Berlinese worship her, and whenever +Lucca sings there is a rush for the tickets. Wachtel +and Niemann are the star singers among the men. +Niemann I have not heard, but Wachtel we should +not rave over in America. I am in doubt whether +indeed the Germans know what the best singing is. +They have most wonderful choruses, but when it +comes to soloists they have none that are really great—like +Parepa and Adelaide Phillips; at least, that is +my judgment after hearing the best singers in Berlin, +though as the voice is not my "instrument," I will +not be too confident about it. Everything else is so +far beyond what we have at home that perhaps I unconsciously +expect the climax of all—the solo singing, +to be proportionally finer also.</p> + +<p>They have beautiful ballet-dancers here, though. +There is one little creature named Fräulein David, +who is a wonderful artist. She does such steps that +it turns one's head to see her. She is as light as down, +and so extremely graceful that when you watch her<a name="page_035" id="page_035"></a> +floating about to the enchanting ballet music, it is too +captivating. There were four other dancers nearly +as good, who were all dressed exactly alike in white +dresses trimmed with pink satin. They would come +out first, and dance all together, sometimes separately +and sometimes forming a figure in the middle of the +stage. Then suddenly little David, who was dressed +in white and blue, would bound forward. The others +would immediately break up and retire to the side of +the stage, and she would execute a wonderful <i>pas seul</i>. +Then <i>she</i> would retire, and the others would come +forward again, and so it went. It was perfectly beautiful. +Finally they all danced together and did +everything exactly alike, though little David could +always bend lower, and take the "positions" (as we +used to say at Dio Lewis's,) better than all the rest.</p> + +<p>On Friday I am going to hear Rubinstein play. I +suppose he will give a beautiful concert, as he and +Bülow, Tausig and Clara Schumann are the grand +celebrities now on the piano, Liszt having given up +playing in public. After our lesson was over yesterday, +Ehlert took his leave, and left us to wait for +T<small>AUSIG</small>—my dear!—who was to hear us each play. +He came in very late, and just before it was time to +give his own lesson. He is precisely like the photograph +I sent you, but is very short indeed—too short, +in fact, for good looks—but he has a remarkably +vivid expression of the eyes. He came in, and, +scarcely looking at us, and without taking the trouble +to bow even, he turned on me and said, imperiously, +"<i>Spielen Sie mir Etwas vor</i>. (Play something for<a name="page_036" id="page_036"></a> +me.)" I got up and played first an <i>Etude</i>, and then he +asked for the scales, and after I had played a few he told +me I "had talent," and to come to his lessons, and I +would learn much. I went accordingly the next afternoon. +There were two girls only in the class, but they +were both far advanced. I had never heard either of +them play before. The second one played a fearfully +difficult concerto by Chopin, which I once heard from +Mills. It is exquisitely beautiful, and she did it very +well. From time to time Tausig would sweep her off +the stool, and play himself, and he is indeed a perfect +wonder! If, as they say, Liszt's trill is "like the warble +of a bird," his is as much so. It is not surprising +that he is so celebrated, and I long to hear him in +concert, where he will do full justice to his powers. +He thrills you to the very marrow of your bones. He +is divorced from his wife, and I think it not improbable +that she could not live with him, for he looks as +haughty and despotic as Lucifer, though he has a +very winning way with him when he likes. His playing +is spoken of as <i>sans pareil</i>.</p> + +<p>I spent a very pleasant Christmas. The family had +a pretty little tree, and we all gave each other presents. +It was charming to go out in the streets the week +before. The Germans make the greatest time over +Christmas, and the streets are full of Christmas trees, +the shops are crammed with lovely things, and there +are little booths erected all along the sidewalks +filled with toys. They have special cakes and confections +that they prepare only at this season.<a name="page_037" id="page_037"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Tausig and Rubinstein. Tausig's Pupils. The Bancrofts. A<br /> +German Radical.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>February 8, 1870</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I have heard both Rubinstein and Tausig in concert +since I last wrote. They are both wonderful, but in +quite a different way. Rubinstein has the greatest +power and <i>abandon</i> in playing that you can imagine, +and is extremely exciting. I never saw a man to whom +it seemed so easy to play. It is as if he were just +sporting with the piano, and could do what he pleased +with it. Tausig, on the contrary, is extremely +restrained, and has not quite enthusiasm enough, but +he is absolutely <i>perfect</i>, and plays with the greatest +expression. He is pre-eminent in grace and delicacy +of execution, but seems to hold back his power in +a concert room, which is very singular, for when he +plays to his classes in the conservatory he seems all +passion. His conception is so very refined that sometimes +it is a little too much so, while Rubinstein is +occasionally too precipitate. I have not yet decided +which I like best, but in my estimation Clara Schumann +as a whole is superior to either, although she +has not their unlimited technique.<a name="page_038" id="page_038"></a></p> + +<p>This was Tausig's programme:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left">1.</td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">Sonate Op. 53,</td><td align="left">Beethoven.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">2.</td><td align="left">a.</td><td align="left">Bourrée,</td><td align="left">Bach.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">b.</td><td align="left">Presto Scherzando,</td><td align="left">Mendelssohn.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">c.</td><td align="left">Barcarole Op. 60,</td><td align="left">}</td><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">d.</td><td align="left">Ballade Op. 47,</td><td align="left">}Chopin.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">e.</td><td align="left">Zwei Mazurkas Op. 59 u 33,</td><td align="left">}</td><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">f.</td><td align="left">Aufforderung zum Tanz,</td><td align="left">Weber.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">3.</td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">Kreisleriana Op. 16, 8 Phantasie Stücke,</td><td align="left">Schumann.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">4.</td><td align="left">a.</td><td align="left">Ständchen von Shakespeare nach Schubert,</td><td align="left">} Liszt.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">b.</td><td align="left">Ungarische Rhapsodie,</td><td align="left">}</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Tausig's octave playing is the most extraordinary I +ever heard. The last great effect on his programme +was in the Rhapsody by Liszt, in an octave variation. +He first played it so <i>pianissimo</i> that you could +only just hear it, and then he repeated the variation +and gave it tremendously <i>forte</i>. It was colossal! +His scales surpass Clara Schumann's, and it seems as +if he played with velvet fingers, his touch is so very soft. +He played the great C major Sonata by Beethoven—Moscheles' +favorite, you know. His conception of it +was not brilliant, as I expected it would be, but very +calm and dreamy, and the first movement especially +he took very <i>piano</i>. He did it most beautifully, but +I was not quite satisfied with the last movement, for I +expected he would make a grand climax with those +passionate trills, and he did not. Chopin he plays +divinely, and that little Bourrée of Bach's that I used +to play, was magical. He played it like lightning, and +made it perfectly bewitching.<a name="page_039" id="page_039"></a></p> + +<p>Altogether, he is a great man. But Clara Schumann +always puts herself <i>en rapport</i> with you immediately. +Tausig and Rubinstein do not sway you as she +does, and, therefore, I think she is the greater interpreter, +although I imagine the Germans would not +agree with me. Tausig has such a little hand that I +wonder he has been able to acquire his immense virtuosity. +He is only thirty years old, and is much +younger than Rubinstein or Bülow.</p> + +<p>The day after Tausig's concert I went, as usual, to +hear him give the lesson to his best class of girls. I +got there a little before the hour, and the girls were +in the dressing-room waiting for the young men to be +through with their lesson. They were talking about +the concert. "Was it not beautiful?" said little Timanoff, +to me; "I did not sleep the whole night after it!"—a +touch of sentiment that quite surprised me in that +small personage, and made me feel some compunctions, +as I had slept soundly myself. "I have practiced +five hours to-day already," she added. Just then +the young men came out of the class-room and we +passed into it. Tausig was standing by the piano. +"Begin!" said he, to Timanoff, more shortly even than +usual; "I trust you have brought me a study <i>this</i> +time." He always insists upon a study in addition to +the piece. Timanoff replied in the affirmative, and +proceeded to open Chopin's <i>Etudes</i>. She played the +great A minor "Winter Wind" study, and most magnificently, +too, starting off with the greatest brilliancy +and "go." I was perfectly amazed at such a feat +from such a child, and expected that Tausig would<a name="page_040" id="page_040"></a> +exclaim with admiration. Not so that Rhadamanthus. +He heard it through without comment or +correction, and when Timanoff had finished, simply +remarked very composedly, "So! Have you taken +the <i>next</i> Etude, also?" as if the great A minor were +not enough for one meal! It is eight pages long to +begin with, and there is no let-up to the difficulty all +the way through. Afterward, however, he told the +young men that he "could not have done it better" +himself.</p> + +<p>Tausig is so hasty and impatient that to be in his +classes must be a fearful ordeal. He will not bear the +slightest fault. The last time I went into his class to +hear him teach he was dreadful. Fräulein H. began, +and she has remarkable talent, and is far beyond me. +She would not play <i>piano</i> enough to suit him, and +finally he stamped his foot at her, snatched her hand +from the piano, and said: "<i>Will</i> you play <i>piano</i> or +not, for if not we will go no farther?" The second +girl sat down and played a few lines. He made her +begin over again several times, and finally came up +and took her music away and slapped it down on the +piano,—"You have been studying this for weeks and +you can't play a note of it; practice it for a month +and then you can bring it to me again," he said.</p> + +<p>The third was Fräulein Timanoff, who is a little +genius, I think. She brought a Sonata by Schubert—the +lovely one in A minor—and by the way he +behaved Tausig must have a particular feeling about +that particular Sonata. Timanoff began running it +off in her usual nimble style, having practiced it evidently<a name="page_041" id="page_041"></a> +every minute of the time when she was not +asleep, since the last lesson. She had not proceeded +far down the first page when he stopped her, and began +to fuss over the expression. She began again, but +this time with no better luck. A third time, but still +he was dissatisfied, though he suffered her to go on a +little farther. He kept stopping her every moment +in the most tantalizing and exasperating manner. If +it had been I, I should have cried, but Timanoff is +well broken, and only flushed deeply to the very tips of +her small ears. From an apple blossom she changed +to a carnation. Tausig grew more and more savage, +and made her skip whole pages in his impatience. +"Play here!" he would say, in the most imperative tone, +pointing to a half or whole page farther on. "This I +cannot hear!—Go on farther!—It is too bad to be +listened to!" Finally, he struck the music with the +back of his hand, and exclaimed, in a despairing way, +"<i>Kind, es liegt eine Seele darin. Weiss du nicht es +liegt eine</i> S<small>EELE</small> <i>darin</i>? (Child, there's a soul in the +piece. Don't you know there is a <i>soul</i> in it?)" To +the little Timanoff, who has no soul, and who is not +sufficiently experienced to counterfeit one, this speech +evidently conveyed no particular idea. She ran on as +glibly as ever till Tausig could endure no more, and +shut up the music. I was much disappointed, as it +was new to me, and I like to hear Timanoff's little +fingers tinkle over the keys, "Seele" or no "Seele." +She has a most accurate and dainty way of doing +everything, and somehow, in her healthy little brain +I hardly wish for <i>Seele</i>!<a name="page_042" id="page_042"></a></p> + +<p>Last of all Fräulein L. played, and she alone suited +Tausig. She is a Swede, and is the best scholar he +has, but she has such frightfully ugly hands, and +holds them so terribly, that when I look at her I cannot +enjoy her playing. Tausig always praises her very +much, and she is tremendously ambitious.</p> + +<p>Tausig has a charming face, full of expression and +very sensitive. He is extremely sharp-sighted, and +has eyes in the back of his head, I believe. He is far +too small and too despotic to be fascinating, however, +though he has a sort of captivating way with him +when he is in a good humor.</p> + +<p>I was dreadfully sorry to hear of poor Gottschalk's +death. He had a golden touch, and equal to any in +the world, I think. But what a romantic way to die!—to +fall senseless at his instrument, while he was +playing "<i>La Morte</i>." It was very strange. If anything +more is in the papers about him you must send +it to me, for the infatuation that I and 99,999 other +American girls once felt for him, still lingers in my +breast!</p> + +<p>On Saturday night I went for the first time to hear +the Berlin Symphony Kapelle. It is composed only +of artists, and is the most splendid music imaginable. +De Ahna, for instance, is one of the violinists, and he +is not far behind Joachim. We have no conception +of such an orchestra in America.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> The Philharmonic +of New York approaches it, but is still a long way off. +This orchestra is so perfect, and plays with such precision,<a name="page_043" id="page_043"></a> +that you can't realize that there are any performers +at all. It is just a great wave of sound that rolls +over you as smooth as glass. As the concert halls are +much smaller here, the music is much louder, and +every man not only plays <i>piano</i> and <i>forte</i> where it is +marked, but he draws the <i>tone</i> out of his violin. They +have the greatest pathos, consequently, in the soft +parts, and overwhelming power in the loud. Where +great expression is required the conductor almost +ceases to beat time, and it seems as if the performers +took it <i>ad libitum</i>; but they understand each other +so well that they play like one man. It is <i>too</i> ecstatic! I +observed the greatest difference in the horn playing. +Instead of coming in in a monotonous sort of way +as it does at home, and always with the same degree +of loudness, here, when it is solo, it begins round and +smooth and full, and then gently modulates until the +tone seems to sigh itself out, dying away at last with +a little tremolo that is perfectly melting. I never +before heard such an effect. When the trumpets +come in it is like the crack of doom, and you should +hear the way they play the drums. I never <i>was</i> satisfied +with the way they strike the drums in New York +and Boston, for it always seemed as if they thought +the parchment would break. Here, sometimes they +give such a sharp stroke that it startles me, though, +of course, it is not often. But it adds immensely to +the accent, and makes your heart beat, I can tell you. +They played Schubert's great symphony, and Beethoven's +in B major, and I could scarcely believe my +own ears at the difference between this orchestra and +<a name="page_044" id="page_044"></a>ours. It is as great as between—— and Tausig.</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>March 4, 1870</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Tausig is off to Russia to-day on a concert tour, and +will not return until the 1st of May. Out of six +months he has been in Berlin about two and a half! +However, as I am not yet in his class it doesn't affect +me much, but I should think his scholars would be +provoked at such long absences. That is the worst +of having such a great artist for a master. I believe +we are to have no vacation in the summer though, +and that he has promised to remain here from May +until November without going off. Ehlert and Tausig +have had a grand quarrel, and Ehlert is going to +leave the conservatory in April. I am very sorry, for +he is an admirable teacher, and I like him extremely.</p> + +<p>We had another Musical Reading on Sunday, at +which I played, but all the conservatory classes were +there, and all the teachers, with Tausig, also, so it was +a pretty hard ordeal. The girls said I turned deadly +pale when I sat down to the piano, and well I might, for +here you cannot play any thing that the scholars have not +either played themselves or are perfectly familiar with, +so they criticise you without mercy. Tausig plays so +magnificently that you know beforehand that a thing +can never be more than comparatively good in his +eyes. Fräulein L. is the only one of his pupils that +plays to suit him. I do not like her playing so much +myself, because it sounds as if she had tried to imitate +him exactly—which she probably does. It does not +seem spontaneous, and she is an affected creature. +They all think 'the world' of her at the conservatory,<a name="page_045" id="page_045"></a> +and I suppose she <i>is</i> quite extraordinary; but I prefer +Fräulein Timanoff—"<i>die kleine Person</i>," as Tausig +calls her—and she is, indeed, a "little person." +On Sunday Fräulein L. played the first part of a +Sonata by Chopin, and Tausig was quite enchanted +with her performance. I thought he was going to +embrace her, he jumped up so impetuously and ran +over to her. He declared that it could not be better +played, and said he would not hear anything else after +that, and so the school was dismissed, although several +had not played that expected to do so.</p> + +<p>Tausig has one scholar who is a very singular +girl—the Fräulein H. I mentioned to you before, +who has studied with Bülow. She is half French and +half German, and speaks both languages. She is full +of talent and cannot be over eighteen, but she is the +most intense character, and is a perfect child of nature. +One can't help smiling at everything she does, because +she goes at everything so hard and so unconsciously. +When the other girls are playing she folds +her arms and plays with her fingers against her sides +all the time, and when her turn comes she seizes her +music, jumps up, and rushes for the piano as fast +as she can. She hasn't the least timidity, and on +Sunday when Tausig called out her name he scarcely +got the words out before she said, "<i>Ja</i>," to the great +amusement of the class (for none of us answered to +our names) and ran to the piano.</p> + +<p>She sat down with the chair half crooked, and +almost on the side of it, but she never stopped to +arrange herself, but dashed off a prelude out of her<a name="page_046" id="page_046"></a> +own head, and then played her piece. When she got +through she never changed countenance, but was back +in her seat before you could say "Jack Robinson." +She is as passionate as Tausig, and so they usually +have a scene over her lesson. He is always either +half amused at her or very angry, and is terribly +severe with her. When he stamps his foot at her she +makes up a face, and the blood rushes up into her +head, and I believe she would beat him if she dared. +She always plays as impetuously as she does everything +else, and then he stops his ears and tells her she +makes too much "<i>Spectakel</i>" (his favorite expression). +Then she begins over again two or three times, but +always in the same way. He snatches the music from +the piano and tells her that is enough. Then the class +bursts out laughing and she goes to her seat and cries. +But she is too proud to let the other girls see her wipe +her eyes, and so she sits up straight, and tries to look +unconcerned, but the tears trickle down her cheeks +one after the other, and drop off her chin all the rest +of the hour. By the time she has had a piece for two +lessons she comes to the third, and at last she has +managed to tone down enough, and then she plays it +splendidly. She is a savage creature. The girls tell +me that one time she sat down to the piano (a concert-grand) +with such violence as to push the instrument +to one side, and began to play with such vehemence +that she burst the sleeve out of her dress behind! +She is going to be an artist, and I told her she must +come to America to give concerts. She said "<i>Ja</i>," +and immediately wanted to know where I lived, so she<a name="page_047" id="page_047"></a> +could come and see me. I think she will make a capital +concert player, for she is always excited by an +audience, and she has immense power. I am a +mere baby to her in strength. Perhaps when she is +ten years older she will be able to restrain herself +within just limits, and to put in the light and shade +as Fräulein L. does.</p> + +<p>Since I last wrote I have been to hear Rubinstein +again. He is the greatest sensation player I know of, +and, like Gottschalk, has all sorts of tricks of his own. +His grand aim is to produce an <i>effect</i>, so it is dreadfully +exciting to hear him, and at his last concert the +first piece he played—a terrific composition by Schubert—gave +me such a violent headache that I couldn't +hear the rest of the performance with any pleasure. +He has a gigantic spirit in him, and is extremely +poetic and original, but for an entire concert he is too +much. Give me Rubinstein for a few pieces, but +Tausig for a whole evening. Rubinstein doesn't care +how many notes he misses, provided he can bring out +his conception and make it vivid enough. Tausig +strikes <i>every</i> note with rigid exactness, and perhaps +his very perfection makes him at times a little cold. +Rubinstein played Schubert's Erl-König, arranged by +Liszt, <i>gloriously</i>. Where the child is so frightened, +his hands flew all over the piano, and absolutely made +it shriek with terror. It was enough to freeze you to +hear it.</p> + +<p>Last week I went to a party at Mrs. Bancroft's in +honour of Washington's birthday, and had a lovely +time, as I always do when I go there. Bismarck was<a name="page_048" id="page_048"></a> +present, and wore a coat all decorated with stars and +orders. He is a splendid looking man, and is tall +and imposing. No one could be kinder than Mr. +Bancroft. He and Mrs. Bancroft live in a beautiful +house, furnished in perfect taste and full of lovely +pictures and things, and they entertain most charmingly. +They seem to do their utmost for the Americans +who are in Berlin, and I am very proud of our +minister. His reputation as our national historian, +together with his German culture and early German +associations, all combine to render him an admirable +representative of our country to this haughty kingdom, +and I hear that he is very popular with its selfsatisfied +citizens. As for Mrs. Bancroft, one could +hardly be more elegant, or better suited to the position. +Mr. Bancroft is passionately fond of music, and +knows what good music is,—which is of course an +additional title to <i>my</i> high opinion!</p> + +<p>The other day Herr J. called for me to go and take +a walk through the Thier-Garten, and see the skating. +It was the first time I had been there, though it is not +far from us, and I was delighted with it. It is the +natural forest, with beautiful walks and drives cut +through it, and statues here and there. We went to +see the skating, and it was a lovely sight. The band +was playing, and ladies and gentlemen were skating in +time to the waltz. Many ladies skate very elegantly, +and go along with their hands in their muffs, swaying +first to one side and then to the other. It is grace +itself. Carriages and horses pranced slowly around +the edge of the pond, and at last the Prince and Princess<a name="page_049" id="page_049"></a> +Royal came along, drawn by two splendid black +horses.</p> + +<p>The carriage stopped and they got out to walk. +"Now," said I to Herr J., "you must take off your +hat"—for everybody takes off his hat to the Crown +Prince. As they passed us he did take it off, but +blushed up to his ears, which I thought rather odd, +until he said, in a half-ashamed tone, "That is the first +time in my life that I ever took off my hat to a Prince." +"Well, what did you do it for?" said I. "Because you +told me to," said he. He is such a red hot republican, +that even such a little act of respect as this grated +upon him! I only told him in fun, any way, but I was +very much amused to see how he took it. He always +raves over the United States, and says we are the +greatest country in the world. He is a strange man, +and you ought to hear his theory of religion. He sets +the Bible entirely aside—like most German cultivated +men. We were talking of it one night, and he said, +"We won't speak of that <i>blockhead</i> Peter, stupid fisherman +that he was! but we will pass on to Paul, who +was a man of some education." David, he calls "that +rascal David, etc." Of course, I hold to my own belief, +but I can't help laughing to hear him, it sounds so ridiculous. +The world never had any beginning, he says, +and there is no resurrection. We live only for the +benefit of the next generation, and therefore it is necessary +to lead good lives. We inherit the result of +our father's labours, and our children will inherit ours. +So we shall go on until the human race comes to a +state of perfection. "And then what?" said I. Oh—<a name="page_050" id="page_050"></a>then, +he didn't know. Perhaps the world would explode, +and go off in meteors. "We <i>do</i> know," said he, +"that there are lost stars. Occasionally a star disappears +and we can't tell what has become of it; and +perhaps the earth will become a wandering star, or a +comet. The intervals between the stars are so great +as to admit of a world wandering about—and there is +no police in those regions, I fancy," concluded he, with +a shrug of his shoulders. "Do you really <i>believe</i> that, +Herr J.?" I asked. "Oh," said he, "we won't speak +about <i>beliefs</i>. Now we are <i>speculating</i>!" He is a delightful +companion, and I think he is scrupulously conscientious. +Though he does not profess the Christian +faith, he acts up to Christian principles.<a name="page_051" id="page_051"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Opera and Oratorio in Berlin. A Typical American. Prussian<br /> +Rudeness. Conservatory Changes. Easter.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>March 20, 1870</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>On Wednesday the Bancrofts most kindly called for me +to go to the opera with them. They came in their carriage, +with two horses and footmen, so it was very jolly, +and we bowled rapidly through Unter den Linden +(the Broadway of Berlin), in rather a different manner +from the pace I usually crawl along in a droschkie. They +had fine opera glasses, of course, and we took our seats +just as the overture was about to begin, so that everything +was charming except that instead of Lohengrin, +which we had expected to hear, they had changed the +opera to Faust, which I had heard the week before. +Faust is, however, a fascinating opera, and it is beautifully +given here, albeit the Germans stick to it that it +is Gounod's Faust and not Goethe's.</p> + +<p>Since I have come here I have a perfect passion for +going to the opera, for everything is done in such superb +fashion, and they have the orchestra of the Symphony +Kapelle, which is so splendid that it could not be better. +It is a pity the singers are not equally good, but I don't +believe Germany is the land of great voices. However, +the men sing finely, and the prima donnas have much +talent, and <i>act</i> beautifully. The prima donna on this +occasion was Mallinger, the rival of Lucca. She is especially<a name="page_052" id="page_052"></a> +good as Margaretta. Niemann and Wachtel are +the great men singers. Wachtel was formerly a coachman, +but he has a lovely voice. His acting is not +remarkable, but Niemann is superb, and he sings and +acts delightfully. He is very tall and fair, with light +whiskers, and golden hair crowning a noble head, in truth +a regular Viking. When he comes out in his crimson +velvet mantle and crimson cap, with a white plume, and +begins singing these delicious love songs to Margaretta, +he is perfectly enchanting! He and Mallinger throw +themselves into the long love scene which fills the third +act, and act it magnificently. It was the first time I +ever saw a love scene well done. The fourth act is most +impressive. The curtain rises, and shows the interior of +a church. The candles are burning on the altar, and +the priests and acolytes are standing in their proper order +before it. The organ strikes up a fugue and all the +peasants come in and kneel down. Then poor Margaretta +comes in for refuge, but when she kneels to pray +a voice is heard which tells her that for her there is +no refuge or hope in heaven or earth.</p> + +<p>This scene Mallinger does so well that it is nature +itself. When the voice is heard she gives a shriek, totters +for a moment, and then falls upon the floor senseless, +and O, <i>so</i> naturally that one is entirely carried away +by it. The organ takes up the fugue, and the curtain +drops. The contrast between the two acts makes it all +the more effective, for in the third it is all love and +flowers and languishing music, and in the fourth one is +suddenly recalled to the sanctity and severity of the +church; also, after the orchestra this subdued fugue on<a name="page_053" id="page_053"></a> +the organ makes a very peculiar impression. In the fifth +act Margaretta is in prison, and Faust and Mephistopheles +come to rescue her. This is a powerful scene, +for at first she hesitates, and thinks she will go with +them, and then her mind wanders, and she recalls, as in +a vision, the happy scenes of earlier days. They keep +urging her, and try to drag her along with them, but at +last she breaks free from them and cries, "To Thee, O, +God, belongs my soul," and falls upon her straw pallet, +and dies. Then the scene changes, and you see four +angels gradually floating up to heaven, supporting her +dead body, while the chorus sings:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"Christ ist erstanden</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Aus Tod und Banden</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Frieden und Heil verkeisst</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Aller Welt er, die ihn preist."<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>This ends the opera, which is very exciting throughout. +I am going to read the original as soon as I +know a little more German, so that I shan't have to read +with a dictionary. I am just getting able to read Goethe +without one, and think he is the most entrancing writer. +There never could have been a man who understood +women so well as he! His female characters are perfectly +captivating, but he is not very flattering to his own +sex, and generally makes them, in love, (what they are) +weak and vacillating.</p> + +<p>I met a very agreeable young countryman at a dinner +the other day—a Mr. P.—and a great contrast to any of +Goethe's ill-regulated heroes. He was the typical American,<a name="page_054" id="page_054"></a> +I thought. Wide awake, bright, with a sharp eye +to business, very republican, with a hearty contempt for +titles and a great respect for women, practical and clear-headed. +When the wine was passed round he refused +it, and said he had never drunk a glass of wine or +touched tobacco in his life. I was so amused, for he +looked so young. I said to myself, "probably you are +just out of college, and are travelling before you settle +down to a profession." After a while he said something +about his wife. I was a little surprised, but still I +thought "perhaps you have only been married a few +months." A little further on he mentioned his children. +I was still more surprised, but thought he couldn't have +more than two; but when Mrs. B. asked him how many +he had, and he said "three living and two dead," adding +very gravely, "I have been twice left childless," I could +scarcely help bursting out laughing, for I had thought +him about twenty-one, and these revelations of a wife +and numerous family seemed too preposterous!—But it +was very nice to see such a model countryman, too. It +is such men that make the American greatness.</p> + +<p>After dinner I went with my hostess to hear Mendelssohn's +Oratorio of St. Paul. It is a great work, a +little tedious as a whole, but with wonderfully beautiful +numbers interspersed through it. There are several +lovely chorales in it. I was disappointed in the performance, +though, for in the first place there is no organ in +the Sing-Akademie, and I consider the effect of the +organ and the drums indispensable to an oratorio; and +in the second, the solos all seemed to me indifferently +sung. The choruses were faultless, however. They<a name="page_055" id="page_055"></a> +understand how to drill a chorus here! Next Friday I +am going to Haydn's "Jahreszeiten," which I never happened +to hear in Boston.</p> + +<p>Germany is a great place for birds and flowers. All +winter long we have quantities of saucy-looking little +sparrows here, and they have the most thievish expression +when they fly down for a crumb. I sometimes +put crumbs on my window-sill, and in a short time +they are sure to see them. Then they stand on the +edge of a roof opposite, and look from side to side for +a long time, the way birds do. At last they make up +their minds, swoop down on the sill, stretch their +heads, give a bold look to see if I am about, and +then snatch a crumb and fly off with it. They never +can get over their own temerity, and always give a +chirp as they fly away with the crumb; whether it is +a note of triumph over their success, or an expression +of nervousness, I cannot decide. One cold day I +passed a tree, on every twig of which was a bird. They +were holding a political meeting, I am sure, for they +were all jabbering away to each other in the most +excited manner, and each one had his breast bulged +out, and his feathers ruffled. They were "awfully +cunning!"</p> + +<p>On Tuesday I went out to Borsig's greenhouse. He +is an immensely rich man here, who makes a specialty +of flowers. He lives some way out of Berlin, and has +the largest conservatories here. The inside of the +portico which leads into them is all covered with ivy, +which creeps up on the inside of the walls, and covers +them completely. When we came within, the flowers<a name="page_056" id="page_056"></a> +were arranged in perfect <i>banks</i> all along the length of +the greenhouse, so that you saw one continuous line +of brilliant colours, and oh—the perfume! The hyacinths +predominated in all shades, though there were +many other flowers, and many of them new to me. +Camelias were trained, vine fashion, all over the +sides of the greenhouse, and hundreds of white and +pink blossoms were depending from them. All the +centre of the greenhouse was a bed of rich earth covered +with a little delicate plant, and at intervals +planted with azalea bushes so covered with blossoms +that one could scarcely see the leaves. At one end +was a very large cage filled with brilliant birds, and +at the other was a lovely fountain of white marble—Venus +and Cupid supported on three shells. But I +was most struck by the tree ferns, which I had never +before seen. They were perfectly magnificent, and +were arranged on the highest side of the greenhouse +with many other rare plants most artistically mingled +in. After we had finished looking at the flowers we +went into a second house, where were palm trees, ferns, +cacti and all sorts of strange things growing, but all +placed with the same taste. It was a beautiful sight, +and I never had any idea of the garden of Eden before. +I must try and bring home a pot of the "Violet +of the Alps." It is the most delicate little flower, and +looks as if it grew on a high, cold mountain.<a name="page_057" id="page_057"></a></p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>April 1, 1870</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>To-day is April Fool's day, and the first real month of +spring is begun. I have not fooled anybody yet, but as +soon as dinner is ready, I shall rush to the window and +cry, "There goes the king!" Of course they will +all run to see him, and then I shall get it off on the +whole family at once. I shall wait until the "kleiner +Hans," Frau W.'s son, comes home. I call him the +"Kleinen" in derision, for in reality he is immense. I +have been very much struck with the height of the people +here. As a rule they are much taller than Americans, +and sometimes one meets perfect giants in the +streets. The Prussian men are often semi-insolent +in their street manners to women, and sometimes nearly +knock you off the sidewalk, from simply not choosing to +see you. I suppose this arrogance is one of the benefits +of their military training! They <i>will</i> have the middle +of the walk where the stone flag is laid, no matter what +<i>you</i> have to step off into!</p> + +<p>I went to hear Haydn's Jahreszeiten a few evenings +since, and it is the most charming work—such a happy +combination of grave and gay! He wrote it when he +was seventy years old, and it is so popular that one has +great difficulty in getting a ticket for it. The <i>salon</i> was +entirely filled, so that I had to take a seat in the <i>loge</i>, +where the places are pretty poor, though I went early, +too. The work is sung like an oratorio, in arias, recitatives +and choruses, and is interspersed with charming +little songs. It represents the four seasons of the year, +and each part is prefaced by a little overture appropriate<a name="page_058" id="page_058"></a> +to the passing of each season into the next. The recitatives +are sung by Hanna and Lucas, who are lovers, +and by Simon, who is a friend of both, apparently. +The autumn is the prettiest of the four parts, for it +represents first the joy of the country people over the +harvests and over the fruits. Then comes a splendid +chorus in praise of Industry. After that follows a little +love dialogue between Hanna and Lucas, then a description +of a hunt, then a dance; lastly the wine is brought, +and the whole ends with a magnificent chorus in praise +of wine. The dance is too pretty for anything, for the +whole chorus sings a waltz, and it is the gayest, most +captivating composition imaginable. The choruses here +are so splendidly drilled that they give the expression in +a very vivid manner, and produce beautiful effects. All +the parts are perfectly accurate and well balanced. But +the solo singers are, as I have remarked in former letters, +for the most part, ordinary.</p> + +<p>I took my last lesson of Ehlert yesterday. I am very +sorry that he and Tausig have quarrelled, for he is a +splendid teacher. He has taught me a great deal, and +precisely the things that I wanted to know and could not +find out for myself. For instance, those twists and turns +of the hands that artists have, their way of striking the +chords, and many other little technicalities which one +must have a master to learn. He always seemed to take +great pleasure in teaching me, and I am most grateful to +him for his encouragement. I think Tausig behaves +very strangely to be off for such a long time. He does +not return until the first of May, and all this month we +are to be taught by one of his best scholars until he<a name="page_059" id="page_059"></a> +comes back and engages another teacher. He has just +given concerts at St. Petersburg, and I am told that at +a single one he made six thousand rubles. They are in +an immense enthusiasm there over him.</p> + +<p>Last night I went with Mr. B. to hear Bach's Passion +Music. Anything to equal that last chorus I never heard +from voices. I felt as if it ought to go on forever, and +could not bear to have it end. That chorale, "O Sacred +Head now wounded," is taken from it, and it comes in +twice; the second time with different harmonies and +without accompaniment. It is the most exquisite thing; +you feel as if you would like to die when you hear it. +But the last chorus carries you straight up to heaven. It +begins:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"We sit down in tears</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> And call to thee in the grave,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Rest soft—rest soft."</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>It represents the rest of our Saviour after the stone +had been rolled before the tomb, and it is <i>divine</i>. Everybody +in the chorus was dressed in black, and almost +every one in the audience, so you can imagine what a +sombre scene it was. This is the custom here, and on +Good Friday, when the celebrated "Tod Jesu" by +Graun, is performed, they go in black without exception.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>April 24, 1870</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I thought of you all on Easter Sunday, and wondered +what sort of music you were having. I did not +go to the English church, as is my wont, but to the<a name="page_060" id="page_060"></a> +Dom, which is the great church here, and is where +all the court goes. It is an extremely ugly church, +and much like one of our old Congregational meeting-houses; +but they have a superb choir of two hundred +men and boys which is celebrated all over Europe. +Haupt (Mr. J. K. Paine's former master) is the organist, +and of course they have a very large organ. I +knew, as this was Easter, that the music would be +magnificent, so I made A. W. go there with me, much +against her will, for she declared we should get no +seat. The Germans don't trouble themselves to go to +church very often, but on a feast day they turn out +in crowds.</p> + +<p>We got to the church only twenty minutes before +service began, and I confess I was rather daunted as I +saw the swarms of people not only going in but coming +out, hopeless of getting into the church. However, I +determined to push on and see what the chances were, +and with great difficulty we got up stairs. There is a +lobby that runs all around the church, just as in the +Boston Music Hall. All the doors between the gallery +and the lobby were open, and each was crammed +full of people. I thought the best thing we could do +would be to stand there until we got tired, and listen +to the music, and then go. Finally, the sexton came +along, and A. asked him if he could not give us two +seats; he shrugged his shoulders and said, "Yes, if you +choose to pass through the crowd." We boldly said +we would, although it looked almost hopeless, and +then made our way through it, followed by muttered +execrations. At last the sexton unlocked a door,<a name="page_061" id="page_061"></a> +and gave us two excellent seats, and there was plenty +of room for a dozen more people; but I don't doubt +he frightened them away just as he would have done +us if he could. He locked us in, and there we sat +quite in comfort.</p> + +<p>At ten the choir began to sing a psalm. They +sit directly over the chancel, and a gilded frame work +conceals them completely from the congregation. +They have a leader who conducts them, and they sing +in most perfect time and tune, entirely without accompaniment. +The voices are tender and soft rather +than loud, and they weave in and out most beautifully. +There are a great many different parts, and the voices +keep striking in from various points, which produces +a delicious effect, and makes them sound like an angel +choir far up in the sky. After they had finished the +psalm the organ burst out with a tremendous great +chord, enough to make you jump, and then played a +chorale, and there were also trombones which took the +melody. Then all the congregation sang the chorale, +and the choir kept silence. You cannot imagine how +easy it is to sing when the trombones lead, and the +effect is overwhelming with the organ, especially in +these grand old chorales. I could scarcely bear it, it +was so very exciting.</p> + +<p>There was a great deal of music, as it was Easter +Sunday, and it was done alternately by the choir and +the congregation; but generally the Dom choir only +sings one psalm before the service begins, and therefore +I seldom take the trouble to go there. The rest +of the music is entirely congregational, and they only<a name="page_062" id="page_062"></a> +have trombones on great occasions. We sat close by +the chancel, and the great wax candles flared on the +altar below us, and the Lutheran clergyman read the +German so that it sounded a good deal like Latin. I +was quite surprised to see how much like Latin German +<i>could</i> sound, for it has these long, rolling words, +and it is just as pompous. Altogether it made a +strange but splendid impression. I thought if they +had only had their choir in the chancel, and in white +surplices, it would have been much more beautiful, +but perhaps the music would not have sounded so fine +as when the singers were overhead. The Berlin +churches all look as if religion was dying out here, so +old and bare and ill-cared for, and so few in number. +They are only redeemed by the great castles of organs +which they generally have; and it is a difficult thing +to get the post of organist here. One must be an +experienced and well-known musician to do it. They +sing no chants in the service, but only chorales.</p> + +<p>To-night is the last Royal Symphony Concert of this +season, and of course I shall go. This wonderful orchestra +carries me completely away. It is too marvellous +how they play! such expression, such <i>élan!</i> I +heard them give Beethoven's Leonora Overture last +week in such a fashion as fairly electrified me. This +overture sums up the opera of Fidelio, and in one part +of it, just as the hero is going to be executed, you hear +the post-horn sound which announces his delivery. +This they play so softly that you catch it exactly as if +it came from a long distance, and you cannot believe<a name="page_063" id="page_063"></a> +it comes from the orchestra. It makes you think of +"the horns of elf-land faintly blowing."</p> + +<p>Tausig is expected back this week, and he has indeed +been gone long enough. He is going to give a +lesson every Monday to the best scholars who are not +in his class, and as I stand at the head of these I hope +to have a lesson from him every week. This would +suit me better than two, as he is so dreadfully exacting, +and it will give me time to learn a piece well. +Then I should have my regular lesson beside from Mr. +Beringer, or whoever he appoints to take Ehlert's place. +Beringer, who is a young man about twenty-five years +old, has turned out a capital teacher, and I am +learning much with him. He plays beautifully +himself, and is a great favorite of Tausig's. He has +been with him so long that he teaches his method excellently, +and gives me pieces that he has studied with +him. I believe he is to come out at the Gewandhaus, +in Leipsic, in October, and after that he will settle in +London.<a name="page_064" id="page_064"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">The Thier-Garten. A Military Review. Charlottenburg.<br /> +Tausig. Berlin in Summer. Potsdam and Babelsberg.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>June 5, 1870</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>We've had the vilest possible weather this spring, but +Berlin looks perfectly lovely now. There are a great +many gardens attached to the houses here. Everything +is in bloom, and is laden with the scent of lilacs +and apple blossoms. The streets are planted with lindens +and horse chestnut trees, and on the fashionable +street bordering on the Thier-Garten, all the houses +have little lawns in front, carpeted with the most dazzling +green grass, and rising out of it are solid banks +of flowers. The shrubs are planted according to their +height, close together, and one behind the other, and +as they are all in blossom you see these great masses of +colour. It is like a gigantic bouquet growing up before +you.</p> + +<p>The Thier-Garten is perfectly beautiful. It is so +charming to come upon this unfenced wood right in +the heart of an immense city, with roads and paths +cut all through it, and each over-arched with vivid +green as far as the eye can reach. When you see the +gay equipages driving swiftly through it, and ladies +and gentlemen glancing amid the trees on horseback, +it is very romantic.</p> + +<p>Frau W.'s brother, "Uncle S." as I call him,<a name="page_065" id="page_065"></a> +announced the other day that he was going to +take us to Charlottenburg. I had often been told that +I must go there and see the "Mausoleum," but as you +know I never ask for explanations, this did not convey +any particular idea to my mind, and I started out on +this excursion in my usual state of blissful ignorance. +We took two droschkies for our party, and +meandered slowly through the Thier-Garten and along +the Charlottenburg road till we arrived at our point of +destination. This was announced from afar by an +absurd statue poised on one toe on the top of the +castle which stands in front of the park containing +the Mausoleum.</p> + +<p>The first thing we did on alighting was to go into a +little beer garden close by to take coffee. It was a perfect +afternoon, and the trees and flowers were in all +their June glory. We sat down around one of those +delightful tables which they always have under the +trees in Germany. The coffee was soon served, hot +and strong, and Uncle S. took out a cigar to complete +his enjoyment. Then we began to stroll. We went +through a gate into the grounds surrounding the castle, +and after passing through the orangery emerged into +a garden, which soon spread into a beautiful park +filled with magnificent trees, and with beds of flowers +cut in the smooth turf for some distance along the +borders of the avenues. We turned to the right (instead +of to the left, which would have brought us directly +to the Mausoleum) in order to see the flowers +first, then the river, and then come round by the pond +where the carp are kept.<a name="page_066" id="page_066"></a></p> + +<p>The Germans certainly understand laying out parks +to perfection. They are not <i>too</i> rigidly kept, and there +is an air of nature about everything. This Charlottenburg +park is a particularly fascinating one. A dense +avenue borders the River Spree, which is broad at this +point, and flows gloomily and silently along. The +branches of the trees overhang the stream, and also +lock together across the walk, forming a leafy avenue +before and behind you. We met very few people, +scarcely any one, in fact, and the songs of the birds +were the only sounds that broke the all-pervading +calm. The path finally left the river, and we came +out on an open spot, where was a pretty view of the +castle through a little cut in the trees. We sat down +on a bench and looked about us for awhile, and then +went up on the bridge which crosses the pond where +the carp are kept. The Germans always feed these +carp religiously, and that is a regular part of the excursion. +The fish are very old, many of them, and we +saw some hoary old fellows rise lazily to the surface +and condescend to swallow the morsels of cake that +we threw them. They were evidently accustomed to +good living, and, like all swells, considered it only their +due!</p> + +<p>At last we came gradually round towards the Mausoleum. +An avenue of hemlocks led to it—"Trauer-Bäume +(mourning-trees)," as the Germans call them, +and it was an exquisite touch of sentiment to make +<i>this</i> avenue of these dark funereal evergreens. At first +you see nothing, for the avenue is long, and you turn +into it gay and smiling with the influence of the birds,<a name="page_067" id="page_067"></a> +the trees, and the flowers fresh upon you. But the +drooping boughs of the sombre hemlocks soon begin +to take effect, and the feeling that comes over one +when about half way down it is certainly peculiar. It +seems as if one were passing between a row of tall and +silent <i>sentinels</i> watching over the abode of death!</p> + +<p>Involuntarily you begin repeating from Edgar Poe's +haunting poem:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"Then I pacified Psyche and kissed her,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> And conquered her scruples and gloom,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> And banished her scruples and gloom,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> And we passed to the end of the vista</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Till we came to the door of a tomb;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> And I said, 'What is written, sweet sister,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> On the door of this legended tomb?'</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> And she said, 'Ulalume, Ulalume,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> 'Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume."</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>And so, too, does <i>your</i> eye become fixed upon a door +at the end of <i>this</i> vista, which comes nearer and nearer +until finally the Mausoleum takes form round it in +the shape of a little Greek temple of polished brown +marble. A small flower garden lies in front of it, and +it would look inviting enough if one did not know +what it was. Two officials stand ready to receive you +and conduct you up the steps.</p> + +<p>Within these walls a royal pair lie buried—King +Friedrich Wilhelm III. and his beautiful wife, Luisa, +who so calmly withstood the bullying of Napoleon I. +and for whom the Prussians cherish such a chivalrous +affection. They are entombed under the front portion +of the temple, and two slabs in the pavement mark +their resting places. These are lit from above by a<a name="page_068" id="page_068"></a> +window in the roof filled with blue glass, which +throws a subdued and solemn light into the marble +chamber. You walk past them to the other end of +the temple, which is cruciform in shape, go up one +step between pillars, and there, in the little white +transept, lie upon two snowy marble couches the sculptured +forms of the dead king and queen side by side. +Though this apartment is lit by side windows of plain +glass high up on the walls, so that it is full of the +white daylight, yet the blueish light from the outer +room is reflected into it just enough to heighten the +delicacy of the marble and to bestow on everything +an unearthly aspect.</p> + +<p>Queen Luisa was celebrated for her beauty, and +the sculptor Rauch, who knew and adored her, has +breathed it all into the stone. There she lay, as if +asleep, her head easily pressing the pillow, her feet +crossed and the outlines of her exquisite form veiled +but not concealed by the thin tissue-like drapery. It +covered even the little feet, but they seemed to define +themselves all the more daintily through the muslin. +There is no look of death about her face. She seems +more like a bonny "Queen o' the May," reclining with +closed eyes upon her flowery bed. The statue has been +criticised by some on account of this entire absence of +the "<i>beauté de la mort</i>." There is no transfigured or +glorified look to it. It is simply that of a beautiful +woman in deep repose. But it seems to me that +this is a matter of taste, and that the artist had a perfect +right to represent her as he most felt she was. +The king's statue is clothed in full uniform, and he<a name="page_069" id="page_069"></a> +looks very striking, too, lying there in all the dignity +of manhood and of kingship, with the drapery of his +military cloak falling about him. His features are +delicate and regular, and he is a fit counterpart to his +lovely consort. Against the back wall an altar is +elevated on some steps, and there is an endless fascination +in leaning against it and gazing down on those +two august forms stretched out so still before you. +On either side of the statues are magnificent tall +candelabra of white marble of very rich and beautiful +design, and appropriate inscriptions from the +German Bible run round the carved and diapered +marble walls. Altogether, this garden-park, with its +river, its Mausoleum, its avenue of hemlocks, and its +glorious statues of the king and queen, is one of the +most exquisite and ideal conceptions imaginable. As +we returned it was toward sunset. The evening wind +was sighing through the tall trees and the waving +grasses. An indefinable influence hovered in the air. +The supernatural seemed to envelop us, and instinctively +we hastened a little as we retraced our steps.</p> + +<p>When we emerged from the hemlock avenue Uncle +S., I thought, seemed rather relieved, for the contemplation +of a future life is not particularly sympathetic +to him! After he had asked me if I did not think the +Mausoleum "<i>sehr schön</i> (very beautiful)," and had +ascertained that I <i>did</i> think so, he restored his equilibrium +by taking out another cigar, which he lighted, +and we leisurely made our way through the garden to +our droschkies and drove home. It was quite dark as +we were coming through the Thier-Garten, and it<a name="page_070" id="page_070"></a> +seemed like a forest. The stars were shining through +the branches overhead, and their soothing light gave +the last poetic touch to a lovely day.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>June 26, 1870</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Last week the Emperor of Austria was here, and +they had a parade in his honour. The B.'s took me +in their carriage to see it. We drove to a large plain +outside the city, and there we saw a mock battle, and +all the manœuvers of an army—how they advance +and retreat, and how they form and deploy. There +was a continual fire of musketry and artillery, and it was +very exciting. The enemy was only imaginary, but +the attacking party acted just as if there were one, +and at last it ended with the taking by storm, which +was done by the attacking party rushing on with one +continued cheer, or rather yell, from one end of the +lines to the other. Then they all broke up, the bands +played the Russian Hymn, the King and the Emperor +mounted horses and led off a great body of cavalry, +and away we all clattered home—carriages and horses +all together. It was a great sight, and I enjoyed it +very much.</p> + +<p>I am going to play before Tausig next Monday, and +have been studying very hard. He praised me very +much the last time, and said he would soon take me +into his regular class; but he is such a whimsical +creature that one can't rely on him much. Two of +the girls have almost finished their studies with him, +and soon are going to give concerts. I am playing<a name="page_071" id="page_071"></a> +Scarlatti, which he is <i>awfully</i> particular with, and +expect to have my head taken off. Two of his scholars +are playing the same pieces that I am, and he told one +of them that she played "like a nut-cracker." He is +very funny sometimes. The other day one of the +young men played the Pastoral Sonata to him. Tausig +gave a sigh, and said, "This <i>should</i> be a garden +of roses, but, as you play it, I see only potato plants." +Scarlatti is charming music. He writes <i>en suite</i> like +Bach, and is still more quaint and full of humour.</p> + +<p>I find Berlin very pleasant, even in summer. Most +of the better houses are made with balconies or bow +windows, and around each one they will have a little +frame full of earth in which is planted mignonette, +nasturtiums, geraniums, etc., which trail over the edge, +and as you look up from the street it seems as if the +houses were festooned with flowers. On many of them +woodbine is trained so that every window is set in a +deep green frame. All the nice streets have pretty +little front yards in which roses are planted, and I +never saw anything like them. The branches are cut +to one thick, straight stem, which is tied to a stick. +They grow very tall, and each one is crowned with a +top-knot of superb roses. Every yard looks like a little +orchard of roses, and they are of every imaginable +shade of colour. Every American who comes here +must be struck with the want of beauty in the cities +he has left at home; and it is really shameful, that +when our people are so much better off, and when +such immense numbers of them see this European +culture every year, still they do not introduce the same<a name="page_072" id="page_072"></a> +things into our country. Take Fifth Avenue or Beacon +Street, for example, and one won't see anything the +whole length of them but a little green grass and an +occasional woodbine, whereas here they would be +adorned with flowers and all sorts of contrivances to +make them beautiful.</p> + +<p>On Thursday a little party of three, including myself, +was made up to take me out to Potsdam. The +Museum, Charlottenburg and Potsdam, are, as Mr. T. +B. says, "the three sights of Berlin." I have written +you of the first two, and you shall now have the third. +Potsdam is sixteen miles from here, and it took about +as long to go there by train as it does from Boston to +Lynn. It is the royal summer residence. On arriving +we bought a large quantity of cherries and +then seated ourselves in a carriage to drive through +the city to Charlottenhof. Here we got out and +walked into a superb park, filled with splendid old +trees. The first thing we saw was a beautiful little +building in the Pompeian style. This was where +Humboldt used to stay with the last king and queen +in summer. We went into it and found it the sweetest +little place you can imagine. When we opened +the door, instead of a hall was a little court with a +fountain in it and two low, broad staircases (of +marble, I think) sweeping up to the main story. The +walls were delicately tinted and frescoed all round the +borders with Pompeian devices. The windows were +of some sort of thin transparent stained glass, through +which the light could penetrate easily, and were also in +the Pompeian fashion, with chariots, and horses, and<a name="page_073" id="page_073"></a> +goddesses, etc. The rooms all opened into each other, +but we were obliged to go through them so hastily +that I could not look at them much in detail. The +walls were covered with lovely pictures, and there were +tables inlaid with precious marbles and all sorts of +beautiful things. We saw the table and chair where the +king always sat, just as he had left it, with his papers +and drawings; and the queen's boudoir, with her +writing materials and her sewing arrangements. From +her window one looked out on a fountain at the right, +and on the left was a long arcade covered with vines +which led to a garden of roses.</p> + +<p>We opened a door and passed through this arcade, +and, after looking at the flowers, went on through the +park until we came to another house, which was Pompeian, +also, or Greek, I couldn't exactly tell which. +It was built only to bathe in. The floors were all of +stone, and it was as cool and fresh as could be. The +bath itself was a large semi-circular place into which +one went down by steps. It was large enough to swim +in. Those old peoples understood pretty well how to +make themselves comfortable, didn't they? There +was an ancient bath-tub there, set upon a pedestal, +made of some precious stone, which Humboldt had appraised +at half a million of thalers. Outside was a +lovely little garden, of course, and one of the prettiest +things I saw was a quantity of those flowers which only +grow in cool, moist places, sheltered under an awning. +The awning was circular, and stretched down to the +ground on three sides, so that one could only see the +flowers by standing just in front. There were any<a name="page_074" id="page_074"></a> +number of lady-slippers of every shade, each mottled +exquisitely with a different colour, and behind them +rose other flowers in regular gradation, and all of +brilliant tints. It seemed as if they were all nestling +under a great shaker bonnet, and they looked as coy +and bewitching as possible. I thought it was a charming +idea.</p> + +<p>After we left this place we went on until we came +to Sans Souci, which was built simply for the benefit +of the orange trees—to give them a shelter in winter. +At least, this was the pretext. It has a most dazzling +effect in the sunshine as you look at it from below. +Terrace rises above terrace, and at the top is this airy +white building rising lightly into the sky, with galleries +and towers, groups of statuary, colonnades, fountains, +flowers, and every device one can imagine to +make it look as much like a fairy palace as possible. +The great burly orange trees stand in rows in the gardens +in large green pots. Many of them were in blossom, +and cast their heavy perfume on the air. You +couldn't turn your eyes any where that <i>something</i> was +not arranged to arrest and surprise them. Here I +saw another way of training roses. Running along on +the green turf was a certain low growing variety, the +branches of which they pin to the earth with a kind +of wooden hair-pin, so that it does not show. They +thus lie perfectly flat, and the grass is <i>literally</i> "carpeted" +with them. It was lovely. After we had sufficiently +admired the exterior of the palace, we ascended +the flights of steps which lead up the terraces, +and went into it. Outside were the long galleries<a name="page_075" id="page_075"></a> +where the orange trees stand, and then we passed into +the large and noble rooms. First came the one which +is devoted to Raphael's pictures. Copies of them all +hang upon the walls. After we had gazed at them a +long time, we looked at the other apartments, all of +which were furnished in some extraordinary way, but +I glanced at them too hastily to retain any recollection +of them. I only remember that one was all of +malachite and gold.</p> + +<p>The next thing we did was to go over the palace +originally named "Sans Souci," where Frederick the +Great lived. We saw the benches—ledges rather—on +which his poor pages had to sit in the corridor, and +which were purposely made so narrow in order to prevent +their falling asleep while on duty. The armchair +in which he died is there, and the bust of Charles +XII still stands on the floor at the foot of the statue +of Venus, where Frederick placed it in derision, +because Charles was a woman-hater. I think it was +a very small piece of malice on Frederick's part, and +in fact he had such a bad heart that none of his relics +interested me in the least.</p> + +<p>After we had seen everything we went to a little +restaurant at the foot of Sans Souci, where we drank +beer and coffee and ate cake seated round a little table +under the trees. This fashion that the Germans have +of eating out of doors in summer is perfectly delightful, +I think. I laid in a fresh stock of cherries, though +I had already eaten an immense quantity, but they +looked so nice, piled in little pyramids upon a vine +leaf, like the cannon balls at the Cambridge arsenal,<a name="page_076" id="page_076"></a> +that there was no resisting them. I've thought of you +ever since the cherry season began. They are so extremely +cheap here, that two groschens (about six +cents) will buy as many as two persons can eat at one +time. We drove from Sans Souci to Fingstenberg, +which is only a place to see a view of the country. +The landscape was perfectly flat, but it had the charm +of quiet cultivation. It was green with beautiful trees, +and the river wound along dotted with white sails, and +there were wind-mills turning in every direction. +After we left Fingstenberg we drove down to an inn +where we ordered dinner, and this also was served out +of doors. It was about six o'clock in the evening, and +we were all very hungry, so we enjoyed this part of +the programme very much.</p> + +<p>When we had finished our cutlet and green peas we +got into the carriage again, and drove to Babelsberg. +This is a little retreat which belongs to the queen, +and where the royal family sometimes passes a few +weeks in summer. We walked through a noble park +where the ground swelled upward on our left and +sloped downward on our right. After following the +windings of the road for a long distance, we at last +arrived at the little castle, perched upon a hill-side +and embowered in trees. A smart looking maid +showed us through it, and I was more impressed here +than by all I had previously seen. As Balzac says, +"People who talk about a house 'being like a palace' +should see one first,"—although, as Herr J. observed, +"Babelsberg is not a palace, but is more like the home +of an English nobleman." It is just a quiet little retreat,<a name="page_077" id="page_077"></a> +but the beauty with which everything is arranged +is quite indescribable. Every window is planned so +that you cannot look out without having something +exquisite before you. Here it will be a little mosaic +of rare flowers; there a fountain, etc. And then the +bronzes, the pictures, the rare old pieces of glass and +china, the thousand curious and beautiful objects of +art that one must see over and over again to be able +really to take in. In these castles, too, there are no +end of little nooks and crannies where two or three +persons, only, can sit and talk. Dainty little recesses +made for enjoyment.</p> + +<p>I walked into the grand salon and imagined an +elegant assemblage of people in it, with all the means +of entertainment at hand. It was a circular room, +and large enough to dance the German in very comfortably. +We went up stairs and through the different +apartments. I went into the Princess Royal's room, +and "surveyed my queenly form" in the superb mirror, +and arranged my veil by her toilette glass—which +I envied her, I assure you, for it shone like silver. +We saw the cane of Frederick the Great, with a lion +couchant on it—the one which he shook on some occasion +and frightened somebody—(now you know, +don't you?) Last of all we went up into the tower, and +after climbing the dizzy staircase, we stood on the balconies +for a long time, and looked over the splendid +park about the country. Altogether, I was enchanted +with Babelsberg, and nothing will suit me now but to +have it for the retreat of my old age. I think I shall +apply to be a servant there, for it must be a delightful<a name="page_078" id="page_078"></a> +situation. The royal family is only a short time there, +and the servants have this exquisite habitation, which +is always kept in perfect order, all the rest of the year, +and have nothing to do but show visitors over it and +take in half thalers!</p> + +<p>After we left Babelsberg we took a carriage and +drove to the station, where we got into the cars about +half-past nine, and went back to Berlin. Herr J. had +made himself extremely agreeable, and had exerted +himself the whole day on our behalf. We had a most +perfect time of its kind, and I enjoyed every minute +of it, but came back in the worst of spirits, as I generally +do. It seems so hard that one can never get +together <i>all</i> the elements of perfect happiness! Here +in Babelsberg everything was so lovely that one could +scarcely believe that there had ever been a "Fall." It +seemed as if people <i>must</i> be happy there, and yet I'm +told that the queen is very unhappy. I suppose because +she has such a faithless old husband.<a name="page_079" id="page_079"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">The War. German Meals. Women and Men. Tausig's<br /> +Teaching. Tausig Abandons his Conservatory.<br /> +Dresden. Kullak.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>July 23, 1870</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Just now the grand topic of course is this dreadful +war that has just been declared between Prussia and +France, and everybody is in the wildest state of excitement +over it. It broke out so very suddenly that it +is only just one week since it has been decided upon, and +ever since, the drafting has been going on, and the +streets are filled with regiments and with droves of +horses, cannon, and all the implements of war. The +trains are going out all the time packed with soldiers, +and the railroad stations are the constant scene of +weeping women of all classes, come to see the last of +their dear ones. There is such a storm of indignation +against Napoleon that one hears nothing but curses +against him. I am entirely on the German side, and +am anxious to see the result, for between two such +great nations, and with so much at stake, it will be a +tremendous struggle.</p> + +<p>We are promised a holiday soon, when I shall have +a let-up from practicing, and only practice three hours +a day, instead of five or six. Don't think I am making +extraordinary progress because I practice so much. I +find that the strengthening and equalizing of the fingers<a name="page_080" id="page_080"></a> +is a terribly slow process, and that it takes much more +time to make a step forward than I expected. You +may know how a thing <i>ought</i> to be played, but it is +another matter to get your hands into such a training +that they obey your will. Sometimes I am very much +encouraged, and feel as if I should be an artist "immediately, +if not sooner," and at others I fall into the +blackest despair. I don't know but that S. J. was in +the right of it, not to attempt anything, for it is an +awful pull when you <i>do</i> once begin to study!</p> + +<p>I wish S. could come here and spend a winter. I +am sure it would be capital for her health. The Germans +have a great idea that you must "<i>stärken</i> +(strengthen)" yourself. So they eat every few hours. +When you first arrive you feel stuffed to bursting all +the time, for you naturally eat heartily at every meal, +because, as we only eat three times a day in America, +we are accustomed to take a good deal at once. Here +they have five meals a day, and one has to learn how +to take a little at a time. But it is a pretty good +idea, for you are continually repairing yourself, and +you never have such a strain on your system as to get +hungry! The German women are plump roly-polies, +as a general rule, and it is probably in consequence of +this continual "strengthening." One has full opportunity +to observe their condition, for they generally +have their dress "<i>aus-geschnitten</i> (square neck)," as +they call it, in order to save collars, and you will +see them strolling along the streets with their dresses +out open in front. They are not handsome—irregular +features and muddy complexions being the rule. The<a name="page_081" id="page_081"></a> +way they neglect their teeth is the worst. They are +always complimenting Americans on what they call +our "fine Grecian noses," and, in fact, since they have +said so much about it, I have noticed that nearly all +Americans <i>have</i> straight and reasonably proportioned +noses.—One sees a great many handsome <i>men</i> on the +street, however—many more than we do at home. Perhaps +it is because the Prussian uniform sets them off so, +and then their blonde beards and moustaches give them +a <i>distingué</i> air.</p> + +<p>From what you tell me of the shock of our respected +friend—— over B.'s travelling from the West under +Mr. S.'s escort, I think the "conventionalities" +are taking too strong a hold in America, and it +will not be many years before they are as strict there +as they are here, where young people of different sexes +can never see anything of each other. I regard it as +a shocking system, as the Germans manage it. Young +ladies and gentlemen only see each other in parties, +and a young man can never call on a girl, but must +always see her in the presence of the whole family. I +only wonder how marriages are managed at all, for the +sexes seem to live quite isolated from each other. The +consequence is, the girls get a lot of rubbish in their +heads, and as for the men, I know not what they think, +for I have not seen any to speak of since I have been +here. You can imagine that with my co-education +training and ideas, I have given Fräulein W.'s moral +system a succession of shocks. She has been fenced +up, so to speak, her whole life, and, consequently, was +dumbfounded at the bold stand I take. I cannot resist<a name="page_082" id="page_082"></a> +giving her a sensation once in a while, so I come out +with some strong expression. Do you know, since I've +seen so much of the world I've come to the conclusion +that the New England principle of teaching daughters +to be independent and to look out for themselves from +the first, is an excellent one. I've seen the evil of this +German system of never allowing children to think +for themselves. It <i>does</i> make them so mawkish. A +girl here nearly thirty years old will not know where +to buy the simplest thing, or do without her mother +any more than a baby. The best plan is the old-fashioned +American one, viz.: Give your children a +"stern sense of duty," and then throw them on their +own resources.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>August 6, 1870</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Until yesterday I have had no holiday, for I got into +Tausig's class finally, so I had to practice very hard. +He was as amiable to me as he ever can be to anybody, +but he is the most trying and exasperating master you +can possibly imagine. It is his principle to rough you +and snub you as much as he can, even when there is +no occasion for it, and you can think yourself fortunate +if he does not hold you up to the ridicule of the +whole class. I was put into the class with Fräulein +Timanoff, who is so far advanced that Tausig told her +he would not give her lessons much longer, for that she +knew enough to graduate. You can imagine what an +ordeal my first lesson was to me. I brought him a +long and difficult Scherzo, by Chopin, that I had practiced<a name="page_083" id="page_083"></a> +carefully for a month, and knew well. Fancy +how easy it was for me to play, when he stood over +me and kept calling out all through it in German, +"Terrible! Shocking! Dreadful! O Gott! O Gott!" +I was really playing it well, too, and I kept on in spite +of him, but my nerves were all rasped and excited to +the highest point, and when I got through and he +gave me my music, and said, "Not at all bad" (very +complimentary for him), I rushed out of the room +and burst out crying. He followed me immediately, +and coolly said, "What are you crying for, child? +Your playing was not at all bad." I told him that it +was "impossible for me to help it when he talked in +such a way," but he did not seem to be aware that he +had said anything.</p> + +<p>And now to show how we all have our troubles, and +that blow falls upon blow—I will tell you that at our last +lesson Tausig informed us that he was <i>not going to give +another lesson to anybody</i>, and that the conservatory +would be shut up on the first of October!! This is the +most <i>awful</i> disappointment to me, for just as I have +worked up to the point where I am prepared to profit +by his lessons, he goes away! I suppose that he has +left Berlin by this time, or that he will very soon, but he +wouldn't tell when or where he was going, and only said +that he was going off, and did not know when he was +coming back, or what would become of him. Of course +he <i>does</i> know, but he does not want to be plagued with +applications from scholars for private lessons. I heard +that he was only going to retain two of his scholars, and +that one was a princess and the other a countess.<a name="page_084" id="page_084"></a></p> + +<p>He is a perfect rock. I went to his house to see if +I could persuade him to give me private lessons. He +came into the room and accosted me in his sharpest +manner, with "<i>Nun, was ist's?</i> (Well, what is it?)" +I soon found that no impression was to be made on +him. He only said that when he happened to be in +Berlin, if I would come and play to him, he would +give me his judgment. But I never should venture to +do this, for as likely as not he would be in a bad +humour, and send me off—he is such a difficult subject +to come at. I told him I thought it was very hard +after I had come all this way, and had been at so much +expense only to have lessons from him, that I should +have to go back without them. He said he was very +sorry, but that most of his scholars came from long +distances, and that he could not show any special +favor to me. He asked me why I insisted upon having +lessons from him, and said that Kullak or Bendel both +teach as well as he does. The fact is, he is a capricious +genius, entirely spoiled and unregulated, and +the conservatory is a mere plaything to him. He +amused himself with it for a while, and now he is +tired of it, and doesn't like to be bound down to it, +and so he throws it up. Money is no consideration to +him.</p> + +<p>It really seems almost as difficult to get a <i>great</i> +teacher in Europe as in America. Tausig is the only +celebrity who teaches, and now he has given up. He +rather advised my taking lessons of Bendel, who is a +resident artist here, and a pupil of Liszt's.</p> + +<p>I suffered terribly over Tausig's going off. I heard<a name="page_085" id="page_085"></a> +of it first two weeks ago, and couldn't sleep or anything. +The only consolation I bare is that I should have +been "worn to the bone," as H. C. says, if I had kept +on with him, for all his pupils except little Timanoff, +who is at the age of plump fifteen, look as thin as rails. +However—"the bitterness of death is past!" When +one is stopped off in one direction, there is nothing +for it but to turn in another. But it seems as if the +more one tried to accomplish a thing, the thicker +hindrances and difficulties spring up about one, like the +dragon's teeth. I suppose I shall end by going to Kullak. +He used to be court pianist here before Tausig +and has had immense experience as a teacher. Indeed, +Professor J. K. Paine recommended me to go to him +in the first place, you remember. If I do, I hope I +shall have a better fate than poor young N., whom, +also, Professor Paine recommended to go to Kullak. +He could not stand—or else <i>under</i>stand the snubbing +and brow-beating they gave him in Kullak's conservatory, +and from being deeply melancholy over it, he +got desperate, and actually committed suicide!</p> + +<p>Germans cannot understand blueness. They are +never blue themselves, and they expect you always to +preserve your equanimity, and torment you to death +to know "what is the matter?" when there is nothing +the matter, except that you are in a state of disgust with +everything. Moods are utterly incomprehensible to +them. They feel just the same every day in the year.<a name="page_086" id="page_086"></a></p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>August 21, 1870</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I suppose that C. has described to you in full our +Dresden visit, and what a lovely time we had. It was +really a poetic five days, as everything was new to +both of us. We were a good deal surprised at many +things in Dresden. In the first place, the beauty of +the city struck us very forcibly, and we both remarked +how singular it was that of all the people we know who +have been there no one should have spoken of it. +The Brühl'sche Terrasse is the most lovely promenade +imaginable. It runs along the bank of the Elbe +River, which is here quite broad and handsome, and I +always felt myself under a species of enchantment as +soon as we had ascended the broad flight of steps that +lead to it. We always took tea in the open air, and listened +to a band of music playing. The Germans just +live in the open air in summer, and it is perfectly +fascinating. They have these gardens everywhere, +filled with trees, under which are little tables and +chairs and footstools; and there you can sit and have +dinner or tea served up to you. At night they are all +lighted up with gas.</p> + +<p>It seemed like fairy land, as we sat there in Dresden. +The evenings were soft and balmy, the very perfection +of summer weather. The terrace is quite high above +the river, and you look up and down it for a long distance. +The city lies to the left, below you, and the +towers rise so prettily—precisely as in a picture. This +air of the culture of centuries lies over everything, +and the soft and lazy atmosphere lulls the soul to rest.<a name="page_087" id="page_087"></a> +We used to walk until we came to the Belvidere, which +is a large restaurant with a gallery up-stairs running +all round it. There was a band of music, and here we +sat and took our tea, and spent two or three hours, +always. The moonlight, the river flowing along and +spanned with beautiful bridges, the thousands of lamps +reflected in it and trembling across the water and +under the arches, the infinity of little steamers and +wherries sailing to and fro and brilliantly lighted up, +the music, and the throngs of people passing slowly +by, put one into a delicious and bewildered sort of +state, and one feels as if this world were heaven!</p> + +<p>The day after we arrived we went, of course, to the +picture gallery, and here I was entirely taken by surprise. +Nothing one reads or hears gives one the +least idea of the magnificence of the pictures there. +I never knew what a picture was before. The softness +and richness of the colouring, and their exquisite +beauty, must be seen to be understood. The Sistine +Madonna fills one with rapture. It is perfectly glorious, +and one can't imagine how the mind of man could +have conceived it. One sees what a flight it was +after looking at all the other Madonnas in the Gallery, +many of which are wonderful. But this one soars above +them all. Most of the Madonnas look so stiff, or so +old, or so matronly, or so expressionless, or, at best, as +in Corregio's Adoration of the Shepherds (a magnificent +picture), the rapture of the mother only is +expressed in the face. In the Sistine Madonna the +virgin looks so young and innocent—so virgin-like—not +like a middle-aged married woman. The large,<a name="page_088" id="page_088"></a> +wide-open blue eyes have a dewy look in them, as if +they had wept many tears, and yet such an innocence +that it makes you think of a baby whom you have +comforted after a violent fit of crying. The majesty +of the attitude, and the perfect repose of the face, +upon which is a look of <i>waiting</i>, of ineffable expectancy, +are very striking. Mr. T. B. says it looked to +him as though she had been overwhelmed at the tremendous +dignity that had been put upon her, and was +yet lost in the awe of it—which I think an exquisite +idea. St. Sixtus, who is kneeling on the right of the +virgin, has an expression of anxious solicitude on his +features. He is evidently interceding with her for the +congregation toward whom his right hand is outstretched, +for this picture was intended to be placed +over an altar. The only fault to be found with the +picture, I think, is in the face of Santa Barbara, who +kneels on the left. She looks sweetly down upon the +sinners below, but with a slight self-consciousness. +The two cherubs underneath are exquisite. Their little +round faces wear an exalted look, as if their eyes +fully took in the august pair to whom they are +upturned. The background of the picture—all of the +faces of angels cloudily painted—gives the finishing +touch to this astounding creation. But you must see +it to realize it.</p> + +<p>Since my return I have finally decided to take private +lessons of Kullak. Kullak is a very celebrated teacher, +and plays splendidly himself, I am told, though he +doesn't give concerts any more. He used to be court +pianist here, and has had so much experience in teaching<a name="page_089" id="page_089"></a> +that I hope a good deal from him, though I don't +believe he will equal our little Tausig, capricious and +ill-regulated though he is. Never shall I forget the <i>iron</i> +way he used to stand over those girls, his hand +clenched, determined to <i>make</i> them do it! No wonder +they played so! They didn't dare not to. He told one +of the class that "it was <i>in</i> me, and he could knock it +out of me if he had chosen to keep on with me." And I +know he could—and that is what distracts me!</p> + +<p>But just think what a way to behave—to leave his conservatory +so, at a day's notice, in holiday time, without +even informing his teachers! He left everything to be +attended to by Beringer. Many of the scholars are very +poor, and have made a great effort to get here in order +to learn his method. Off he went like a shot, because +he suddenly got disgusted with teaching, and he hasn't +told a soul where he was going, or how long he intended +to remain away. He wrote to Bechstein, the great piano-maker +here, "I am going away—away—away." He +wouldn't condescend to say more. Mr. Beringer has been +to his house to see him on business connected with the +conservatory, but he was flown, and his housekeeper told +Beringer that both letters and telegrams had come for +Tausig, and she did not know where to send them. Did +you ever hear of such a capricious creature? I was so +provoked at him that after the first week I ceased to grieve +over his departure. One cannot rely on these great geniuses, +but I hope that, as Kullak makes a business of +teaching, and not of playing, more is to be gained from +him. At any rate, he will not be off on these long +absences.<a name="page_090" id="page_090"></a></p> + +<p>I am just studying my first concerto. It is Beethoven's +C minor, and it is extremely beautiful. Mr. Beringer +tells me that two years is too short a time to make +an artist in; and indeed one does not know how extremely +difficult it is until one tries it. He plays splendidly himself, +and is to make his <i>début</i> in the Gewandhaus in +Leipsic, this October. The best orchestra in Germany +is there. Tausig has turned out five artists from his +conservatory this summer. Time will show if any of +them become first class.</p> + +<p>Aunt H. was right in thinking that this would be one +of the most dreadful wars that ever was, though she +needn't be anxious on my account. The Prussians are +winning everything, and are pushing on for Paris as +hard as they can go. They have just taken Chalons. +The battles have been <i>terrible</i>, and immense numbers +have been killed and wounded on both sides. They have +really fought to the death. The spirit of the two peoples +seems to me entirely different. The French seem +only to be possessed by a mad thirst for glory, and manifest +a blood-thirstiness which is perfectly appalling. +One reads the most revolting stories in the papers about +their creeping around the battle-field after the battle is +over, and killing and robbing the wounded Prussians, +cutting out their tongues and putting out their eyes. +The Prussians are so on the alert now, however, that I +hope few such things can take place. One Prussian +writes that he was lying wounded upon the field of battle, +and another man was not far off in the same helpless +condition, when an old Frenchman came up and +clove this other man's head with a hatchet. The first<a name="page_091" id="page_091"></a> +screamed loudly for help, when a party of Prussians +rushed up and rescued him, and overtook the old man, +and shot him. We hear every day of some dreadful +thing. O.'s cousin, who is just my age, and is three +years married, has lost her husband, her favorite brother +is fatally wounded with three balls and lies in the hospital, +and her second brother has a shot in each leg and +they don't know whether he will ever be able to walk +again. He is a young fellow nineteen years old.</p> + +<p>In the first days after the war was declared, I felt as +if no punishment could be too hot for Napoleon. The +people just gave up everything, and stood in the streets +all day long on each side of the railroad track. The +trains passed every fifteen minutes, packed with the +brave fellows who were going off to lose their lives on a +mere pretext. Then there would be one continual cheering +all along as they passed, and all the women would +cry, and the men would execrate Napoleon. The Prussians +don't seem to have any feelings of revenge, but +regard the French as a set of lunatics whom they are +going to bring to reason. The hatred of Napoleon is +intense. They regard him as the leader of a people +whom he has willfully blinded, and are determined to +make an end of him, if possible. The Prussian army +is such a splendid one that it is difficult to imagine that +it can be overcome. You see everybody under a certain +age is liable to be drafted, and no one is allowed to buy +a substitute. So everybody is interested. Bismarck has +two sons who are common soldiers, and all the ministers +together have twelve sons in the war. Then the King +and the Crown Prince being with the army, gives a great<a name="page_092" id="page_092"></a> +enthusiasm. The Crown Prince has distinguished himself, +and seems to have great military ability. The King +was very angry with Prince Friedrich Carl, because in +the last battle he exposed one regiment so that it was +completely mowed down. Only two or three men +escaped. But it makes one groan for the poor Frenchmen +when one sees these terrible great cannon passing +by. The largest-sized ones were ordered for the storming +of Metz, and each one requires twenty-four horses +to draw it!<a name="page_093" id="page_093"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="WITH_KULLAK" id="WITH_KULLAK"></a>WITH KULLAK.</h2> + +<p><a name="page_094" id="page_094"></a></p> + +<p><a name="page_095" id="page_095"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Moving. German Houses and Dinners. The War. The Capture<br /> +of Napoleon. Kullak's and Tausig's Teaching.<br /> +Joachim. Wagner. Tausig's Playing.<br /> +German Etiquette.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>September</i> 29, 1870.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I must request you in future to direct your letters +to No. 30 Königgrätzer Strasse, as we move in three +days. The people who live on the floor under us +wouldn't bear my practicing for five or six hours daily, +and so Frau W. has looked up another lodging. The +German houses are about as uncomfortable as can be +imagined. Only the newest ones have gas and water-works, +or even the ordinary conveniences that <i>every</i> +house has with us. No carpets on the floors, stiff, +straight-backed chairs, precious little fire in cold +weather, etc. The rooms have no closets, and one +always has to have a great clumsy wardrobe with +wooden pegs in it, instead of hooks, so that when you +go to take down one dress all the others tumble down, +too. In short, the Germans are fifty years behind us. +Of course the rich people have superb houses, but I +speak now of people in ordinary circumstances. I often +look back upon the solid comfort of the Cambridge +houses. I think people understand there pretty well +how to live. I shall relish a good dinner when I come +home, for this is the land where what we call "family<a name="page_096" id="page_096"></a> +dinners" are unknown. They have <i>parts</i> of meals +five times a day, but never a complete one. The meat +is dreadful, and I never can tell what kind of an animal +it grows on. They give me two boiled eggs for +supper, so I manage to live, but O! <i>has</i> beefsteak +vanished into the land of dreams? and <i>is</i> turkey but +the figment of my disordered imagination? They have +delicious bread and butter, but "man cannot live +by bread alone." Mr. F. says that where <i>he</i> boards they +give him "pear soup, and cherry soup, and plum +soup!"</p> + +<p>Everything here is saddened by this fearful war. +You have no idea how frightful it is. The men on +both sides are just being slaughtered by thousands. +Haven't the Prussians made a magnificent campaign +I declare, I think it is marvellous what they have done. +The French haven't had the smallest success, and have +had to give up one tremendous stronghold after another. +It is expected that Metz will surrender in about eight +days. It is a terrific place, and was believed to be +impregnable. Over and over again the poor French +have tried to cut through the Prussian army, and just +so often they have been beaten back into the city. +Finally they will have to give over. Their generals +must be shameful, for they have fought to the death, +but they can't make any headway against these formidable +Prussians. The German papers say that the +French fire too high, for one thing. They are not +such practiced marksmen as the Germans, and their +balls fly over the enemy's heads. The French are +a savage people, however, and cruelty runs in their<a name="page_097" id="page_097"></a> +veins. One reads the most awful things, but for the +credit of human nature it is to be hoped that the +worst of them are not true.</p> + +<p>I believe I have not written to you since the capture +of the Emperor Napoleon, which of course you heard +of as soon as it happened. The Germans, as you may +imagine, were completely carried away with the glorious +news, and could scarcely believe in their own good +fortune. On the 3d of September, when I came out +to breakfast, Frau W. called out to me from behind +the newspaper, with a face all ablaze with triumph +and excitement, "<i>Der Kaiser Napoleon ist gefangen</i>. +(The Emperor Napoleon is taken.)" "<i>No!</i>" said I, +for it did not seem possible that anything so great and +unexpected <i>could</i> have happened. "It is <i>true</i>" said +she; "look at this paper, which I just sent out for." +The instant I saw that Frau W. had been guilty of +the unwonted extravagance of purchasing the morning +paper, it became clear to me that Napoleon <i>must</i> +have been taken prisoner. Generally we do not get +the paper till it is a day old, when Frau W. brings +it carefully home from her brother's in her capacious +bag. He subscribes for it, and after his family have +perused it, she borrows it for our benefit—an economical +arrangement upon which she frequently congratulates +herself.</p> + +<p>I fancy there was little work done or business transacted +<i>that</i> day in Berlin! After I had finished my +coffee, I went and stood by the window and watched +the people pour through the streets. Everybody +streamed up Unter den Linden past the palace, their<a name="page_098" id="page_098"></a> +faces full of joy. The street boys took an active part +in the general jollification, and were as ubiquitous as +boys always are when anything extraordinary is going +on. They conceived the brilliant idea of climbing +up on the equestrian statue of Frederick the Great, +which is just opposite the palace windows. The +Crown Princess, who was looking out, immediately had +it announced to them that he who got to the top first +should receive a silver cup and some pieces of money. +That was all the boys needed. Away they went, struggling +and tumbling over each other like a swarm of +bees. At last one little urchin secured the coveted +position, and was afterward called up to the palace +window to receive the prize.—If the Crown Princess, +by the way, were more given to such little acts of generosity, +she would be more popular by far, for the +Germans sniff at her for being too economical. They +are the closest possible economisers themselves, but +they despise the trait in foreigners!</p> + +<p>At night there was a grand illumination in honour of the +victory, and of course we all went to see it. Such a +time as we had! The whole city was blazing with light, +and all the large firms had put up something brilliant +and striking before their places of business. Stars, +eagles, crosses (after the celebrated "iron cross" of Prussia), +beside countless tapers, were burning away in every +direction, and all the carriages and droschkies in Berlin +were slowly crawling along the streets, much impeded by +the dense throng of pedestrians crowding through. All +the private houses were lit up with tapers, and thousands +of flags were flying. Over every public building and railroad<a name="page_099" id="page_099"></a> +station, and on all the public squares were transparencies +in which the substantial form of <i>Germania</i> +flourished extensively, leaning upon her shield, and gazing +sentimentally into vacancy. But I always enjoy "Germania." +It seems a sort of recognition of the feminine +element.</p> + +<p>We were in a droschkie, like other people, taking the +prescribed tour round by the Rath-Haus (City-Hall), +and were frequently brought to a stand-still by the crush. +At such times we were the target for all the small boys +standing in our neighbourhood. The "Berlinger Junge" +is almost as famous for his talent for repartee as the +Paris "Gamin." "Do be careful!" said one to me; "you +will certainly tumble out, your carriage is going so +fast." This was intended as a double sarcasm, for in +the first place we were not in a carriage at all, but in a +second-class droschkie, and in the second place we had +been standing stock still for half an hour, and there +was no prospect of getting started for half an +hour more. Many more such little speeches were +addressed to us which we pretended not to hear, though +we were secretly much amused.—It was a strange sort of +feeling to be put in the streets at night with this glare +of light, these crowds of people, and this suppressed +excitement in the air. I thought it gave some idea of +the Day of Judgment.</p> + +<p>The women are tremendously patriotic and self-sacrificing, +and they seem to be throwing themselves heart +and soul into the war. With the catholicity of the +female sex, however, they could not help taking a peep +at the <i>French</i> prisoners when they came on, but went<a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a> +to the station to see them arrive, and bestowed many little +hospitalities upon them in the way of cigars, luncheon, +etc., at all of which the papers were patriotically indignant, +and indulged in many sarcasms on the "warm +and sympathetic" reception given by the German women +to their enemies. Quite as many women go into nursing +as was the case in our own war. I know one young +lady who spends her whole time in the hospitals among +the wounded soldiers, who are all the time being sent on +in ambulances. Her name is Fräulein Hezekiel, and she +has received a decoration from the Government.</p> + +<p>Just after I wrote you last I went to Kullak, as I +told you I should, and engaged him to give me one +private lesson a week. He looks about fifty, and is +charming. I am enchanted with him. He plays magnificently, +and is a splendid teacher, but he gives me +immensely much to do, and I feel as if a mountain +of music were all the time pressing on my head. He +is so occupied that I have to take my lesson from seven +to eight in the evening.</p> + +<p>Tausig's conservatory closes on the first of October, +and I feel very sorry, for my three grand friends, Mr. +Trenkel, Mr. Weber and Mr. Beringer, are all going +away, and I shall be awfully lonely without them. +Weber is very handsome, and has the most splendid +forehead I think I ever saw. He composes like an +angel, besides being remarkably clever in every way. +He will be famous some day, I know, and he belongs +to the Music of the Future. Beringer is poetic, passionate +and vivid. He has golden hair and golden +eyes, I may say, for they are of a peculiar light hazel,<a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a> +almost yellow, but with a warmth and sunniness, and +often a tenderness of expression that is extremely +fascinating. Weber cannot speak English, and as he +is from Switzerland, he speaks an entirely different +dialect from the Berlinese, so that it took me some +time to understand him. He is a perfect child of +nature, and has a great deal of humour. He and Beringer +are devoted friends, and are about my age. +Trenkel is older. He has the blackest hair and +eyes, and a dark Italian skin. He is intellectual and +highly cultured, and at the same time such a very +peculiar character that he interested me greatly. +Most of his life has been spent in America: first in +Boston, where he seems to know everybody, and afterwards +in San Francisco, whither he is about to return. +He has been studying with Tausig for two years, and +is a heavenly musician, though he hasn't Beringer's +great technique and passion. His conception is more +of the Chopin order, extremely finely shaded and +"filed out," as the Germans have it.</p> + +<p>It was so pleasant to have these three musical +friends, who all play so much better than I, as they often +met and made lovely music in my little room. Weber +and Beringer took tea with us only yesterday evening. +Weber was in one of his good moods, and played to +Beringer and me his most beautiful compositions for +ever so long. We settled ourselves comfortably, one +in two chairs, the other on the sofa, and enjoyed it. +The Andante out of a great sonata he is composing, +is perfectly lovely. It is entirely original, and different +from any music I have ever heard. Then he<a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a> +played the second movement of his symphony, and it +is the most exquisite <i>morceau</i> you can imagine. I +asked him to compose a little piece for me, and so +yesterday morning he sat down and wrote seven mazurkas, +one after the other. Whether he actually gives +me one is another matter, for, like all geniuses, he is +not very prodigal with his gifts, and is not very easy +to come at. But I would like to have even four bars +written by him, for he is so individual that it would +be worth keeping.</p> + +<p>Weber looks perfectly charming when he plays. +He never glances at the keys, but his large blue eyes +gaze dreamily into vacancy, and his noble brow stands +out white and lofty. His conception is extremely +musical, but as he only practices when he feels like it +(as he does everything else), he doesn't come up to +the other two. Tausig burst out laughing at him at +his last lesson. That individual, by the way, came +back as suddenly as he went off, but announced that +he would give no more lessons except to these favoured +three. All the rest of us had to go begging. It didn't +make so much difference to me, as I had already gone +to Kullak, who is now the first teacher in Germany, as +all the greatest virtuosi have given up teaching.</p> + +<p>Kullak himself is a truly splendid artist, which I +had not expected. He used to have great fame here +as a pianist, but I supposed that as he had given up his +concert playing he did not keep it up. I found, however, +that I was mistaken. His playing does not suffer +in comparison with Tausig's even, whom I have +so often heard. Why in the world he has not continued<a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a> +playing in public I can't imagine, but I am told +that he was too nervous. Like all artists, he is fascinating, +and full of his whims and caprices. He knows +everything in the way of music, and when I take my +lessons he has two grand pianos side by side, and he +sits at one and I at the other. He knows by heart +everything that he teaches, and he plays sometimes +with me, sometimes before me, and shows me all +sorts of ways of playing passages. I am getting no +end of ideas from him. I have enjoyed playing my +Beethoven Concerto so much, for he has played all the +orchestral parts. Just think how exciting to have a +great artist like that play second piano with you! +I am going to learn one by Chopin next.</p> + +<p>Kullak is not nearly so terrible a teacher as Tausig. +He has the greatest patience and gentleness, and helps +you on; but Tausig keeps rating you and telling you, +what you feel only too deeply, that your playing <i>is</i> +"awful." When Tausig used to sit down in his impatient +way and play a few bars, and then tell me to do +it just so, I used always to feel as if some one wished me +to copy a streak of forked lightning with the end of a +wetted match. At the last lesson Tausig gave me, +however, he entirely changed his tone, and was extremely +sweet to me. I think he regretted having +made me cry at the previous lesson, for just as I sat +down to play, he turned to the class and made some +little joke about these "<i>empfindliche Amerikanerinnen</i> +(sensitive Americans)." Then he came and stood by +me, and nothing could have been gentler than his +manner. After I had finished, he sat down and played<a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a> +the whole piece for me, a thing he rarely does, introducing +a magnificent trill in double thirds, and ending +up with some peculiar turn in which he allowed +his virtuosity to peep out at me for a moment. Only +for a moment though, for he is much too proud and +has too much contempt for <i>Spectakel</i> to "show +off," so he suppressed himself immediately. It was +as if his fingers broke into the trill in spite of him, +and he had to pull them up with a severe check. +Strange, inscrutable being that he is!</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>October 13, 1870</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>My room in our new lodging is a charming one. +Quite large, and a front one, and there is no <i>vis-á-vis</i>. +We look right over across the street into Prince Albrecht's +Garden. It is very uncommon to have such +a nice outlook, particularly in Berlin. But it is so +long since I have lived among trees that at first it +affected my spirits dreadfully. As I sit by my window +and hear the autumn wind rushing through them, +and see all the leaves quivering and shaking, and +think that they have only a few short weeks more to +sway in the breeze, it makes me wretched. I suppose +that we shall now have two months of dismal weather.</p> + +<p>I wish you were here to counsel me over my dresses. +I have just bought two—one for a street dress, and +the other for demi-evening toilette, but heaven only +knows when they will be done, or how they will fit! +You ought to see the biases of the dresses here! They +all go zig-zag. The Berlin dressmakers are abominable.<a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a> +Mrs.——, of the Legation, told me that when she +first came here she cried over every new dress she had +made, and I could not sufficiently rejoice last winter +that I had got all my things before I sailed. M. E., +too, who gets all her best things from Paris, told M. +she was never so happy as when her mother sent her +over an "American dress."—"They are <i>so</i> comfortable +and <i>so</i> satisfactory," said she.</p> + +<p>Yesterday I took my fourth lesson of Kullak. He +plays much more to me than Tausig did, and I am +surprised to see how much I have got on in four weeks. +Tausig didn't deign to do more than play occasional +passages, and we had only one piano in the room +where he taught. But at Kullak's there are two grand +pianos side by side. He sits at one and I at the other, +and as he knows everything by heart which he teaches, +as I told you, he keeps playing with me or before me, +so that I catch it a great deal better. Sometimes he +will repeat a passage over and over, and I after him, +like a parrot, until I get it <i>exactly</i> right. He has this +excessively finished and elegant fantasia style of playing, +like Thalberg or De Meyer. He has great fame +as a teacher, and is perhaps more celebrated in this +respect than Tausig, but I was with Tausig too short +a time to judge personally which teaches the best.</p> + +<p>This war is perfectly awful. The men are simply +being slaughtered like cattle. New regiments are all +the time being sent on. The Prussians have taken +over two hundred thousand prisoners, to say nothing +of the killed and wounded. But they lose fearful +numbers themselves also. It is expected in a few days<a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a> +that Metz will surrender. It is a tremendous stronghold, +and contains an army of fifty thousand men. +But isn't it extraordinary how disastrous the war has +been to the French? They had an immense army +of several hundred thousand men. And then they +had all the advantages of position. The Prussians +have had to fight their way through all these strong +defences one after another. They will soon bombard +Paris. As Herr S. says, this war is a disgrace to the +governments. He says that they ought to have united +against it (America included), and to have said that +on such an unjust pretext they would not permit it. +I read the other day a most touching letter that was +found on the dead body of a common soldier from his +old peasant father. He said, "What have we poor +people done that the <i>lieber Gott</i> visits us with such +fearful judgments? When I got thy letter, my dear +son, saying that thou art safe come out of the last +battle with thy brother, I fell on my knees and thanked +God for His goodness." Then he goes on to describe +the joy of his mother and sister and sweetheart, and +how he read his letter to all the neighbours, "who rejoiced +much at thy safety," and his hope and confidence +that his son would return alive to his old father. +But in a few days his son fell in another battle, desperately +wounded. He was carried to the house of a +lady who did all she could for him, but he died, and +she sent this letter to the paper. Do you get many of +the anecdotes in the American papers? Such as that +of the three hundred and two horses which, at the +usual signal after the battle that called the regiments<a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a> +together, came back riderless? I think that was very +touching in the poor things.<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> Or have you heard of +the Frenchman who, when informed that the Emperor +was taken prisoner, coolly replied: "<i>Moi aussi!</i>" +But these are already old stories, and you have doubtless +heard them. I think one of the worst incidents +of the war is that bomb that fell into a girls' school at +Strasbourg. When one thinks of innocent young +girls having their eyes torn out, and being killed and +wounded, it seems too terrible.—I always pity the poor +horses so much. At the surrender of Sedan, the French +forgot to detach them from the cannon, and to give +them food and drink. Finally, frantic with thirst, +they broke themselves loose and rushed wildly through +the streets. It was said that any body could have a +horse for the trouble of catching him.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>November 25, 1870</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I went last week to hear Joachim, who lives here, +and is giving his annual series of quartette soirees. Oh! +he is a wonderful genius, and the sublimest artist I +have yet heard. I am amazed afresh every time I +hear him. He draws the most extraordinary <i>tone</i> +from his violin, and such a powerful one that it seems +sometimes as if several were playing. Then his expression<a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a> +is so marvellous that he holds complete sway +over his audience from the moment he begins till he +ceases. He possesses magnetic power to the highest +degree.</p> + +<p>On Saturday night I went to a superb concert given +for the benefit of the wounded. The royal orchestra +played, and as it was in the Sing-Akademie, where the +acoustic is very remarkable, the orchestral performance +seemed phenomenal. Generally, this orchestra +plays in the opera house, which is so much larger that +the effect is not so great. The last thing they played +was the "Ritt der Walküren," by Wagner. It was +the first time it was given in Berlin, and it is a wonderful +composition. It represents the ride of the Walküre-maidens +into Valhalla, and when you hear it it +seems as if you could really see the spectral horses +with their ghostly riders. It produces the most unearthly +effect at the end, and one feels as if one had +suddenly stepped into Pandemonium. I was perfectly +enchanted with it, and everybody was excited. The +"bravos" resounded all over the house. Tausig +played Chopin's E minor concerto in his own glorious +style. He did his very best, and when he got through +not only the whole orchestra was applauding him, but +even the conductor was rapping his desk with his bâton +like mad. I thought to myself it was a proud position +where a man could excite enthusiasm in the hearts of +these old and tried musicians. As a specimen of his +virtuosity, what do you say to the little feat of playing +the running passage at the end, two pages long, and<a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a> +which was written for both hands in unison, in octaves +instead of single notes?—Gigantic! [Later Kullak +gave this great concerto to my sister to study, and as +she was struggling with its difficulties he said: "Ah +yes, Fräulein, when I think of the time and labour I +spent over that concerto in my youth, I could weep +<i>tears of blood</i>!"]—E<small>D.</small></p> + +<p>Yesterday evening I went to a party at the house of +a relative of the M.'s. Madame de Stael was right in +saying that etiquette is terribly severe in Germany. +It is downright law, and everybody is obliged to submit +to it. What other people in the world, for example, +would insist on your coming at eight and remaining +until nearly four in the morning, when the party consists +of a dozen or twenty people, almost all of them +married and middle-aged, or elderly? I nearly expire +of fatigue and ennui, but they would all take it so ill +if I didn't go, that there is no escape. Last night I +came home with such a dreadful nervous headache +from sheer exhaustion, that I could scarcely see. You +know in a dancing party the excitement keeps one up, +and one doesn't feel the fatigue until afterward. But +to sit three mortal hours before supper, and keep up +a conversation with a lot of people much older than +yourself in whom you have not the slightest interest, +and in a foreign language, when you wouldn't be brilliant +in your own, and then another long three +hours at the supper table, and then <i>still</i> an hour or so +afterwards, to an American mind is terrible! I always +groan in spirit when I think how comfortably I used +to jump into the carriage at nine o'clock, in Cambridge,<a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a> +go to the party, and come home at half-past eleven or +twelve. These long parties are what the Germans call +being "<i>gemüthlig</i> (sociable and friendly)." The +French would call them "<i>assommant</i>," and they would +be entirely in the right.<a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Concerts. Joachim again. The Siege of Paris. Peace<br /> +Declared. Wagner. A Woman's Symphony.<br /> +Ovation to Wagner in Berlin.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>December 11, 1870</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I haven't been doing much of anything lately, except +going to concerts, of which I have heard an immense +number, and all of them admirable.—I wish you <i>could</i> +hear Joachim! I went last night to his third soiree, +and he certainly is the wonder of the age. Unless I +were to <i>rave</i> I never could express him. One of his +pieces was a quartette by Haydn, which was perfectly +bewitching. The adagio he played so wonderfully, and +drew such a pathetic tone from his violin, that it really +went through one like a knife. The third movement +was a jig, and just the gayest little piece! It flashed +like a humming bird, and he played every note so distinctly +and so fast that people were beside themselves, +and it was almost impossible to keep still. It received +a tremendous encore.</p> + +<p>Joachim is so bold! You never imagined such +strokes as he gives the violin—such tones as he brings +out of it. He plays these great <i>tours de force</i>, his fingers +rushing all over the violin, just as Tausig dashes +down on the piano. So free! And then his conception!! +It is like revealing Beethoven in the flesh, to +hear him.<a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a></p> + +<p>I heard a lady pianist the other day, who is becoming +very celebrated and who plays superbly. Her name +is Fräulein Menter, and she is from Munich. She has +been a pupil of Liszt, Tausig and Bülow. Think what +a galaxy of teachers! She is as pretty as she can +be, and she looked lovely sitting at the piano there +and playing piece after piece. I envied her dreadfully. +She plays everything by heart, and has a beautiful +conception. She gave her concert entirely alone, +except that some one sang a few songs, and at the end +Tausig played a duet for two pianos with her, in which +he took the second piano. Imagine being able to play +well enough for such a high artist as he to condescend to +do such a thing! It was so pretty when they were +encored. He made a sign to go forward. She looked +up inquiringly, and then stepped down one step +lower than he. He smiled and applauded her as much +as anybody. I thought it was very gallant in him to +stand there and clap his hands before the whole audience, +and not take any of the encore to himself, for +his part was as important as hers, and he is a much +greater artist. I was charmed with her, though. She +goes far beyond Mehlig and Topp, though Mehlig, too, +is considered to have a remarkable technique.</p> + +<p>I regret so much that M. will have to go back to +America without seeing Paris—the most beautiful city +in the world! Nobody knows how long the war is going +to last. The Prussians have so surrounded Paris that +it is cut off from the country, and can't get any supplies. +They have eaten up all their meat, and now +the French are living upon rats, dogs and cats! Just<a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a> +think how horrid! They catch the rats in the Paris +sewers, and cook them in champagne and eat them. +(At least that is the story.) It seems perfectly inconceivable. +The poor things have no milk, no salt, no +butter and no meat. I wonder what they do with all +the little babies whose mothers can't nurse them, and +with young children. They will not give up, however, +for they have bread and wine enough to last all winter, +and they declare that Paris is too strong to be taken. +Of course if the Prussians remain where they are, +eventually Paris will be starved out, and will be obliged +to surrender.</p> + +<p>It is a difficult position for the Prussians, for they +must either bombard the city, or starve it out. If +they bombard it, they must be in a situation to begin +it from all sides, or else the French will break through +their lines, and establish a communication with the +rest of France. Now the circle round Paris is twelve +miles long, so that it would take an enormous army to +keep up such a bombardment, and although the Prussian +army <i>is</i> enormous, I don't know whether it is +equal to that, for the French have so much the advantage +of position that they can fire down on the Prussians, +and kill them by thousands. On the other hand, +if they starve Paris out, the poor soldiers will have to lie +out in the cold all winter, and many of them will die +from the exposure.</p> + +<p>The men are getting very restless from so many +weeks of inactivity. Nobody knows how it is to end. +The King is opposed to bombardment, for aside from +the terrible loss of life it would cause, it seems too<a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a> +inhuman to lay such a splendid city in the dust. +Fresh troops are sent on all the time, and every day +the trains pass my windows packed with soldiers. It +seems as if every man in Germany were being called +out, and that looks like bombardment. It is a terrible +time, and everybody feels restless and disturbed. One +sees few soldiers on the streets except wounded ones. +I often meet a young man who is wheeled about in a +chair, who has had both legs cut off. The poor fellow +looks so sad—and I know of another who has lost both +hands and both feet.</p> + +<p>It is curious to note the condescending attitude +taken by people here toward the French in this war. +They never for a moment speak of them as if they +were antagonists on equal ground, but always as if +they were a set of fools bent on their own destruction, +who must be properly chastised and restored to their +equilibrium by the Germans. "<i>Ja!—die Franzosen!</i>" +the Germans will say with a shrug which implies the +deepest conviction of their entire imbecility. They +admit, however, that the French are an "amusing +people," and that "<i>Paris ist</i> <small>DOCH</small> <i>die Welt-Stadt</i>. +(Paris is <i>the</i> city of the world.)"</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>February 26, 1871</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I am going to send you a song out of the Meistersänger, +which I think is one of the most beautiful +songs I've ever heard. It is called Walther's Traumlied +(Walter's Dream Song). The idea of it is that he +sees his love in a dream or vision as she will be when<a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a> +she is his wife. You must begin to sing in a dreamy +way, as if you were in a trance, and then you must +gradually become more and more excited until you +end in a grand gush of passion. You will be quite in +the music of the future if you sing out of the Meistersänger. +It is one of Wagner's greatest operas, and +is very beautiful, in my opinion. It caused a grand +excitement when it came out last winter.</p> + +<p>The whole musical world is in a quarrel over Wagner. +He is giving a new direction to music and is +finding out new combinations of the chords. Half +the musical world upholds him, and declares that in +the future he will stand on a par with Beethoven and +Mozart. The other half are bitterly opposed to him, +and say that he writes nothing but dissonances, and +that he is on an entirely false track. I am on the +Wagner side myself. He seems to me to be a great +genius.—Pity he is such a moral outlaw!</p> + +<p>Since I began this letter Paris has capitulated, and +P<small>EACE</small> has been declared. The anxiety and suspense +have lasted so long, however, that the news did not +cause much excitement or enthusiasm. Nothing like +that with which the capture of Napoleon was received. +But that was decidedly <i>the</i> event of the war. The +politic Bismarck would not allow the troops to march +triumphantly through Paris, but only permitted them +to pass through as small a corner of it as was consistent +with the national honour. This has caused a good +deal of murmuring and discontent among the Germans.—"Our +poor soldiers! after all their fatigues and hardships, +they ought have been allowed the satisfaction of<a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a> +marching through the city!"—is the general opinion +I hear expressed. However, they will probably acquiesce +in Bismarck's wisdom in not triumphing over +a fallen foe when they come to think it over. We +are now to have six weeks of mourning for those who +have been killed in the war, and then in May the army +will come back in triumph. The King is to meet them +at the Brandenburger Gate, and lead them up the +Linden. All Berlin will be wild with excitement, and +I expect it will be a great sight. The windows on +Unter den Linden are already selling at enormous +prices for the occasion.</p> + +<p>The Germans, by the way, "take no stock" at all in +the King's pious expressions throughout the campaign. +They laugh at him greatly for calling himself victorious +"by the grace of God." "Such a nonsense!" +Herr J. says, contemptuously.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>April 22, 1871</i>.</p> + +<p>I haven't a mortal thing to say, for all the little I +have done I communicated in a letter to N. S. Kullak +has been praising my playing lately, but I cannot +believe in it myself. I have been learning a Ballade +of Liszt's. It is beautiful but very hard, and with some +terrific octave passages in it. It has the double roll of +octaves in it, and this is the first time I ever learned +how it was done. I am now studying octaves systematically. +Kullak has written three books of them, and +it is an exhaustive work on the subject, and as famous +in its way as the Gradus ad Parnassum. The first volume<a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a> +is only the preparation, and the exercises are for +each hand separately. There are a lot of them for +the thumb alone, for instance. Then there are others +for the fourth and fifth fingers, turning over and under +each other in every conceivable way. Then there +are the wrist exercises, and, in short, it is the most +minute and complete work. Kullak himself is celebrated +for his octave playing. That I knew when I +was in Tausig's conservatory, as Tausig used to tell his +scholars that they must study Kullak's Octave School.</p> + +<p>Wagner has come to Berlin for a visit, and next +week he will have a grand concert, when some of his +compositions are to be brought out, and he will, himself, +conduct. Weitzmann says that he is a great conductor. +I heard his opera of Tannhaüser the other +day, and I was perfectly carried away with the overture, +which I had not heard for a long time. The +orchestra played it magnificently, and I think it quite +equal to Beethoven. Wagner's theory is that music is +a cry of the mind, and his compositions certainly illustrate +it. All other music pales before it in passion +and intensity.</p> + +<p>Did you read my letter to N. S. in which I told her +about Alicia Hund, who composed and conducted a +symphony? That is quite a step for women in the +musical line. She reminded me of M., as she had just +such a high-strung face. All the men were highly +disgusted because she was allowed to conduct the orchestra +herself. I didn't think myself that it was a +very <i>becoming</i> position, though I had no prejudice +against it. Somehow, a woman doesn't look well with +a bâton in her hand directing a body of men.<a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a></p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>May 18, 1871</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Wagner has just been in Berlin, and his arrival here +has been the occasion of a grand musical excitement. +He was received with the greatest enthusiasm, and +there was no end of ovations in his honour. First, +there was a great supper given to him, which was got +up by Tausig and a few other distinguished musicians. +Then on Sunday, two weeks ago, was given a concert +in the Sing-Akademie, where the seats were free. As +the hall only holds about fifteen hundred people, you +may imagine it was pretty difficult to get tickets. I +didn't even attempt it, but luckily Weitzmann, my +harmony teacher, who is an old friend of Wagner's, +sent me one.</p> + +<p>The orchestra was immense. It was carefully selected +from all the orchestras in Berlin, and Stern, who +directed it, had given himself infinite trouble in training +it. Wagner is the most difficult person in the +world to please, and is a wonderful conductor himself. +He was highly discontented with the Gewandhaus Orchestra +in Leipsic, which thinks itself the best in existence, +so the Berlinese felt rather shaky. The hall +was filled to overflowing, and finally, in marched Wagner +and his wife, preceded and followed by various +distinguished musicians. As he appeared the audience +rose, the orchestra struck up three clanging chords, +and everybody shouted <i>Hoch!</i> It gave one a strange +thrill.</p> + +<p>The concert was at twelve, and was preceded by a +"greeting" which was recited by Frau Jachmann<a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a> +Wagner, a niece of Wagner's, and an actress. She was +a pretty woman, "fair, fat and forty," and an excellent +speaker. As she concluded she burst into tears, and +stepping down from the stage she presented Wagner +with a laurel crown, and kissed him. Then the orchestra +played Wagner's Faust Overture most superbly, +and afterwards his Fest March from the Tannhäuser. +The applause was unbounded. Wagner ascended the +stage and made a little speech, in which he expressed +his pleasure to the musicians and to Stern, and then +turned and addressed the audience. He spoke very +rapidly and in that child-like way that all great musicians +seem to have, and as a proof of his satisfaction +with the orchestra he requested them to play the Faust +Overture under <i>his</i> direction. We were all on tiptoe +to know how he would direct, and indeed it was wonderful +to see him. He controlled the orchestra as if +it were a single instrument and he were playing on it. +He didn't beat the time simply, as most conductors do, +but he had all sorts of little ways to indicate what he +wished. It was very difficult for them to follow him, +and they had to "keep their little eye open," as B. +used to say. He held them down during the first part, +so as to give the uncertainty and speculativeness of +Faust's character. Then as Mephistopheles came in, +he gradually let them loose with a terrible crescendo, +and made you feel as if hell suddenly gaped at your +feet. Then where Gretchen appeared, all was delicious +melody and sweetness. And so it went on, like a succession +of pictures. The effect was tremendous.</p> + +<p>I had one of the best seats in the house, and could<a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a> +see Wagner and his wife the whole time. He has an +enormous forehead, and is the most nervous-looking +man you can imagine, but has that grim setting of the +mouth that betokens an iron will. When he conducts +he is almost beside himself with excitement. That is +one reason why he is so great as a conductor, for the +orchestra catches his frenzy, and each man plays under +a sudden inspiration. He really seems to be improvising +on his orchestra.</p> + +<p>Wagner's object in coming here was to try and get +his Nibelungen opera performed. It is an opera which +requires four evenings to get through with. Did you +ever hear of such a thing? He lays out everything +on such a colossal scale. It reminded me of that story +they tell of him when he was a boy. He was a +great Shakespeare enthusiast, and wanted to write +plays, too. So he wrote one in which he killed off +forty of the principal characters in the last act! He +gave a grand concert in the opera house here, which +he directed himself. It was entirely his own compositions, +with the exception of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, +which he declared nobody understood but himself. +That rather took down Berlin, but all had to +acknowledge after the concert that they had never +heard it so magnificently played. He has his own +peculiar conception of it. There was a great crowd, +and every seat had been taken long before. All the +artists were present except Kullak, who was ill. I saw +Tausig sitting in the front rank with the Baroness +von S. There must have been two hundred players in +the orchestra, and they acquitted themselves splendidly.<a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a> +The applause grew more and more enthusiastic, +until it finally found vent in a shower of wreaths +and bouquets. Wagner bowed and bowed, and it +seemed as if the people would never settle down again. +At the end of the concert followed another shower of +flowers, and his Kaiser March was encored. Such an +effect! After the tempest of sound of the introduction +the drums came in with a sharp tat-tat-tat-tat-tat! +Then the brass began with the air and came to a +crescendo, at last <i>blaring</i> out in such a way as shivered +you to the very marrow of your bones. It was like an +earthquake yawning before you.</p> + +<p>The noise was so tremendous that it was like the +roaring of the surf. I never conceived of anything +in music to approach it, and Wagner made me think +of a giant Triton disporting himself amid the billows +and tossing these great waves of sound from one hand +to the other. You don't see his face, of course—nothing +but his back, and yet you know every one of his +emotions. Every sinew in his body speaks. He +makes the instruments prolong the tones as no one +else does, and the effect is indescribably beautiful, yet +he complains that he never <i>can</i> get an orchestra to +<i>hold</i> the tone as they ought. His whole appearance +is of arrogance and despotism personified.</p> + +<p>By the end of the concert the bouquets were so +heaped on the stage in front of the director's desk, +that Wagner had no place left big enough to stand on +without crushing them. Altogether, it was a brilliant +affair, and a great triumph for his friends. He +has a great many bitter enemies here, however. Joachim<a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a> +is one of them, though it seems unaccountable +that a man of his musical gifts should be. Ehlert +is also a strong anti-Wagnerite, and the Jews hate +him intensely.—Perhaps his character has something +to do with it, for he has set all laws of honour, gratitude +and morality at defiance all his life long. It is a dreadful +example for younger artists, and I think Wagner is +depraving them. In this country everything is forgiven +to audacity and genius, and I must say that if Germany +can teach <i>us</i> Music, we can teach <i>her</i> morals!<a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3> + +<p>Difficulties of the Piano. Triumphal Entry of the Troops.<br /> +Paris.</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>June 25, 1871</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I have been learning Beethoven's G major Concerto +lately, and it is the most horribly difficult thing I've +ever attempted. I have practiced the first movement +a whole month, and I can't play it any more than I +can fly. If you hear Miss Mehlig play it, I trust you +will take in what a feat it is. Kullak gave me a regular +rating over it at my last lesson, and told me I +must stick to it till I <i>could</i> play it. It requires the +greatest rapidity and facility of execution, and I get +perfectly desperate over it. Kullak took advantage +of the occasion to expand upon all the things an artist +must be able to do, until my heart died within me. +"What do you know of double thirds?" said he. I +had to admit that I knew nothing of double thirds, +and then he rushed down the piano like lightning +from top to bottom in a scale in double thirds, just as +if it were a common scale.</p> + +<p>In one respect Kullak is a more discouraging teacher +than Tausig, for Tausig only played occasionally +before you, where it was absolutely necessary, and contented +himself with scolding and blaming. Kullak, +on the contrary, doesn't scold much, but as he plays +continually before and with you, with him you see<a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a> +how the thing <i>ought</i> to be done, and the perception +of your own deficiencies stands out before you mercilessly. +My constant thought is, "When <i>will</i> my passages +pearl? When <i>will</i> my touch be perfectly equal? +When <i>will</i> my octaves be played from a lightly-hung +wrist? When <i>will</i> my trill be brilliant and sustained? +When <i>will</i> my thumb turn under and my fourth finger +over without the slightest perceptible break? +When <i>will</i> my arpeggios go up the piano in that +peculiar <i>roll</i> that a genuine artist gives?" etc., etc. +All this gives a heavy heart, and so disinclines me to +write that you must excuse my frequent silences.</p> + +<p>We are having such a horrid cold summer that I +sit and shiver all the time. I wish we could have a +little of the hot weather you speak of. I have put on +a muslin dress only once. Berlin is a very severe climate, +I think.</p> + +<p>The week before last was the triumphal entry or +"Einzug" of the troops. They all went past my window, +so I had a full view of them. The Emperor had +made immense preparations, for he is very proud of +his army. All along the Königgrätzer Strasse (the +street we live in), to the Brandenburger Gate, a distance +of two or three miles, were set tall poles at intervals +of a few feet, connected by wreaths of green. +These were painted red and white, and had gilded pinnacles; +they were surmounted by the Prussian flag, +which is black and white, with a black eagle in the +centre. About half way down the poles was set a coat +of arms, with the flags of the older German States +grouped about it. As they were of different colours,<a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a> +the effect was very gay, and they made a triumphal +path of waving banners for the troops to pass under. +All along the last part of the Königgrätzer Strasse, +before you come to the Linden, were set the French +cannon which were captured, and on them was printed +the name of the place where the battle was, and one +read on them "Metz, Sedan, Strasburg," etc. All up +the Linden, too, the way for the soldiers was hemmed +in on each side with cannon. The mitrailleuses interested +me the most, because they had thirty bores in +each one, and could fire as many balls in succession. +In this way, you see, a single cannon could <i>rain</i> shot. +Luckily the French aim so badly that they couldn't +have killed half so many Prussians as they expected. +On every Platz (as the Germans call the squares), were +columns and statues set up, and enormous scaffolds for +people to sit on, all decked out with flags and coloured +cloth. In short, the whole city was got up in gala +array, and looked as gay as possible.</p> + +<p>Of course there were thousands of strangers who had +come on to see it, and the streets were crowded. For +about a week beforehand there was one continual stream +of people going by our house, and a long line of carriages +and droschkies as far as one could see, creeping +along at a snail's pace behind each other. I got worn out +with the noise and confusion long before the eventful +day came. When it <i>did</i> arrive, already at six o'clock in +the morning, when I looked out of my window, the walls +of Prince Albrecht's garden opposite were covered with +boys and men, and there they had to sit until nearly twelve +o'clock, with their legs dangling down, and nothing to eat<a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a> +or drink, before the procession came by, and <i>then</i> it +took four hours to pass! Such is German endurance, +and a still more striking instance of it was shown +by an orchestra stationed on the sidewalk opposite my +window. There were no seats or awnings for them, and +there they stood on the stones in the hot sun for fully +six hours, playing every little while on those heavy +French horns and trumpets. Just imagine it! I was +astonished that there was no scaffold erected for them +to sit on, and wondered how the poor fellows could <i>stand</i> +it.</p> + +<p>Just before eleven o'clock the gate of Prince Albrecht's +garden flew open, and out he rode, accompanied by a +large suite, and they remained there awaiting the Emperor, +who was to ride by on his way to meet the troops. +I wish you could have seen them in their superb uniforms, +seated on their magnificent horses. They looked like +knights of the olden time, with their embroidered saddle-cloths +and gay trappings. Preceding the Emperor came +the Empress and all the ladies of the royal family in +about ten carriages, each one with six horses and the +Empress's with eight. The ladies were gorgeously dressed, +of course, in light coloured silks with lace over-dresses. +Then came the Emperor and his escort, riding slowly and +majestically along. The enthusiasm was immense as they +passed by, and they were indeed a proud sight. Bismarck, +Moltke and Von Roon rode in one row by themselves. Bismarck +looked very imposing in his uniform entirely of +white and silver, with enormous top-boots, and a brazen +helmet surmounted by a silver eagle. There was every +variety of uniform, and the Crown Prince looked very<a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a> +handsome in his. He is a splendid-looking man, with a +very soldierly bearing, and he rides to perfection.</p> + +<p>The royal party went out to the parade ground, where +they met the army, and then returned at the head of it, +riding very slowly. Then, for four hours, the soldiers +poured by at a very quick step. If you could have seen +that <i>river</i> of men roll along, you would have some idea +of the strength of this nation. They were tall for the +most part, and their helmets and guns glittered in the +sun. They were dressed in their old uniforms, just +as they came from the field of battle. The people +showered wreaths and bouquets upon them as they passed, +and every man presented a festal appearance with his +helmet crowned, a bouquet on the point of his bayonet, +and flowers in his button hole. The Emperor's way was +literally carpeted with flowers, and his grooms rode behind +him picking them up, and hanging the wreaths upon +their saddle-bows. Bismarck, Moltke and Von Roon +and all the men of mark during the war were similarly +favoured.</p> + +<p>The army marched along at an astonishingly quick +pace. I was surprised to see them walk so fast, heavily +laden as they were with their guns and knapsacks and +blankets, etc. Many of them had been marching a +good part of the night to get to the place of rendezvous, +and they had had a parade early in the morning. A +good many of them fainted and had to be carried out of +the ranks, and eight of them died! It was the hottest +day we have had this summer.—I was the most interested +in the Uhlanen. They were the greatest terror of +the French, and were light cavalry with no arms except<a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a> +a large pistol and a lance. Just below the head of the +lance was a little Prussian flag attached, and nearly every +one was splashed with the blood of some poor Frenchman. +When one looked at those terrible spikes, it +seemed a most dreadful death, and I don't wonder that +the French lost all courage at the sight of them. You +see, being on horseback and so lightly armed, the Uhlanen +could go about like lightning, and were able to +appear suddenly at the most unexpected points. As I +was not on the Linden I did not see the army received at +the Brandenburger Gate by the four hundred young +ladies dressed in white, so I can't give you any account +of <i>that</i>. Bismarck, who always knows what to do, took +a handful of wreaths from his saddle-bow, and flung +them smilingly over among the welcoming maidens. He +is a courtly creature. I was nearly dead from just looking +out of my window, and listening to the continual +music of the bands, and I did not get over the fatigue +and nervous excitement for several days; but I was very +fortunate to be able to see it from the house, for many +persons who had to sit on the scaffolds were dreadfully +burned, and were thrown into a fever by it. You see they +weren't allowed to put up their parasols, as that obscured +the view of the people behind them. I had one friend +who suffered awfully with her face, and did not sleep for +three nights. She said it was as if she had been burnt +by fire, and the whole skin peeled off.</p> + +<p>July 4th.—As usual, it is over a week since I began +this letter, and I have just decided to start at once on a +summer journey with Mrs. and Miss V. N., Mr. P. and +Mrs., Mr. and Miss S. Kullak is away for his vacation,<a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a> +so I shall lose no lessons. We shall go first to +Cologne and then to Bonn and Coblentz and down +the Rhine. Perhaps we shall get as far as Heidelberg. +We got one of those return tickets, which makes the +journey very cheap; only you are limited to a certain +time. We expect to be gone until the 1st of August. +I intend to walk a great deal between the different +points. Where the scenery is picturesque we shall +occasionally walk from station to station. We take +no baggage except a little bag (which we sling +over our backs with straps), containing a change of +linen and a brush and comb and tooth brush. We +shall wear the same dress all the time and have our +linen washed at the hotel. I thought it was a good +chance for me, and as we shall be a party of embryo +artists, we expect to go along in the Bohemian and +happy-go-lucky style of our class. I think of writing +a novel on the way! Won't it be romantic? Only, +unluckily for Miss S. and myself, we shall have no +adorers, as Mr. P. and Miss V. G. are engaged, and +Mr. S. is only about eighteen!</p> + +<p>Just before the Einzug I was at a party at the +Bancroft's, and was standing near a doorway talking +to one of N.'s class-mates in Harvard, when a portly +gentleman pushed very rudely between us and stood +there talking to Mr. Bancroft, who was on the other +side of me. We gazed at him for a minute before we +went on with our conversation. Presently the gentleman +took his leave and bustled away. "That was the +Duke of Somerset," said Mr. Bancroft to me. I was +rather surprised, for I had just been thinking to myself,<a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a> +"What an unmannerly creature you are!"—I +suppose he had come on to the Einzug.</p> + +<p>Triumphant Berlin, by the way, is rather a contrast +to Paris under the Commune. Such a horrible time +as they have been having there! It is enough to +make one's blood run cold to think of it. What +insane barbarians they are—and the worst of it is the +part the women take in it. I saw a picture of Thiers' +house which they burnt down. It was a magnificent +mansion, and crammed full of exquisite works of art. +Mr. Bancroft grieved over it, for he had dined there, +and knew what treasures it contained. He said it was +one of the most beautiful houses he had ever been in.—And +then the idea of pulling down the column of +the Place Vendome! Napoleon had built it from +cannon which he had captured in his great battles and +melted down, so that in a special manner it was a +monument of their victories over other nations. +There is a stupidity about them which makes them +perfectly pitiable.</p> + +<p>[In 1848 Saint Beuve wrote the following almost +prophetic words: "Nothing is swifter to decline in +crises like the present (the Revolution of 1848) than +civilization. In three weeks the result of many centuries +are lost. Civilization, life, is a thing learned +and invented. * * * * After years of tranquility +men are too forgetful of this truth; they come to +think that culture is innate, that it is the same thing +as nature. But in truth barbarism is but a few paces +off and begins again as soon as our hold is slackened."]—E<small>D.</small><a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">A Rhine Journey. Frankfort. Mainz. Sail down the Rhine.<br /> +Cologne. Bonn. The Seven Mountains. Worms.<br /> +Spire. Heidelberg. Tausig's Death.</p></div> + +<p> +R<small>OLANDSECK AM</small> R<small>HEIN,</small> <i>July 14, 1871</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>You will be surprised to get this letter, dated from +a little village on the Rhine, and I shall proceed to +tell you how I came here, if the vilest of vile paper +and pens will permit. I wrote a letter to L. just before +I left Berlin, in which I informed her that I +meant to go on a little trip with a party of friends, as +Berlin in summer is malarious, and I felt the need of +a change.</p> + +<p>Thursday a week ago we left Berlin and rode +straight through to Frankfort. It was a long journey, +and lasted from six o'clock in the morning until +ten at night. I got up at four in the morning in a +most halcyon frame of mind. In fact, I felt as if I were +going to get married, owing to my putting on everything +new from top to toe! The laundress had +made such ravages upon my linen that I found myself +suddenly obliged to replenish throughout, and consequently +I arrayed myself with great satisfaction in +new stockings, new under-clothes, new flannel, new +skirts, new hat, new veil and new shoes to <i>boot</i>! I +put on my black silk short suit, took my bag and<a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a> +shawl, and sallied to the station, where I found the +others waiting for me.</p> + +<p>It was a lovely ride from Berlin to Frankfort, and +having been shut up in a city for nearly two years, the +country appeared perfectly charming and new to me, +and every little smiling tuft of daisies had a special +significance. I don't know whether you stopped at +Frankfort on your travels. I fell dead in love with it, +and liked it better than any part of Germany I have +seen. It is such a quiet town and has such an air of +elegance, and there are such lovely walks all about. +Everything looks so clean, and the streets are so handsomely +laid out, and then there are no <i>smells</i>, as there +are in Berlin. The river flows all along the outside of +the city, and the promenade along it is delightful. I +went to see the house where my adorable Goethe was +born, and afterward walked over the bridge over which +he used to go to school. There was a gilded cock +perched upon it, which he used to be very fond of as +a child. We saw his statue, and then visited the Museum +where was Danecker's great masterpiece, Ariadne +sitting on the Panther. It is the most exquisite +thing, and it is cut out of one solid block of +Carrara marble. Through a pink curtain a rosy light +is thrown on it from above, which gives the marble a +delicious tinge. Strange that he should have risen to +such a poetic conception, and never done anything +afterwards of importance.</p> + +<p>We went into a great room where life-size pictures +of all the Emperors of Germany were. Some of them +are very handsome men, and the Latin mottoes underneath<a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a> +are very funny. One of them was: "If you +don't know how to hold your tongue, you'll never know +the right place to speak." I hope P. will keep L. well +at her Latin and her history, and teach her something +about architecture and mythology, for these one needs +to know when one travels abroad. We only stayed +one day in Frankfort, for there isn't a great deal to +be seen there. The afternoon we spent in walking +about and in sitting on logs by the river-side. Oh, +what a sweet place one of those beautiful villas by the +swiftly flowing river would be to live in!</p> + +<p>We left Frankfort at seven P. M., and rode to +Mainz, which is only a ride of two hours, I believe. +As we came over the railroad bridge into the town, we +got our first glimpse of the Rhine, and it was a splendid +sight. Our hotel was very near the river, and as our +rooms were front rooms, and three stories up, we had +a magnificent view of it. In the evening it was so fascinating +to watch the lights on the water and the boats +plying up and down, that it was long before we could +make up our minds to leave the windows and go to +bed. At Mainz we saw our first cathedral. It is six +hundred years old, and had suffered six times by fire, +but it was very fine, notwithstanding. We spent a long +time studying it out. Afterwards we visited another +church and ascended a tower which was built 30, B. C. +It seemed almost as firm as the day it was finished. +The view from it is magnificent, and the top of it is +all overgrown with harebells, golden rod and grass. It +was very picturesque.</p> + +<p>On Sunday evening we took the boat for Cologne<a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a> +which we reached at four o'clock in the afternoon. +Oh, that sail down the Rhine was too delicious! The +weather was perfect, and everything seemed to me like +a fairy tale. It is one of the most beautiful parts of +the Rhine, and it was too lovely to see those old castles +in every degree of ruin, jutting out over the steep +rocks, so high in the air, and then the vineyards sloping +down the hillsides to the water's edge. The whole +lay of the land was so exquisite. I didn't wonder that +it is so celebrated, and that so much has been written +about it. A funny old Englishman came and sat beside +me, and we had a long conversation, pretty much +as follows:</p> + +<p>Englishman.—"England is no doubt the finest +country in the world. You know the people there are +so enormous rich, they can do as they please." "Ah, +indeed," said I, "have you travelled much in Germany?" +"O yes! I've been all over Germany. I +come up the Rhine every year," said he. "It's all very +pretty when you've never seen it before, but it's nothing +to me now." "Have you been to Berlin?" asked +I. "O yes," said he. "Shouldn't want to live there. +Your Prussians are so confounded arrogant. They +think they're the greatest people in the world." "How +did you like Dresden?" said I. "Stupid hole," said +he. "Leipsic?" "Dull town." "Stuttgardt?" "Quite +pretty." "Kissingen?" "'Orrible place, nothing but +fanatics; every other day a Saint's day, and the shops +shut up." "Wiesbaden?" "Very fine place." "Ems?" +"Never been to Hems." "Mainz?" "Nasty hole." +"Cologne?" "Stinking place." "Munich?" "Dreadful<a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a> +unhealthy. They have fevers there, typhus, etc. +<i>I</i> call 'em fevers." "How do you like the Rhine +wines?" "Don't like them at all. It's very seldom +a man gets to drink a decent glass of wine here. I +don't drink 'em at all. I like a glass of port." "Beer?" +"O, the German beer isn't fit to drink. The English +beer is the best in the world. German beer is 'orrible +bad stuff. Nothing but slops,—slops!" Here I burst +out laughing, for his flattering descriptions were too +much for me. He gave me a quizzical look and said, +"Well, I'm glad I made you laugh. You're from +America, aren't you?" "Yes," said I. "Very unhealthy +place, I'm told." "Indeed? I never heard +so," said I. "O yes, <i>very</i>!" said he. Then he went +off, and after a long while he returned. "I've been +asleep," said he, "I've slept two hours and a half, all +through the fine scenery." "<i>What!</i>" said I, "don't +you enjoy it?" "No, I don't enjoy it at all." Then +he told me he lived in Rotterdam, and that I must +come to Holland. He was very complaisant over the +Dutch, whom he said were "nice, decent people, like +the English. There's nothing of the German in them," +said he, "they're quite another people—not so en-<i>thu</i>si-<i>as</i>tic,"—with +a contemptuous air. We got out +at Cologne, and he went on to his dear Rotterdam. +So I saw him no more.</p> + +<p>Oh! isn't the Cologne Cathedral magnificent? It +quite took my breath away as I entered it. The priests +were just having vespers as we went in, and there was +scarcely a person in the cathedral beside. It was so +solemn and so touching to see them all by themselves<a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a> +intoning the prayers, their voices swelling and falling +in that vast place. And when the superb organ struck +up, and they began to sing a hymn, so wildly sweet, +with an interlude most beautifully worked up at the +end of each line by the organist—as we sat there under +those great arches which soar up to such an immense +height, I felt as if I were in Heaven.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">A<small>NDERNACH</small>, <i>July 16, 1871</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I believe I left off in my last with our arrival at +Cologne, of which I saw very little, as I was extremely +tired, and remained at the hotel. The Cathedral was, +of course, the main point of interest, and that I saw +thoroughly, as I went to it twice, and spent a number +of hours each time. I was entirely carried away by +its beauty and grandeur, as everybody must be. The +descriptions I had heard and the photographs I had seen +of it didn't prepare me at all. The <i>height</i> of the +great pile is one of the most astounding things, I +think. The three and four story houses about it look +like huts beside it. Beside the Cathedral I only saw +the church where the eleven thousand virgins are +buried, but that was more curious than beautiful.—I +was much taken down by the shops in Cologne, which +I think much finer than the Berlin ones, and saw no +end of things in the windows I should like to have +bought. The cravats alone quite turned my head!</p> + +<p>We only spent two days in Cologne, and then sailed +for Bonn, which is but a very short distance. Here +we were in a hotel directly upon the river, and I had<a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a> +a sweet little room quite to myself. The view up and +down the river was superb, and we could see the Seven +Mountains most beautifully. Bonn is the most quiet, +sleepy little town you can imagine, and just the place +to study, I should think. We saw the house where +Beethoven was born, a little yellow, two-story house, +and then we visited the Minster, which is nine hundred +years old. We saw there a tomb devoted to the +memory of the first architect of the Cologne Cathedral, +with his statue lying upon it. He had a +severely beautiful face, and I could very well imagine +him capable of such a great conception. We had +great difficulty in getting a dinner at Bonn, as, being +a university town, the students gobble up everything. +Finally, we found a little restaurant where they got +us up one, consisting of steak and potatoes. After +dinner I went to walk with Mr. S. and we ate cherries +all the way, and finally sat down on a bench by the +river's side, where we had an enchanting view. Then +we went back to the hotel, and I went directly to bed. +It was delicious to lie there and hear the little waves +washing up outside my window. It is just the place +for a honey-moon—so out of the world as it seems, +and with none of the activity and bustle of other cities.</p> + +<p>At six o'clock the next morning we took the boat, and +in about half an hour we landed at a little town on the +side of the river opposite to Bonn, and began our pedestrian +tour through the Seven Mountains, of which we +ascended and descended four. They were all very steep +and difficult to climb, and it reminded me of my trip to +Mount Mansfield, years ago, only <i>then</i> we had horses.<a name="page_138" id="page_138"></a> +We spent the night on one of them, the Löwenberg +(Lion-mountain). This was a funny experience, as all +we five ladies had to sleep in one room, and in one great +bed of straw made up on the floor. The fleas bit us all +night, so we did not sleep <i>too</i> much. I mentioned the +little fact to the servant next day, to which she replied, +"Yes, when you aren't used to fleas and bed-bugs, it <i>is</i> +hard to sleep!" I agreed with her perfectly!—Our walk +was enchanting in spite of the difficulty of the ascent, +and of the fact that all of us had satchels slung over our +shoulders, and a shawl and umbrella to carry, which +made locomotion rather difficult. We were in the sylvan +shades, following delicious footpaths scented with flowers, +and with the birds singing and trilling as loud as they +could over our heads.</p> + +<p>It was heavenly on the Löwenberg, for the view was +glorious on every side, and it seemed as if we were on the +highest peak in the universe. I sat for hours looking +over the lovely country and following the meanderings of +the Rhine. The atmospheric effects produced by the +sunset were wonderful, and when it got to be nine o'clock +we saw the lights twinkle up one by one from the distant +villages below like little earth-stars—reflections of +the heavenly ones above. The last mountain we ascended +was the Drachenfels (Dragon-rock), and a fearful pull +it was. The three others had been so easy, comparatively, +that we none of us knew what we were in for. Soon +found out, though! It was like trying to go up a wall, +it was so steep. But when we got up we were rewarded, +for the view was superb, and there was an interesting +old Roman ruin up there. We wandered all about, and<a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a> +got an excellent dinner, and then came down late in the +afternoon, took a row boat and rowed across the Rhine +to Rolandseck—a fashionable watering place, and as +charming as German towns have a way of being.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">G<small>OTHA</small>, <i>July 27, 1871</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Since I wrote you from Andernach I have been travelling +steadily. The whole party except Mrs. V. N. and +myself made a pedestrian tour along the Rhine from +Rolandseck to Bingen, a distance of sixty miles. I +started to walk, but when I had gone fifteen miles I gave +out, and was glad to take the boat. Mrs. V. N. was an +invalid and couldn't walk, so I took charge of her, and +we would travel on together. When we got to the station +where we had agreed to wait for the others, I would +seat her somewhere with the bags of the party piled up +around her, and then I would make a sortie, look at the +hotels, and engage our rooms.</p> + +<p>We saw the Rhine from Cologne to Worms very thoroughly—for +we kept stopping all along. It is truly magnificent, +and nothing can be more interesting and picturesque +than those old ruined castles which look as if +they had grown there. Bingen is the sweetest place, and +just the spot to spend a summer. We travelled from +there to Worms, which is a delightful old city. We +were there only an hour or two, but the walk from the +boat to the cars was through the prettiest part of it, I +should judge, and was very romantic, through winding +walks overshadowed with trees. We saw that great Luther +monument there, which is most imposing. The exterior<a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a> +of the Cathedral is splendid, and in quite another style +of architecture from the Cologne Cathedral. From +Worms we went to Spire, in order to see the Cathedral +there, which is superb, and very celebrated. It was +founded in 1030 by Conrad the Second, as a burial place +for himself and his successors. It has no stained windows +at all, even in the chancel, which surprised me, but +the frescoes and the whole interior colouring are gorgeous +in the extreme. It is in the Romanesque style of +architecture, and is so entirely different from the Cologne +Cathedral that it was very interesting, but there's nothing +equal to the Gothic, after all.</p> + +<p>From Spire we went to Heidelberg. I was +enchanted with Heidelberg. It is the most romantic +and beautiful place I was ever in. The Castle is the +prince of ruins. I had made up my mind all along +that I was going to enjoy myself at Heidelberg, for +my friend Dr. S. was studying there, and I knew I +should have him to go about with. So I had been +urging the party to go there from the first. As soon +as we arrived, off I went to find him, which I soon +accomplished. He was very glad to see me, and put +himself at once at my disposal. You know the S.'s +used to live at Heidelberg, among other places, so he +knows it all by heart. After dinner we all went up to +the Castle, of course. I was very sorry that I had +never read Hyperion. We had to ascend a long hill +before we got to it, but the weather was perfect, so we +didn't mind. It is so high up that the view of the +town and of the Neckar winding through it, with the +wooded hills on the opposite shore, is panoramic.<a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a></p> + +<p>The Castle itself is an enormous ruin, and very +richly ornamented. Ivy two hundred years old climbs +over it in great luxuriance. We passed through a gateway +over which stand two stone knights which are +said to change places with each other at midnight, +and there are all sorts of charming stories like that +connected with the place. We saw a beautifully +carved stone archway which was put up in a single +night, in honour of somebody's birthday, and a monument +with an inscription over it stood in one corner +of the grounds, stating that here had stood some distinguished +personage (I always forget all the names, +unluckily, but "the <i>principle</i> remains the same"), when +the Castle was being besieged by the French. Two +balls came from opposite directions, passed close by +him, and struck against each other, miraculously leaving +him unharmed!</p> + +<p>After we had walked around the outside of the Castle +sufficiently we went inside. It took us a long time +to go over it, it was so large. We saw the stone dungeon, +which was called the "Never Empty," because +somebody was always confined there—a dreadful hole, +and it must have been in perfect darkness—and we +saw the great Heidelberg cask which had a scaffolding +on the top of it big enough to dance a quadrille on. +But the finest of everything was the ascending of the +tower. Just as we got to the top of it, and had begun to +take in the magnificent scenery, an orchestra at a little +distance below struck up Wagner's "Kaiser March." +It was the one touch which was needed to make the +<i>ensemble</i> perfect. On one side the landscape lay far<a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a> +below us, with the silver river winding through it; +on the other the hills rose behind the Castle to an +immense height, and with the greatest boldness of +outline. The tops were thickly wooded, and lower +down the trees were beautifully grouped, and the velvety +turf rolled and swelled to the foot of the Castle. +The sun was just setting in a clear sky, and cast long +shadows athwart the scene, and I thought I had never +seen anything more striking. Then to hear Wagner's +Kaiser March by a well-trained orchestra come soaring +up, made a combination such as one gets perhaps +not more than once in a life-time.</p> + +<p>The march is superb, so pompous and majestic, +and with delicious melodies occasionally interwoven +through it. Wagner's melodies are so heavily and intoxicatingly +sweet, that they are almost narcotic. His +music excites a set of emotions that no other music +does, and he is a great original. It has the power of +expressing longing and aspiration to a wonderful degree, +and it always seems to me as if two impulses were +continually trying to get the mastery. The one is the +embodiment of all those vague yearnings of the soul +to burst its prison house, and the other is the cradling +of the body in the lap of pleasure. I always feel as +if I should like to swoon away when I hear his compositions. +Then his harmonies are so strangely seductive, +so complicated, so "grossartig," as the Germans +say, and so peculiar! Oh, I have an immense +admiration for him! He thinks that music is not the +impersonation of an idea, but that it <i>is</i> the idea.</p> + +<p>But to return to the Castle.—We stayed up in the<a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a> +tower for some time, and then we made the tour of the +interior. Afterwards we walked and sat about until +all the party thought it was time to go back to the hotel +Dr. S. and I thought we would stay up there to +supper. So we went where the orchestra was playing, +which was in an enclosed space near the Castle. We +took our seats at a little table in the open air, and +ordered a delicious little supper, also</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"A bottle of wine</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> To make us shine"</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="nind">in <i>conversation!</i>—and so glided by the most ideal evening, +as far as surroundings go, that I ever spent.</p> + +<p>In our hotel at Heidelberg I kept hearing a man +play splendidly in the room below us, and every time +we passed his door it was open, and we could partly +see the interior of a charming room with a grand piano +in it, at which he was seated. A pretty woman was +always lying back in the corner of the sofa listening to +him, apparently. The presence of a large wax doll indicated +that there must be a child about, and the perfume +of flowers stole through the open doorway. My +interest was at once excited in these people, and I said +to myself as I heard this gentleman practice every day, +"This must be some artist passing the summer here +and getting up his winter programme." Accordingly, +on Sunday afternoon when he was playing beautifully, +I roused myself up and enquired of a servant who he +was. "Nicolai Rubinstein, from St. Petersburg," replied +she. He is the brother of the great Anton Rubinstein, +and is nearly as fine a pianist. I know a +scholar of Tausig's who had studied with him, and +Tausig had a high opinion of him.<a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a></p> + +<p>Oh, isn't it <i>dreadful</i>? When we were at Bingen we +saw the news of Tausig's D<small>EATH</small> in the paper! He +died at Leipsic, on the 17th of July, of typhus fever, +brought on by over-taxing his musical memory. It +was a dreadful blow to me, as you may imagine, and +when I think of his wonderful playing silenced forever, +and comparatively in the beginning of his career, +I cannot get reconciled to it. If you could have heard +those matchlessly trained fingers of his, you would be +able to sympathize with me on the subject. I had +counted so on hearing him next winter, for he gave no +concerts in Berlin last winter. He was only thirty-one +years old!<a name="page_145" id="page_145"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Eisenach. Gotha. Erfurt. Andernach. Weimar. Tausig.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>August 15, 1871</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Well, here I am back in smelly old Berlin! I really +hated to leave Heidelberg, it was such a paradisiacal +spot, but we saw so much that was beautiful afterwards, +that my impression of it has become a little +dimmed. From Heidelberg we went to Eisenach, its +rival in a different way, for here we went over the Wartburg—the +Castle famous for having been the dwelling +of the holy St. Elizabeth, and where Luther translated +the Bible and spent ten months of his life disguised +as a knight. I saw his room, a bare and comfortless +hole, but with a splendid view from the windows. The +Castle is in good repair, and is a noble pile. I suppose the +Duke of Weimar spends some time there every summer, +as it looks as if it were lived in. It is endlessly interesting. +There is a lovely little chapel in it where Luther +used to preach, with everything left in just as it +was in his time—a little gem. The Wartburg is on a +very high hill, and the views from it are superb. +Among other things to be seen from it is the Venusberg, +which is the mountain Wagner has introduced +in his famous opera of Tannhäuser. He was so carried +away by the Wartburg when he concealed himself +near it, as he was being pursued by the government to +be arrested as a revolutionary, twenty years ago, that<a name="page_146" id="page_146"></a> +he never rested until he had united the legends of St. +Elizabeth and of the Venusberg in his opera. Liszt, +also, wrote an oratorio on St. Elizabeth as <i>his</i> tribute +to the Wartburg.</p> + +<p>From Eisenach we went to Gotha, a lovely place, all +shaded with trees, and surmounted by a very imposing +castle, with two immense towers. It is an enormous +edifice, and is surrounded by a magnificent park, +through which goes the slowly winding river. I believe +that Gotha belongs to the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, +brother of the Queen of England, or something. At all +events, in the middle of this river is an island where +the ducal family is buried, and it is so thickly planted +with trees whose boughs hang over the water, that +their graves are quite shrouded from the vulgar eye. +Pretty idea! The river laps lazily against the grassy +slope which covers the princely ones, and the wind +rushing through the trees, sings their dirge.</p> + +<p>From Gotha we went to Erfurt, where we only spent +one night, in order to see the Cathedral. Erfurt is an +Undine of a place, full of running streams and bridges +and mills roaring all about you. I saw one street +with a brook rippling down the very middle of it at a +most rattling pace, and at every little distance two or +three stepping stones by which to cross it. Just think +how fascinating for children! I longed to stay and +have a good play there myself. The Erfurt Cathedral +is much smaller than those of Spire and Cologne, +but the exterior is wonderfully beautiful. The transept +is a masterpiece, and has fifteen enormous windows +of rich old stained glass going round it. The<a name="page_147" id="page_147"></a> +nave did not please me so well, because in addition to +its not being very rich, the side aisles were of equal +height with the main body of the Cathedral, and were +not sufficiently marked off from it to prevent the +roof's looking like a ceiling. I believe the side aisles +were of equal height with the main aisle in the Cologne +Cathedral, but the archways and pillars cut them +off more, so that it had a different effect.—I am more +interested in cathedrals than anything else, and should +like to travel all over Europe and see all the different +ones. There is a lovely old church at Andernach, +Roman Catholic, as most of the churches on the Rhine +are. I went there to church one Sunday morning, and +stayed through the service. They had the most powerful +church music I've ever heard. There was an excellent +boy choir which sang in unison and led the congregation, +<i>every person</i> of which joined in. The organ +was fine, as was also the organist, and the singing was +so universal that the old church walls rang again. +The priest preached an excellent sermon, too—the best +I have heard in Germany.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>August 31, 1871</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Germany is a most lovely country, and perfectly +delicious to travel through. I believe I have described +all the places we went to excepting Weimar. Weimar +is delightful, and so interesting, because Goethe and +Schiller, Wieland and Herder lived there, and everything +is connected with them, and especially with the +first two. There are many fine statues in the little<a name="page_148" id="page_148"></a> +city, and a delicious great park along the river which +was laid out under Goethe's superintendence.—One +group of Goethe and Schiller standing together in +front of the theatre is magnificent. One hardly knows +which to admire the most, Goethe, with his courtly +mein and commanding features, or Schiller, with his +extreme ideality and his head a little thrown back as +if to take in inspiration direct from the sky. It is +a most striking conception.</p> + +<p>The palace of the Grand Duke of Weimar is the +principal "show" of the place. It is filled with the +richest works of art, and is beautifully frescoed in +rooms devoted each to a particular author, and representing +his most celebrated works. There is the +Goethe room, and the Wieland room, etc. The Wieland +room is the most charming thing. The frescoes +on the walls are all illustrative of his "Oberon," +which is his most celebrated work, and one picture +represents what happened when Oberon blew his horn. +You must know that when Oberon blows his horn +everybody is obliged to dance. So in this picture he +is represented blowing it in a convent, and all the fat +friars and nuns are dancing away like mad. They +look so serious, and as if they didn't want to do it at +all, but their feet <i>will</i> fly up in the air in spite of them. +The nuns' slippers scarcely stick on, and it looks so +absurd! I was as highly amused at it as the mischievous +Oberon himself must have been, so delicately has +the artist touched it off. There was another design +representing a band of nymphs dancing in the sky, +hand in hand in the twilight, and it was the most<a name="page_149" id="page_149"></a> +graceful thing!—Their delicate little bare feet with +every pretty turn a foot could have, their clothes and +hair streaming in the breeze, and every attitude so +airy. It was <i>lovely</i>! The Goethe frescoes were by +another painter, and not so fine, but I prefer pictures +to frescoes. Only one suite of the ducal rooms was +frescoed. The others had superb pictures by the old +masters, many of them originals.</p> + +<p>The Duke is an artist himself, and designs a great +many pretty things. For instance, he designed the +large candelabra which stood on each side of one of +the doorways,—Cupid peeping through a wreath of +thistles and nettles. He was kneeling on one knee, +and pushing them aside with each hand. It was all +done in gilt metal and made a very dainty conceit, +beside being a good illustration of the pains of love! +I think the Duke probably designed some of the picture +frames, for they were peculiarly rich and artistic; +for instance, the frames of the original cartoons of +Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper were entirely composed +of the leaves and flowers of the calla lily. The +leaves lapped one over the other, and here and there +a lily was laid between. The flowers were done in a +different coloured gilding from the leaves. They +were <i>very</i> beautiful. The pictures were not all hung +together, so as to confuse your eye, but here a gem +and there a gem—and O, I saw the most bewitching +little statue there that ever I saw in my life! The +subject was "Little Red Riding Hood," and it stood in +the corner of one of the great salons. It was about +two feet high, and represented the most fascinating<a name="page_150" id="page_150"></a> +little girl you can imagine, clothed in the wolf's skin, +which hung down behind and had formed the little +hood. The child herself was quite indescribable—the +daintiest little creature, with the most captivating expression +of innocence and roguishness. If she looked +like that I should have followed the wolf's example +and eaten her up! It was really a perfect little <i>pearl</i> +of a statue. I would give anything to possess it. In +short, I wish the Duke of Weimar were my intimate +friend, for he must be a man worth knowing. Now, +if I could only play like Liszt!—I don't wonder Liszt +spends so much of his time in Weimar. I am getting +perfectly crazy to hear him, by the way, for everybody +says there is nobody in the world like him, and +that he is the only artist who combines <i>everything</i>. +He does not play in public any more, but Weitzmann +says that he is amiability itself, and that it would probably +not be difficult for me to get an opportunity to +hear him in private.</p> + +<p>In the palace I also saw the little boudoir of the +Duchess. It was all panelled in white satin, and the furniture +was of the richest white brocaded silk. The window +frames were of malachite, and one looked out +through the single great plate of glass on to the beautiful +park, and the winding river spanned by a bridge +which suggests immediately to your mind, "Walk over +me into the Garden of Paradise, for I was made for +your express benefit!" The park lies on each side of +this little river Ilm, and Goethe's exquisite taste has +given it more a look of nature than of art. It seems +as if you were walking in a delicious meadow, the<a name="page_151" id="page_151"></a> +trees being sometimes grouped together, sometimes +growing thickly along the water's edge. You go +in and out of sunshine and shadow, and here and +there are dusky little retreats, and, to borrow +Goldsmith's elegant style,—"the winding walks +assume a natural sylvage." Some distance up the +river, on the side of a gentle hill, was a small house in +the woods where Goethe used to live in summer. +Here he slept sometimes, and farther up the hill +was a summer house where he took his coffee after +dinner. To the left of this summer house he had had +made a long alley-way or vista of trees whose tops met +overhead and formed a leafy ceiling. It was like a +cloister, and here he could pace up and down and muse. +It was a delightful idea. To the right of the summer +house was a small garden, and beyond that was a path +which wound through the wood down to the path below. +In one of the rocks there Goethe had had a little poem +cut. I was sorry afterward that I hadn't copied it, it +was so pretty.—But it was such a charming place to +read and study, and it seemed to give me a better +impression of him than anything else.</p> + +<p>I saw a piano in the Duke's palace upon which +Beethoven had played. It was a funny little instrument +of about five octaves, but it was so wheezy with +age that there wasn't much tone to be got out of it. +After we had finished looking at the palace, we went +over to see the ducal library. Here I saw a superb +bust of Goethe as a young man. It was so handsome +that it spurns description. He must have been a +perfect Apollo. I also saw a likeness of him painted<a name="page_152" id="page_152"></a> +upon a cup by some great artist, for which he sat +thirty-four times! The old librarian, who had known +Goethe, said that it was <i>exactly</i> like him, and the miniature +painting was so wonderful that when you looked +at it with a magnifying glass it was only finer and +<i>more</i> accurate instead of less so! There was also a +most noble bust of the composer Glück. The face +was all scarred with small-pox, so that the cast +must have been moulded from his features after death, +but I never saw such a living, animated, likeness in +marble. It looked as if it were going to speak to you. +There was a funny toy there, nearly three hundred +years old. It was a drummer boy, with a little baby +strapped on his back. The librarian wound him up, +and then he beat his drum lustily, rolled his eyes from +side to side, and wagged his head, while the baby +on his back hopped up and down. Whenever little +children see it, it scares them, and they begin to cry. +It had on a red flannel coat, and hasn't had a new one +since it was made.—"Nearly three hundred years old, +and never had a new coat," is worse than when C. +P. bought himself a trunk, and went round the +house saying, "Twenty-seven years old, and been in +twenty-three states of the Union, and <i>never</i> had a +new trunk before!"</p> + +<p>Goethe's house is not exhibited, which I think +highly inexcusable in the Goethe family, but Schiller's +is. So we saw that, and what a contrast it was to the +ducal palace!—You go to a small yellow house on one +of the principal streets, enter a little hall by a little +door, go up two flights of a little stair-case, and in the<a name="page_153" id="page_153"></a> +very low-ceilinged third story was Schiller's home—"home" +I say, and the <i>whole</i> of it, so please take it in! +The first room you enter is a sort of ante-room where +photographs are now sold. The next room was the +parlour, and of late years it has been comfortably furnished +by the ladies of Weimar in the usual cheap +German taste. The third room was Schiller's study, +with an infinitesimal fourth room, or large closet, +opening from it, which was his sleeping apartment. +The study is precisely as he left it, and +nothing could be more bald and bare. No carpet +on the floor, the three windows slightly festooned +at the top with a single breadth of Turkey red, +his own portrait and a few wretched prints on the walls—in +short, such a sordid habitation for such a soaring +nature as seemed almost incredible! His writing table, +with a globe, inkstand, and pens upon it, stands at one +window, and his wife's tiny little piano with her guitar +on top, is against the wall. There are two or three +chairs, and a wash-stand with a minute washing apparatus. +In one corner is the tiny unpainted wooden +bedstead on which he died; a bed not meant to stretch +out in, but to lie, as Germans do, half reclining, and +so low, narrow, plain and mean that I never saw anything +like it. In it and hanging on the wall over it +are wreaths which leading German actresses have +brought there as votive offerings to their great national +dramatist, their white satin ribbons yellowing by time. +At the foot of the stair-case as you go out, you see the +little walled-up garden at the back of the house where +the poet loved to sit.<a name="page_154" id="page_154"></a></p> + +<p>After getting through with the abodes of the living, +we visited the ducal vault where Goethe and Schiller +are buried. It is the crypt of a sort of temple built +in the old secluded cemetery in Weimar, and in it +all the coffins are laid in rows on supporters. Goethe +and Schiller lie apart from the others, side by side, +near the foot of the stair-case leading down into +the crypt. Their coffins, especially Schiller's, are covered +with wreaths and bouquets brought by strangers +and laid there. Schiller's had on it a garland of silver +leaves presented by the women of Hamburg, and another +of leaves of green gauze or crape, on every one +of which was worked in gold thread the name of one +of his plays. A great actress had made it herself as +her tribute to his genius. From all I observe, I should +judge that the German people love Schiller much more +than they do Goethe. The dukes and duchesses lie +farther back in the vault in their red velvet coffins, +quite unnoticed. So much better is genius than rank! +Hummel is buried also in the cemetery, which is the +most beautiful I ever saw—not stiff and "arranged" +like ours, but so natural! with over-grown foot-paths, +and with much fewer and simpler grave-stones and +monuments, and many more vines and flowers and +roses creeping over the graves. We went to Hummel's +grave, and had I been Goethe and Schiller I should +much rather have been buried out of doors like him, +amid this sweet half-wild, half-gentle nature, than in +that dismal vault.</p> + +<p>Speaking of Hummel reminds me of Tausig's death. +Was it not terrible that he should have died so young!<a name="page_155" id="page_155"></a> +Such an enormous artist as he was! I cannot get +reconciled to it at all, and he played only twice in +Berlin last winter.</p> + +<p>He was a strange little soul—a perfect misanthrope. +Nobody knew him intimately. He lived all the last +part of his life in the strictest retirement, a prey to +deep melancholy. He was taken ill at Leipsic, whither +he had gone to meet Liszt. Until the ninth day they +had hopes of his recovery, but in the night he had a +relapse, and died the tenth day, very easily at the last. +His remains were brought to Berlin and he was buried +here. Everything was done to save him, and he had +the most celebrated physicians, but it was useless. So +my last hope of lessons from him again is at an end, +you see! I never expect to hear such piano-playing +again. It was as impossible for him to strike one false +note as it is for other people to strike right ones. He +was absolutely infallible. The papers all tell a story +about his playing a piece one time before his friends, +from the notes. The music fell upon the keys, but +Tausig didn't allow himself to be at all disturbed, and +went on playing through the paper, his fingers piercing +it and grasping the proper chords, until some one +rushed to his aid and set the notes up again. Oh, he was +a wonder, and it is a tragic loss to Art that he is dead. +He was such a <i>true</i> artist, his standard was so immeasurably +high, and he had such a proud contempt for +anything approaching clap-trap, or what he called +<i>Spectakel</i>. I have seen him execute the most gigantic +difficulties without permitting himself a sign of effort +beyond an almost imperceptible compression of one<a name="page_156" id="page_156"></a> +corner of his mouth.—And then his touch! Never +shall I forget it!—that <i>rush</i> of silver over the keys. +However, he entirely overstrained himself, and his +whole nervous system was completely shattered long +before his illness. He said last winter that the very +idea of playing in public was unbearable to him, and +after he had announced in the papers that he would +give four concerts, he recalled the announcement on the +plea of ill health. Then he thought he would go to +Italy and spend the winter. But when he got as far +as Naples, he said to himself, "<i>Nein, hier bleibst du +nicht</i> (No, you won't stay here);" and back he came +to Berlin. He doesn't seem to have known what he +wanted, himself; his was an uneasy, tormented, +capricious spirit, at enmity with the world. Perhaps +his marriage had something to do with it. His wife +was a beautiful artist, too, and they thought the world +of each other, yet they couldn't live together. But +Tausig's whole life was a mystery, and his reserve was +so complete that nobody could pierce it. If I had only +been at the point in music two years ago that I am +now, I could have gone at once into his class. His +scholars were most of them artists already, or had got +to that point where they had pretty well mastered the +technique. A number of them came out last winter, +and the little Timanoff played duets with Rubinstein +for two pianos, at St. Petersburg.</p> + +<p>Since my return I have gone into the first class in +Kullak's conservatory, instead of taking private lessons +of him. I think it will be of use to me to hear his +best pupils play.<a name="page_157" id="page_157"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Dinner-Party and Reception at Mr. Bancroft's. Auction at<br /> +Tausig's House. A German Christmas.<br /> +The Joachims.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>October 2, 1871</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>This week I have been to a dinner-party at the Bancroft's. +There were several eminent Germans there, +and I was taken out by Bötticher, the Herr who has +arranged all the casts in the Museum, and who knows +everything about Art. He couldn't speak a word of +English, so we <i>Germaned</i> it. We talked about Sappho +all through dinner, and he gave me several details +about that young woman which I did not know before. +As C. used to say, we had one of those dinners "such +as you read about in the Arabian Nights," topping off +with a glass of my favourite Tokay, which, I regret to +say, I so prolonged the pleasure of drinking, that +finally the signal was given to adjourn to the drawing-room, +and I was obliged to leave my glass standing +half full, to be swallowed by the waiter as soon as my +back was turned. Sad, but true!</p> + +<p>On another evening, at a Bancroft reception, I +talked with a Miss R., who was charming. She is +twenty-two or three, I should think, very pretty +and extremely elegant, and with the most delicious +way of speaking you can imagine. Such softness +of manner and such a delightfully pitched voice,<a name="page_158" id="page_158"></a> +and then along with this perfect repose, such a +vivid way of describing things! I was immensely +taken with her, and was delighted to have her for a +countrywoman. She gave me a wonderful account +of the Island of Java. I had a lot of questions to ask +her, for you remember how persistently I read that +book by a naturalist (Wallace) who went to Java in +search of the Bird of Paradise. Miss R. is so extremely +intelligent, and yet so unassuming; and then +this high-bred manner.—I did not have time to hear +her talk half enough, and, unfortunately, her party +went away the next day.</p> + +<p>The other day was an auction in poor little Tausig's +house, and all his furniture was sold. It was very +handsome, all of solid oak, beautifully carved. He +had spent five thousand thalers on it. His wardrobe +was sold, too, and I don't know how many pairs of his +little boots and shoes were there, his patent leather +concert boots among others. His little velvet coat +that he used to wear went with the rest. I saw it +lying on a chair. I came home quite ill, and was +laid up two days. It was the fatigue, I suppose, and +miserable reflections. I wanted to buy a picture, but +they were all sold in a lot. He had excellent ones of +all the great composers, down to Liszt and Wagner, +hanging over his piano in the room where he always +played. Kullak deplores Tausig's death very deeply. +He had visited him in Leipsic two days before he was +taken ill, and said no one would have dreamed that +Tausig was going to die, he looked so well. Kullak +said Tausig was one of the three or four great <i>special</i><a name="page_159" id="page_159"></a> +pianists. "Who will interpret to us so again?" said +he; and I echoed, sadly enough, "Who, indeed?"</p> + +<p>Kullak, by the way, is a wonderfully <i>finished</i> teacher. +He is a great friend of Liszt's, and Liszt has taught +him a good many things. I doubt, however, how M. +will fare with him, if she is only going to be here a +year. My experience is that it takes fully a year to +get started under a first class master. These great +teachers won't take a pupil raw from America, still +less trouble themselves with a scholar who cannot immediately +comprehend. I have written her to-day a +three-sheet letter in which I have set forth the disadvantages +of Germany in a sufficiently forcible manner +to prevent her feeling disappointed if she still insists +upon the journey. I have come to the conclusion that +I am no criterion as to other people's impressions. +Unless people have an enthusiasm for art I don't see +the least use in their coming abroad. If they cannot +appreciate the <i>culture</i> of Europe, they are much better +off in America. There is no doubt whatever that as to +the <i>comfort</i> of every-day life, we are a long way ahead +of every nation, unless perhaps the English, whom, +however, I have not seen.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>December 25, 1871</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>To-day is Christmas-day, and I have thought much +of you all at home, and have wondered if you've been +having an apathetic time as usual. I think we often +spend Christmas in a most shocking fashion in America, +and I mean to revolutionize all that when I get<a name="page_160" id="page_160"></a> +back. So long a time in Germany has taught me better. +Here it is a season of universal joy, and <i>everybody</i> +enters into it. Last night we had a Christmas +tree at the S.'s, as we always do. We went there at +half past six, and it was the prettiest thing to see in +every house, nearly, a tree just lighted, or in process +of being so. As a separate family lives on each floor, +often in one house would be three trees, one above the +other, in the front rooms. The curtains are always +drawn up, to give the passers-by the benefit of it. They +don't make a fearful undertaking of having a Christmas +tree here, as we do in America, and so they are +attainable by everybody. The tree is small, to begin +with, and nothing is put on it except the tapers and +bonbons. It is fixed on a small stand in the centre of +a large square table covered with a white cloth, and +each person's presents are arranged in a separate pile +around it. The tree is only lighted for the sake of +beauty, and for the air of festivity it throws over the +thing.—After a crisp walk in the moonlight (which +I performed in the style of "Johnny-look-up-in-the-air," +for I was engaged in staring into house-windows, +so far as it was practicable), we sat down to enjoy a +cup of tea and a piece of cake. I had just begun my +second cup, when, Presto! the parlour doors flew open, +and there stood the little green tree, blossoming out +into lights, and throwing its gleams over the well-laden +table. There was a general scramble and a search +for one's own pile, succeeded by deep silence and suspense +while we opened the papers. Such a hand shaking +and embracing and thanking as followed! concluding<a name="page_161" id="page_161"></a> +with the satisfactory conviction that we each had +"just what we wanted." Germans do not despise the +utilitarian in their Christmas gifts, as we do, but, between +these and their birthday offerings, expect to be +set up for the rest of the year in the necessaries of life +as well as in its superfluities. Presents of stockings, +under-clothes, dresses, handkerchiefs, soaps—nothing +comes amiss. And every one <i>must</i> give to every one +else. That is L<small>AW</small>.</p> + +<p>I have just heard a young artist from Vienna who +made a great impression on me. His name is Ignaz +Brühl. He is quite exceptional, and has not only a +brilliant technique, but also a peculiar and beautiful +conception.—But the best concert I have heard this +season was one given by Clara Schumann a week ago +last Monday. She was assisted by Joachim and his +wife, and <i>that</i> galaxy is indeed unequalled. Frau +Joachim sings deliciously. Not that her voice is so +remarkable. You hear such voices all the time. But +she manages it consummately, and sings German songs +as no one but a German <i>could</i> sing them. Indeed I +never heard any woman approach her in unobtrusive +yet perfect art. She does not take you by storm, and +when I first came here I did not think much of her, +but every time I hear her I am struck with how exquisite +it is. Every word takes on a meaning, and on this +account I think you have to understand the language +before you can realize the beauty of it. One of her +songs was Schumann's "Spring Song," with that rapid +<i>agitato</i> accompaniment, you know.—She came out and +started off in it with a half breath and a tremor just<a name="page_162" id="page_162"></a> +like a bird fluttering up out of its nest, and then went +up on a portamento with <i>such</i> abandon!—like the bird +soaring off in its flight. I never <i>shall</i> forget that +effect! Of course it carried you completely away.</p> + +<p>Beside singing so admirably she is a beauty—a +sort of baby beauty—and when she comes out in a +pale pink silk, contrasting with her dark hair and +revealing her imperial neck and arms, she is ravishing. +I've been told she wasn't anything remarkable when +Joachim married her. No doubt dwelling with such +a genius has developed her. They say that Joachim +has had such a happy life that he wants to live forever! +He certainly does overtop everything. On this +occasion he played Beethoven's great Kreutzer Sonata +for violin and piano, with Clara Schumann, and I +thought it the <i>most magnificent performance I ever +heard</i>! I perfectly adore Joachim, and consider him +the wonder of the age. It is simple ecstasy to listen +to him.<a name="page_163" id="page_163"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Visit to Dresden. The Wiecks. Von Bülow. A Child Prodigy.<br /> +Grantzow, the Dancer.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>February 10, 1872</i>.</p> + +<p>A week ago last Monday I went to Dresden with +J. L. to visit B. H. We got there at about five +in the afternoon, and were met at the station by +B.'s maid, who conducted us straightway to their +house in Christian Strasse. B. and Mrs. H. received +us with the greatest cordiality, and we had a splendid +time. I came home only the day before yesterday, +and J. is still there. The H.'s have a charming +lodging, and Mrs. H. is a capital housekeeper. The +<i>cuisine</i> was excellent, and you can imagine how I +enjoyed an American breakfast once more, after nothing +but "rolls and coffee" for two years. B. did +everything in her power to amuse us, and she is the +soul of amiability. She kept inviting people to meet +us, and had several tea-parties, and when we had no +company she took us to the theatre or the opera. She +invited Marie Wieck (the sister of Clara Schumann) +to tea one night. I was very glad to meet her, for she +is an exquisite artist herself, and plays in Clara Schumann's +style, though her conception is not so remarkable. +Her touch is perfect. At B.'s request she +tried to play for us, but the action of B.'s piano +did not suit her, and she presently got up, saying that<a name="page_164" id="page_164"></a> +she could do nothing on that instrument, but that +if we would come to <i>her</i>, she would play for us with +pleasure.</p> + +<p>I was in high glee at that proposal, for I was very +anxious to see the famous Wieck, the trainer of so +many generations of musicians. Fräulein Wieck +appointed Saturday evening, and we accordingly went. +B. had instructed us how to act, for the old man is +quite a character, and has to be dealt with after his own +fashion. She said we must walk in (having first laid off +our things) as if we had been members of the family +all our lives, and say, "Good-evening, Papa Wieck,"—(everybody +calls him Papa). Then we were to seat ourselves, +and if we had some knitting or sewing with us +it would be well. At any rate we must have the apparent +intention of spending several hours, for nothing +provokes him so as to have people come in simply to +call. "What!" he will say, "do you expect to know a +celebrated man like me in half an hour?" then (very +sarcastically), "perhaps you want my autograph!" He +hates to give his autograph.</p> + +<p>Well, we went through the prescribed programme. +We were ushered into a large room, much longer than +it was broad. At either end stood a grand piano. +Otherwise the room was furnished with the greatest +simplicity. My impression is that the floor was a plain +yellow painted one, with a rug or two here and there. +A few portraits and bas-reliefs hung upon the walls. +The pianos were of course fine. Frau Wieck and +"Papa" received us graciously. We began by taking +tea, but soon the old man became impatient, and<a name="page_165" id="page_165"></a> +said, "Come! the ladies wish to perform (<i>vortragen</i>) +something before me, and if we don't begin we shan't +accomplish anything." He <i>lives</i> entirely in music, +and has a class of girls whom he instructs every evening +for nothing. Five of these young girls were there. +He is very deaf, but strange to say, he is as +sensitive as ever to every musical sound, and the +same is the case with Clara Schumann. Fräulein +Wieck then opened the ball. She is about forty, I +should think, and a stout, phlegmatic-looking woman. +However, she played superbly, and her touch is one of +the most delicious possible. After hearing her, one is +not surprised that the Wiecks think nobody can teach +touch but themselves. She began with a nocturne by +Chopin, in F major. I forgot to say that the old Herr +sits in his chair with the air of being on a throne, +and announces beforehand each piece that is to be +played, following it with some comment: <i>e. g.</i>, "This +nocturne I allowed my daughter Clara to play in Berlin +forty years ago, and afterward the principal newspaper +in criticising her performance, remarked: 'This young +girl seems to have much talent; it is only a pity that +she is in the hands of a father whose head seems +stuck full of queer new-fangled notions,'—so new was +Chopin to the public at that time." That is the way +he goes on.</p> + +<p>After Fräulein Wieck had finished the nocturne, I +asked for something by Bach, which I'm told she plays +remarkably. She said that at the moment she had +nothing in practice by Bach, but she would play me a +<i>gigue</i> by a composer of Bach's time,—Haesler, I think<a name="page_166" id="page_166"></a> +she said, but cannot remember, as it was a name +entirely unknown to me. It was very brilliant, and +she executed it beautifully. Afterward she played the +last movement of Beethoven's Sonata in E flat major, +but I wasn't particularly struck with her conception +of that. Then we had a pause, and she urged me to +play. I refused, for as I had been in Dresden a week +and had not practiced, I did not wish to sit down and +not do myself justice. My hand is so stiff, that as +Tausig said of himself (though of him I can hardly +believe it), "When I haven't practiced for fourteen days +I can't do anything." The old Herr then said, "Now +we'll have something else;" and got up and went to +the piano, and called the young girls. He made three +of them sing, one after the other, and they sang very +charmingly indeed. One of them he made improvise +a <i>cadenza</i>, and a second sang the alto to it without +accompaniment. He was very proud of that. He exercises +his pupils in all sorts of ways, trains them to sing +any given tone, and "to skip up and down the ladder," +as they call the scale.</p> + +<p>After the master had finished with the singing, +Fräulein Wieck played three more pieces, one of which +was an exquisite arrangement by Liszt of that song by +Schumann, "<i>Du meine Seele</i>." She ended with a +<i>gavotte</i> by Glück, or as Papa Wieck would say, "This +is a gavotte from one of Glück's operas, arranged by +Brahms for the piano. To the superficial observer the +second movement will appear very easy, but in <i>my</i> +opinion it is a very hard task to hit it exactly." I happened +to know just how the thing ought to be played,<a name="page_167" id="page_167"></a> +for I had heard it three times from Clara Schumann +herself. Fräulein Wieck didn't please me at all in it, +for she took the second movement twice as quickly as +the first. "Your sister plays the second movement +much slower," said I. "<i>So?</i>" said she, "I've never +heard it from her." She then asked, "So slow?" playing +it slower. "Still slower?" said she, beginning a +third time, at my continual disapproval. "<i>Streng im +Tempo</i> (in strict time)", said I, nodding my head +oracularly. "<i>Väterchen</i>." called she to the old Herr, +"Miss Fay says that Clara plays the second movement +<i>so</i> slow," showing him. I don't know whether this +correction made an impression, but he was then <i>determined</i> +that I should play, and on my continued refusal +he finally said that he found it very strange that a young +lady who had studied more than two years in Tausig's +and Kullak's conservatories shouldn't have <i>one</i> piece +that she could play before people. This little fling +provoked me, so up I jumped, and saying to myself, +"<i>Kopf in die Höhe, Brust heraus,—vorwärts!</i>" +(one of the military orders here), I marched to the piano +and played the fugue at the end of Beethoven's A flat +Sonata, Op. 110. They all sat round the room as still +as so many statues while I played, and you cannot +imagine how dreadfully nervous I was. I thought +fifty times I would have to stop, for, like all fugues, it +is such a piece that if you once get out you never can +get in again, and Bülow himself got mixed up on the +last part of it the other night in his concert. But +I got well through, notwithstanding, and the old +master was good enough to commend me warmly.<a name="page_168" id="page_168"></a> +He told me I must have studied a great deal, and +asked me if I hadn't played a great many <i>Etuden</i>. I +informed him in polite German "He'd better believe +I had!"</p> + +<p>I should like to study with the Wiecks in my vacation +next summer if they would take me. Perhaps I +may. They are considered somewhat old-fashioned +in their style, and I shouldn't wish to exchange Kullak +for them, but they are <i>such</i> veterans that one +could not help getting many valuable ideas from +them. Papa Wieck used to be Bülow's master before +he went to Liszt.</p> + +<p>Did I tell you how carried away with Bülow I was? +He is magnificent, and just between Rubinstein and +Tausig. I am going to hear him again on Saturday, +and then I'll write you my full opinion about +him. He is famous for his playing of Beethoven, and +I wish you could have heard the Moonlight Sonata +from him. One thing he does which is entirely peculiar +to himself. He runs all the movements of a sonata +together, instead of pausing between. It pleased +me very much, as it gives a <i>unity</i> of effect, and seems +to make each movement beget the succeeding one.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p>B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>May 30, 1872</i>.</p> + +<p>I wish L. were here studying piano with Kullak's +son. He has one little fairy of a scholar ten years old. +Her name is Adele aus der Ohe—(isn't that an old +knightly name?)—and it is the most astonishing thing +to hear that child play! I heard her play a concerto<a name="page_169" id="page_169"></a> +of Beethoven's the other day with orchestral accompaniment +and a great cadenza by Moscheles, absolutely +<i>perfectly</i>. She never missed a note the whole +way through. I suppose she will become, like Mehlig, +a great artist. But perhaps, like her, she won't have +a great conception, but will do everything mechanically. +One never can tell how these child-prodigies +will turn out.—Please don't form any exalted ideas of +<i>my</i> playing! I'm a pretty stupid girl, and go forward +slowly. I never expect to play as Miss Mehlig does. +If I can ever get up to Topp, I shall be satisfied. You +wouldn't believe how long it takes to get to be a virtuoso +unless you tried it. Mehlig, you know, studied +steadily for ten years, under the <i>best</i> of teaching all +the time, and she had probably more talent to start +with than I have. Miss V. and Mr. G. have been +here <i>five</i> years studying steadily, and they are no +farther than I am now. Not so far. It makes all the +difference in the world what kind of hand and wrist a +person has. Mine, you know, were pretty stiff, and +then it is a great disadvantage to begin studying after +one is grown up. One ought to be learning while the +hand is forming.</p> + +<p>I am just now learning that A minor concerto of +Schumann's that Topp played at the Handel and +Haydn Festival in Boston. The cadenza is tough, I +can tell you. That is the worst of these concertos. +There is always a grand cadenza where you must +play all alone and "make a splurge." I don't know +how it feels to be left all at once without any support +from the orchestra. It is bad enough when Kullak<a name="page_170" id="page_170"></a> +lies back in his chair and ceases accompanying me. +He plays with me on two pianos, and I get so excited +that my wrists tremble. He is a magnificent pianist, +and his technique is perfect. There's nothing he +can't do. Like all artists, he is as capricious and exasperating +as he can be, and, as the Germans say, he +is "<i>ein Mal im Himmel und das nächste Mal im Keller</i> +(one time in heaven and the next time in the cellar)!" +He has a deep rooted prejudice against Americans, +and never loses an opportunity to make a +mean remark about them, and though he has some +remarkably gifted ones among his scholars, he always +insists upon it that the Americans have no real talent. +As far as I know anything about his conservatorium +just now, his <i>most</i> talented scholars are Americans. +There is a young fellow named Sherwood, who is only +seventeen years old, and he not only plays splendidly +but composes beautifully, also. In my own class Miss +B. and I are far ahead of all the others. Kullak will +praise us very enthusiastically, and then when some +one plays particularly badly in the class he will say to +them, "Why, Fräulein, you play exactly as if you +came from America." It makes Miss B. and me so +indignant that we don't know what to do. Of course we +can't say anything, for he addresses this remark in a +lofty way to the whole class. Miss V. couldn't +bear Kullak, and the other day, when she and Mr. G. +were taking leave of him to go to America, she let him +see it. He said to her, "And when shall I see you +again?" "<i>Never</i>," exclaimed she! We have only one +way of revenging ourselves, and that is when he gives<a name="page_171" id="page_171"></a> +us the choice of taking one of his compositions or a +piece by some one else, always to take the other person's. +For instance, he said to me, "Fräulein, you +can take Schumann's concerto or <i>my</i> concerto." I +immediately got Schumann's.</p> + +<p>The other night I went to see a great ballet-dancer. +Her name is Fräulein Grantzow, and she is the court +dancer at St. Petersburg, where I've heard that the +ballet surpasses everything of the kind in the world. +This danseuse is a wonder, and they say there has never +been such dancing since the days of Fanny Ellsler. +She has the figure of a Venus, and the most expressive +face imaginable. When she dances, it is not only +dancing, but a complete representation of character, +for she plays a rôle by her motions just the same as +if she were an actress. I have seen many a ballet, but +I never conceived what an art dancing is before. I +saw her in "Esmeralda," a ballet which is arranged +from Victor Hugo's romance and modified for the +stage. Fräulein Grantzow took the part of Esmeralda. +In the first act a man is condemned to death, +but is pardoned on condition that one of the women +present will promise to marry him. The women, represented +by about fifty ballet dancers, come up one +after the other, contemplate the poor victim, pirouette +round him, and reject him in turn with a gesture of +contempt. At last Esmeralda (a gypsy) comes dancing +along, asks what is the matter, and on being told, +has compassion on the poor wretch, and promises to +marry him in order to save him from his fate.</p> + +<p>When the time came for Grantzow to appear, the<a name="page_172" id="page_172"></a> +crowd of dancers suddenly divided, and she bounded +out from the back of the stage. <i>Such</i> an apparition +as she was! In the first place her toilettes surpassed +everything, and she appeared in a fresh dress +in every act. In this first one she had on a most dazzling +shade of green gauze for her skirt. From her +waist fell a golden net-work, like a cestus, with little +golden tassels all round. She wore a little scarlet +satin jacket all fringed with gold coins, and a broad +golden belt, pointed in front, clasped her waist. On +her head was a tiny scarlet cap, also fringed with coins, +and she had some golden bangles round her neck. In +her hand was a tambourine from which depended four +knots of coloured ribbons with long ends. Shaking +her tambourine high in the air, out she sprang like a +panther, made one magnificent circuit all round the +stage, and after executing an immensely difficult <i>pas</i> +with perfect ease, she suddenly posed to the audience +in the most ravishing and impossible attitude and with +the most captivating grace conceivable. Anything like +her <i>élan</i>, her <i>aplomb</i>, I never saw. Such a daring creature! +Well, I cannot tell you all the things she did. +She is a perfect Terpsichorean genius. All through +the first act she danced very slowly, merely to show +her wonderful grace, and the beauty and originality of +her positions. She had a way of folding her arms over +her breast and dancing with a dreamy step that was +quite different from anybody else, and it produced an +entrancing effect. Through the second and third acts +she made a regular crescendo, just to display her technique +and show what she could do. All the other<a name="page_173" id="page_173"></a> +dancers seemed like blocks of wood in comparison with +her.—Fräulein Grantzow is said to be between thirty-five +and thirty-eight years old. As the papers said, +her art shows the perfection that only maturity can +give. The men are all crazy over her, as you may imagine, +and she was showered with bouquets as large as +the top of a barrel. The play of her features was as +extraordinary as the play of her muscles. Her whole +being seemed to be the soul of motion.<a name="page_174" id="page_174"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">A Rising Organist. Kullak. Von Bülow's Playing.<br /> +A Princely Funeral. Wilhelmj's Concert.<br /> +A Court Beauty.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>July 1, 1872</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Since I have been here X. has gradually developed +into a great organ player, and I fancy he is now +one of the first organ virtuosi in the world. His +musical activity is immense, and I don't doubt he will +be one of the great musical authorities here by the +time he is a few years older. He is a good-hearted +little demon, the incarnation of German dirt and +good humour, and he pretends to be desperately devoted +to me. Last Sunday he was at M.'s and went +home with us afterward. Generally I go in front +with A. or Herr J. and let X. give his arm to M., +but this time I accorded him the honour of taking +it myself. He is about a foot shorter than I am, but +he trotted along by my side in a state of high satisfaction, +and asked me what he should play at this +concert. I told him he might play the G Minor +Prelude and Fugue, as I had just taken it, "<i>but</i>," said +I, "mind you play it well, for I shall study it very +hard during the next fortnight, and I shall know if +you strike one false note. I'll allow you six faults, +but if you make one more I'll beat you." This +amused him highly, but he said, "It is a very complicated<a name="page_175" id="page_175"></a> +fugue, and it isn't so easy to play it perfectly, +with all the pedal passages. What will you do for me +if I come off without making <i>one</i> fault?" I told him +there was plenty of time to think about that, and I +didn't believe he could. I have no doubt that he <i>will</i> +play it magnificently, but I love to plague him. I wish +that his department were secular rather than church +music, for if he were only a conductor of an orchestra, +or something of that sort, he could give me many a lift. +He doesn't dare play the piano any more since I played +to him a few times. He used nearly to kill me with his +extemporizations, for he has no memory, and so he +always had to extemporize. I generally went off into +a secret convulsion of laughter when he went bang! +bang! Donner and Blitz!—splaying all over the key-board. +It was the funniest thing I ever heard, and when +I heard him burst forth in such grand style on the organ, +I was perfectly amazed, and couldn't reconcile +it with his piano playing at all. He is a great reader, +of course, and can transpose at sight, and all that sort +of thing. I've known him to play accompaniments at +sight in a great concert in the Dom and transpose +them at the same time!</p> + +<p>July 6.—You ask me why I gave up going to the +Wiecks in Dresden this summer.—Because they make +everybody begin at the very beginning of their system +and go through it before they give them a piece, and +at my stage of progress that would be losing time. +They think nobody can teach touch but themselves, +but Kullak is a much greater musician, and I should +not be willing to exchange him for Fräulein Wieck,<a name="page_176" id="page_176"></a> +who does not begin to equal him in reputation. Much +as Kullak enrages me, I have to admit that he is a +great master, and that he is thoroughly capable of +developing artistic talent to the utmost. He makes +Miss B. so provoked that she had very strong thoughts +of going to Stuttgardt. The Stuttgardt conservatorium +is so crowded that it is very difficult to get admission. +Lebert (Mehlig's master,) sent word on her +writing to enquire, that he would only take her on condition +that she brought him a letter from Kullak authorizing +her leaving him, as Kullak was a personal +friend of his own, and so great an artist, that only the +most important reasons could justify her giving up +his instructions! Of course that put the stopper on any +such movement.</p> + +<p>I've always forgotten to describe Bülow's playing to +you, and it is now so long since I heard him that my +impressions of it are not so vivid. He has the most +forcible style I ever heard, and phrases wonderfully. +It is like looking through a stereoscope to hear him. +All the points of a piece seem to start out vividly before +you. He makes me think of Gottschalk a little, +for he is full of his airs. His expression is proud and +supercilious to the last degree, and he looks all round +at his audience when he is playing. He always has +two grand pianos on the stage, one facing one way, +and one the other, and he plays alternately on both. +His face seems to say to his audience, "You're all cats +and dogs, and I don't care what you think of my playing." +Sometimes a look of infinite humour comes over +it, when he is playing a rondo or anything gay. It is<a name="page_177" id="page_177"></a> +very funny. He has remarkable magnetic power, and +you feel that you are under the sway of a tremendous +will. Many persons find fault with his playing, because +they say it is pure intellect (<i>der reine Verstand</i>) but +I think he has too much passion to be called purely +intellectual. Still, it is always passion controlled. Beethoven +has been the grand study of his life, and he +plays his sonatas as no one else does.</p> + +<p>If he goes to America next winter, you <i>must</i> hear +him thoroughly, <i>coûte que coûte</i>. So I advise you to +be saving up your pennies, and be sure to get a place +near the piano so that you can see his face, for it is a +study. I always sit in the second or third row here.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>October 27, 1872</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>This week has been quite an eventful one. It began +on Monday with the funeral of Prince Albrecht, the +youngest brother of the Emperor, and it was a very +imposing spectacle. I was in hopes that Mr. B. would +send me a card of admission to the Dom, where the services +were to be held, but as he didn't, I was obliged to +content myself with a sight of the procession and general +arrangement outside. I took my stand on a wagon +with H., and we got an excellent view. There was a +roadway built of wood from the royal Castle to the Dom, +carpeted with black, over which the procession was to +pass. We waited about an hour before it came along, +but we were pretty well amused by the gorgeous equipages +and liveries of the different diplomatic corps +which dashed past.<a name="page_178" id="page_178"></a></p> + +<p>We were on the opposite side of the canal which +separated us from the square in front of the Dom. +On the right of the Dom is the Castle, and the Museum +is on the left. All this square was surrounded by +military, for as Prince Albrecht was a Field-Marshal, +the funeral had a military character. They were beautifully +arranged, the cavalry on one side and the +infantry on the other, and the different uniforms were +contrasted with each other so as to make the best +effects in colour. Both horses and men stood as if +they were carved out of marble, with the greatest precision +of position. A little before eleven the royal +carriages rolled past from the palace to the Castle, +with their occupants. Presently the bells began to toll, +and exactly at eleven the procession started. The Gardes +du Corps, which is the Crown Prince's regiment, preceded +the coffin, dressed in white and silver uniforms, +with glittering brass helmets surmounted by silver +eagles. The coffin itself was borne on a catafalque, +and drawn by eight horses covered with black velvet +trappings. It was yellow, and was surmounted by a +crown of gold. On it was laid the Prince's sword, helmet, +etc., and some flowers. I was too far away to +distinguish the personages that followed. Of course +the Emperor was nearest, and all were on foot. Behind +the coffin the Prince's favorite horse was led, saddled +and bridled. All the servants of his household +walked together in silver liveries and with large triangular +hats with long bands of crape hanging down +behind. The band played a chorale, "Jesus, my Refuge," +and the bells kept tolling all the while. At the<a name="page_179" id="page_179"></a> +door of the Dom, the procession was received by the +clergy officiating. The coffin was so heavy that it +was rolled down a platform of boards put up for the +purpose. Then it was lifted by sixteen bearers, the +glittering cortége closed round it, and they all swept +it at the open portal.</p> + +<p>We waited until the end of the service, as it was a +short one, in order to hear the eight rounds of firing +by the artillery. It was interesting to see how exactly +they all fired the instant the signal was given. First the +musketry on one side, and then the musketry on the +other, in answer to it. The officers galloped and curveted +about on their fiery steeds, and finally, the cannon +went boom—boom. The sharp crack of the rifles +made you start, but the sullen roar of the cannon +made you shudder. It gave you some idea of a battle.</p> + +<p>Tuesday night I went to a concert given by a new +star in the musical world, a young violinist named Wilhelmj. +He is only twenty-six years old, and is already +said to be one of the greatest virtuosi living, perhaps +<i>the</i> greatest of the romantic school, for Joachim +belongs to the severe classic. All the artists and +critics and many of the aristocracy turned out to +hear him. It was his first appearance in Berlin, and +as I looked round the audience and picked out one +great musician after another, I fairly trembled for +him. Joachim and de Ahna were both present, among +others, and my adorable Baroness von S. swept in late, +looking more exquisite than ever in black lace over +black silk, with jet ornaments, and her lovely hair +curled and done up high on her aristocratic little head.<a name="page_180" id="page_180"></a> +She was all in mourning for the Prince, even to a +black lace fan with which she occasionally shaded her +eyes, so that her peach-bloomy cheek was just to be +discerned through it. She is a charming pianist herself, +I've heard, and is a great patroness of music and +musicians, especially of the "music of the future," +and its creators. I see her at all the concerts. When +her face is in perfect repose she has the most charming +expression and a sort of celestial look in her deep-set +blue eyes. She is what the French call <i>spirituelle</i>, +and the Germans <i>geistreich</i>, but we've no word in our +language that just describes her.</p> + +<p>Well, as I was saying, my head got quite dizzy with +thinking what a trial it was to play before such an audience, +but Wilhelmj seemed to differ from me, for he +came confidently down the steps with the dignified +self-poise of an artist who is master of his instrument, +and who knows what he can do. He is extremely +handsome, with regular features, massive overhanging +forehead, and with an expression of power and self-containment. +He looked a perfect picture as he stood there +so quietly and played. He hadn't gone far before he +made a brilliant cadenza that took down the house, and +there was a general burst of applause. His <i>tone</i> (which +is the grand thing in violin-playing) was magnificent, +and his technique masterly. He didn't play with that +tenderness of feeling and wonderful variety of expression +that Joachim does, but it was as if he didn't care to +affect people in that way. It made me think of Tausig +on the piano. He played with the greatest intensity +and <i>aplomb</i>, and the strings seemed actually to<a name="page_181" id="page_181"></a> +seethe. People were taken by storm. The second +piece was a concerto by Raff. Wilhelmj was in the +midst of the Andante, and was sawing our hearts with +every saw of his bow, when suddenly a string snapped +under the strain of his passionate fingers. He instantly +ceased playing, and retired up the steps to the back of +the stage to put on another string. Unfortunately he had +not brought along an extra one in his pocket, and had +to borrow one from one of the orchestra. Weitzmann, +who in his youth was himself an eminent concert violinist, +was amazed at Wilhelmj's temerity. "What <i>rashness</i>," +exclaimed he, "and the G string, too!" (one of +the most important). After a pause Wilhelmj came +down and began again, but the string was so out of tune +that he retired a second time. He must have been furious +inwardly, one would think, and at his <i>Berlin</i> début, +too! but he came down the third time with the utmost +imperturbability, and got through the concerto. The +whole effect of the concert was spoiled, though, and he +had also to change the solos he had intended playing, so +as to avoid the G string as much as possible. Instead of +the lovely Chopin Nocturne in D flat (his own arrangement), +he played an Aria by Bach. He did it so wonderfully +that I was really startled.—I never shall forget +the <i>nuances</i> he put into his trill. But at his second +concert, where he <i>did</i> give the Nocturne, it was evident +that the romantic is his great forte, and on a first +appearance, and before his large and critical audience, +he should have been heard in that <i>genre</i>.<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a><a name="page_182" id="page_182"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">The Boston Fire. Aggravations of Music Study. Kullak.<br /> +Sherwood. Hoch Schule. A Brilliant American.<br /> +German Dancing.</p></div> + +<p>B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>November 24, 1872</i>.</p> + +<p>All the papers over here have been ringing with the +Boston fire, the horse pestilence, shipwrecks, explosions, +etc., until I feel as if all America were going to the bad. +What an awful calamity that fire is! I can't take it in +at all. All the Germans are wondering what our fire +companies are made of that such conflagrations <i>can</i> take +place. They say it would be an impossibility <i>here</i>, +where the organization is so perfect. The men are +trained to the work for years, and are on the spot in a +twinkling, knowing just what to do. They are as fully +convinced of their super-excellence in the Fire Department +as in every other, and nothing can make them +believe that if two or three of their little fire-engines had +been there, and worked by <i>their</i> firemen, the Chicago +and Boston fires could not have been put out! You +know their machines are pumped by <i>hand</i>, too, instead +of by steam, as ours are, which makes the assumption +all the more ludicrous. It reminds me of a German +party I was at once, where our war was the subject of +conversation. "Oh, you don't know anything about +fighting over there," said one gentleman, nodding at me +patronizingly across the table. "If you had had two or<a name="page_183" id="page_183"></a> +three of <i>our</i> regiments, with one of <i>our</i> generals, your +war would have been finished up in no time!"</p> + +<p>I've had <i>such</i> a vexation to-day that I'm really quite +beside myself! I was to play the first movement of my +Rubinstein Concerto in the conservatory with the orchestra. +I've been straining every nerve over it for several +weeks, practicing incessantly, and had learned it perfectly. +When I played it in the class the other day it went beautifully, +and I think even Kullak was satisfied. Well, of +course I was anticipating playing it with the orchestra +before an audience, with much pleasure, and hoped I was +going to distinguish myself. Music-director Wuerst and +Franz Kullak always take charge of these orchestra lessons, +sometimes one directing and sometimes the other. +I got up early this morning, and practiced an hour and +a half before I went to the conservatory, and I was there +the first of all who were to play concertos. I spoke to +Wuerst and told him what I was to play, and he said +"All right." Wouldn't you have thought now, that he +would have let me play first? Not a bit of it. He first +heard the orchestra play a stupid symphony of Haydn's, +which they might just as well have left out. Then he +began screaming out to know if Herr Moszkowski was +there? Herr Moszkowski, however, was <i>not</i> there, and +I began to breathe freer, for he is a finished artist, and +has been studying with Kullak for years, and plays in +concerts. Of course if he had played first, it would have +been doubly hard for me to muster up my courage, and +you would have thought that Wuerst would have taken +that into consideration. As Moszkowski was absent, I +thought I certainly should be called up next, but another<a name="page_184" id="page_184"></a> +girl received the preference. She played extremely well, +and Wuerst paid her his compliments, and then took his +departure, leaving Franz Kullak to conduct. Then one +of my class played Beethoven's G major concerto most +wretchedly. Poor creature, she was nervous and frightened, +and couldn't do herself any sort of justice. At +last it was over, and at last Franz Kullak sung out, "We +will now have Rubinstein's concerto in D minor."</p> + +<p>I got up, went to the piano, wiped off the keys, +which were completely <i>wet</i> from the nervous fingers +of those who had preceded me, and was just going to +sit down, when a young fellow approached from the +other side with the same intention. "O, Fräulein +Fay, you have the same concerto? Very well, you can +play it the <i>next</i> time. To-day Herr So-and-So plays +it!" Now, did you ever know anything so provoking? +I hoped at least that the young fellow would play it +well, and that I should learn something, but he perfectly +<i>murdered</i> it, and there I had to sit through it +all, with the piece tingling at my fingers ends—and +now there's no knowing <i>when</i> I shall play it, as the +orchestra lessons are so seldom and so uncertain. I +hope there will be one two weeks from to-day, but +even so I probably shan't do half so well as I should +have done to-day, for the freshness will be all out of +the piece, and I've practiced it so much <i>now</i> that I +hate the sound of it, and can't bear to waste any more +time over it. Such is life! I thought this time that +I had taken every precaution to ensure success, for I +had risen early every day, and eaten no end of the +"bread of carefulness," and the result is—nothing at<a name="page_185" id="page_185"></a> +all! Not even a failure. It is the more to be regretted +as to-day was the first Sunday of the month, +and I wanted to go to church, especially as the bad +weather kept me at home for two Sundays. However, +I'm determined I <i>will</i> play the concerto <i>yet</i>, if I stake +"<i>Kopf und Kragen</i> (head and collar)" on it, as the +Germans say.—But oh, the difficulty of doing <i>anything</i> +at all in this world!</p> + +<p>December 18, 1872.—<i>At last</i> I played my Rubinstein +concerto a week ago Sunday with the orchestra, +and had the pleasure of being told by Scharwenka +that I had had a brilliant success. Franz Kullak said +that my octave passages were superbly played, and +Moszkowski (who, to my surprise, was playing first +violin) applauded. So I was complimented by the +three of whom I stood most in awe. Scharwenka and +Moszkowski are both finished artists and exquisite +composers, and play a great deal in concerts this winter. +Scharwenka is very handsome. He is a Pole, +and is very proud of his nationality. And, indeed, +there <i>is</i> something interesting and romantic about +being a Pole. The very name conjures up thoughts +of revolutions, conspiracies, bloody executions, masked +balls, and, of <i>course</i>, grace, wit and beauty! Scharwenka +certainly sustains the traditions of his race as +far as the latter qualification is concerned. I never +talked with him, as I have but a bowing acquaintance +with him, so I don't know what sort of a <i>mind</i> he has, +but I find myself looking at him and saying to myself +with a certain degree of satisfaction, "He is a Pole." +Why I should have this feeling I know not, but I<a name="page_186" id="page_186"></a> +seem to be proud of knowing Poles!—Scharwenka +has a clear olive complexion, oval face, hazel eyes (I +<i>think</i>) and a mass of brown silky hair which he wears +long, and which falls about his head in a most picturesque +and attractive fashion. He always presides +over the piano at the orchestral lessons in the conservatory +on Sunday mornings, and supplies those parts +which are wanting. When concertos are performed he +accompanies. He has a delightful serenity of manner, +and sits there with quiet dignity, his back to the windows, +and the light striking through his fluffy hair. +He plays beautifully, and composes after Chopin's +manner. Perhaps he will do greater things and develop +a style of his own by and by. Every winter he +gives a concert in Berlin in the Sing-Akademie.</p> + +<p>By the way, I would not advise your paying any attention +to what G. says about music. She is incapable +of forming a correct judgment on the subject, and +she used to provoke me to death with her ignorant +and sweeping criticisms. I continually set her right, +but to hear her go on about music and musicians is +much like hearing S. R. and the M. crowd talk about +art. What <i>can</i> be easier or more absurd, than to set +yourself up and say that "nobody satisfies you." +<i>Stuff!</i>—As for Kullak, I think a master must be +judged by the number of players he turns out. In +the two years that I have studied with him he has +formed six or eight artists to my knowledge, beside +no end of pupils who play extremely well. People +come to him from all over the world, and as an artist +himself he ranks first class.<a name="page_187" id="page_187"></a></p> + +<p>I must tell you about a new acquaintance I've just +made, a Mr. P., a Harvard man, very fascinating, very +brilliant, a great swell, and the most perfect <i>dancer</i> +I ever saw. I first met this phœnix at a dinner, when +he fairly sparkled. He seemed to have the history of +all countries at his tongue's end, and went through +revolutions and reigns in the most rapid way. We +had an animated discussion over the Germans, whom +he loathes and despises, and he brought up all the historical +events he could to justify his disgust. I was +on the defensive, of course. "They've no <i>delicacy</i>," +said P., in his emphatic way, and I had to give in +there. Indeed, I can imagine that to a fastidious +creature like him, imbued, too, with all the Southern +chivalry, the Germans would be startling, to say the +least. "Why," he cried, "they help you at table with +their own forks after they've been eating with them! +What do you think my host did to-day? He took a +piece of meat that he had begun to eat, from <i>his own +plate!</i> and put it on to mine with <i>his own fork!!</i> saying, +'Try this, this is a good piece!'—His intentions +were excellent, but it never occurred to him that +I shouldn't be delighted to eat after him."—P. can't +bear it when the waiters at the restaurants pretend to +think him a lord and address him as "Herr Graf." +"I'll teach them to <i>Herr Graf</i> me," he said between +his teeth, lowering his head, his eyes flashing dangerous +fire. But it is quite likely that they do suppose +him a lord, for he looks it, "every inch."</p> + +<p>I met him again at a reception, and was having a +most charming conversation with him about Goethe,<a name="page_188" id="page_188"></a> +whom he was dissecting in his keen way, when in +came Mr. and Mrs. N. I knew at once that there +was an end of our delightful talk, for though Mrs. N. +has a most fascinating and high-bred husband herself, +and is, moreover, extremely jealous of him, she is +never content unless the most agreeable man in the +room is devoted to her, also. Sure enough, she came +straight toward us, and took occasion to whisper some +senseless thing in my ear. Of course Mr. P. had to +offer her his seat. She was, however, not quite bare-faced +enough to take it, but she had succeeded in +breaking the tête-à-tête and in distracting his attention. +Soon after another gentleman came up to speak +to me, Mr. P. bowed, and for the rest of the evening +he was pinned to Mrs. N.'s side. Such are the satisfactions +of parties! Either one does not meet any +one worth talking to, or the conversation is sure to be +interrupted. It takes these women of the world, like +Mrs. N., to get the plums out of the pudding.</p> + +<p>However, seeing him dance gave me almost as much +pleasure as talking with him. He has this air of +having danced millions of Germans, and is grace and +elegance incarnate. Just at the end of the party, he +asked me for a turn, and we took three long ones. +I never enjoyed dancing so much. He manages to annihilate +his legs entirely, and his arm, though strong, +is so light that you feel yourself borne along like a +bubble, and are only conscious that you are sustained +and guided. He inspired me so that I danced really +well, but when he complimented me, I basely refrained +from letting him know it was all owing to<a name="page_189" id="page_189"></a> +him! By a funny coincidence he is the son of that +elegant Mrs. P. who was on the steamer with me, and +his father is very prominent in politics. I remember +perfectly the pride with which Mrs. P. spoke to me +of this son, and how slightly interested I was. He +accompanied her to the steamer, and in fact the first +time I saw her was when Mr. T., who was standing by +me on the deck, said, "That was a <i>mother's</i> kiss," as +she rapturously embraced him on taking leave. I +didn't notice Mr. P. at all, though he says he remembers +me perfectly standing there. He is going, or +has gone, to Russia, and from there he will rejoin his +family in Paris. That is the worst of being abroad. +Charming people pass over your path like comets and +disappear never to be seen again.</p> + +<p>By the way, I now feel equal to anything in the +shape of a German dance. Perhaps that may seem +to you a trifling statement; but little do you know +on the subject if it does. If you've ever read "Fitz +Boodle's Confessions," you will remember that he represents +the German dancing as a thing fearful and +wonderful to the inexperienced, and how the match +between him and Dorothea was broken off by his falling +with her during the waltz, and rolling over and +over. Here <i>everybody</i> dances, old and young, and +you'll see fat old married ladies waddle off with their +gray and spindle-shanked husbands. Declining doesn't +help you in the least, and you are liable to be whisked +off without notice by some old fellow who revolves +with you like lightning on the tips of his toes, his +coat-tails flying at an angle of considerably <i>more</i> than<a name="page_190" id="page_190"></a> +forty-five degrees. Reversing is unknown, and consequently +you see the room go spinning round with you.</p> + +<p>I always thought, though, that if one <i>could</i> take +their steps, it might be pretty good fun. So, after a +pause of three years, I finally concluded this winter +to go to some German balls and try it again. The +first one I attended was an artists' ball. There was +first a little concert (at which I played), then a supper +at ten o'clock, and then the dancing began. The +dancing cards were handed round at supper, and my +various acquaintances came up to ask me for different +dances. The first one asked me for the Polonaise. +"Delighted!" said I;—not that I had the remotest +idea what a "polonaise" was, but I was determined not +to flinch. The second engaged me for the "Quadrille +à la Cour," and the third for the "Rheinlaender," etc., +etc. I assented to everything with outward alacrity, +but with some inward trepidation, for I thought it +rather a bold stroke to get up at a large ball and +attempt to dance a string of things I had never heard +of! However, I was in luck. The Polonaise turned +out to be merely walking, but in different figures, and +this, before the conclusion of it, makes you continually +change partners until you have promenaded and +spoken with every one of the opposite sex in the room. +This is to get the whole party acquainted. When you +finally get back to your own partner, it breaks up with +a waltz, and so ends.</p> + +<p>My partner was a young artist, half painter, half +musician, and a very intelligent and in fact charming +talker. Like most artists, his dress was rather at<a name="page_191" id="page_191"></a> +sixes and sevens. He had on a swallow-tailed coat, +but it did not fit him, so I conclude it was borrowed +or hired for the occasion. It was so wide, and so +long, that when I saw him dancing with some one +else, I thought I must have made a laughable figure +with him, for he was small into the bargain. However, +he had that sunny, happy-go-lucky way about +him that all artists have when they're in good humour, +and he was a capital dancer. When I came back to +him at the end of the Polonaise I started off with a +mental "Now for it," for the waltz was the thing I +was most afraid of; but to my surprise, I got on most +beautifully. Emboldened by success, I went on recklessly. +"Rheinlaender" turned out to be the schottisch, +and "Quadrille à la Cour" the lancers, so I was +all right. They had to be danced in the German +sense of the word, of course, but with courage it is +possible to do it. Since this ball I have been to two +others, and am now pronounced by the gentlemen to +be a finished dancer. I don't know how I learned, but +it seemed to come to me with a sudden inspiration.<a name="page_192" id="page_192"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">A German Professor. Sherwood. The Baroness von S.<br /> +Von Bülow. A German Party. Joachim.<br /> +The Baroness at Home.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>February 25, 1873</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>At Mr. P.'s we had a charming dinner the other day, +which was as sociable as possible, though we sat thirteen +at table. Think what an oversight! I believe +though, that I was the only one who perceived it. I sat +next to a German professor, who is said to speak sixty-four +languages! He had a little compact head, which +looked as if it were stuffed and crammed to the utmost. +I reflected a long time which of his sixty-four languages +I should start him on, but finally concluded that +as I spoke English with tolerable fluency we would +confine ourselves to that! He was perfectly delightful +to talk to, as all these German <i>savans</i> are, and I got +a lot of new ideas from him. He had been writing +a pamphlet on the subject of love, as considered in +various ancient and modern languages, and in it +he proves that the passion of love used to be quite +a different thing from what it is now. All this ideality +of sentiment is entirely modern.</p> + +<p>My friend Miss B. is playing exquisitely now, and +Sherwood is going ahead like a young giant. To-day +Kullak said that Sherwood played Beethoven's E flat +major concerto (the hardest of all Beethoven's concertos<a name="page_193" id="page_193"></a>) +with a perfection that he had rarely heard +equalled. So much for being a genius, for he is still +under twenty, and has only been abroad a year or two. +But he studied with our best American master, William +Mason, and played like an artist before he came. +But, then, Sherwood has one enormous advantage that +no master on earth can bestow, and that is, perfect confidence +in himself. There's nothing like having faith +in yourself, and I believe <i>that</i> is the kind of faith that +"moves mountains."</p> + +<p>At Mr. Bancroft's grand party for Washington's birthday, +last Friday, he presented me to the Baroness von +S., but without telling her that I was the person who +wrote that letter about her and Wilhelmj that M. published +without my knowledge in <i>Dwight's Journal</i>. +She was as exquisite as I thought she would be, and is +the most bewitching creature! She is just such a +woman as Balzac describes—like Honorine, for instance. +She has "<i>l'oeil plein de feu</i>," etc., and is grace +and sentiment personified.</p> + +<p>She was dressed in white silk, cut square neck and +trimmed with a lot of little box-plaited ruffles round +the bottom. Round her throat was a black velvet +ribbon, with a necklace of magnificent pearls fastened +to it in festoons and a diamond pendant in the middle. +She greeted me with a ceremonious bow, and began +the conversation by complimenting me on an accompaniment +I had been playing. I told her I was studying +music here, and that I had been in Tausig's conservatory +a year. As soon as I mentioned him we got +on delightfully, for she was his favourite pupil, and<a name="page_194" id="page_194"></a> +we talked a good deal about him and Bülow. She +said she had heard Tausig play everything he ever +learned, she thought, and that only a fortnight before +his death, he was at her house and played Chopin's +first Sonata. The last movement comes after the +well-known Funeral March (which forms the Adagio) +and is very peculiar. It is a continual running movement +with both hands in unison, and it is played all +muffled, and with the soft pedal. Kullak thinks that +Chopin meant to express that after the grave all is +dust and ashes, but the Baroness said that Tausig +thought Chopin meant to represent by it the ghost of +the departed wandering about. On this occasion, +when Tausig had finished playing it, he turned and +said to her, "That seems to me like the wind blowing +over my grave." A fortnight later he was dead! I +asked her if it were not dreadful that such an artist +should have died so young. The most pained look +came into her beautiful eyes, and she said, "I have +<i>never</i> been able to reconcile myself to it."</p> + +<p>The conversation continued in the most charming +manner until von Moltke came up to speak to her on +one side and Mr. Bancroft on the other offered his +arm to lead her into the supper-room. "Did you tell +her?" whispered Mr. Bancroft. "No; how could I?" +said I. "<i>You</i> ought to tell her." So I imagine +he did tell her, as they went into supper, that I was +the young lady who had described her in the paper. +I did not have a chance to approach her again until +just as I was going home. She was standing in the +door-way of an ante-room with Mr. Bancroft, wrapped<a name="page_195" id="page_195"></a> +in her opera cloak and waiting for her carriage to be +announced. I bade Mr. Bancroft good-night, and as I +passed her she put out her hand and said to me with +a meaning look, in her little hesitating English, "I +am so happy to have met you." I told her I owed her +an apology, which I hoped to make another time. +"Oh, no," said she, smilingly, "I am very thankful."—I +suppose she meant "very much flattered," or +something of that kind.</p> + +<p>I heard two tremendous concerts of Bülow's lately. +Oh, I do hope you'll hear him some day! He is a +colossal artist. I never heard a pianist I liked so well. +He has such perfect mastery, and yet such comprehension +and such sympathy. Among other things, he +played Beethoven's last Sonata. Such a magnificent +one as it is! I liked it better than the Appassionata.</p> + +<p>The other night I went to a party at a General von +der G.'s. It was a "dreadfully" elegant set of people—all +countesses, Vons and generals' wives. Stiff, +oh, <i>how</i> stiff! I felt as if the ladies did me a personal +favor every time they spoke to me. They +were very handsomely dressed, and wore their family +jewels. There was a great deal of music, and +a certain old Herr von K. sat on a sofa and nodded +his head <i>à la</i> connoisseur, while the officers +stood round and scarcely dared to wink. The formality +did not abate till we adjourned to the supper-room, +when, as is always the case in German +parties, everybody's tongue suddenly became loosed.—Germans +are the happiest people <i>at</i> supper, and the +most wretched before it, that you ever saw. Their<a name="page_196" id="page_196"></a> +parties are <i>always</i> "just so." So many hours of propriety +beforehand,—the ladies all by themselves round +a centre-table in one room, the young girls discreetly +sandwiched in between with their embroidery, and +talking on the most limited subjects in the most "papa, +potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism" manner—and the +men in the other room playing cards. On this occasion, +when we went into supper, there was one large +central table covered with the feast, and then there +were little tables standing about, whither you could +retire with your prey when you had once secured it. +I got something, and betook myself to a table in the +corner, whither a young artist, also Miss B. and an +officer, the son of the celebrated General von W., who +won the battle of something, speedily followed me. +The artist, Herr Meyer, sat opposite me, and I began to +jabber with him, unmindful of the officer, as I had previously +tried him on every subject in the known world +without being able to extract a reply. We gradually collected +a miscellaneous array of plates full of things, +when I dropped one of my spoons on the floor. I +picked it up, laid it aside, and began eating out of one +of my other plates. Presently the officer, who had +been glaring at me all the while out of his uniform, +rose solemnly and went to the centre-table and returned. +Suddenly I became aware, by my light being +obscured, that he was standing opposite me on the other +side of the table. I glanced up, and remarked that +he had a spoon in his thumb and finger. As he did +not offer it, however, it did not occur to me that it +was for me, so I went on eating. After a minute I<a name="page_197" id="page_197"></a> +looked up again, and he was still standing as if he +were pointing a gun, the spoon between thumb and +finger. At last it dawned upon me that he had brought +it for me, so I took it out of his hand and thanked +him, whereupon he resumed his seat. I was so overcome +by this unheard-of act of gallantry on the part +of an aristocrat! and an officer!! that I felt I must +say something worthy of the occasion. So after a few +minutes I remarked to him, "Everything tastes very +sweet out of <i>this</i> spoon!"—Total silence and impassibility +of countenance on his part.—Miss B., who was +sitting opposite, remarked mischievously, "That was +entirely lost, my dear," and I was so depressed by my +failure that I subsided and did not try to kindle him +again.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>April 14, 1873</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Colonel B. told me some weeks ago, that Kullak had +told him I was ready for the concert room, and that he +would like to have me play at court. If this is his real +opinion <i>I</i> have no evidence of it, for he knows I am +anxious to play in concert before I leave Germany, and +yet he does nothing whatever to bring me forward. It +is very discouraging. In this conservatory there is no +stimulus whatever. One might as well be a machine.</p> + +<p>I propose to go to Weimar the last of this week. It +seems very strange that I shall actually know Liszt at +last, after hearing of him so many years. I am wild to +see him! They say everything depends upon the humour +he happens to be in when you come to him. I<a name="page_198" id="page_198"></a> +hope I shall hit upon one of his indulgent moments. +Every one says he gives no lessons. But I hope at least +to play to him a few times, and what is more important, +to hear <i>him</i> play repeatedly. Happy the pianist who +can catch even a faint reflection of his wonderful style!</p> + +<p>Not long ago Mr. Bancroft invited me to drive out +to Tegel, Humboldt's country-seat, near here, with the +Joachims, and so I had a three hours conversation with +<i>that</i> idol! He is the most modest, unpretending man +possible. To hear him talk you wouldn't suppose he +could play at all. I've always said to myself that if anything +would be heaven, it would be to play a sonata with +Joachim, but have supposed such a thing to be unattainable—these +master-artists are so proud and unapproachable. +But I think now it might not have been so difficult +after all, he is so lovely. Joachim was very quiet during +the first part of the excursion, and I couldn't think how +I could get him to talk. At last I mentioned Wagner, +whom I knew he hated. His eyes kindled, and he roused +up, and after that was animated and interesting all the +rest of the time! He said that "Wagner was under the +delusion that he was the only man in the world that +understood Beethoven; but it happened there <i>were</i> other +people who could comprehend Beethoven as well as he,"—and +indeed, it is difficult to conceive of any one understanding +Beethoven any better than Joachim.</p> + +<p>Joachim is quite as noble and generous to poor artists +as Liszt is, and constantly teaches them for nothing. He +has the greatest enthusiasm for his class in the Hoch +Schule, and I shouldn't think that any one who wishes +to study the violin would <i>think</i> of going any where else.<a name="page_199" id="page_199"></a> +They say that Joachim possesses beautiful social qualities, +also, and has the faculty of entertaining in his own +house charmingly. He brings out what there is in every +one without apparently saying anything himself.</p> + +<p>The Baroness von S. had seemed so cordial and +friendly at Mr. Bancroft's on account of the letter you +had published in <i>Dwight's Journal of Music</i>, that I +finally made up my mind to the daring act of calling on +her in order to ask her for a letter of introduction to +Liszt. She lives in a palace belonging to the Empress. +There is a deep court in front of it, with lions on the +gateway. Before the door stood a soldier on guard. As +I approached, one of the Gardes du Corps (the Crown +Prince's regiment) emerged from the entrance. He was +dressed all in white and silver, with big top boots, and +his helmet surmounted by a silver eagle. He was an +officer, and of course all the officers in this regiment +belong to the flower of the nobility. I was rather awed +by his imposing appearance, and advanced timidly to the +doors, which were of glass, and pulled the bell. A tall +phantom in livery appeared, as if by magic, and signed +to me to ascend the grand staircase. The walls of it +were all covered with pictures. I went up, and was +received by another tall phantom in livery. I asked him +"if the Frau Excellency was to be spoken." He took +my card, and discreetly said, "he would see," at the same +time ushering me into an immense ball-room, where he +requested me to be seated. It was furnished in crimson +satin, there were myriads of mirrors, and the floor was +waxed. I took refuge in a corner of it, feeling very small +indeed. Those few minutes of waiting were extremely<a name="page_200" id="page_200"></a> +uncomfortable, for I didn't know what she would say to +my request, as I had only seen her that one time at Mr. +Bancroft's, and was not sure that she would not regard +my coming as a liberty. People are so severe in their +ideas here.</p> + +<p>At last the servant returned and said she would receive +me, and led the way across the ball-room to a door +which he opened for me to enter. I found myself in a +large, high room, also furnished in crimson, and in the +centre of which stood two pianos nestled lovingly +together. The Baroness was not there, however, and I +saw what seemed to be an endless succession of rooms +opening one out of the other, the doors always opposite +each other. I concluded to "go on till I stopped," +and after traversing three or four, I at last heard a +faint murmur of voices, and entered what I suppose is +her <i>boudoir</i>. There my divinity was seated in a little +crimson satin sofa, talking to an old fellow who sat on +a chair near her, whom she introduced as Herr Professor +Somebody. He had a small, well-stuffed head, +and a pale, observant eye that seemed to say, "I've +looked into everything"—and I should think it <i>had</i> +by the way he conversed.</p> + +<p>The Baroness was attired in an olive-coloured silk, +short, and fashionably made. She was leaning forward +as she talked, and toying with a silver-sheathed +dagger which she took from a table loaded with costly +trifles next her. She rose as I came in, and greeted +me very cordially, and asked me to sit down on the +sofa by her. I explained to her my errand, and she immediately +said she would give me a letter with the greatest<a name="page_201" id="page_201"></a> +pleasure. We had a very charming conversation +about artists in general, and Liszt in particular, in +which the little professor took a leading part. He +showed himself the connoisseur he looked, and gradually +diverged from the art of music to that of speaking +and reading, which he said was the most difficult +of all the arts, because the tone was not there, but had +to be made. He said he had never heard a perfect +speaker or reader in his life. He descanted at great +length upon the art of speaking, and finally, when he +paused, the Baroness took my hand and said, "Where +do you live?" I gave her my address, and she said she +would send me the letter. I then rose to go, and she assured +me again she would say all she could to dispose +Liszt favourably towards me. I thanked her, and said +good-bye. She waited till I was nearly half across +the next room, and then she called after me, "I'll say +lots of pretty things about you!" That was a real +little piece of coquetry on her part, and she knew that +it would take me down! She looked so sweet when +she said it, standing and smiling there in the middle +of the floor, the door-way making a frame for her. A +few days afterward I met her in the street, and she +told me she had enjoined it upon Liszt to be amiable +to me, "but," she added, with a mischievous laugh, +"I didn't tell him you wrote so well for the papers." +Oh, she is too fascinating for anything!—She seems +just to float on the top of the wave and never to think. +Such exquisite perception and intelligence, and yet +lightness!</p> + +<p>The last excitement in Berlin was over the wedding<a name="page_202" id="page_202"></a> +of Prince Albrecht (the son of the one whose funeral +I saw) with the Princess of Altenburg. When she +arrived she made a regular entry into the city in a +coach all gold and glass, drawn by eight superb +plumed horses. A band of music went before her, +and she had an escort all in grand equipages. As she +sat on the back seat with the Crown Princess, magnificently +dressed, and bowing from side to side, you +rubbed your eyes and thought you saw Cinderella!<a name="page_203" id="page_203"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="WITH_LISZT" id="WITH_LISZT"></a>WITH LISZT.</h2> + +<p><a name="page_204" id="page_204"></a></p> + +<p><a name="page_205" id="page_205"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Arrives in Weimar. Liszt at the Theatre. At a Party.<br /> +At his own House.</p></div> + +<p class="r">W<small>EIMAR</small>, <i>May 1, 1873</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Last night I arrived in Weimar, and this evening I +have been to the theatre, which is very cheap here, and +the first person I saw, sitting in a box opposite, was +Liszt, from whom, as you know, I am bent on getting +lessons, though it will be a difficult thing I fear, as I +am told that Weimar is overcrowded with people who +are on the same errand. I recognized Liszt from his +portrait, and it entertained and interested me very +much to observe him. He was making himself agreeable +to three ladies, one of whom was very pretty. He +sat with his back to the stage, not paying the least attention, +apparently, to the play, for he kept talking all +the while himself, and yet no point of it escaped him, +as I could tell by his expression and gestures.</p> + +<p>Liszt is the most interesting and striking looking +man imaginable. Tall and slight, with deep-set eyes, +shaggy eyebrows, and long iron-gray hair, which he +wears parted in the middle. His mouth turns up at +the corners, which gives him a most crafty and Mephistophelean +expression when he smiles, and his whole +appearance and manner have a sort of Jesuitical elegance +and ease. His hands are very narrow, with long +and slender fingers that look as if they had twice as<a name="page_206" id="page_206"></a> +many joints as other people's. They are so flexible +and supple that it makes you nervous to look at +them. Anything like the polish of his manner I never +saw. When he got up to leave the box, for instance, +after his adieux to the ladies, he laid his hand on his +heart and made his final bow,—not with affectation, +or in mere gallantry, but with a quiet courtliness which +made you feel that no other way of bowing to a lady +was right or proper. It was most characteristic.</p> + +<p>But the most extraordinary thing about Liszt is his +wonderful variety of expression and play of feature. +One moment his face will look dreamy, shadowy, tragic. +The next he will be insinuating, amiable, ironical, sardonic; +but always the same captivating grace of manner. +He is a perfect study. I cannot imagine how +he must look when he is playing. He is all spirit, but +half the time, at least, a mocking spirit, I should say. +I have heard the most remarkable stories about him +already. All Weimar adores him, and people say that +women still go perfectly crazy over him. When he +walks out he bows to everybody just like a King! The +Grand Duke has presented him with a house beautifully +situated on the park, and here he lives elegantly, +free of expense, whenever he chooses to come to it.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">W<small>EIMAR</small>, <i>May 7, 1873</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>There isn't a piano to be had in Weimar for love or +money, as there is no manufactory, and the few there +were to be disposed of were snatched up before I got +here. So I have lost an entire week in hunting one<a name="page_207" id="page_207"></a> +up, and was obliged to go first to Erfurt and finally +to Leipsic, before I could find one—and even that was +sent over as a favour after much coaxing and persuasion. +I felt so happy when I fairly saw it in my room! +As if I had taken a city! However, I met Liszt two +evenings ago at a little tea-party given by a friend and +<i>protégée</i> of his to as many of his scholars as have arrived, +I being asked with the rest. Liszt promised to +come late. We only numbered seven. There were +three young men and four young ladies, of whom three, +including myself, were Americans. Five of the number +had studied with Liszt before, and the young men +are artists already before the public.</p> + +<p>To fill up the time till Liszt came, our hostess made +us play, one after the other, beginning with the latest +arrival. After we had each "exhibited," little +tables were brought in and supper served. We +were in the midst of it, and having a merry time, when +the door suddenly opened and Liszt appeared. We all +rose to our feet, and he shook hands with everybody +without waiting to be introduced. Liszt looks as if +he had been through everything, and has a face <i>seamed</i> +with experience. He is rather tall and narrow, and +wears a long abbé's coat reaching nearly down to his +feet. He made me think of an old time magician +more than anything, and I felt that with a touch of +his wand he could transform us all. After he had +finished his greetings, he passed into the next room +and sat down. The young men gathered round him +and offered him a cigar, which he accepted and began +to smoke. We others continued our nonsense where<a name="page_208" id="page_208"></a> +we were, and I suppose Liszt overheard some of our +brilliant conversation, for he asked who we were, I +think, and presently the lady of the house came out +after Miss W. and me, the two American strangers, to +take us in and present us to him.</p> + +<p>After the preliminary greetings we had some little +talk. He asked me if I had been to Sophie Menter's +concert in Berlin the other day. I said yes. He +remarked that Miss Menter was a great favourite of +his, and that the lady from whom I had brought a letter +to him had done a good deal for her. I asked him +if Sophie Menter were a pupil of his. He said no, he +could not take the credit of her artistic success to +himself. I heard afterwards that he really had done +ever so much for her, but he won't have it said that +he teaches! After he had finished his cigar, Liszt got +up and said, "America is now to have the floor," and +requested Miss W. to play for him. This was a dreadful +ordeal for us new arrivals, for we had not expected +to be called upon. I began to quake inwardly, for I +had been without a piano for nearly a week, and was +not at all prepared to play to him, while Miss W. had +been up since five o'clock in the morning, and had +travelled all day. However, there was no getting off. +A request from Liszt is a command, and Miss W. sat +down, and acquitted herself as well as could have been +expected under the circumstances. Liszt waved his +hand and nodded his head from time to time, and +seemed pleased, I thought. He then called upon Leitert, +who played a composition of Liszt's own most +beautifully. Liszt commended him and patted him<a name="page_209" id="page_209"></a> +on the back. As soon as Leitert had finished, I slipped +off into the back room, hoping Liszt would forget all +about me, but he followed me almost immediately, +like a cat with a mouse, took both my hands in his, +and said in the most winning way imaginable, "<i>Mademoiselle, +vous jouerez quelque-chose, n'est-ce-pas?</i>" +I can't give you any idea of his <i>persuasiveness</i>, when +he chooses. It is enough to decoy you into anything. +It was such a desperate moment that I became reckless, +and without even telling him that I was out of +practice and not prepared to play, I sat down and +plunged into the A flat major Ballade of Chopin, as if +I were possessed. The piano had a splendid touch, +luckily. Liszt kept calling out "Bravo" every minute +or two, to encourage me, and somehow, I got +through. When I had finished, he clapped his hands +and said, "Bravely played." He asked with whom I +had studied, and made one or two little criticisms. I +hoped he would shove me aside and play it himself, +but he didn't.</p> + +<p>Liszt is just like a monarch, and no one dares speak to +him until he addresses one first, which I think no fun. +He did not play to us at all, except when some one +asked him if he had heard R. play that afternoon. +R. is a young organist from Leipsic, who telegraphed +to Liszt to ask him if he might come over and play to +him on the organ. Liszt, with his usual amiability, +answered that he might. "Oh," said Liszt, with an +indescribably comic look, "he improvised for me a +whole half-hour in this style,"—and then he got up +and went to the piano, and without sitting down he<a name="page_210" id="page_210"></a> +played some ridiculous chords in the middle of the key-board, +and then little trills and turns high up in the +treble, which made us all burst out laughing. Shortly +after I had played I took my leave. Liszt had gone +into the other room to smoke, and I didn't care to follow +him, as I saw that he was tired, and had no intention +of playing to us. Our hostess told Miss W. and +me to "slip out so that he would not perceive it." +Yesterday Miss W. went to see him, and he asked her +if she knew that Miss "Fy," and told her to tell me to +come to him. So I shall present myself to-morrow, +though I don't know how the lion will act when I +beard him in his den.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">W<small>EIMAR</small>, <i>May 21, 1873</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Liszt is so <i>besieged</i> by people and so tormented with +applications, that I fear I should only have been sent +away if I had come without the Baroness von S.'s letter +of introduction, for he admires her extremely, and +I judge that she has much influence with him. He +says "people fly in his face by dozens," and seem to +think he is "only there to give lessons." He gives <i>no</i> +paid lessons whatever, as he is much too grand for +that, but if one has talent enough, or pleases him, he +lets one come to him and play to him. I go to him +every other day, but I don't play more than twice a +week, as I cannot prepare so much, but I listen to the +others. Up to this point there have been only four in +the class besides myself, and I am the only new one. +From four to six P. M. is the time when he receives<a name="page_211" id="page_211"></a> +his scholars. The first time I went I did not play to +him, but listened to the rest. Urspruch and Leitert, +the two young men whom I met the other night, have +studied with Liszt a long time, and both play superbly. +Fräulein Schultz and Miss Gaul (of Baltimore), are +also most gifted creatures.</p> + +<p>As I entered Liszt's salon, Urspruch was performing +Schumann's Symphonic Studies—an immense +composition, and one that it took at least half an +hour to get through. He played so splendidly that +my heart sank down into the very depths. I thought +I should never get on <i>there</i>! Liszt came forward and +greeted me in a very friendly manner as I entered. He +was in very good humour that day, and made some +little witticisms. Urspruch asked him what title he +should give to a piece he was composing. "<i>Per aspera +ad astra</i>," said Liszt. This was such a good hit that +I began to laugh, and he seemed to enjoy my appreciation +of his little sarcasm. I did not play that time, as +my piano had only just come, and I was not prepared +to do so, but I went home and practiced tremendously +for several days on Chopin's B minor sonata. It is +a great composition, and one of his last works. When +I thought I could play it, I went to Liszt, though with +a trembling heart. I cannot tell you what it has cost +me every time I have ascended his stairs. I can +scarcely summon up courage to go there, and generally +stand on the steps awhile before I can make up my +mind to open the door and go in!</p> + +<p>This day it was particularly trying, as it was really +my first serious performance before him, and he speaks<a name="page_212" id="page_212"></a> +so very indistinctly that I feared I shouldn't understand +his corrections, and that he would get out of +patience with me, for he cannot bear to explain. I +think he hates the trouble of speaking German, for +he mutters his words and does not half finish his sentences. +Yesterday when I was there he spoke to me +in French all the time, and to the others in German,—one +of his funny whims, I suppose.</p> + +<p>Well, on this day the artists Leitert and Urspruch, +and the young composer Metzdorf, who is always hanging +about Liszt, were in the room when I came. They +had probably been playing. At first Liszt took no +notice of me beyond a greeting, till Metzdorf said to +him, "Herr Doctor, Miss Fay has brought a sonata." +"Ah, well, let us hear it," said Liszt. Just then he left +the room for a minute, and I told the three gentlemen +that they ought to go away and let me play to Liszt +alone, for I felt nervous about playing before them. +They all laughed at me and said they would not budge +an inch. When Liszt came back they said to him, +"Only think, Herr Doctor, Miss Fay proposes to send +us all home." I said I could not play before such +great artists. "Oh, that is healthy for you," said Liszt, +with a smile, and added, "you have a very choice audience, +now." I don't know whether he appreciated +how nervous I was, but instead of walking up and +down the room as he often does, he sat down by me +like any other teacher, and heard me play the first +movement. It was frightfully hard, but I had studied +it so much that I managed to get through with it +pretty successfully. Nothing could exceed Liszt's<a name="page_213" id="page_213"></a> +amiability, or the trouble he gave himself, and instead +of frightening me, he inspired me. Never was there +such a delightful teacher! and he is the first sympathetic +one I've had. You feel so <i>free</i> with him, and +he develops the very spirit of music in you. He doesn't +keep nagging at you all the time, but he leaves you +your own conception. Now and then he will make a +criticism, or play a passage, and with a few words give +you enough to think of all the rest of your life. There +is a delicate <i>point</i> to everything he says, as subtle as +he is himself. He doesn't tell you anything about the +technique. That you must work out for yourself. +When I had finished the first movement of the sonata, +Liszt, as he always does, said "Bravo!" Taking my +seat, he made some little criticisms, and then told me +to go on and play the rest of it.</p> + +<p>Now, I only half knew the other movements, for the +first one was so extremely difficult that it cost me all +the labour I could give to prepare that. But playing +to Liszt reminds me of trying to feed the elephant in +the Zoological Garden with lumps of sugar. He disposes +of whole movements as if they were nothing, and +stretches out gravely for more! One of my fingers fortunately +began to bleed, for I had practiced the skin off, +and that gave me a good excuse for stopping. Whether +he was pleased at this proof of industry, I know not; +but after looking at my finger and saying, "Oh!" very +compassionately, he sat down and played the whole +three last movements himself. That was a great deal, +and showed off all his powers. It was the first time I +had heard him, and I don't know which was the most<a name="page_214" id="page_214"></a> +extraordinary,—the Scherzo, with its wonderful lightness +and swiftness, the Adagio with its depth and +pathos, or the last movement, where the whole key-board +seemed to "<i>donnern und blitzen</i> (thunder and +lighten)." There is such a vividness about everything +he plays that it does not seem as if it were mere music +you were listening to, but it is as if he had called up a +real, living <i>form</i>, and you saw it breathing before your +face and eyes. It gives <i>me</i> almost a ghostly feeling to +hear him, and it seems as if the air were peopled with +spirits. Oh, he is a perfect wizard! It is as interesting +to see him as it is to hear him, for his face changes +with every modulation of the piece, and he looks exactly +as he is playing. He has one element that is +most captivating, and that is, a sort of delicate and +fitful mirth that keeps peering out at you here and +there! It is most peculiar, and when he plays that way, +the most bewitching little expression comes over his +face. It seems as if a little spirit of joy were playing +hide and go seek with you.</p> + +<p>On Friday Liszt came and paid me a visit, and even +played a little on my piano.—Only think what an honour! +At the same time he told me to come to him +that afternoon and play to him, and invited me also to a +matinee he was going to give on Sunday for some +countess of distinction who was here for a few days. +None of the other scholars were asked, and when I entered +the room there were only three persons in it beside +Liszt. One was the Grand Duke himself, the +other was the Countess von M. (born a Russian Princess), +and the third was a Russian minister's wife.<a name="page_215" id="page_215"></a> +They were all four standing in a little knot, speaking +in French together. I had no idea who they were, as +the Grand Duke was in morning costume, and had no +star or decoration to distinguish him. I saw at a glance, +however, that they were all swells, and so I didn't speak +to any of them, luckily, though it was an even chance +that I had not said something to avoid the awkwardness +of standing there like a post, for I had been told +beforehand that Liszt never introduced people to each +other. Liszt greeted me in a very friendly manner, +and introduced me to the countess, but she was so dreadfully +set up that it was impossible to get more than a +few icy words out of her. I was thankful enough +when more people arrived, so that I could retire to a +corner and sit down without being observed, for it was +a very uncomfortable situation to be standing, a +stranger, close to four fashionables and not dare to +speak to <i>any</i> of them because they did not address me.</p> + +<p>After the company was all assembled, it numbered +eighteen persons, nearly all of whom were titled. I +was the only unimportant one in it. Liszt was so +sweet. He kept coming over to where I sat and talking +to me, and promised me a ticket for a private concert +where only his compositions were to be performed. +He seemed determined to make me feel at home. He +played five times, but no <i>great</i> work, which was a disappointment +to me, particularly as the last three times +he played duetts with a leading Weimar artist named +Lassen, who was present. He made me come and turn +the leaves. Gracious! how he <i>does</i> read! It is very +difficult to turn for him, for he reads ever so far ahead<a name="page_216" id="page_216"></a> +of what he is playing, and takes in fully five bars at a +glance, so you have to guess about where you <i>think</i> he +would like to have the page over. Once I turned it +too late, and once too early, and he snatched it out of +my hand and whirled it back.—Not quite the situation +for timorous me, was it?</p> + +<p>May 21.—To-day being my birthday, I thought +I must go to Liszt by way of celebration. I +wasn't really ready to play to him, but I took his second +Ballade with me, and thought I'd ask him some +questions about some hard places in it. He insisted +upon my playing it. When we came in he looked +indisposed and nervous, and there happened to be a +good many artists there. We always lay our notes +on the table, and he takes them, looks them over, and +calls out what he'll have played. He remarked this +piece and called out "<i>Wer spielt diese grosse mächtige +Ballade von mir?</i> (Who plays this great and mighty +ballad of mine?)" I felt as if he had asked "Who +killed Cock Robin?" and as if I were the one who had +done it, only I did not feel like "owning up" to it quite +so glibly as the sparrow had, for Liszt seemed to be in +very bad humour, and had roughed the one who had +played before me. I finally mustered up my courage +and said "<i>Ich</i>," but told him I did not know it perfectly +yet. He said, "No matter; play it." So I sat +down, expecting he would take my head off, but, +strange to say, he seemed to be delighted with my +playing, and said that I had "quite touched him." +Think of that from Liszt, and when I was playing his +own composition! When I went out he accompanied<a name="page_217" id="page_217"></a> +me to the door, took my hand in both of his and said, +"To-day you've covered yourself with glory!" I told +him I had only <i>begun</i> it, and I hoped he would let me +play it again when I knew it better. "What," said +he, "I must pay you a still greater compliment, must +I?" "Of course," said I. "<i>Il faut vouz gâter?</i>" "Oui," +said I. He laughed.<a name="page_218" id="page_218"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Liszt's Drawing-room. An Artist's Walking Party. Liszt's<br /> +Teaching.</p></div> + +<p class="r">W<small>EIMAR</small>, <i>May 29, 1873</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I am having the most heavenly time in Weimar, +studying with Liszt, and sometimes I can scarcely realize +that I am at that summit of my ambition, to be +<i>his</i> pupil! It was the Baroness von S.'s letter that +secured it for me, I am sure. He is so overrun with +people, that I think it is a wonder he is civil to +anybody, but he is the most amiable man I ever knew, +though he <i>can</i> be dreadful, too, when he chooses, and +he understands how to put people outside his door +in as short a space of time as it can be done. I go to +him three times a week. At home Liszt doesn't wear +his long abbé's coat, but a short one, in which he +looks much more artistic. His figure is remarkably +slight, but his head is most imposing.—It is <i>so</i> delicious +in that room of his! It was all furnished and +put in order for him by the Grand Duchess herself. +The walls are pale gray, with a gilded border running +round the room, or rather two rooms, which are divided, +but not separated, by crimson curtains. The furniture +is crimson, and everything is so <i>comfortable</i>—such +a contrast to German bareness and stiffness generally. +A splendid grand piano stands in one window (he +receives a new one every year). The other window is<a name="page_219" id="page_219"></a> +always wide open, and looks out on the park. There +is a dove-cote just opposite the window, and the doves +promenade up and down on the roof of it, and fly +about, and sometimes whirr down on the sill itself. +That pleases Liszt. His writing-table is beautifully +fitted up with things that all match. Everything is +in bronze—ink-stand, paper-weight, match-box, etc., +and there is always a lighted candle standing on it by +which he and the gentlemen can light their cigars. +There is a carpet on the floor, a rarity in Germany, +and Liszt generally walks about, and smokes, and mutters +(he can never be said to <i>talk</i>), and calls upon one +or other of us to play. From time to time he will sit +down and play himself where a passage does not suit +him, and when he is in good spirits he makes little +jests all the time. His playing was a complete revelation +to me, and has given me an entirely new insight +into music. You cannot conceive, without hearing +him, how poetic he is, or the thousand <i>nuances</i> that he +can throw into the simplest thing, and he is equally +great on all sides. From the zephyr to the tempest, +the whole scale is equally at his command.</p> + +<p>But Liszt is not at all like a master, and cannot be +treated like one. He is a monarch, and when he +extends his royal sceptre you can sit down and play to +him. You never can ask him to play anything for +you, no matter how much you're dying to hear it. If +he is in the mood he will play, if not, you must content +yourself with a few remarks. You cannot even +offer to play yourself. You lay your notes on the table, +so he can see that you <i>want</i> to play, and sit down. He<a name="page_220" id="page_220"></a> +takes a turn up and down the room, looks at the music, +and if the piece interests him, he will call upon you. +We bring the same piece to him but once, and but once +play it through.</p> + +<p>Yesterday I had prepared for him his <i>Au Bord +d'une Source</i>. I was nervous and played badly. He +was not to be put out, however, but acted as if he +thought I had played charmingly, and then he sat +down and played the whole piece himself, oh, <i>so</i> exquisitely! +It made me feel like a wood-chopper. The +notes just seemed to ripple off his fingers' ends with +scarce any perceptible motion. As he neared the +close I remarked that that funny little expression came +over his face which he always has when he means to +surprise you, and he suddenly took an unexpected +chord and extemporized a poetical little end, quite +different from the written one.—Do you wonder that +people go distracted over him?</p> + +<p>Weimar is a lovely little place, and there are most +beautiful walks all about. Ascension being a holiday +here, all we pianists made up a walking party out to +Tiefurt, about two miles distant. We went in the +afternoon and returned in the evening. The walk lay +through the woods, and was perfectly exquisite the +whole way. As we came back in the evening the nightingales +were singing, and I could not help wishing that +P. were there to hear them, as he has such a passion +for birds. There are cuckoos here, too, and you hear +them calling "cuckoo, cuckoo." Metzdorf and I +danced on the hard road, to the edification of all the +others. In Tiefurt we partook of a magnificent collation<a name="page_221" id="page_221"></a> +consisting of a mug of beer, brown bread and +sausage! Some of the party preferred coffee, among +whom was Metzdorf, who made us laugh by sticking +the coffee-pot into his inside coat pocket as soon as +he had poured out his first cup, in order to make sure +that the others didn't take more than their share; +he would coolly take it out, help himself, and put +it back again. The servant who waited got frightened, +and thought he was going to steal it. Afterwards +when we were playing games and wanted the door +shut, the host came and opened it, and would not allow +us to shut it, because he said we might carry off something! +How's that!</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">W<small>EIMAR</small>, <i>June 6, 1873</i>.</p> + +<p>When I first came there were only five of us who +studied with Liszt, but lately a good many others have +been there. Day before yesterday there came a young +lady who was a pupil of Henselt in St. Petersburg. +She is immensely talented, only seventeen years old, +and her name is Laura Kahrer. It is a very rare thing +to see a pupil of Henselt, for it is very difficult to get +lessons from him. He stands next to Liszt. This +Laura Kahrer plays everything that ever was heard of, +and she played a fugue of her own composition the +other day that was really vigorous and good. I was +quite astonished to hear how she had worked it up. +She has made a grand concert tour in Russia. I never +saw such a hand as she had. She could bend it backwards +till it looked like the palm of her hand turned<a name="page_222" id="page_222"></a> +inside out. She was an interesting little creature, with +dark eyes and hair, and one could see by her Turkish +necklace and numerous bangles that she had been +making money. She played with the greatest <i>aplomb</i>, +though her touch had a certain roughness about it to +my ear. She did not carry me away, but I have not +heard many pieces from her.</p> + +<p>However, all playing sounds barren by the side of +Liszt, for <i>his</i> is the living, breathing impersonation of +poetry, passion, grace, wit, coquetry, daring, tenderness +and every other fascinating attribute that you +can think of! I'm ready to hang myself half the time +when I've been to him. Oh, he is the most phenomenal +being in every respect! All that you've heard of +him would never give you an idea of him. In short, +he represents the whole scale of human emotion. He +is a many-sided prism, and reflects back the light in +all colours, no matter how you look at him. His pupils +<i>adore</i> him, as in fact everybody else does, but it +is impossible to do otherwise with a person whose genius +flashes out of him all the time so, and whose character +is so winning.</p> + +<p>One day this week, when we were with Liszt, he was +in such high spirits that it was as if he had suddenly +become twenty years younger. A student from the +Stuttgardt conservatory played a Liszt Concerto. His +name is V., and he is dreadfully nervous. Liszt kept +up a little running fire of satire all the time he was +playing, but in a good-natured way. I shouldn't have +minded it if it had been I. In fact, I think it would +have inspired me; but poor V. hardly knew whether<a name="page_223" id="page_223"></a> +he was on his head or on his feet. It was too funny. +Everything that Liszt says is so striking. For instance, +in one place where V. was playing the melody rather +feebly, Liszt suddenly took his seat at the piano and +said, "When <i>I</i> play, I always play for the people in +the gallery [by the gallery he meant the cock-loft, +where the rabble always sit, and where the places cost +next to nothing], so that those persons who pay only +five groschens for their seat also hear something." +Then he began, and I wish you could have heard him! +The sound didn't seem to be very <i>loud</i>, but it was penetrating +and far-reaching. When he had finished, he +raised one hand in the air, and you seemed to see all +the people in the gallery drinking in the sound. That +is the way Liszt teaches you. He presents an <i>idea</i> to +you, and it takes fast hold of your mind and sticks +there. Music is such a real, visible thing to him, that +he always has a symbol, instantly, in the material +world to express his idea. One day, when I was playing, +I made too much movement with my hand in a +rotatory sort of a passage where it was difficult to +avoid it. "Keep your hand still, Fräulein," said Liszt; +"<i>don't make omelette</i>." I couldn't help laughing, it +hit me on the head so nicely. He is far too sparing +of his playing, unfortunately, and, like Tausig, only +sits down and plays a few bars at a time, generally. +It is dreadful when he stops, just as you are at the +height of your enjoyment, but he is so thoroughly +<i>blasé</i> that he doesn't care to show off, and doesn't like +to have any one pay him a compliment. Even at the +court it annoyed him so that the Grand Duchess told<a name="page_224" id="page_224"></a> +people to take no notice when he rose from the +piano.</p> + +<p>On the same day that Liszt was in such high good-humour, +a strange lady and her husband were there who +had made a long journey to Weimar, in the hope of +hearing him play. She waited patiently for a long +time through the lesson, and at last Liszt took compassion +on her, and sat down with his favourite remark +that "the young ladies played a great deal better than +he did, but he would try his best to imitate them," +and then played something of his own so wonderfully, +that when he had finished we all stood there like posts, +feeling that there was <i>nothing</i> to be said. But he, as +if he feared we might burst out into eulogy, got up instantly +and went over to a friend of his who was standing +there, and who lives on an estate near Weimar, +and said, in the most commonplace tone imaginable, +"By the way, how about those eggs? Are you going +to send me some?" It seems to be not only a profound +bore to him, but really a sort of sensitiveness +on his part. How he can bear to hear <i>us</i> play, I cannot +imagine. It must grate on his ear terribly, I think, +because everything <i>must</i> sound expressionless to him +in comparison with his own marvellous conception. I +assure you, no matter how beautifully we play any +piece, the minute Liszt plays it, you would scarcely +recognize it! His touch and his peculiar use of the +pedal are two secrets of his playing, and then he seems +to dive down in the most hidden thoughts of the composer, +and fetch them up to the surface, so that they +gleam out at you one by one, like stars!<a name="page_225" id="page_225"></a></p> + +<p>The more I see and hear Liszt, the more I am lost +in amazement! I can neither eat nor sleep on those +days that I go to him. All my musical studies till +now have been a mere going to school, a preparation +for him. I often think of what Tausig said once: +"Oh, compared with Liszt, we other artists are all +blockheads." I did not believe it at the time, but I've +seen the truth of it, and in studying Liszt's playing, I +can see where Tausig got many of his own wonderful +peculiarities. I think he was the most like Liszt of +all the army that have had the privilege of his instruction.—I +began this letter on Sunday, and it is now +Tuesday. Yesterday I went to Liszt, and found that +Bülow had just arrived. None of the other scholars +had come, for a wonder, and I was just going away, +when Liszt came out, asked me to come in a moment, +and introduced me to Bülow. There I was, all alone +with these two great artists in Liszt's <i>salon</i>! Wasn't +<i>that</i> a situation? I only stayed a few minutes, of +course, though I should have liked to spend hours, +but our conversation was in the highest degree amusing +while I <i>was</i> there. Bülow had just returned from +his grand concert tour, and had been in London for +the first time. In a few months he had given one +hundred and twenty concerts! He is a fascinating +creature, too, like all these master artists, but entirely +different from Liszt, being small, quick, and airy in +his movements, and having one of the boldest and +proudest foreheads I ever saw. He looks like strength +of will personified. Liszt gazed at "his Hans," as he +calls him, with the fondest pride, and seemed perfectly<a name="page_226" id="page_226"></a> +happy over his arrival. It was like his beautiful +courtesy to call me in and introduce me to Bülow instead +of letting me go away. He thought I had come +to play to him, and was unwilling to have me take +that trouble for nothing, though he must have wished +me in Jericho. You would think I paid him a hundred +dollars a lesson, instead of <i>his</i> condescending to +sacrifice his valuable time to <i>me</i> for nothing.<a name="page_227" id="page_227"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Liszt's Expression in Playing. Liszt on Conservatories.<br /> +Ordeal of Liszt's Lessons. Liszt's Kindness.</p></div> + +<p class="r">W<small>EIMAR</small>, <i>June 19, 1873</i>.</p> + +<p>In Liszt I can at last say that my ideal in <i>something</i> +has been realized. He goes far beyond all that I +expected. Anything so perfectly beautiful as he looks +when he sits at the piano I never saw, and yet he is +almost an old man now.<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a> I enjoy him as I would an +exquisite work of art. His personal magnetism is +immense, and I can scarcely bear it when he plays. +He can make me cry all he chooses, and that is saying +a good deal, because I've heard so much music, and +<i>never</i> have been affected by it. Even Joachim, whom +I think divine, never moved me. When Liszt plays +anything pathetic, it sounds as if he had been through +everything, and opens all one's wounds afresh. All +that one has ever suffered comes before one again. +Who was it that I heard say once, that years ago he +saw Clara Schumann sitting in tears near the platform, +during one of Liszt's performances?—Liszt +knows well the influence he has on people, for +he always fixes his eyes on some one of us when he +plays, and I believe he tries to wring our hearts. +When he plays a passage, and goes <i>pearling</i> down the +key-board, he often looks over at me and smiles, to see +whether I am appreciating it.<a name="page_228" id="page_228"></a></p> + +<p>But I doubt if he feels any particular emotion himself, +when he is piercing you through with his rendering. +He is simply hearing every tone, knowing exactly what +effect he wishes to produce and how to do it. In fact, +he is practically two persons in one—the listener and +the performer. But what immense self-command that +implies! No matter how fast he plays you always +feel that there is "plenty of time"—no need to be +anxious! You might as well try to move one of the +pyramids as fluster <i>him</i>. Tausig possessed this repose +in a technical way, and his touch was marvellous; +but he never drew the tears to your eyes. He could +not wind himself through all the subtle labyrinths of +the heart as Liszt does.</p> + +<p>Liszt does such bewitching little things! The other +day, for instance, Fräulein Gaul was playing something +to him, and in it were two runs, and after each +run two staccato chords. She did them most beautifully, +and struck the chords immediately after. "No, +no," said Liszt, "after you make a run you must wait +a minute before you strike the chords, as if in admiration +of your own performance. You must pause, as +if to say, 'How nicely I did that.'" Then he sat +down and made a run himself, waited a second, and +then struck the two chords in the treble, saying as he +did so "Bra-<i>vo</i>," and then he played again, struck +the other chord, and said again "Bra-<i>vo</i>," and positively, +it was as if the piano had softly applauded! +That is the way he plays everything. It seems as if +the piano were speaking with a <i>human</i> tongue.</p> + +<p>Our class has swelled to about a dozen persons now,<a name="page_229" id="page_229"></a> +and a good many others come and play to him once or +twice and then go. As I wrote to L. the other day, +that dear little scholar of Henselt, Fräulein Kahrer, +was one, but she only stayed three days. She was a +most interesting little creature, and told some funny +stories about Henselt, who she says has a most violent +temper, and is very severe. She said that one day he +was giving a lesson to Princess Katherina (whoever +that is), and he was so enraged over her playing that +he snatched away the music, and dashed it to the +ground. The Princess, however, did not lose her +equanimity, but folded her arms and said, "Who +shall pick it up?" And he had to bend and restore +it to its place.</p> + +<p>I've never seen Liszt look angry but once, but +then he was terrific. Like a lion! It was one day +when a student from the Stuttgardt conservatory attempted +to play the Sonata Appassionata. He had a +good deal of technique, and a moderately good conception +of it, but still he was totally inadequate to the +work—and indeed, only a <i>mighty</i> artist like Tausig or +Bülow ought to attempt to play it. It was a hot afternoon, +and the clouds had been gathering for a storm. +As the Stuttgardter played the opening notes of +the sonata, the tree-tops suddenly waved wildly, and a +low growl of thunder was heard muttering in the distance. +"Ah," said Liszt, who was standing at the +window, with his delicate quickness of perception, "a +fitting accompaniment." (You know Beethoven wrote +the Appassionata one night when he was caught in a +thunder-storm.) If Liszt had only played it himself,<a name="page_230" id="page_230"></a> +the whole thing would have been like a poem. But he +walked up and down the room and forced himself to +listen, though he could scarcely bear it, I could see. +A few times he pushed the student aside and played +a few bars himself, and we saw the passion leap up +into his face like a glare of sheet lightning. Anything +so magnificent as it was, the little that he <i>did</i> +play, and the startling individuality of his conception, +I never heard or imagined. I felt as if I did not +know whether I were "in the body or out of the body."—<span class="smcap">Glorious +Being!</span> He is a two-edged sword that +cuts through everything.</p> + +<p>The Stuttgardter made some such glaring mistakes, +not in the notes, but in rhythm, etc., that at last Liszt +burst out with, "You come from Stuttgardt, and play +like <i>that</i>!" and then he went on in a tirade against conservatories +and teachers in general. He was like a +thunder-storm himself. He frowned, and bent his head, +and his long hair fell over his face, while the poor Stuttgardter +sat there like a beaten hound. Oh, it was awful! +If it had been I, I think I should have withered entirely +away, for Liszt is always so amiable that the contrast was +all the stronger.—"<i>Aber das geht Sie nichts an</i> (But this +does not concern you)," said he, in a conciliatory tone, +suddenly stopping himself and smiling. "<i>Spielen Sie +weiter</i> (Play on)."—He meant that it was not at the +student but at the conservatories that he had been +angry.</p> + +<p>Liszt hasn't the nervous irritability common to artists, +but on the contrary his disposition is the most exquisite +and tranquil in the world. We have been there incessantly,<a name="page_231" id="page_231"></a> +and I've never seen him ruffled except two or +three times, and then he was tired and not himself, and +it was a most transient thing. When I think what a +little savage Tausig often was, and how cuttingly sarcastic +Kullak could be at times, I am astonished that Liszt so +rarely loses his temper. He has the power of turning +the best side of every one outward, and also the most +marvellous and instant appreciation of what that side is. +If there is <i>anything</i> in you, you may be sure that Liszt +will know it. Whether he chooses to let you think he +does, may, however, be another matter.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">W<small>EIMAR</small>, <i>July 15, 1873</i>.</p> + +<p>Liszt is such an immense, inspiring force that one has +to try and stride forward with him at double rate, +even if with double expenditure, too! To-day I'm more +dead than alive, as we had a lesson from him yesterday +that lasted four hours. There were twenty artists present, +all of whom were anxious to play, and as he was in high +good-humour, he played ever so much himself in between. +It was perfectly magnificent, but exhausting and exciting +to the last degree. When I come home from the lessons I +fling myself on the sofa, and feel as if I never wanted to +get up again. It is a fearful day's work every time I go +to him. First, four hours' practice in the morning. +Then a nervous, anxious feeling that takes away my appetite, +and prevents me from eating my dinner. And then +several hours at Liszt's, where one succession of concertos, +fantasias, and all sorts of tremendous things are played. +You never know before whom you must play there, for<a name="page_232" id="page_232"></a> +it is the musical headquarters of the world. Directors +of conservatories, composers, artists, aristocrats, all come +in, and you have to bear the brunt of it as best you can. +The first month I was here, when there were only five of +us, it was quite another matter, but now the room is +crowded every time.</p> + +<p>Liszt gave a matinee the other day at which I played +a "Soirée de Vienne," by Tausig—awfully hard, but very +brilliant and peculiar. I don't know how I ever got +through it, for I had only been studying it a few days, +and didn't even know it by heart, nor had I played it to +Liszt. He only told me the evening before, too, about +eight o'clock—"To-morrow I give a matinee; bring your +Soirée de Vienne." I rushed home and practiced till +ten, and then I got up early the next morning and practiced +a few hours. The matinee was at eleven o'clock. +First, Liszt played himself, then a young lady sang several +songs, then there was a piece for piano and flute +played by Liszt and a flutist, and then I came. I was +just as frightened as I could be! Metzdorf (my Russian +friend) and Urspruch sat down by me to give me +courage, and to turn the leaves, but Liszt insisted upon +turning himself, and stood behind me and did it in his +dexterous way. He says it is an art to turn the leaves +properly! He was <i>so</i> kind, and whenever I did anything +well he would call out "<i>charmant!</i>" to encourage me. +It is considered a great compliment to be asked to play +at a matinee, and I don't know why Liszt paid it to me +at the expense of others who were there who play far +better than I do—among them a young lady from Norway, +lately come, who is a most <i>superb</i> pianist. She<a name="page_233" id="page_233"></a> +was a pupil of Kullak's, too, but it is four years since she +left him, and she has been concertizing a good deal. +Yesterday she played Schumann's A minor concerto +magnificently. I was surprised that Liszt had not +selected her, but one can never tell what to expect +from Liszt. With him "nothing is to be presumed on +or despaired of"—as the proverb says. He is so full of +moods and phases that you have to have a very sharp +perception even to begin to understand him, and he +can cut you all up fine without your ever guessing +it. He rarely mortifies any one by an open snub, but +what is perhaps worse, he manages to let the rest of the +class know what he is thinking while the poor victim +remains quite in darkness about it!—Yes, he can do very +cruel things.</p> + +<p>After all, though, people generally have their own +assurance to thank, or their own want of tact, when they +do not get on with Liszt. If they go to him full of +themselves, or expecting to make an impression on +<i>him</i>, or merely for the sake of saying they have been +with him, instead of presenting themselves to sit at his +feet in humility, as they ought, and learn whatever he is +willing to impart—he soon finds it out, and treats them +accordingly. Some one once asked Liszt, what he would +have been had he not been a musician. "The first +diplomat in Europe," was the reply. With this Machiavellian +bent it is not surprising that he sometimes +indulges himself in playing off the conceited or the +obtuse for the benefit of the bystanders. But the real +<i>basis</i> of his nature is compassion. <i>The bruised reed he +does not break, nor the humble and docile heart despise!</i><a name="page_234" id="page_234"></a></p> + +<p>Fräulein Gaul tells a characteristic story about the +"Meister," as we call Liszt. When she first came to him +a year or two ago, she brought him one day Chopin's B +flat minor Scherzo—one of those stock pieces that +every artist <i>must</i> learn, and that has also been thrummed +to death by countless tyros. Liszt looked at it, and +to her fright and dismay cried out in a fit of impatience, +"No, I <i>won't</i> hear it!" and dashed it angrily into the +corner. The next day he went to see her, apologized for +his outburst of temper, and said that as a penance for it +he would force himself to give her not one, but two or +three lessons on the Scherzo, and in the most minute +and careful manner—which accordingly he did! Fancy +any music teacher you ever heard of, so humbling himself +to a little girl of fifteen, and then remember that +Tausig, the greatest of modern virtuosi, said of Liszt, +"No mortal can measure himself with Liszt. He dwells +upon a solitary height."</p> + +<p>But you need not fear that I am "giving up American +standards" because I reverence Liszt so boundlessly. +Everything is topsy-turvy in Europe according to <i>our</i> +moral ideas, and they don't have what we call "men" +over here. But they <i>do</i> have artists that we cannot approach! +It is as a Master in Art that I look at and write +of Liszt, and his mere presence is to his pupils such +stimulus and joy, that when I leave <i>him</i> I shall feel I +have left the best part of my life behind!<a name="page_235" id="page_235"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Liszt's Compositions. His Playing and Teaching of Beethoven.<br /> +His "Effects" in Piano-playing. Excursion<br /> +to Jena. A New Music Master.</p></div> + +<p class="r">W<small>EIMAR</small>, <i>July 24, 1873</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Liszt is going away to-day. He was to have left several +days ago, but the Emperor of Austria or Russia (I +don't know which), came to visit the Grand Duke, and +of course Liszt was obliged to be on hand and to spend +a day with them. He is such a grandee himself that +kings and emperors are quite matters of course to him. +Never was a man so courted and spoiled as he! The +Grand Duchess herself frequently visits him. But he +never allows anyone to ask him to play, and even she +doesn't venture it. That is the only point in which one +sees Liszt's sense of his own greatness; otherwise his +manner is remarkably unassuming.</p> + +<p>Liszt will be gone until the middle of August, and I +shall be thankful to have a few weeks of repose, and to +be able to study more quietly. With him one is at high +pressure all the time, and I have gained a good many +more ideas from him than I can work up in a hurry. In +fact, Liszt has revealed to me an entirely new idea of +piano-playing. He is a wonderful <i>composer</i>, by the way, +and that is what I was unprepared for in him. His oratorio +of <i>Christus</i> was brought out here this summer, and +many strangers and celebrities came to hear it, Wagner<a name="page_236" id="page_236"></a> +among others. It was magnificent, and one of the +noblest, and decidedly the grandest oratorio that I ever +heard. I've never had time to write home about it, for +I felt that it required a dissertation in itself to do it justice. +I wish it could be performed in Boston, for his +orchestral and choral works, I am sorry to say, make +their way very slowly in Germany. "Liszt helped Wagner," +said he to me, sadly, "but who will help Liszt? +though, compared with Opera it is as much harder for +Oratorio to conquer a place as it is for a pianist to +achieve success when compared to a singer." So he +feels as if things were against him, though his heart and +soul are so bound up in sacred music, that he told me it +had become to him "the only thing worth living for." +He really seems to care almost nothing for his piano-playing +or for his piano compositions.</p> + +<p>And yet, what beauty is there in those compositions! +In Berlin I had always been taught that Liszt was a +would-be composer, that he could not write a melody, +that he had no originality, and that his compositions +were merely glitter to dazzle the eyes of the public. +How unjust and untrue have I found all these assertions +to be! Here I have an opportunity of hearing +his piano works <i>en masse</i>, and day by day (since all +the young artists are playing them), and my previous +ideas have been entirely reversed. If Liszt is <i>anything</i>, +he is <i>original</i>. One can see that at a glance, simply +by imagining his music taken out. Where is there +anything that would fill its place? When artists wish +to make an "effect" and stir up the public—"to fuse +the leaden thousands," as Chopin expressed it—what<a name="page_237" id="page_237"></a> +do they play? <span class="smcap">Liszt!</span>—Not only is his music brilliant—not +only does he pour this wealth of pearls and diamonds +down the key-board, but his pieces rise to great +climaxes, are grandiose in style, overleap all boundaries, +and whirl you away with the vehemence of passion. +Then what lightness of touch in the lesser <i>morceaux</i>, +where he is often the acme of tenderness, grace +and fairy-like sportiveness, while in the melancholy +ones, what subtle feeling after the emotions curled up +in the remote corners of the heart! They are so rich in +harmony, so weird, so wild, that when you hear them +you are like a sea-weed cast upon the bosom of the +ocean. And then what could be more deep and poetic +than Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert's and Wagner's +songs? They are altogether exquisite. Finally, Liszt's +compositions stand the severest test of merit. They +<i>wear</i> well. You can play them a long time and never +weary of them. In short, they embrace every element +<i>except</i> the classic, and the question is, whether these +airy or intense ideas that appeal to you through their +veils of shimmer and sheen are not a sort of classics +in their own way!</p> + +<p>Liszt's Christus is arranged for piano for four hands, +and I wish I had it, and also Bülow's great edition +of Beethoven's sonatas—Oh! you cannot <i>conceive</i> +anything like Liszt's playing of Beethoven. When <i>he</i> +plays a sonata it is as if the composition rose from the +dead and stood transfigured before you. You ask +yourself, "Did <i>I</i> ever play that?" But it bores him +so dreadfully to hear the sonatas, that though I've +heard him teach a good many, I haven't had the courage<a name="page_238" id="page_238"></a> +to bring him one. I suppose he is sick of the sound +of them, or perhaps it is because he feels obliged to be +conscientious in teaching Beethoven!</p> + +<p>When one of the young pianists brings Liszt a sonata, +he puts on an expression of resignation and generally +begins a half protest which he afterward thinks +better of.—"Well, go on," he will say, and then he +proceeds to be very strict. He always teaches Beethoven +with notes, which shows how scrupulous he is +about him, for, of course, he knows all the sonatas by +heart. He has Bülow's edition, which he opens and +lays on the end of the grand piano. Then as he walks +up and down he can stop and refer to it and point out +passages, as they are being played, to the rest of the +class. Bülow probably got many of his ideas from +Liszt. One day when Mr. Orth was playing the Allegro +of the Sonata Op. 110, Liszt insisted upon having +it done in a particular way, and made him go back +and repeat it over and over again. One line of it is +particularly hard. Liszt made every one in the class +sit down and try it. Most of them failed, which +amused him.—"Ah, yes," said he, laughing, "when I +once begin to play the pedagogue I am not to be outdone!" +and then he related as an illustration of his +"pedagogism" a little anecdote of a former pupil of +his, now an eminent artist. "I liked young M. very +much," said he. "He played beautifully, but he was +inclined to be lazy and to take things easily. One +morning he brought me Chopin's E minor concerto, +and he rather skimmed over that difficult passage in the +middle of the first movement as if he hadn't taken the<a name="page_239" id="page_239"></a> +trouble really to study it. His execution was not clean. +So I thought I would give him a lesson, and I kept him +playing those two pages over and over for an hour +or two until he had mastered them. His arms +must have been ready to break when he got +through! At the next lesson there was no M. I sent +to know why he did not appear. He replied that he +had been out hunting and had hurt his arm so that he +could not play. At the lesson following he accordingly +presented himself with his arm in a sling. But +I always suspected it was a stratagem on his part to +avoid playing, and that nothing really ailed him. He +had had enough for one while," added Liszt, with a +mischievous smile.</p> + +<p>On Monday I had a most delightful tête-à-tête with +Liszt, quite by chance. I had occasion to call upon +him for something, and, strange to say, he was alone, +sitting by his table and writing. Generally all sorts +of people are up there. He insisted upon my staying a +while, and we had the most amusing and entertaining +conversation imaginable. It was the first time I ever +heard Liszt really talk, for he contents himself mostly +with making little jests. He is full of <i>esprit</i>. We +were speaking of the faculty of mimicry, and he told +me such a funny little anecdote about Chopin. He +said that when he and Chopin were young together, +somebody told him that Chopin had a remarkable +talent for mimicry, and so he said to Chopin, "Come +round to my rooms this evening and show off this +talent of yours." So Chopin came. He had purchased +a blonde wig ("I was very blonde at that time," said<a name="page_240" id="page_240"></a> +Liszt), which he put on, and got himself up in one of +Liszt's suits. Presently an acquaintance of Liszt's came +in, Chopin went to meet him instead of Liszt, and +took off his voice and manner so perfectly, that +the man actually mistook him for Liszt, and made an +appointment with him for the next day—"and there I +was in the room," said Liszt. Wasn't that remarkable?</p> + +<p>Another evening I was there about twilight and +Liszt sat at the piano looking through a new oratorio, +which had just come out in Paris upon "Christus," +the same subject that his own oratorio was on. He +asked me to turn for him, and evidently was not interested, +for he would skip whole pages and begin again, +here and there. There was only a single lamp, and +<i>that</i> rather a dim one, so that the room was all in +shadow, and Liszt wore his Merlin-like aspect. I asked +him to tell me how he produced a certain effect he +makes in his arrangement of the ballad in Wagner's +<i>Flying Dutchman</i>. He looked very "<i>fin</i>" as the +French say, but did not reply. He never gives a direct +answer to a direct question. "Ah," said I, "you won't +tell." He smiled, and then immediately played the +passage. It was a long arpeggio, and the effect he made +was, as I had supposed, a pedal effect. He kept the +pedal down throughout, and played the beginning of +the passage in a grand <i>rolling</i> sort of manner, and +then all the rest of it with a very pianissimo touch, +and so lightly, that the continuity of the arpeggios was +destroyed, and the notes seemed to be just <i>strewn</i> in, +as if you broke a wreath of flowers and scattered them<a name="page_241" id="page_241"></a> +according to your fancy. It is a most striking and +beautiful effect, and I told him I didn't see how he +ever thought of it. "Oh, I've invented a great many +things," said he, indifferently—"<i>this</i>, for instance,"—and +he began playing a double roll of octaves in chromatics +in the bass of the piano. It was very grand, and made +the room reverberate. "Magnificent," said I. "Did you +ever hear me do a storm?" said he. "No." "Ah, you +ought to hear me do a storm! Storms are my <i>forte</i>!" +Then to himself between his teeth, while a weird look +came into his eyes as if he could indeed rule the blast, +"<i>Da</i> K<small>RACHEN</small> <i>die Bäume</i> (Then <i>crash</i> the trees!)"</p> + +<p>How ardently I wished he <i>would</i> "play a storm," but +of course he <i>didn't</i>, and he presently began to trifle +over the keys in his <i>blasé</i> style. I suppose he couldn't +quite work himself up to the effort, but that look and +tone told how Liszt <i>would</i> do it.—Alas, that we poor +mortals here below should share so often the fate of +Moses, and have only a glimpse of the Promised Land, +and that without the consolation of being Moses! +But perhaps, after all, the vision is better than the +reality. We see the <i>whole land</i>, even if but at a distance, +instead of being limited merely to the spot +where our foot treads.</p> + +<p>Once again I saw Liszt in a similar mood, though +his expression was this time <i>comfortably</i> rather than +<i>wildly</i> destructive. It was when Fräulein Remmertz +was playing his E flat concerto to him. There were +two grand pianos in the room, and she was sitting at +one, and he at the other, accompanying and interpolating +as he felt disposed. Finally they came to a<a name="page_242" id="page_242"></a> +place where there were a series of passages beginning +with both hands in the middle of the piano, and going +in opposite directions to the ends of the key-board, +ending each time in a short, sharp chord. "<i>Alles +zum Fenster hinaus werfen</i> (Pitch everything out of +the window)," said he, in a cozy, easy sort of way, and +he began playing these passages and giving every chord +a whack as if he <i>were</i> splitting everything up and flinging +it out, and that with such enjoyment, that you felt +as if you'd like to bear a hand, too, in the work of general +demolition! But I never shall forget Liszt's look +as he so lazily proposed to "pitch everything out of +the window." It reminded me of the expression of a +big tabby-cat as it sits and purrs away, blinking its +eyes and seemingly half asleep, when suddenly—!—! +out it strikes with both its claws, and woe be to whatever +is within its reach! Perhaps, after all, the secret +of Liszt's fascination is this power of intense and wild +emotion that you feel he possesses, together with the +most perfect control over it.</p> + +<p>Liszt sometimes strikes wrong notes when he plays, +but it does not trouble him in the least. On the contrary, +he rather enjoys it. He reminds me of one of +the cabinet ministers in Berlin, of whom it is said that +he has an amazing talent for making blunders, but a +still more amazing one for getting out of them and +covering them up. Of Liszt the first part of this is +not true, for if he strikes a wrong note it is simply because +he chooses to be careless. But the last part of +it applies to him eminently. It always amuses him +instead of disconcerting him when he comes down<a name="page_243" id="page_243"></a> +squarely <i>wrong</i>, as it affords him an opportunity of +displaying his ingenuity and giving things such a turn +that the false note will appear simply a key leading to +new and unexpected beauties. An accident of this +kind happened to him in one of the Sunday matinees, +when the room was full of distinguished people and +of his pupils. He was rolling up the piano in arpeggios +in a very grand manner indeed, when he struck a +semi-tone short of the high note upon which he had +intended to end. I caught my breath and wondered +whether he was going to leave us like that, in mid-air, +as it were, and the harmony unresolved, or whether he +would be reduced to the humiliation of correcting himself +like ordinary mortals, and taking the right chord. +A half smile came over his face, as much as to say—"Don't +fancy that <i>this</i> little thing disturbs me,"—and +he instantly went meandering down the piano in harmony +with the false note he had struck, and then rolled +deliberately up in a second grand sweep, <i>this</i> time +striking true. I never saw a more delicious piece of +cleverness. It was so quick-witted and so exactly +characteristic of Liszt. Instead of giving you a chance +to say, "He has made a mistake," he forced you to +say, "He has shown how to get out of a mistake."</p> + +<p>Another day I heard him pass from one piece into +another by making the finale of the first one play the +part of prelude to the second. So exquisitely were the +two woven together that you could hardly tell where +the one left off and the other began.—Ah me! <i>Such</i> +a facile grace! <i>Nobody</i> will ever equal him, with +those rolling basses and those flowery trebles. And<a name="page_244" id="page_244"></a> +then his Adagios! When you hear him in one of <i>those</i>, +you feel that his playing has got to that point when +it is purified from all earthly dross and is an exhalation +of the soul that mounts straight to heaven.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">W<small>EIMAR</small>, <i>August 8, 1873</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>The other day we all made an excursion to Jena, +which is about three hours' drive from here. We went +in carriages in a long train, and pulled up at a hotel +named The Bear. There we took our second breakfast. +There was to be a concert at five in a church, +where some of Liszt's music was to be performed. +After breakfast we went to the church, where Liszt +met us, and the rehearsal took place. After the rehearsal +we went to dinner. We had three long tables +which Liszt arranged to suit himself, his own place being +in the middle. He always manages every little +detail with the greatest tact, and is very particular +never to let two ladies or two gentlemen sit together, +but always alternately a lady and a gentleman. "<i>Immer +eine bunte Reihe machen</i> (Always have a little +variety)," said he. The dinner was a very entertaining +one to me, because I could converse with Liszt +and hear all he said, as he was nearly opposite me. I +was in very high spirits that day, and as Kellerman, +Bendix and Urspruch were all near me, too, we had +endless fun. We had new potatoes for dinner, boiled +with their skins on, and Liszt threw one at me, and I +caught it. There was another young artist there from +Brussels named Gurickx, whom I didn't know, because<a name="page_245" id="page_245"></a> +he spoke only French, and as I do not speak it, we +had never exchanged words in the class. I wasn't +paying any attention to him, therefore, when suddenly +my left-hand neighbour touched my arm. I looked +round and he handed me a flower made of bread +"from Monsieur Gurickx." I wish you could have +seen it! It had the effect of a tube rose. Every little +leaf and petal was as delicately turned as if nature +herself had done it. The bread was fresh, and Gurickx +had worked it between his fingers to the consistency +of clay, and then modelled these little flowers +which he stuck on to a stem. It was so artistically +done, and it was such a dainty little thing to do, that +I saw at once that he was interesting and that he possessed +that marvellous French taste.</p> + +<p>Since then we have become very good friends, and he +is teaching me to speak French. He plays beautifully, +and was trained in the famous Brussels conservatory, of +which Dupont is the head. Servais also got his musical +education there. They both advise me to go there for a +year, as Dupont is a very great master indeed, and Brussels +is the very home and centre of art and taste of +every description—a "little Paris"—but more earnest, +more German. Gurickx went through the art-school in +Brussels as well as the conservatory, so that he paints as +well as plays, and he had quite a struggle with himself to +decide to which art he should devote himself. His style +is the grandiose and fiery. Rubinstein is his model, +and he plays Liszt's Rhapsodies as I never heard any +one else. He brings out all their power, brilliancy and +careering wildness, and makes the greatest sensation of<a name="page_246" id="page_246"></a> +them. Such tremendous sweeping chords! Liszt himself +doesn't play the chords as well as Gurickx;—perhaps +because he does not care now to exert the strength.</p> + +<p>But to return to Jena. After dinner Liszt said, "Now +we'll go to Paradise." So we put on our things, and +proceeded to walk along the river to a place called Paradise, +on account of its loveliness. We passed the University, +on one corner of which is a tablet with "W. von +Goethe" written against the wall of the room which +Goethe occupied. It seemed strange to me to be passing +the room of my beloved Goethe, with our equally +beloved Liszt!—This walk along the river was enchanting. +The current was very rapid, and the willows were +all blowing in the breeze. There is an odd triangular-shaped +hill that rises on one side very boldly and abruptly, +called the Fox's Head. The way was under a double +row of tall trees, which met at the top and formed a +green arch over our heads. It was all breeze and freshness, +and the sunlight struck picturesquely aslant the +hill-sides. I started to walk with Liszt, but he was so +surrounded that it was difficult to get near him, so I +walked instead with an interesting young artist named +O., who was at once extraordinarily ugly and extremely +clever.</p> + +<p>After our walk we went to the concert, which was +lovely, and then at seven we were all invited to tea at +the house of a friend of Liszt's. He was a very tall +man, and he had a very tall and hospitable daughter, +nearly as big as himself, who received us very cordially. +The tea was all laid on tables in the garden, and the +sausages were cooking over a fire made on the grounds.<a name="page_247" id="page_247"></a> +We sat down pell-mell, anywhere, I next to Liszt, who +kept putting things on my plate. When supper was +over he retreated to a little summer house with some +of his friends, to smoke. We sauntered round the grass +plat in front of it until Liszt called us to come in and +sit by him, which we did until he was ready to go.</p> + +<p>I've heard of a new music master lately. When my +friend Miss B. was here, she told me that she had met a +"Herr Director Deppe" in Berlin, after I left, and had +told him all about me and my struggle to conquer the +piano. He seemed very much interested and said, "O, +if she had only come to me! <i>I</i> would have helped her," +and from all I can hear I think he must be the man +for me. He is interested in Sherwood, who used to +talk to me about him last winter. Sherwood says he +is wholly disinterested and devoted to art, and lives +entirely in music, and that he is a noble-hearted man, +and the "most musical person he ever met." Sherwood +often wavers between him and Kullak, and Deppe +would like to teach Sherwood if he could, simply out +of interest for him.—Deppe has a pupil whom he +has trained entirely himself, and whom he is going to +bring out next winter. Sherwood says he never heard +anything so beautiful as her playing. She is spending +the summer near Deppe, and he hears her play the +programme she is going to give in Berlin next winter, +every day. Think what immense certainty that must +give!<a name="page_248" id="page_248"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Liszt's Playing. Tausig. Excursion to Sondershausen.</p></div> + +<p class="r">W<small>EIMAR</small>, <i>August 23, 1873</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Liszt has returned from his trip, and I have played +to him twice this week, and am to go again on Monday. +He praised me very much on Tuesday, and said +I played admirably. I knew he was pleased, because +whenever he corrected me he would say, "<i>Nein, Kindchen</i>" +in such a gentle way! "<i>Kind</i>" is the German +for child, and "<i>Kindchen</i>" is a diminutive, and whenever +he calls you that you can tell he has a leaning +toward you.</p> + +<p>This week is the first time that I have been able to +play to him without being nervous, or that my fingers +have felt warm and natural. It has been a fearful +ordeal, truly, to play there, for not only was Liszt himself +present, but such a crowd of artists, all ready to +pick flaws in your playing, and to say, "She hasn't got +much talent." I am so glad that I stayed until Liszt's +return, for now the rush is over, and he has much +more time for those of us who are left, and plays a +great deal more himself. Yesterday he played us a +study of Paganini's, arranged by himself, and also his +Campanella. I longed for M., as she is so fond of +the Campanella. Liszt gave it with a velvety softness, +clearness, brilliancy and pearliness of touch that was +inimitable. And oh, his grace! <i>Nobody</i> can compare<a name="page_249" id="page_249"></a> +with him! Everybody else sounds heavy beside +him!</p> + +<p>However, I have felt some comfort in knowing that +it is not Liszt's genius alone that makes him such a +player. He has gone through such technical studies +as no one else has except Tausig, perhaps. He plays +everything under the sun in the way of <i>Etuden</i>—has +played them, I mean. On Tuesday I got him talking +about the composers who were the fashion when he +was a young fellow in Paris—Kalkbrenner, Herz, +etc.—and I asked him if he could not play us something +by Kalkbrenner. "O yes! I must have a few +things of Kalkbrenner's in my head still," and then he +played part of a concerto. Afterward he went on to +speak of Herz, and said: "I'll play you a little study +of Herz's that is infamously hard. It is a stupid little +theme," and then he played the theme, "but <i>now</i> pay +attention." Then he played the study itself. It was +a most hazardous thing, where the hands kept crossing +continually with great rapidity, and striking notes in +the most difficult positions. It made us all laugh; and +Liszt hit the notes every time, though it was disgustingly +hard, and as he said himself, "he used to get all +in a heat over it." He had evidently studied it so +well that he could never forget it. He went on to +speak of Moscheles and of his compositions. He said +that when between thirty and forty years of age, +Moscheles played superbly, but as he grew older he +became too old-womanish and set in his ways—and +then he took off Moscheles, and played his Etuden in +his style. It was very funny. But it showed how<a name="page_250" id="page_250"></a> +Liszt has studied <i>everything</i>, and the universality of +his knowledge, for he knows Tausig's and Rubinstein's +studies as well as Kalkbrenner and Herz. There cannot +be many persons in the world who keep up with +the whole range of musical literature as he does.</p> + +<p>Liszt loved Tausig as his own child, and is always +delighted when we play any of his music. His +death was an awful blow to Liszt, for he used to say, +"He will be the inheritor of my playing." I suppose he +thought he would live again in him, for he always +says, "Never did such talent come under my hands." +I would give anything to have seen them together, for +Tausig was a wonderfully clever and captivating +man, and I can imagine he must have fascinated +Liszt. They say he was the naughtiest boy that ever +was heard of, and caused Liszt no end of trouble and +vexation; but he always forgave him, and after the +vexation was past Liszt would pat him on the head +and say, "<i>Carlchen, entweder wirst du ein grosser +Lump oder ein grosser Meister</i> (You'll turn out +either a great blockhead or a great master)." That is +Liszt all over. He is so indulgent that in consideration +of talent he will forgive anything.</p> + +<p>Tausig's father, who was himself a music-master, +took him to Liszt when he was fourteen years old, +hoping that Liszt would receive the little marvel as a +pupil and protégé.</p> + +<p>But Liszt would not even hear the boy play. "I +have had," he declared positively, "enough of child +prodigies. They never come to much." Tausig's father +apparently acquiesced in the reply, but while he and<a name="page_251" id="page_251"></a> +Liszt were drinking wine and smoking together, he +managed to smuggle the child on to the piano-stool +behind Liszt, and signed to him to begin to play. The +little Tausig plunged into Chopin's A flat Polonaise +with such fire and boldness that Liszt turned his eagle +head, and after a few bars cried, "I take him!" I +heard Liszt say once that he could not endure child +prodigies. "I have no time," said he, "for these artists +<i>die</i> W<small>ERDEN</small> <i>sollen</i> (that <i>are</i> to be)!"</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">W<small>EIMAR</small>, <i>September 9, 1873</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>This week has been one of great excitement in +Weimar, on account of the wedding of the son of the +Grand Duke. All sorts of things have been going on, +and the Emperor and Empress came on from Berlin. +There have been a great many rehearsals at the theatre +of different things that were played, and of course +Liszt took a prominent part in the arrangement of +the music. He directed the Ninth Symphony, and +played twice himself with orchestral accompaniments. +One of the pieces he played was Weber's Polonaise in +E major, and the other was one of his own Rhapsodies +Hongroises. Of these I was at the rehearsal. When +he came out on the stage the applause was tremendous, +and enough in itself to excite and electrify one. +I was enchanted to have an opportunity to hear +Liszt as a concert player. The director of the orchestra +here is a beautiful pianist and composer himself, +as well as a splendid conductor, but it was easy to see<a name="page_252" id="page_252"></a> +that he had to get all his wits together to follow Liszt, +who gave full rein to his imagination, and let the +<i>tempo</i> fluctuate as he felt inclined. As for Liszt, he +scarcely <i>looked</i> at the keys, and it was astounding to +see his hands go rushing up and down the piano and +perform passages of the utmost rapidity and difficulty, +while his head was turned all the while towards the +orchestra, and he kept up a running fire of remarks +with them continually. "You violins, strike in <i>sharp</i> +here." "You trumpets, not too loud there," etc. He +did everything with the most immense <i>aplomb</i>, and +without seeming to pay any attention to his hands, +which moved of themselves as if they were independent +beings and had their own brain and everything! +He never did the same thing twice alike. If it were a +scale the first time, he would make it in double or +broken thirds the second, and so on, constantly surprising +you with some new turn. While you were admiring +the long roll of the wave, a sudden spray +would be dashed over you, and make you catch your +breath! No, never was there such a player! The +nervous intensity of his touch takes right hold of you. +When he had finished everybody shouted and clapped +their hands like mad, and the orchestra kept up such a +<i>fanfare</i> of applause, that the din was quite overpowering. +Liszt smiled and bowed, and walked off the +stage indifferently, not giving himself the trouble to +come back, and presently he quietly sat down in the +parquet, and the rehearsal proceeded. The concert itself +took place at the court, so that I did not hear it. +Metzdorf was there, however, and he said that Liszt<a name="page_253" id="page_253"></a> +played fabulously, of course, but that he was not as +inspired as he was in the morning, and did not make +the same effect.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">W<small>EIMAR</small>, <i>September 15, 1873</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>The other day an excursion was arranged to Sondershausen, +a town about three hours' ride from Weimar +in the cars. There was to be a concert there in +honour of Liszt, and a whole programme of his music +was to be performed. About half a dozen of the +"Lisztianer"—as the Weimarese dub Liszt's pupils—agreed +to go, I, of course, being one. Liszt himself, +the Countess von X. and Count S. were to lead the +party. The morning we started was one of those perfect +autumnal days when it is a delight simply to <i>live</i>.</p> + +<p>After breakfast I hurried off to the station, where +I met the others, everybody being in the highest spirits. +Liszt and his titled friends travelled in a first class +carriage by themselves. The rest of us went second +class, in the next carriage behind. We were very gay +indeed, and the time did not seem long till we arrived +at Sondershausen, where we exchanged our seats in the +cars for seats in an omnibus, and drove to the principal +hotel. There were not sufficient accommodations +for us all, owing to the number of strangers who had +come to the festival, so Mrs. S. and I went to a smaller +hotel in a more distant part of the town to engage +rooms, intending to return and dine with Liszt and +the rest. Just as our noisy vehicle clattered up to the +inn and some of the gentlemen jumped out to arrange +matters, the solemn strains of a chorale were heard from<a name="page_254" id="page_254"></a> +a church close by, with its grand and rolling organ +accompaniment. Somehow it made me feel sad to hear +it, and a sense of the <i>transitoriness</i> of things came +over me. It seemed like one of those voices from the +other world that call to us now and then.</p> + +<p>After we had engaged our rooms, we drove back to +the hotel where Liszt was staying, and where we were +to dine immediately. It was in the centre of the town, +and directly opposite the palace, which rose boldly on +a sort of eminence with great flights of stone steps +sweeping down to the road on each side. It looked +quite imposing. An avenue wound up the hill to the +right of it. In the dining-room of the hotel a long +table was spread and all the places were carefully set. +My place was next Count S. and not far from Liszt. +So I was very well seated. Everybody began talking +at once the minute dinner was served, as they always +do at table in Germany. Toward the close of it were +the usual number of toasts in honour of Liszt, to which +he responded in rather a bored sort of way. I don't +wonder he gets tired of them, for it is always the same +thing. He did not seem to be in his usual spirits, and +had a fatigued air.</p> + +<p>After dinner he said, "Now let us go and see Fräulein +Fichtner." Fräulein Fichtner was the young lady +who was going to play his concerto in A major at the +concert that evening. She is a well-known pianist in +Germany, and is both pretty and brilliant. We started +in a procession, which is the way one always walks with +Liszt. It reminds me of those snow-balls the boys roll +up at home—the crowd gathers as it proceeds! When<a name="page_255" id="page_255"></a> +we got to the house we entered an obscure corridor +and began to find our way up a dark and narrow staircase. +Some one struck a wax match. "Good!" called +out Liszt, in his sonorous voice. "<i>Leuchten Sie voraus</i> +(Light us up)." When we got to the top we pulled +the bell and were let in by Fräulein Fichtner's mother. +Fräulein Fichtner herself looked no ways dismayed at +the number of her guests, though we had the air of +coming to storm the house. She gaily produced all +the chairs there were, and those who could not find a +seat had to stand! She was in Weimar for a few days +this summer. So we had all met her before, and I +had once heard her play some duets by Schumann with +Liszt, who enjoyed reading with "Pauline," as he calls +her. It is to her that Raff has dedicated his exquisite +"<i>Maerchen</i> (Fairy story)." She is a sparkling brunette, +with a face full of intelligence. They say she +writes charming little poems and is gifted in various +ways. Not to tire her for the concert we only stayed +about twenty minutes.</p> + +<p>Going back, Liszt indulged in a little graceful <i>badinage</i> +apropos of the concerto. You know he has +written two concertos. The one in E flat is much +played, but this one in A very rarely. It is exceedingly +difficult and is one of the few of his compositions that +it interests Liszt to know that people play. "I should +write it otherwise if I wrote it now," he explained to +me as we were walking along. "Some passages are +very troublesome (<i>haecklig</i>) to execute. I was younger +and less experienced when I composed it," he added, +with one of those illuminating smiles "like the flash +of a dagger in the sun," as Lenz says.<a name="page_256" id="page_256"></a></p> + +<p>When we reached the hotel everybody went in to +take a siesta—that "Mittags-Schlaf" which is law in +Germany. I did not wish to sleep and felt like exploring +the old town. So Count S. and I started on +a walk. Sondershausen is a dreamy, sleepy place, with +so little life about it that you hardly realize there are +any people there at all. It is pleasantly situated, and +gentle hills and undulations of land are all about it, +but it seems as if the town had been dead for a long +time and this were its grave over which one was quietly +walking. We took the road that wound past the +castle. It was embowered in trees, and behind the +castle were gardens and conservatories. The road +descended on the other side, and we followed it till +we came unexpectedly upon a little circular park. +Such a deserted, widowed little park it seemed! Not a +soul did we encounter as we wandered through its paths. +Bordering them were great quantities of berry-laden +snow-berry bushes, of which I am very fond. The +park had a sort of rank and unkempt aspect, as if it +were abandoned to itself. The very stream that went +through it flowed sluggishly along, and as if it hadn't +any particular object in life.—I enjoyed it very much, +and it was very restful to walk about it. One felt +there the truth of R.'s favourite saying, "It doesn't +make any difference. <i>Nothing</i> makes any difference."</p> + +<p>Count S. rattled on, but I didn't hear more than +half of what he said. He is a pleasure-loving man of +the world, fond of music, but a perfect materialist, +and untroubled by the "<i>souffle vers le beau</i>" which torments +so many people. At the same time he is appreciative<a name="page_257" id="page_257"></a> +and very amusing, and one has no chance +to indulge in melancholy with <i>him</i>. We sauntered +about till late in the afternoon, and then returned +to the hotel for coffee before going to the concert, +which began at seven. The concert hall was behind +the palace and seemed to form a part of it. Liszt, +the Countess von X., and Count S. sat in a box, aristocratic-fashion. +The rest of us were in the parquet. +I was amazed at the orchestra, which was very large +and played gloriously. It seemed to me as fine as that +of the Gewandhaus in Leipsic, though I suppose it +cannot be.—"Why has no one ever mentioned this +orchestra to me?" I asked of Kellermann, who sat +next, "and how is it one finds such an orchestra in +such a place?" "Oh," said he, "this orchestra is very +celebrated, and the Prince of Sondershausen is a great +patron of music." This is the way it is in Germany. +Every now and then one has these surprises. You +never know when you are going to stumble upon a +jewel in the most out-of-the-way corner.</p> + +<p>We were all greatly excited over Fräulein Fichtner's +playing, and it seemed very jolly to be behind the +scenes, as it were, and to have one of our own number +performing. We applauded tremendously when +she came out. She was not nervous in the least, but +began with great <i>aplomb</i>, and played most beautifully. +The concerto made a generally dazzling and difficult +impression upon me, but did not "take hold" of me +particularly. I do not know how Liszt was pleased +with her rendering of it, for I had no opportunity of +asking him. She also played his Fourteenth Rhapsody<a name="page_258" id="page_258"></a> +with orchestral accompaniment in most bold and +dashing style. Fräulein Fichtner is more in the bravura +than in the sentimental line, and she has a certain +breadth, grasp, and freshness. The last piece on +the programme was Liszt's Choral Symphony, which +was magnificent. The chorus came at the end of it, +as in the Ninth Symphony. Mrs. S. said she was +familiar with it from having heard Thomas's orchestra +play it in New York.—That orchestra, by the way, +from what I hear, seems to have developed into something +remarkable. It is a great thing for the musical +education of the country to have such an organization +travelling every winter. And what a revelation +is an orchestra the first time one hears it, even if it +be but a poor one!—Music come bodily down from +Heaven! And here in their musical darkness, the +Americans in the provinces are having an orchestra of +the very highest excellence burst upon them in full +splendour. What <i>could</i> be more American? They +always have the best or none!</p> + +<p>At nine o'clock in the evening the concert was +over, and we all returned to the hotel for supper. We +were all desperately hungry after so much music and +enthusiasm. Everybody wanted to be helped at +once, and the waiters were nearly distracted. Count +S. sat next me and was very funny. He kept +rapping the table like mad, but without any success. +Finally he exclaimed, "<i>Jetzt geh'</i> I<small>CH</small> <i>auf Jagd</i> +(Now <i>I'm</i> going hunting)!" and sprang up from +his chair, rushed to the other end of the dining-room, +possessed himself of some dishes the waiters<a name="page_259" id="page_259"></a> +were helping, and returned in triumph. I couldn't +help laughing, and he made a great many jokes at the +expense of the waiters and everybody else. I could +not hear any of Liszt's conversation, which I regretted, +but he seemed in a quiet mood. I do not think +he is the same when he is with aristocrats. He must +be among <i>artists</i> to unsheathe his sword. When he is +with "swells," he is all grace and polish. He seems only +to toy with his genius for their amusement, and he is +never serious. At least this is as far as <i>my</i> observation +of him goes on the few occasions I have seen him in +the <i>beau monde</i>. The presence of the proud Countess +von X. at Sondershausen kept him, as it were, at a distance +from everybody else, and he was not overflowing +with fun and gayety as he was at Jena. She, of course, +did not go with us to see Fräulein Fichtner, which +was fortunate. After supper one and all went to +bed early, quite tired out with the day's excitement.</p> + +<p>This haughty Countess, by the way, has always had +a great fascination for me, because she looks like a +woman who "has a history." I have often seen her at +Liszt's matinees, and from what I hear of her, she is +such a type of woman as I suppose only exists in +Europe, and such as the heroines of foreign novels +are modelled upon. She is a widow, and in appearance +is about thirty-six or eight years old, of medium +height, slight to thinness, but exceedingly graceful. +She is always attired in black, and is utterly careless in +dress, yet nothing can conceal her innate elegance of +figure. Her face is pallid and her hair dark. She +makes an impression of icy coldness and at the same<a name="page_260" id="page_260"></a> +time of tropical heat. The pride of Lucifer to the +world in general—entire abandonment to the individual. +I meet her often in the park, as she walks along +trailing her "sable garments like the night," and surrounded +by her four beautiful boys—as Count S. +says, "each handsomer than the other." They have +such romantic faces! Dark eyes and dark curling hair. +The eldest is about fourteen and the youngest five.</p> + +<p>The little one is too lovely, with his brown curls +hanging on his shoulders! I never shall forget the +supercilious manner in which the Countess took out +her eye-glass and looked me over as I passed her one +day in the park. Weimar being such a "<i>kleines Nest</i> +(little nest)," as Liszt calls it, every stranger is immediately +remarked. She waited till I got close up, then +deliberately put up this glass and scrutinized me +from head to foot, then let it fall with a half-disdainful, +half-indifferent air, as if the scrutiny did not +reward the trouble.—I was so amused. Her arrogance +piques all Weimar, and they never cease talking +about her. I can never help wishing to see her in a +fashionable toilet. If she is so <i>distinguée</i> in rather less +than ordinary dress, what <i>would</i> she be in a Parisian +costume? I mean as to grace, for she is not pretty.—But +as a psychological study, she is more interesting, +perhaps, as she is. She always seems to me to be gradually +going to wreck—a burnt-out volcano, with her +own ashes settling down upon her and covering her +up. She is very highly educated, and is preparing her +eldest son for the university herself. What a subject +she would have been for a Balzac!<a name="page_261" id="page_261"></a></p> + +<p>We stayed over the next day in Sondershausen, as +there was to be another orchestral concert—this time +with a miscellaneous programme. Fräulein Fichtner +had already departed, but the first violinist played +Mendelssohn's famous concerto for violin.—Not in +Wilhelmj's masterly style, but extremely well. We +took the train for Weimar about five P. M. Going +back I was in the carriage with Liszt. He sat opposite +me, and gradually began to talk. The conversation +turned upon Weitzmann, my former harmony teacher, +who, you remember, was so determined to make me +learn. Liszt remarked upon the extent of his knowledge +and said, "If I were not so old I should like to +go to school again to Weitzmann." He was talking +to Weitzmann one day, he said, and Weitzmann proposed +to him that he should write a canon. "I sat +down and worked over it a good while, but finally gave +it up.—I know not why, but I never had any success in +writing canons. Weitzmann then sat down, and in +half an hour had produced two excellent ones." He +gave this as an instance of Weitzmann's readiness.—A +canon, you know, is a sort of musical puzzle. The +right hand plays the theme. The left hand takes it +up a little later and imitates the right. The two +interweave, and the theme forms the melody and the +accompaniment at the same time, according as it is +played by the right or left hand—something on the +principle of singing rounds. The difficulty consists +in avoiding monotony with this continual iteration +of the theme, which can be brought on at different +intervals, inverted, etc., at will. It seems to be<a name="page_262" id="page_262"></a> +more a mathematical than a musical style of composition. +I should suppose that <i>Bach</i> could fire off canons +without end! He developed it in every imaginable +form.—Liszt, however, is of rather a different +school!</p> + +<p>We got back to Weimar about eight in the evening, +and this delicious excursion, like all others, <i>had to end</i>. +But the quiet old town, with its musical name and its +great orchestra, will long remain in my memory.</p> + +<p>Adieu, Sondershausen!<a name="page_263" id="page_263"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Farewell to Liszt! German Conservatories and their Methods.<br /> +Berlin Again. Liszt and Joachim.</p></div> + +<p class="r">W<small>EIMAR</small>, <i>September 24, 1873</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>We had our last lesson from Liszt a few days +ago, and he leaves Weimar next week. He was so hurried +with engagements the last two times that he was +not able to give us much attention. I played my Rubinstein +concerto. He accompanied me himself on a +second piano. We were there about six o'clock P. M. +Liszt was out, but he had left word that if we came we +were to wait. About seven he came in, and the lamps +were lit. He was in an awful humour, and I never saw +him so out of spirits. "How is it with our concerto?" +said he to me, for he had told me the time before +to send for the second piano accompaniment, and he +would play it with me. I told him that unfortunately +there existed no second piano part. "Then, child, +you've fallen on your head, if you don't know that at +least you must have a second copy of the concerto!" +I told him I knew it by heart. "Oh!" said he, in a +mollified tone. So he took my copy and played the +orchestra part which is indicated above the piano part, +and I played without notes. I felt inspired, for the +piano I was at was a magnificent grand that Steinway +presented to Liszt only the other day. Liszt was +seated at another grand facing me, and the room was<a name="page_264" id="page_264"></a> +dimly illuminated by one or two lamps. A few artists +were sitting about in the shadow. It was at the twilight +hour, "<i>l'heure du mystère</i>," as the poetic Gurickx +used to say, and in short, the occasion was perfect, +and couldn't happen so again. You see we always +have our lessons in the afternoon, and it was a mere +chance that it was so late this time. So I felt as if I +were in an electric state. I had studied the piece so +much that I felt perfectly sure of it, and then with +Liszt's splendid accompaniment and his beautiful face +to look over to—it was enough to bring out everything +there was in one. If he had only been himself +I should have had nothing more to desire, but he was +in one of his bitter, sarcastic moods. However, I went +rushing on to the end—like a torrent plunging +down into darkness, I might say—for it was the end, +too, of my lessons with Liszt!</p> + +<p>In answer to your musical questions, I don't know +that there is much to be told about conservatories of +which you are not aware. The one in Stuttgardt is +considered the best; and there the pupils are put +through a regular graded method, beginning with +learning to hold the hand, and with the simplest five +finger exercises. There are certain things, studies, etc., +which <i>all</i> the scholars have to learn. That was also +the case in Tausig's conservatory. First we had to +go through Cramer, then through the Gradus ad Parnassum, +then through Moscheles, then Chopin, Henselt, +Liszt and Rubinstein. I haven't got farther than +Chopin, myself, but when I went to Kullak I studied +Czerny's School for Virtuosen a whole year, which is<a name="page_265" id="page_265"></a> +the book he "swears by." I'm going on with them this +winter. It takes years to pass through them all, but +when you <i>have</i> finished them, you are an artist.</p> + +<p>I think myself the "Schule des Virtuosen" is indispensable, +much as I loathe it. First, there is nothing +like it for giving you a technique. It consists of passages, +generally about two lines in length, which +Czerny has the face to request you to play from twenty +to thirty times successively. You can imagine at that +rate how long it takes you to play through one page! +Tedious to the <i>last</i> degree! But it greatly equalizes +and strengthens the fingers, and makes your execution +smooth and elegant. It teaches you to take +your time, or as the Germans call it, it gives you +"<i>Ruhe</i> (repose)," the <i>grand sine qua non</i>! You learn +to "play out" your passages ("<i>aus-spielen</i>," as Kullak +is always saying); that is, you don't hurry or blur over +the last notes, but play clearly and in strict time to +the end of the passage. I saw Lebert, the head of +the Stuttgardt conservatory, here this summer, and +had several long conversations with him, and he told +me he considered Bach the best study, and put the +Well-Tempered Clavichord at the foundation of +everything. The Stuttgardters study Bach every day, +and I think it a capital plan myself. I have begun doing +it, too. It was a great thing for me, that quarter +of Bach that I took with Mr. Paine in Cambridge, +and was one of your inspirations, when you "builded +better than you knew."—I never <i>saw</i> a person with +such an instinct to find out the right thing as you +have! If it hadn't been for that, I should never have<a name="page_266" id="page_266"></a> +got so familiarized with Bach, or got into the way +of studying him for myself, as I have done a great +deal. It is as great for the fingers as it is "good for +the soul." Lenz, in his sketch of Chopin, says that +Chopin told him when he prepared for a concert he +never studied his own compositions at all, but shut +himself up and practiced Bach!</p> + +<p>However, I suppose it comes to the same thing in +the end if one studies Bach, Czerny, or Gradus, only +you must <i>keep at</i> one of them all the while. The +grand thing is to have each of your five fingers go +"dum, dum," an equal number of times, which is the +principle of all three! Tausig was for Gradus, you +know, and practiced it himself every day. He used to +transpose the studies in different keys, and play just +the same in the left hand as in the right, and enhance +their difficulties in every way, but <i>I</i> always found +them hard enough as they were written! Bach +strengthens the fingers and makes them independent. +Czerny equalizes them and gives an easy and elegant +execution, and Gradus is not only good for finger +technique—it trains the arm and wrist also, and +gives a much more powerful execution.</p> + +<p>I think that in all conservatories they have at least +six lessons a week, two solo, two in reading at sight, +and two in composition. Then there are often lectures +held on musical subjects by some of the Professors, +or by some one who is engaged for that purpose. +All large conservatories have an orchestra, composed +generally out of the scholars themselves, with a few +professionals hired to eke out deficiencies. With this<a name="page_267" id="page_267"></a> +the best piano scholars play their concertos once a +month, or once in six weeks. The number of public +representations varies in every conservatory. In the +Hoch Schule in Berlin they have two yearly in the +Sing-Akademie. Kullak <i>professes</i> to have <i>one</i>, but he +has so little interest in his scholars that he omits it +when it suits his convenience. In Stuttgardt I believe +they have four. I don't know much about the interior +arrangements of Kullak's conservatory, because +I only went to his own class. I lived too far away to +attempt the theory and composition class. Liszt says +that Kullak's pupils are always the best schooled of +any, which rather surprised me, because there is a certain +intimacy between him and Stuttgardt, and he +always recommends scholars to the Stuttgardt conservatory.</p> + +<p>The Stuttgardters do have immense technique, +and I think they are better taught how to study. It +strikes me as if Stuttgardt were the place to get the +machine in working order, but I rather think that +Kullak trains the head more. There is a young +American here named Orth, who studied two years +with Kullak, then he spent a year in Stuttgardt, and +now he is going to return to Kullak. He says he +thinks that not Lebert, but Pruckner, is the real backbone +of the Stuttgardt conservatory, but that even +with <i>him</i> one year is sufficient. Fräulein Gaul, on the +contrary, with whom Lebert has taken the greatest possible +pains, thinks him a magnificent master, and certainly +he has developed her admirably. It is probably +with him as with them all. If they take a fancy to<a name="page_268" id="page_268"></a> +you, they will do a great deal for you; if not, <i>nothing</i>! +Liszt is no exception to this rule. I've seen +him snub and entirely neglect young artists of the +most remarkable talent and virtuosity, merely because +they did not please him personally.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>October 8, 1873</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p><i>Voilà!</i> as Liszt always says. Here I am back again +in old Berlin, and if I ever felt "like a cat in a strange +garret," I do now. I left dear little Weimar two days +ago, and parted from our adored Liszt a week ago to-day. +He has gone to Rome. <i>Never</i> did I feel leaving +anybody or any place so much, and Berlin seems to +me like a great roaring wilderness. The distances are +so <i>endless</i> here. You either have to kill yourself walking, +or else spend a fortune in droschkies. The +houses all seem to me as if they had grown. There is +an immense number of new ones going up on all sides, +and the noise, and the crowd, and the confusion are +enough to set one distracted, after the idyllic life I've +been leading. Ah, well! <i>Es war eben</i> Z<small>U</small> <i>schön!</i> (It +was <i>too</i> beautiful!)</p> + +<p>Yesterday and to-day I've been looking about for a +new boarding-place. I've had two invitations to dinner +since my return, but everybody and everything +seems so dull and stupid, prosaic and tedious to me, +that I declined them both, and haven't given any of +my friends my address until I have had a little time +to let myself down gradually from the delights of +Weimar.<a name="page_269" id="page_269"></a></p> + +<p>Liszt was kindness itself when the time came to say +good-bye, but I could scarcely get out a word, nor +could I even thank him for all he had done for me. +I did not wish to break down and make a scene, as I +felt I should if I tried to say anything. So I fear he +thought me rather ungrateful and matter-of-course, for +he couldn't know that I was feeling an excess of emotion +which kept me silent. I miss going to him inexpressibly, +and although I heard my favourite Joachim +last night, even <i>he</i> paled before Liszt. He is on the +violin what Liszt is on the piano, and is the only artist +worthy to be mentioned in the same breath with him.</p> + +<p>Like Liszt, he so vitalizes everything that I have to +take him in all over again every time I hear him. I +am always astonished, amazed and delighted afresh, +and even as I listen I can hardly believe that the man +<i>can</i> play so! But Liszt, in addition to his marvellous +playing, has this unique and imposing personality, +whereas at first Joachim is not specially striking. +Liszt's face is all a play of feature, a glow of fancy, a +blaze of imagination, whereas Joachim is absorbed in +his violin, and his face has only an expression of fine +discrimination and of intense solicitude to produce his +artistic effects. Liszt never looks at his instrument; +Joachim never looks at anything else. Liszt is a complete +actor who intends to carry away the public, who +never forgets that he is before it, and who behaves accordingly. +Joachim is totally oblivious of it. Liszt +subdues the people to him by the very way he walks +on to the stage. He gives his proud head a toss, +throws an electric look out of his eagle eye, and seats<a name="page_270" id="page_270"></a> +himself with an air as much as to say, "Now I am +going to do just what I please with you, and you are +nothing but puppets subject to my will." He said to +us in the class one day, "When you come out on the +stage, look as if you didn't care a rap for the audience, +and as if you knew more than any of them. That's +the way I used to do.—Didn't that provoke the critics +though!" he added, with an ineffable look of malicious +mischief. So you see his principle, and that +was precisely the way he did at the rehearsal in the +theatre at Weimar that I wrote to you about. Joachim, +on the contrary, is the quiet gentleman-artist. He +advances in the most unpretentious way, but as he adjusts +his violin he looks his audience over with the +calm air of a musical monarch, as much as to say, "I +repose wholly on my art, and I've no need of any +'ways or manners.'" In reality I admire Joachim's +principle the most, but there is something indescribably +fascinating and subduing about Liszt's willfulness. +You feel at once that he is a great genius, and +that you <i>are</i> nothing but his puppet, and somehow you +take a base delight in the humiliation! The two +men are intensely interesting, each in his own way, +but they are extremes.</p> + +<p>[Beside his playing and his compositions, what Liszt +has done for music and for musicians, and why, therefore, +he stands so pre-eminently the greatest and the best +beloved master in the musical world, may appear to the +general reader in the following extract taken from a +translation in <i>Dwight's Journal</i>, Oct. 23, 1880, of "Franz +Liszt, a Musical Character Portrait" by La Mara, in the<a name="page_271" id="page_271"></a> +<i>Gartenlaube</i>: "We must count it among the exceptional +merits of Liszt, that he has paved the way to +recognition for innumerable aspirants, as he always +shows an open heart and open hands to all artistic +strivings. He was the first and most active furtherer of +the immense Bayreuth enterprise, and the chief founder +of the Musical Societies or Unions that flourish throughout +Germany. And for how many noble and philanthropic +objects has he not exerted his artistic resources! +If, during his earlier virtuoso career, he made his genius +serve the advantage of others far more than his own—saving +out of the millions that he earned only a modest +sum for himself, while he alone contributed many thousands +for the completion of Cologne Cathedral, for the +Beethoven monument at Bonn, and for the victims of +the Hamburg conflagration—so since the close of his +career as a pianist his public artistic activity has been +exclusively consecrated to the benefit of others, to artistic +undertakings, or to charitable objects. Since the end of +1847, not a penny has come into his own pocket either +through piano-playing and conducting, or through teaching. +All this, which has yielded such rich capital and +interest to others, has cost only sacrifice of time and +money to himself."]—E<small>D.</small><a name="page_272" id="page_272"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Kullak as a Teacher. The Four Great Virtuosi, Clara Schumann,<br /> +Rubinstein, Von Bülow, and Tausig.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>November 7, 1873</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I've been in a sort of mental apathy since I got +back—the result, I suppose, of so much artistic excitement +all summer. Of course I am practicing very +hard, and I am taking private lessons of Kullak again. +I played him my Rubinstein concerto two weeks ago +and told him I wanted to play it in a concert. He +says I need more power in it in many places, and by +practicing it every day I hope I shall at last work up +to it, as I've conquered the technical difficulties in it. +There were two pages in it I thought I never <i>could</i> +master. It is the same with all concertos. They are +fearfully difficult things to play, and far more difficult, +<i>I</i> think, than solos are, because the effort is so sustained. +They are to me the most interesting things +to listen to of all, and I can't imagine how you can +think that piano and orchestra are "not made to go +together." However, I never myself appreciated concertos +until I came to Germany. +Kullak is the most awfully discouraging teacher +that can be imagined. When you play to him, it is +like looking at your skin through a magnifying glass. +All your faults seem to start out and glare at you. I +don't think, though, that I ever fairly do myself justice<a name="page_273" id="page_273"></a> +when I play to him, because he has a sort of benumbing +effect on me, and I feel to him something the way +that Owen did to old Peter in Hawthorne's story of +"The Artist of the Beautiful." I can't help acknowledging +the truth of his observations even when I am +wincing under them, and I yet feel at the same time +that he does not wholly get at the soul of the thing. +Kullak is <i>so</i> pedantic! He <i>never</i> overlooks a technical +imperfection, and he ties you down to the technique +so that you never can give rein to your imagination. +He sits at the other piano, and just as you are +rushing off he will strike in himself and say, "Don't +hurry, Fräulein," or something like that, and then +you begin to think about holding back your fingers and +playing every note even, etc. Now I never expect to get +that perfection of technique that all these artists have +who have been training throughout their childhood +while their hand was forming. Kullak's own technique +is magnificent, but now that I've graduated, as it were, +he ought to let me play my own way, and not expect me +to play as <i>he</i> does, and then I could produce my own +effects. That is just the difference between him and +Liszt. Liszt's grand principle is, to leave you your +freedom, and when you play to him, you feel like a +Pegasus caracoling about in the air. When you play +to Kullak, you feel as if your wings were suddenly +clipped, and as if you were put into harness to draw +an express wagon! However, I don't think it would +be well to go to Liszt without having been through +such a training first, for you want to know what you +are about when you study with <i>him</i>. You must have<a name="page_274" id="page_274"></a> +a good solid <i>basis</i> upon which to raise his airy super-structures. +Kullak I regard as the basis.</p> + +<p>You ask me in your letter to write you a comparison—a +summing up—between Clara Schumann, Bülow, Tausig +and Rubinstein, but I don't find it very easy to do, as +they are all so different. Clara Schumann is entirely a +classic player. Beethoven's sonatas, and Bach, too, she +plays splendidly; but she doesn't seem to me to have +any <i>finesse</i>, or much poetry in her playing. There's +nothing subtle in her conception. She has a great deal +of fire, and her whole style is grand, finished, perfectly +rounded off, solid and satisfactory—what the Germans +call <i>gediegen</i>. She is a <i>healthy</i> artist to listen to, but +there is nothing of the analytic, no Balzac or Hawthorne +about her. Beethoven's Variations in C minor are, perhaps, +the best performance I ever heard from her, and +they are immensely difficult, too; I thought she did +them better than Bülow, in spite of Bülow's being such a +great Beethovenite. I think she repeats the same pieces +a good deal, possibly because she finds the modern fashion +of playing everything without notes very trying. +I've even heard that she cries over the necessity of doing +it; and certainly it is a foolish thing to make a point of, +with so very great an artist as Clara Schumann.—If +people could <i>only</i> be allowed to have their own individuality!</p> + +<p>Bülow's playing is more many-sided, and is chiefly distinguished +by its great vigor; there is no end to his +nervous energy, and the more he plays, the more the +interest increases. He is my favourite of the four. But +he plays Chopin just as well as he does Beethoven, and<a name="page_275" id="page_275"></a> +Schumann, too. Altogether he is a superlative pianist, +though by no means unerring in his performance. I've +heard him get dreadfully mixed up. I think he trusts +<i>too</i> much to his memory, and that he does not prepare +sufficiently. He plays everything by heart, and such +programmes! He always hits the nail plump on the +head, and such a grasp as he has! His chords take firm +hold of you. For instance, in the beginning of the two +last movements of the Moonlight Sonata, you should +hear him run up that arpeggio in the right hand so lightly +and pianissimo, every note so delicately articulated, and +then <i>crash-smash</i> on those two chords on the top! And +when he plays Bach's gavottes, gigues, etc., in the English +Suites, a laughing, roguish look comes over his +face, and he puts the most indescribable drollery and +originality into them. You see that "he sees the +point" so well, and that makes <i>you</i> see it, too. Yes, it +is good fun to hear Bülow do these things.—Perhaps +the best summing up of his peculiar greatness would +be to say that he impresses you as using the instrument +only to express ideas. With him you forget all +about the piano, and are absorbed only in the thought +or the passion of the piece.</p> + +<p>Rubinstein you've heard. Most people put him next +to Liszt. Your finding him cold surprised me, for if +there is a thing he is celebrated here for, it is the fire and +passion of his playing, and for his imagination and spontaneity. +I think that Tausig, Bülow, and Clara Schumann, +all three, have it all cut and dried beforehand, +how they are going to play a piece, but Rubinstein creates +at the instant. He plays without <i>plan</i>. Probably<a name="page_276" id="page_276"></a> +the afternoon you heard him he did not feel in the mood, +and so was not at his best. As a composer he far outranks +the other three.</p> + +<p>Tausig resembled Liszt more in that subtlety which +Liszt has, and consequently he was a better Chopin +player than anybody else except Liszt. I never shall +forget his playing of Chopin's great Ballade in G minor +the very first time I heard him in concert. It is a +divine composition, and his rendering of it was not only +all warmth and fervour; it was also so wonderfully +poetic that it fairly cast a spell upon the audience, and a +minute or two went by before they could begin to +applaud. It was like a dream of beauty suspended in +the air before you—floating there—and you didn't +want to disturb it. Tausig had an intense love +for Chopin, and always wished he could have known +him. I think that he had more virtuosity, and yet +more delicacy of feeling, than either Rubinstein or +Bülow. His finish, perfection, and above all his touch, +were above anything. But, except in Chopin, he was +cold, at least in the concert room. In the conservatory +he seemed to be a very passionate player; but, somehow, +in public that was not the case. Unfortunately, I had +studied so little at that time, that I don't feel as if I +were competent to judge him. He was Liszt's favourite, +and Liszt said, "He will be the inheritor of my playing;" +but I doubt if this would have been, for the winter before +Tausig died, Kullak remarked to me that his playing +became more and more "dry" every year, probably on +account of his morbid aversion to "Spectakel," as he +called it; whereas Liszt gives the reins to the emotions +always.<a name="page_277" id="page_277"></a></p> + +<p>When I was in Weimar I heard a great deal about +Tausig's <i>escapades</i> when he was studying there as a boy. +They say he was awfully wild and reckless at that time, +and Liszt paid his debts over and over again. Sometimes +in aristocratic parties, when Liszt did not feel like playing +himself, he would tell Tausig to play, and perhaps +Tausig would not feel like it, either. He had the most +enormous strength in his fingers, though his hands were +small, and he would go to the piano and pretend he was +going to play, and strike the first chords with such a +crash that three or four strings would snap almost immediately, +and then, of course, the piano was used up for +the evening!</p> + +<p>Tausig's father once procured him a splendid grand +piano from Leipsic, and shortly after, Tausig whittled +off the corners of all the keys, so as to make them more +difficult to strike, and his father had to pay a large sum +to have them repaired. Another time he was presented +with a set of chess-men, and the next day some one on +visiting him observed the pieces all lying about the floor. +"Why, Tausig, what has happened to your chess-men?" +"Oh, I wanted to see if they were easily broken, so I +knocked up the board." He seemed to be possessed with +a spirit of destruction. Gottschal told me that one time +when Tausig was "hard up" for money, he sold the +score of Liszt's Faust for five thalers to a servant, along +with a great pile of his own notes. The servant disposed +of them to some waste-paper man, and Gottschal, accidentally +hearing of it, went to the man and purchased +them. Then he went to Liszt to tell him that he had the +score. As it happened the publisher had written for it<a name="page_278" id="page_278"></a> +that very day and Liszt was turning the house upside +down, looking for it everywhere.</p> + +<p>At that time he was living in an immense house on +a hill here, that they call the Altenburg. Liszt occupied +the first floor, a princely friend the second, and +the top story was one grand ball-room in which were +generally nine grand pianos standing. They used to +give the most magnificent entertainments, and Liszt +spent thirty thousand thalers a year. He lived like a +prince in those days—very different from his present +simplicity. Well, he was in an awful state of mind +because his score was nowhere to be found. "A whole +year's labor lost!" he cried, and he was in such a rage, +that when Gottschal asked him for the third time +what he was looking for, he turned and stamped his +foot at him and said, "You confounded fellow, can't +you leave me in peace, and not torment me with your +stupid questions?" Gottschal knew perfectly well +what was wanting, but he wished to have a little fun +out of the matter. At last he took pity on Liszt, and +said, "Herr Doctor, <i>I</i> know what you've lost. It is +the score to your Faust." "Oh," said Liszt, changing +his tone immediately, "do you know anything of it?" +"Of course I do," said Gottschal, and proceeded to +unfold Master Tausig's performance, and how he had +rescued the precious music. Liszt was transported +with joy that it was found, and called up-stairs, "Carolina, +Carolina, we're saved! Gottschal has rescued +us;" and then Gottschal said that Liszt embraced +him in his transport, and could not say or do enough +to make up for his having been so rude to him. Well,<a name="page_279" id="page_279"></a> +you would have supposed that it was now all up with +Master Tausig; but not at all. A few days afterward +was Tausig's birthday, and Carolina took Gottschal +aside, and begged him to drop the subject of +the note stealing, for Liszt doted so on his Carl that +he wished to forget it. Sure enough, Liszt kissed +Carl and congratulated him on his birthday, and consoled +himself with his same old observation, "You'll +either turn out a great blockhead, my little Carl, or a +great master."</p> + +<p>Tausig had a great ambition to be a composer, and +in his early youth he published a number of compositions. +Later on he became intensely critical of his +own work, and finally bought up all the copies he +could lay hands on and burnt them! This is entirely +characteristic of his sense of perfection, which was +extreme, and may serve as an example to young composers +who are ambitious of saying something in +music, when very often they have nothing to say! +Indeed, I am often amazed at the temerity with which +men will rush into print, quite oblivious of the fact +that it requires enormous talent to produce even a +short piece of music that is worth anything. Only a +genius can do it.</p> + +<p>Tausig, in my opinion, <i>did</i> possess exceptional +genius in composition, though he left but few works +behind him to attest it. Prominent among these are +his unique arrangements of three of Strauss's Waltzes. +He had a passion for philosophy, and was deeply read +in Kant and Hegel. These "arrangements" betray his +metaphysical and tentative turn, and could only have<a name="page_280" id="page_280"></a> +been the product of the highest mental force and culture. +Calling the waltz itself the warp of the composition, +then through its simple threads we find darting +backwards and forwards a subtle, complicated and +tragic mind, an exquisitely refined and delicate sentiment, +and a piquante, aerial fancy, until finally is +wrought a brilliant and bewildering transcription—transfiguration +rather—of endless fascination and +tantalizing beauty, which no one but a virtuoso can +play and no one but a connoisseur can comprehend. +In a peculiar manner his music leaves a <i>stamp</i> upon +the heart, and to those who can appreciate it, Tausig, +as a composer, is a deep and irreparable loss.—If he +had not original ideas of his own, he certainly possessed +the power of putting an entirely new face on +those of others.<a name="page_281" id="page_281"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="WITH_DEPPE" id="WITH_DEPPE"></a>WITH DEPPE.</h2> + +<p><a name="page_282" id="page_282"></a></p> + +<p><a name="page_283" id="page_283"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Gives up Kullak for Deppe. Deppe's Method in Touch and<br /> +in Scale-Playing. Fräulein Steiniger. Pedal Study.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>December 11, 1873</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Since I last wrote you I have taken a very important +step, which is <i>this</i>: After taking three or four +lessons of Kullak <span class="smcap">I have given him up!</span> and am now +studying under a new master. His name is Herr Capelmeister +Deppe. I suppose you will all think me +crazed, but I think I know what I am about. He +seems to me a very remarkable man, and is to me the +most satisfactory teacher I've had yet. Of course I +don't count in the unapproachable Liszt when I say +that, for Liszt is no "<i>professeur du piano</i>," as he himself +used scornfully to remark.</p> + +<p>I made Herr Deppe's acquaintance quite by chance, +at a musical party given for Anna Mehlig by an American +gentleman living here. I had often heard of +him, and was very anxious to know him, but somehow +had never compassed it. He is a conductor, to begin +with, and I have often seen him conduct orchestral +concerts. In fact, that was what he first came to Berlin +for, a few years ago—to conduct Stern's orchestral +concerts during the latter's absence in Italy. Deppe +is an accomplished conductor, and I have never heard +Beethoven's second Overture to Leonora sound as I +have under his bâton.<a name="page_284" id="page_284"></a></p> + +<p>But it was Sherwood who first called my attention +to him as a teacher. He rushed into my room one +day, and said, "Oh, I've just heard the most beautiful +playing that ever I heard in my life!" I asked him +who it was that had taken him so by storm, and he +said it was a young English girl named Fannie Warburg, +and that she was a pupil of Deppe's. "Well, +what is it about her that is so remarkable," said I. +"Oh, <i>everything</i>!—execution, expression, style, touch—all +are <i>perfect</i>! I never heard anything to equal +her, and I feel as if I never wanted to touch the piano +again."</p> + +<p>This was such strong language for Sherwood, who +is generally very critical and anything but enthusiastic, +that my interest was immediately excited. He went +on to tell me that Deppe had been training this young +English girl, now only eighteen years of age, with the +greatest care, for six years, and that he had such an +interest in her that he did not confine himself to giving +her lessons only, but set himself to form her whole +musical taste by taking her to the best concerts and +to hear the great operas, calling her attention to every +peculiarity of structure in a composition, and giving +her all sorts of hints which only a man of profound +musical culture <i>could</i> give. Sherwood said, moreover, +that in summer he made her go to Pyrmont, which is a +watering place near Hanover, where he goes himself +every year, and that there he heard her play <i>every day</i> +Mozart's concertos and all sorts of things. I thought +to myself at the time that the man who would take so +much trouble for a pupil as that, would have been<a name="page_285" id="page_285"></a> +just the one for me, for it was easy to see that Deppe +was teaching more for the love of Art than for love of +money—a rare thing in these materialistic days! Afterward, +you know, Miss B. spoke to me about him in +Weimar, and I wrote you what she said.</p> + +<p>Well, as I was saying, I went to this musical party +given to Anna Mehlig, where there were a number of +musicians and critics. I was listening to Mehlig play, +when suddenly Sherwood, who was also present, stole +up to me and said, "Come into the next room and be +introduced to Deppe." At these magic words I started, +and immediately did as I was bid. I found Deppe in +one corner looking about him in an absent sort of way. +He was a man of medium height, with a great big +brain, keen blue eyes and delicate little mouth, and he +had a most cheery and sunny expression. He shook +hands, and then we sat down and got into a most animated +conversation—all about music. I told him how +interested I was by all I had heard of him—how I had +returned to Kullak for a last trial—how tired I was of +his eternal pedagogism, and how I should like to +study with <i>him</i>.</p> + +<p>He asked me what my chief difficulty was, whereupon +I answered "the technique, of course." He +smiled, and said "that was the smallest difficulty, and +that anybody could master execution if they knew how +to attack it, unless there was some want of proper +development of the hand." I said I had studied very +hard, but that I hadn't mastered it, and that there was +always some hard place in every piece which I couldn't +get the better of. He said he was sure he could remedy<a name="page_286" id="page_286"></a> +the deficiency, and that if I would show him my +hand without a glove, he could tell directly what I was +capable of. I wouldn't pull it off, however, because I +was afraid he might find some radical defect or weakness +in it, but I was so charmed with the way he made +light of the technique, and with the absolute certainty +he seemed to have that I could overcome it, +that I promised him that I would go and play to him +the following Wednesday.</p> + +<p>Accordingly on the following Wednesday I presented +myself. I had expected to stay about half an hour, +but I ended by staying <i>three solid hours</i>, and we talked +as fast as we could all the while, too! So you may +imagine we had a good deal to say. He lives in two +little rooms on the Königgrätzer Strasse, only four +doors from the W.'s, where I boarded for so long. +Now if I had only known I was close to such a teacher! +We must often have passed each other in the street, +and where <i>was</i> my good angel that he did not touch +my arm and say, "There's the man for you?"—Frightful +to think how near one may be to one's best happiness, +or even salvation, and not know it!</p> + +<p>Deppe's front room was pretty much filled up with +a grand piano, which, as well as the chairs and most +other articles of furniture, was covered with music. +I glanced over the pieces a little, and there was nearly +every set of Etudes under the sun, it seemed to me, as +well as concertos and pieces by all the great composers, +fingered and marked with pencil in the most +minute way. It was enough simply to turn the leaves, +to see what a study he must have made of everything<a name="page_287" id="page_287"></a> +he gave his scholars. His inner room had double +doors to it to prevent the sound from penetrating. I +rapped at the outside one, and presently I heard a +great turning and rattling of keys, and then they +opened, and Deppe was before me. He put out his +hand in the most cordial and friendly way, and greeted +me with the most winning smile in the world. I took +off my things and began to play to him. He listened +quietly, and without interrupting me. When I had +finished he told me that my difficulties were principally +mechanical ones—that I had conception and style, but +that my execution was uneven and hurried, my wrist +stiff, the third and fourth fingers<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a> very weak, the tone +not full and round enough, that I did not know how +to use the pedal, and finally, that I was too nervous +and flurried.</p> + +<p>"If possible, you must get over this agitation," said +he. "<i>Hören Sie Sich spielen</i> (Listen to your own playing). +You have talent enough to get over all your +difficulties if you will be patient, and do just as I tell +you." "I will do anything," I said. "Very good. But +I warn you that you will have to give up all playing +for the present except what I give you to study, and +<i>those</i> things you must play very slowly."</p> + +<p>This was a pleasant prospect, as I was just preparing +to give a concert in Berlin, under Kullak's auspices, +and had already got my programme half learned! +But I had "invoked the demon," and I felt bound to +give the required pledge.—So here I am, after four +years abroad with the "greatest masters," going back<a name="page_288" id="page_288"></a> +to first principles, and beginning with five-finger exercises! +I had never been given any particular rule for +holding my hand, further than the general one of +curving the fingers and lifting them very high. Deppe +objects to this extreme lifting of the fingers. He says +it makes a <i>knick</i> in the muscle, and you get all the +strength simply from the finger, whereas, when you +lift the finger moderately high, the muscle from the +whole arm comes to bear upon it. The tone, too, is +entirely different. Lifting the finger so very high, +and striking with force, stiffens the wrist, and produces +a slight jar in the hand which cuts off the singing +quality of the tone, like closing the mouth suddenly +in singing. It produces the effect of a blow +upon the key, and the tone is more a sharp, quick tone; +whereas, by letting the finger just fall—it is fuller, less +loud, but more penetrating. I suppose the hammer +falls back more slowly from the string, and that makes +the tone <i>sing</i> longer.</p> + +<p>Don't you remember my saying that Liszt had such +an extraordinary way of playing a melody? That it +did not seem to be so loud and cut-out as most artists +make it, and yet it was so penetrating? Well, dear, +<i>there</i> was the secret of it! "<i>Spielen Sie mit dem +Gewicht</i> (Play with weight)," Deppe will say. "Don't +strike, but let the fingers <i>fall</i>. At first the tone will +be nearly inaudible, but with practice it will gain every +day in power."—After Deppe had directed my attention +to it, I remembered that I had never seen Liszt +lift up his fingers so fearfully high as the other schools, +and especially the Stuttgardt one, make such a point of<a name="page_289" id="page_289"></a> +doing.<a name="FNanchor_G_7" id="FNanchor_G_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a> That is where Mehlig misses it, and is what +makes her playing so sharp and cornered at times. +When you lift the fingers so high you cannot bind the +tones so perfectly together. There is always a break. +Deppe makes me listen to every tone, and carry it over +to the next one, and not let any one finger get an +undue prominence over the other—a thing that is +immensely difficult to do—so I have given up all pieces +for the present, and just devote myself to playing +these little exercises right.</p> + +<p>Deppe not only insists upon the fingers being as +curved as possible, so that you play exactly on the +tips of them, but he turns the hand very much out, +so as to make the knuckles of the third and fourth +fingers higher than those of the first and second, and +as he does <i>not</i> permit you to throw out the elbow in +doing this, the <i>turn must be made from the wrist</i>. +The <i>thumb</i> must also be slightly curved, and quite free +from the hand. Many persons impede their execution +by not keeping the thumb independent enough of the +rest of the hand. The moment it contracts, the hand +is enfeebled. The object of turning the hand outward +is to favour the third and fourth fingers, and give them +a higher fall when they are lifted. This strengthens +them very much. It also looks much prettier +when the outer edge of the hand is high, and one of +Deppe's grand mottoes is, "When it <i>looks</i> pretty then +it is right."</p> + +<p>After Deppe had put me through five-finger exercises +on the foregoing principles, and taught me to lift<a name="page_290" id="page_290"></a> +each finger and let it fall with a perfectly loose wrist, +(a most deceitful point, by the way, for it took me a +long while to distinguish when I was stiffening the +wrist involuntarily and when I wasn't,) he proceeded +to the scale. He always begins with the one in E +major as the most useful to practice. His principle in +playing the scale is <i>not</i> to turn the thumb under! but +to turn a little on each finger end, pressing it firmly +down on the key, and screwing it round, as it were, on a +pivot, till the next finger is brought over its own key. +In this way he prepares for the thumb, which is kept +free from the hand and slightly curved.—He told me +to play the scale of E major slowly with the right +hand, which I did. He curved his hand round mine, +and told me as long as I played right, his hand would +not interfere with mine. I played up one octave, and +then I wished to go on by placing my first finger on F +sharp. To do that I naturally turned my hand outward, +so as to make the step from my thumb on E +to F sharp with the first, but it came bang up against +Deppe's hand like a sort of blockade. "Go on," said +Deppe. "I can't, when you keep your hand right in +the way," said I. "My hand isn't in the way," said he, +"but <i>your</i> hand is out of position."</p> + +<p>So I started again. This time I reflected, and when +I got my third finger on D sharp, I kept my hand +slanting from left to right, but I prepared for the turning +under of the thumb, and for getting my first finger +on F sharp, by turning my wrist sharply out. That +brought my thumb down on the note and prepared +me instantly for the next step. In fact, my wrist carried<a name="page_291" id="page_291"></a> +my finger right on to the sharp without any change +in the position of the hand, thus giving the most perfect +legato in the world, and I continued the whole +scale in the same manner. Just try it once, and you'll +see how ingenious it is—only one must be careful not +to throw out the elbow in turning out the wrist. As +in the ascending scale one has to turn the thumb under +twice in every octave, Deppe's way of playing +avoids twice throwing the hand out of position as one +does by the old way of playing straight along, and the +smoothness and rapidity of the scale must be much +greater. The direction of the hand in running passages +is always a little oblique.</p> + +<p>Don't you remember my telling you that Liszt has +an inconceivable lightness, swiftness and smoothness +of execution? When Deppe was explaining this to +me, I suddenly remembered that when he was playing +scales or passages, his fingers seemed to lie across the +keys in a slanting sort of way, and to execute these +rapid passages almost without any perceptible motion. +Well, dear, <i>there</i> it was again! As Liszt is a great experimentalist, +he probably does all these things by instinct, +and without reasoning it out, but that is why +nobodys else's playing sounds like his. Some of his +scholars had most dazzling techniques, and I used to +rack my brains to find out how it was, that no matter +how perfectly anybody else played, the minute Liszt +sat down and played the same thing, the previous playing +seemed rough in comparison. I'm sure Deppe is +the only master in the world who has thought that +out; though, as he says himself, it is the egg of Columbus—"when +you know it!"<a name="page_292" id="page_292"></a></p> + +<p>Deppe always begins the scale in the middle of the +piano, and plays up three octaves with the right, and +down three octaves with the left hand. He says that +all the difficulty is in going up, and that coming back +is perfectly easy, as all you have to do is to let the fingers +run! He always makes me play each hand separately +at first, and very slowly, and then both hands +together in contrary direction, gradually quickening +the tempo. After that in thirds, sixths, octaves, etc.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>December 25, 1873</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>As you may imagine, this is anything but a "Merry +Christmas" for me, for I am simply the most completely +<i>bouleversée</i> mortal in this world! Here I was +a month ago preparing to give a concert of my own. +Then I have the good or bad luck to make Herr +Deppe's acquaintance, and to find out how I "ought" +to have been studying for the last four years. I give +up Kullak and my concert plan, thinking I'll study +with Deppe and come out under his auspices. After +two lessons with him, comes your letter with the +news of this awful national panic in it.—<i>Could</i> +anything be worse for a person who has really <i>conscientiously</i> +tried to attain her object? I'm like the professor +who gave some lectures to prove a certain +theory, and when he got to the fourteenth, he decided +it was false, and devoted the remaining ones to pulling +it all down!</p> + +<p>However, after practicing the scale on Deppe's principles, +I find that they open the road to an ease, rapidity,<a name="page_293" id="page_293"></a> +sureness and elegance of execution which, with +my stiff hand, I've not been able to see even in the +dim distance before! One of his grand hobbies is <i>tone</i>, +and he never lets me play a note without listening +to it in the closest manner, and making it sound what +he calls "<i>bewüsst</i> (conscious)."—No more mechanical +"straying of the hands over the keys (as the novelists +always say of their heroines) thinking of all sorts +of things the while," but instead, a close pinning +down of the whole attention to hear whether one finger +predominates over the other, and to note the effect +produced. I was perfectly amazed to see how many +little ugly habits I had to correct of which I had not +been the least aware. It seems as though my ears had +been opened for the first time! Such concentration +is very exhausting, and after two or three hours' practice +I feel as if I should drop off the chair.</p> + +<p>I forgot to say before, that Deppe enjoins sitting +very low—that is—not higher than a common chair. +He says one may have "the soul of an angel," and yet +if you sit high, the tone will not sound poetic. Moreover, +in a low seat the fingers have to work a great +deal more, because you can't assist them by bringing +the weight of your arm to bear. "Your elbow must +be <i>lead</i> and your wrist a <i>feather</i>." Of course the seat +must be modified to suit the person. I prefer a low +seat myself, and have even had my piano-chair cut off +two inches.</p> + +<p>Before definitely deciding to give up Kullak and +come to <i>him</i>, Deppe insisted that I should hear one of +his scholars play. Fannie Warburg is in England on<a name="page_294" id="page_294"></a> +a visit, so I could not hear <i>her</i>, but he has another +young lady pupil of whom he is very proud, named +Fräulein Steiniger. This young lady had been originally +a pupil of Kullak's, and I had heard her play +once in his conservatory. She was a girl of a good +deal of talent, but not a genius. Deppe said that +when she came to him she had all my defects, only +worse. She has been studying with him in the most +tremendous manner for fifteen months, and he wanted +me to see what he had made of her in that time. She +was going to play in a concert in Lübeck, and he was +to rehearse her pieces with her on Saturday for the +last time. He begged me to come then, and accordingly +I went.</p> + +<p>I was very much struck by her playing, which was +remarkable, not so much for sentiment or poetry, of +which she had little, but for the <i>mastery</i> she had over +the instrument, and for the perfection with which she +did everything. There was a clarity and limpidity +about her trills and runs which surprised and delighted. +Her left hand was as able as the right, and had a way +of taking up a variation like nothing at all and running +along with it through the most complicated passages, +which almost made you laugh with pleasure! +There was a wonderful vitality, elasticity and <i>snap</i> to +her chords which impressed me very much, and a unity +of effect about her whole performance of any composition +which I don't remember to have heard from the +pupils of other masters. The position of the hand +was exquisite, and all difficulties seemed to melt away +like snow or to be surmounted with the greatest ease.<a name="page_295" id="page_295"></a> +I saw at a glance that Deppe is a magnificent teacher, +and I believe that he has originated a school of his +own.</p> + +<p>Fräulein Steiniger played a charming Quintette by +Hummel, a beautiful Suite by Raff, a Prelude and Fugue +by Bach, and two Studies, and all, as it seemed to +me, exactly as they <i>ought</i> to be played. After she had +finished, we had a long talk about Kullak. She said +she staid with him year after year, doing her very best, +and never arriving at anything. At last, as he did +nothing for her, she resolved to strike out for herself, +and went to Deppe, who was at that time conducting +Stern's orchestral concerts, and asked him if he would +not allow her to play in one of them. Deppe received +her with his characteristic kindness and cordiality, +but told her that before he could promise he +must first hear her in private, and he set a time for +the purpose.</p> + +<p>She had prepared Beethoven's great E flat Concerto, +which everybody plays here. It is as difficult for +Deppe to listen to that concerto as it is for Liszt to +hear Chopin's B flat minor Scherzo. "We poor conductors!" +he will exclaim, "will the artists <i>always</i> +keep bringing us Beethoven's E flat Concerto? Why +not, for once, the B flat, or a Mozart concerto? <i>Then</i> +we should say '<i>Ja, mit Vergnügen</i> (Yes, with pleasure).' +<i>Aber Jeder will grossartig spielen heutzutage</i> (But +everybody wants to play on a grand scale now-a-days). +The mighty rushing torrent is the fashion, but who can +do the wimpling, dimpling streamlet? Nobody has +any fingers for the <i>kleine Passagen</i> (little fine passages<a name="page_296" id="page_296"></a>). +Sie <i>haben</i>, Alle, <i>keine Finger</i> (<i>None</i> of them +have any fingers)." He then winds up by saying <i>he</i> is +the only man in Germany who knows how to give +them "fingers." "<i>Ich weiss worauf es ankommt</i> (<i>I</i> +know what it depends on)!"</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, he listened patiently for the thousandth +time to the E flat concerto, as Steiniger played +it. He then quietly called her attention to the fact +that <i>she</i> had "no fingers," and she was in perfect despair. +He saw that she was energetic and willing to +work, and he at once took her in hand and began to +drill her. She withdrew entirely from society and devoted +herself to practicing, following his directions implicitly. +She is now a beautiful artist, and he chalks +out every step of her career. I don't doubt she will +play in the Gewandhaus in Leipsic eventually, which +is the height of every artist's ambition, and stamps you +as "finished." Then you are recognized all over the +world. Deppe does not mean to let her play here till +she has first played in many little places and succeeded. +As he said to me the other day, "When you +wish to spring over tall mountains, you must first +jump over little mounds (<i>kleine Graben</i>.)" He +counsels me to take a lesson of this young lady every +day for a time, so as to get over the technical part +quickly.</p> + +<p>As for Deppe's young protégée, Fannie Warburg, +whom he has formed completely, everybody says that +she is wonderful. Fräulein Steiniger says that when +you hear her play you feel almost as if it were something +holy, it is so perfect and so extraordinarily spiritual.<a name="page_297" id="page_297"></a> +She is only eighteen. Deppe showed me the list +of compositions that she has already played in concerts +elsewhere, and I was astonished at the variety and +compass of it. Every great composer was represented.</p> + +<p>Among other refinements of his teaching, Deppe +asked me if I had ever made any pedal studies. I said +"No—nobody had ever said anything to me about the +pedal particularly, except to avoid the use of it in +runs, and I supposed it was a matter of taste." He +picked out that simple little study of Cramer in D +major in the first book—you know it well—and asked +me to play it. I had played that study to Tausig, and +he found no fault with my use of the pedal; so I sat +down thinking I could do it right. But I soon found +I was mistaken, and that Deppe had very different +ideas on the subject. He sat down and played it +phrase by phrase, pausing between each measure, to let +it "sing." I soon saw that it is possible to get as +great a virtuosity with the pedal as with anything else, +and that one must make as careful a study of it. +You remember I wrote to you that one secret of +Liszt's effects was his use of the pedal,<a name="FNanchor_H_8" id="FNanchor_H_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_H_8" class="fnanchor">[H]</a> and how he +has a way of disembodying a piece from the piano +and seeming to make it float in the air? He makes a +spiritual form of it so perfectly visible to your inward +eye, that it seems as if you could almost hear it breathe! +Deppe seems to have almost the same idea, though he +has never heard Liszt play. "The Pedal," said he, "is +the <i>lungs</i> of the piano." He played a few bars of a +sonata, and in his whole method of binding the notes<a name="page_298" id="page_298"></a> +together and managing the pedal, I recognized Liszt. +The thing floated!—Unless Deppe wishes the chord +to be very brilliant, he takes the pedal <i>after</i> the chord +instead of simultaneously with it. This gives it a very +ideal sound.—You may not believe it, but it is <i>true</i>, that +though Deppe is no pianist himself, and has the funniest +little red paws in the world, that don't look as if +they could do anything, he's got that same touch and +quality of tone that Liszt has—that indescribable +<i>something</i> that, when he plays a few chords, merely, +makes the tears rush to your eyes. It is too heavenly +for anything.<a name="page_299" id="page_299"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Chord-Playing. Deppe no "Mere Pedagogue." Sherwood.<br /> +Mozart's Concertos. Practicing Slowly.<br /> +The Opera Ball.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>January 2, 1874</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>When I had got the principle of the scale pretty well +into my head, what should Deppe rummage out but +Czerny's "<i>Schule der Geläufigkeit</i> (School of Velocity)," +which I hadn't looked at since the days of my +childhood and fondly flattered myself I had done with +forever. (We none of us know what stands before +us!) After having studied Cramer, Gradus and +Chopin, you may imagine it was rather a come down +to have to take to the School of Velocity again! And +to study it <i>very</i> slowly and with one hand only!! +That was adding insult to injury. Deppe knows what +he is about, though. He began picking out passages +here and there all through the book, and making me +play them, stretching from the thumb and turning on +the fingers as often as possible. After I have mastered +the passages I am to learn a whole study, first with +each hand alone, and then with both together!</p> + +<p>Deppe next proceeded to teach me how to strike +chords. I had to learn to raise my hands high over +the key-board, and let them fall without any resistance +on the chord, and <i>then sink with the wrist</i>, and take +up the hand exactly over the notes, keeping the hand<a name="page_300" id="page_300"></a> +extended. There is quite a little knack in letting the +hand fall so, but when you have once got it, the chord +sounds much richer and fuller.—And so on, <i>ad infinitum</i>. +Deppe had thought out the best way of doing +<i>everything</i> on the piano—the scale, the chord, the +trill, octaves, broken octaves, broken thirds, broken +sixths, arpeggios, chromatics, accent, rhythm—all! +He says that the principle of the scale and of the +chord are directly opposite. "In playing the scale +you must gather your hand into a nut-shell, as it +were, and play on the finger tips. In taking the chord, +on the contrary, you must spread the hands as if you +were going to ask a blessing." This is particularly +the case with a wide interval. He told me if I ever +heard Rubinstein play again to observe how he strikes +his chords. "Nothing cramped about <i>him</i>! He +spreads his hands as if he were going to take in the +universe, and takes them up with the greatest freedom +and <i>abandon</i>!" Deppe has the greatest admiration +for Rubinstein's <i>tone</i>, which he says is unequaled, but +he places Tausig above him as an artist. He said +Tausig used to come to his room and play to him, and +he took off Tausig's little half bow and way of seating +himself at the piano and beginning at once, without +prelude or wasting of words, very funnily! He would +scarcely take time to say "<i>Guten Abend</i> (Good Evening)." +Deppe thinks Tausig played some things +matchlessly, but that in others he was dry and soulless. +Clara Schumann, he says, is the most "musical" +of all the great artists—and you remember how immensely +struck I was with Natalie Janotha, who is +her pupil, and plays just like her.<a name="page_301" id="page_301"></a></p> + +<p>From my telling you so much about technicalities, +you must not think Deppe only a pedagogue. He is +in reality the soul of music, and all these things are +only "means to an end." As he says himself, "I always +hear the music the people <i>don't</i> play." No pianist ever +entirely suited him, and this it was that set him to +examining the instrument in order to see what was +the matter with it. He made friends with the great +virtuosi, and studied their ways of playing, and the +result of all his observation is that "Piano playing is +the only thing where there is something to be done." +He declares that there is so much musical talent going +to waste in the world that it is "lying all about +the streets," and he has a most ingenious way of +accounting for the fact that there are so many great +pianists in spite of their not knowing <i>his</i> method:—"Gifted +people," he says, "play by the grace of God; +but <i>everybody</i> could master the technique on <i>my</i> +system!!"</p> + +<p>To show you that it is not alone my judgment +of Deppe—four of Kullak's best pupils, including +Sherwood! left him for Deppe, after I did. They +got so uneasy from what I told them, that they went +to see Deppe, and as soon as they heard Fräulein Steiniger +play, they had to admit that she had got hold of +some secrets of which they knew nothing. Sherwood, +you know, is a positive genius, yet he is beginning all +over again, too. In short, we are all unanimous, while +Deppe, on his side, is much gratified at having some +American pupils.—He flatters himself that we will +introduce all his cherished ideas into our "new and +progressive country."<a name="page_302" id="page_302"></a></p> + +<p>Ah, if I had only studied with Deppe before I went to +Weimar! When I was there I didn't play half as +often to Liszt as I might have done, kind and encouraging +as he always was to me, for I always felt I +wasn't <i>worthy</i> to be <i>his</i> pupil! But if I had known +Deppe four years ago, what might I not have been +now? After I took my first lesson of Deppe this +thought made me perfectly wretched. I felt so dreadfully +that I cried and cried. When I woke up in the +morning I began to cry again. I was so afflicted +that at last my landlady, who is very kind and sympathetic, +asked me what ailed me. I told her I felt so +dreadfully to think I had met the person I ought to have +met four years ago, at the last minute, so.—"On the +contrary, you ought to rejoice that you have met him +<i>at all</i>," said she. "Many persons go through life without +ever meeting the person they wish to, or they don't +know him when they do."—Sensible woman, Frau von +H.!—After that I stopped fretting, and tried to believe +that there <i>is</i> "a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew +them how we may."</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>February 12, 1874</i>.</p> + +<p>I am now taking three lessons a week from Fräulein +Steiniger and one lesson of Deppe himself, and he says +I am almost through the technical preparation, though +I still practice only with one hand, and <i>very</i> slowly all +the time. Fräulein Steiniger says that she also practiced +slowly all the time for six months, as I am now +doing. In fact, she completely forgot how to play<a name="page_303" id="page_303"></a> +<i>fast</i>, and one day when Deppe finally said to her in +the lesson, "Now play fast for once," she could not +do it, and had to learn it all over again. Of course +she very soon got her hand in again, and now she has +the most beautiful execution, and can play <i>anything</i> +perfectly.</p> + +<p>Deppe wants me to play a Mozart concerto for two +pianos with Fräulein Steiniger, the first thing I play +in public. Did you know that Mozart wrote <i>twenty</i> +concertos for the piano, and that nine of them are +masterpieces? Yet nobody plays them. Why? Because +they are too hard, Deppe says, and Lebert, the +head of the Stuttgardt conservatory, told me the same +thing at Weimar. I remember that the musical critic +of the <i>Atlantic Monthly</i> remarked that "we should +regard Mozart's passages and cadenzas as child's play +now-a-days." <i>Child's play</i>, indeed! That critic, +whoever it is, "had better go to school again," as C. +always says!</p> + +<p>Deppe is remarkable in Mozart, and has studied him +more than anybody else, I fancy. Indeed, to turn +over his concertos, and see how he has <i>fingered</i> them +alone, is enough to make you dizzy. He is always saying, +"You must hear Fannie Warburg play a Mozart +concerto. <i>She</i> can do it!" and, indeed, I am most +anxious to hear her.</p> + +<p>It is ludicrous to hear Deppe talk about the artists +that everybody else thinks so great. Having been a +director of an orchestra for years, he has constantly +directed their concerts, and he weighs them in a relentless +balance! The other day he gave me Mendelssohn'<a name="page_304" id="page_304"></a>s +Concerto in G minor, and just at the end of the +first movement is a fearful break-neck passage for +both hands. "There!" cried Deppe, "that's a good +healthy place. <i>Nehmen Sie</i> D<small>AS</small> <i>für Ihr tägliches Gebet</i> +(Take <i>that</i> for your daily prayer). When you can play +it eight times in succession without missing a note, +I'll be satisfied. That is one of the places that when +the pianists come to, they get their foot hard on to the +pedal and hold on to it—<i>Herr Gott!</i> how they hold +on to it—and so <i>lie</i> themselves through." He said he +never heard anyone do it right except those to whom +he had taught it. Steiniger played it for me the other +day and it so astonished my ears that I felt like +saying, "<i>Herr Gott!</i>" too. It was as if some one had +snatched up a handful of hail and dashed it all over +me. Br-r-r-zip! how it did go!—Like a bundle of +rockets touched off one after the other. And yet this +concerto is one of those things that everybody thrums, +and is one of the regular pieces you must have in +your repertoire. Deppe was quite shocked to find I had +never learned it.</p> + +<p>My lesson usually lasts three hours! Nothing Deppe +hates like being hurried over a lesson. He likes to +have plenty of time to express all his ideas and tell +you a good many anecdotes in between! I usually +take my lessons from seven till ten in the evening. +Then he puts on his coat and saunters along with me +on his way to his "Kneipe," or beer-garden, for he is +far too sociable to go to bed without having taken a +friendly glass of beer with some one. Every block or +so he will stand stock still and impress some musical<a name="page_305" id="page_305"></a> +point upon my mind, and will often harangue me for +five or ten minutes before moving on. It seems to be +impossible to him to walk and <i>talk</i> at the same time! +In this way you may imagine it takes me a good while +to get home.</p> + +<p>On Tuesday there is to be a grand ball at the +opera house which the Emperor and the whole court +grace with their presence, and lead off the first Polonaise. +There are two of these grand public balls every +winter. The tickets are sold, and it is the sole occasion +where the public can have the felicity of gazing upon +royalty in close proximity. I have never been, though +all my German friends have been dinning it into my +ears for the last four years that I ought to go and see +it, for the decorations are magnificent. This year there +is to be but one, as the Emperor is not very well, and +I expect it will be as much as one's life is worth to get +in and get out again, such is the rush!</p> + +<p>The German officers waltz perfectly, and with great +spirit and elegance. Dancing is a part of their military +training and they are obliged to learn it. But +they are not very comfortable partners, for one rubs +one's face against their epaulets unless they are just +the right height, and you've no rest for your left hand. +They take only two turns round the room and then +stop a moment or two to fan you and rest—then they +take two more. The consequence is, one never gets +fairly going before one has to stop. At first I used to +think the effect of so many people whirling round in +the same direction dizzying and monotonous. But +when I became accustomed to it, the continual reversing<a name="page_306" id="page_306"></a> +of the Americans who come to Berlin struck me +as angular, in contrast to the graceful German circling. +It is not "the thing" here for the girls to look +flushed and disordered—skirts torn, and hair out of +crimp—as our belles do at the end of an evening. +They retire from the ball-room with their dresses in +faultless condition, so that going to parties in Germany +must cost the <i>pater familias</i> considerably less than +with us! The floor is never so crowded with dancers +at one time, and as they are going in the same direction, +they don't run into each other as our couples do. +On the other hand, they don't have such a "good +time" out of it as do our girls, with their long five +and ten minute turns to those delicious waltzes! +Strange, that though Germany is the native home of +the waltz, and the Vienna waltzes surpass all others, the +Schottisch or Rhinelaender should be their favourite +dance. They dance it very gracefully and rythmically.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>March 1, 1874</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I went the other evening to the Opera ball I wrote +you of in my last. The whole opera house, stage and +all, was floored over, and magnificently decorated with +evergreens, mirrors, fountains, and flowers. The +tickets are sold for some charitable purpose. Only +nice people can get in, because the whole thing is +systematically arranged, and nobody can give their +tickets to anybody else. I got mine through Mr. Bancroft, +and I went with two other ladies and a gentleman.<a name="page_307" id="page_307"></a></p> + +<p>We went very early, so as to get a box to sit in, and +<i>never</i> shall I forget the first effect of the ball-room! +That immense polished floor stretching out like one +vast mirror or sheet of ice, the fountains flashing at +the sides, the walls wreathed with green, a big orchestra +sitting in the balcony at each end, and about a hundred +pairs of magnificently dressed ladies and gentlemen +descending the stairs into the rooms and promenading +about. Light, diamonds, colour, everywhere. +Oh, it was perfectly fairy-like! The floor was built +over the tops of the chairs in the parquette, and the +entrance was through the royal box, which is just +in the centre of the opera house, facing the stage. +This box is like a large recess, of course, and not like +the ordinary boxes. There was an entrance on each +side, coming in from the corridor, and a flight of broad +steps, carpeted, had been improvised, which led from +it down to the floor. It looked perfectly dazzling to +see the pairs come in from both sides at once and descend +the steps, and the ladies' dresses were displayed +to perfection. Such toilets I never saw. The women +were covered with lace, feathers, and diamonds. The +simpler dresses were of tarletane (mine included!) +but as they were quite fresh they gave a very dressy +air. We had a splendid box, first rank, and the second +from the proscenium boxes on the left, in which sat +the royal family. In the box between us and the latter +sat the wife of the French ambassador with the Countess +von Seidlewitz and her sister, and behind them was +a formidable array of magnificent-looking officers in +full uniform, their breasts flashing with stars and +orders and silver chains.<a name="page_308" id="page_308"></a></p> + +<p>The Countess von Seidlewitz is a famous court beauty +and is lady of honour to the Princess Carl (sister of +the Empress). She sat just next to me, as only the +partition of the box was between us, and she was the +most beautiful woman I saw—perfectly imperial, in +fact—white and magnificent as a lily. Her features +were perfectly regular, and she had a proudly-cut +mouth, and such dazzling little teeth! Then, her +arms, neck, and shape were exquisite. She wore the +severest kind of dress, and one that only such beauty +could have borne. It was a white silk, with an immense +train, of course, and without overskirt—simply +caught up in a great puff behind. The waist was +made with a small basque, but very low, and with very +short sleeves. Round the neck was a white bugle +fringe, and there were two or three rows of this fringe +in front, graduating to the waist, smaller and smaller, +and going round the basque. All the front breadth +of the skirt was laid in folds of satin, in groups of +three, and on the edge of every third row was the +fringe again, graduating wider and wider toward the +bottom. In her hair she wore a wreath of white verbenas +or (snow-balls) and green leaves. Her sole ornament +was a magnificent diamond locket and ear-rings of +some curious design, the locket depending from a very +fine gold chain, which challenged all observers to notice +the faultlessness of her neck. One sly bit of coquetry +was visible in two natural flowers, lilies-of-the-valley, +with their leaves, which she had stuck in her +corsage so that they should rest against her neck and +show that they were not whiter than her skin.—You<a name="page_309" id="page_309"></a> +see there were no folds anywhere, as there was no overskirt, +but the whole dress hung in long lines and +showed the contour of the figure. Nothing but these +fringes (which gleamed and waved with every motion) +relieved it—not even a bit of black velvet anywhere, +for the lace round the neck was drawn through with +a white silk thread. There was another lady in the +same box whose dress was very beautiful, too, though +she herself was not. It was a green silk with green +tulle overdress puffed, and with ears of silver wheat +scattered over it. The tunic was of silver crape, the +bottom cut in scallops and trimmed with silver wheat. +A wisp of wheat was knotted round her neck for a +necklace, and a perfect sheaf of it in her hair. It was +an exquisite dress.</p> + +<p>At ten o'clock everybody had arrived—about two +thousand people. The orchestra struck up the Polonaise, +and the court descended from the box to make +the tour of the floor (<i>i. e.</i>, only the members of the +royal family with their ladies of honour). The Emperor +was not very well, so he remained in his box, +but the Empress led off with the Duke of Edinburgh, +who happened to be here. She was dressed in lavender +satin, covered with the most superb white lace. +Her hair was done in braids on the top of her head, +very high, and upon it was fastened a double coronet +of diamonds, stuck on in stars, etc., which flashed like +so many small suns. Round her neck depended from +a black velvet band, strings of diamonds of great size +and magnificence. It really almost made you start +when your eye caught them unexpectedly! The Empress<a name="page_310" id="page_310"></a> +is a very elegant-looking woman, and is every +inch a queen. She moved with stately step, bowing +and bowing graciously from side to side to the crowd +which parted and bent before her, and was followed +by the Crown Prince and Princess, the Princess Carl, +the Princess Friedrich Carl (a beauty) and her daughters, +and I don't know who all, with their ladies of +honour. When the Countess von Seidlewitz came +along, with her fringes waving and gleaming in front +of her, she shone out from all the rest, and, in fact, +from the whole two thousand guests, like the planet +Venus among the other stars.—Stunning!</p> + +<p>The orchestra banged away its loudest, and it was +quite exciting. The three balconies were crowded with +people, and all the boxes. The box of the diplomatic +corps was just opposite us, and our gay little Mrs. F. +sat in it dressed in white satin. Some of my friends +came and stood under my box and tried to get me to +come down, but I would not, for I knew I should lose +my place if I did, and, indeed, I would not want to +dance there unless my dress were something superlative. +You see, all the swells sat in their boxes and gazed +right down on the dancers, who had a circular place +roped off for them. De Rilvas, the Spanish minister, +looked so fine, however, with his broad blue ribbon +across his breast and his gold cross depending from +his neck, that I should have liked very well to have +made the tour of the room with him.<a name="page_311" id="page_311"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">A Set of Beethoven Variations. Fannie Warburg. Deppe's<br /> +Inventions. His Room. His Afternoon<br /> +Coffee. Pyrmont.</p></div> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>April 30, 1874</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I wish you were here now so that I could play you +a set of little variations by Beethoven called, "I've +only got a little hut." They are <i>bewitching</i>, and I +think I can now play them so as to express (as Deppe +says) "that he had indeed nothing but his little hut, but +was quite happy in it." In the last variation he dances +a waltz in his little hut! I have learned a great deal +from these tiny variations, taught in Deppe's inimitable +fashion. When I first took them to him I began +playing the second of the variations—which is rather +plaintive and seems to indicate that the proprietor of +the little hut had a misgiving that there <i>might</i> be a +better abode somewhere on the earth—with a great +deal of "expression," as I thought. I soon found out +I was overdoing it, however, and that it is not always +so easy to define where good expression stops and bad +style begins. "Why do you make those notes stick out +so?" asked Deppe, as I was giving vent to my "soul-longings," +(as P. says). "Learn to paint in <i>grossen +Flaechen</i> (great surfaces)." He made me play it +again perfectly legato, and with no one note "sticking +out" more than another. I saw at once that he was<a name="page_312" id="page_312"></a> +right about it, and that the effect was much better, +while it took nothing from the real sentiment of the +piece. It was one of those cases where a simple statement +was all that was necessary. Anything more detracted +from rather than added to it.</p> + +<p>I have at last heard Fannie Warburg in a Mozart +concerto, for she has got back from England. How +she did play it! To say that the passages "pearled," +would be saying nothing at all. Why, the piano just +<i>warbled</i> them out like a nightingale! The last +movement had the infectious gayety that Mozart's +things often have, with a magnificent cadenza by himself. +She rendered it so perfectly, and with such +naïve light-heartedness, that none of us could resist +it, and we all finally burst into a laugh! There was a +little orchestra accompanying, which Deppe had got +together and was directing. When she got to the +cadenza, he laid down his bâton, and retired to lean +against the door and enjoy it. She did it in the most +masterly manner, and O, it was <i>so</i> difficult! I thought +of the Boston critic, who considered Mozart's compositions +"child's play." They <i>are</i> child's play—that is, +they are <i>nothing at all</i> if they are not faultlessly +played, and every fault <i>shows</i>, which is the reason so +few attempt them. Your hand must be "in order," +as Deppe says, to do it.</p> + +<p>Fannie Warburg is a sweet little eighteen-year-old +maiden. A shy little bud of a girl without any vanity or +self-consciousness. She has a lovely hand for the +piano, and the way she uses it is perfectly exquisite. +It is small and plump, but strong, with firm little fingers.<a name="page_313" id="page_313"></a> +Every muscle is developed, and indeed it could +not be otherwise, after such a six years' training. One +of Deppe's rules is that when you raise the finger the +knuckle must not stick out. The finger must "sit +firm (<i>fest-sitzen</i>) in the joint." Fannie Warburg's +fingers "<i>sitzen</i>" so "<i>fest</i>" that when she plays she +positively has a little row of dimples where her knuckles +ought to be. It looks too pretty for anything—just +like a baby's hand. She does not seem to have the +slightest ambition, however, and I doubt whether she +will ever do anything with her music after she leaves +Deppe. Her mother was from Hamburg, and had +taken lessons of Deppe there when they were both +quite young. She thought him such a remarkable +teacher that she declared her daughter should have no +other master. So when Fannie was twelve years +old she brought her to him, and he has been giving +her lessons ever since—something like Samuel's mother +bringing him to the Temple, wasn't it?—and indeed +when I go into Deppe's shabby little room I always +feel as if I were in a little Temple of Music! I like +to see the furniture all bestrewn with it, and Deppe +himself seated at his table surrounded with piles of +manuscript, pen in hand, going over and arranging +them, bringing order out of chaos. Other orchestra +leaders are always writing and begging him to lend +them his copies of Oratorios, etc.</p> + +<p>Deppe has all sorts of practical little ideas peculiar to +himself. For instance, he has invented a candlestick to +stand on a grand piano. In shape it is curved, like +those things for candles attached to upright pianos, but<a name="page_314" id="page_314"></a> +with a weighted foot to hold it firm. It is a capital +invention, for you put one each side of the music-rack, +and then you can turn it so as to throw the light on your +music, just as you can turn those on the upright pianos. +It is on the same principle, only with the addition of the +foot. It is much more convenient than a lamp, because +it doesn't rattle, and you can throw the light on the +page so much better.—Then he always insists on our +having our pieces bound separately, in a cover of stout +blue paper, such as copy books are bound in. He entirely +disapproves of binding music in books. "Who will lug +a great heavy book along?" he will ask, "and besides, +they don't lie open well."</p> + +<p>The other day Deppe told me he wanted me to come +and hear Fräulein Steiniger take her lesson, as she had +some interesting pieces to play. I found her already +there when I arrived. Deppe was in an uncommonly +good humour, and kept making little jokes. She played +a string of things, and finally ended off with Liszt's +arrangement of the Spinning Song from Wagner's Flying +Dutchman. Deppe is dreadfully fussy about this +piece, and made some such subtle and telling points +regarding the <i>conception</i> of the composition, that they +were worthy of Liszt himself. I mean to learn it, and +when I come home I will play it to you as Deppe taught +it to Steiniger, and you will see how fascinating it is. I +know you'll be carried away with it.</p> + +<p>Toward the end of the lesson it was growing rather late, +and time also for Deppe's coffee, which beverage you know +the Germans always drink late in the afternoon, accompanied +with cakes. He had just laid down his violin, as<a name="page_315" id="page_315"></a> +he and Fräulein Steiniger had played a sonata together, +and had seated himself at the piano to show her about +some passage or other. Deeply absorbed, he was haranguing +her as hard as he could, when the maid of all +work suddenly entered with the coffee on a tray, and +was apparently about to set it down on the piano in +close proximity to the violin. "<i>Herr Gott, nicht auf die +Violin!</i> (Good gracious, not on the violin!)" exclaimed +Deppe, springing frantically up and rescuing the beloved +instrument. "Where then?" said the girl. "Oh, anywhere, +only not on the violin." She set it down on a +chair and vanished. There were only three chairs in the +room, and the sofa was covered with music. Fräulein +Steiniger occupied one chair, I the second, and the coffee +the third. Deppe glanced around in momentary bewilderment, +and then sat himself plump down on the floor, +took his coffee, stretched out his legs, and began stirring +it imperturbably. "But Herr Deppe!" remonstrated +Steiniger. "Well," said he, with his light-hearted laugh, +"what else can I do when I have no chair?" There was +no carpet on the floor, which was an ordinary painted +one, and he looked funny enough, sitting there, but he +enjoyed his coffee just as well!—After he had finished +drinking it, the shades of night were falling, and it +occurred to him it would be well to illuminate his +apartment. He is the happy possessor of five minute +lamps and candlesticks, no two of which are the same +height. The lamps are two in number, and are about +as big as the smallest sized fluid lamp that we used in old +times to go to bed by. The three candlesticks are of +china, and adorned with designs in decalcomania—<a name="page_316" id="page_316"></a>probably +the handiwork of grateful pupils, for in Germany +there is no present like a "<i>Hand-Arbeit</i> (something +done by the hand of the giver)." It is the correct thing +to give a gentleman. When Fräulein Steiniger and I +only are present, Deppe usually considers the two lamps +sufficient. But if others are there and he is going to +have some music in the evening, he will produce the +three minute candlesticks, with an end of candle in each, +light them, and dispose them in various parts of the +room. When, however, as on great occasions, the five +lamps and candlesticks are supplemented by two <i>more</i> +candles on the piano in the curved candlesticks of +Deppe's own invention, the blaze of light is something +tremendous to our unaccustomed eyes! Nothing short +of the Tuileries or the "Weisser Saal" at the palace here +could equal it!</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>May 31, 1874</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>This season with Deppe has been of such immense +importance to me, that I don't know <i>what</i> sum of money +I would take in exchange for it. By practicing in his +method the tone has an entirely different sound, being +round, soft and yet penetrating, while the execution of +passages is infinitely facilitated and perfected. In fact, +it seems to me that in time one could attain anything by +it, but time it <i>will</i> have. One has to study for months +very slowly and with very simple things, to get into the +way of playing so, and to be able to think about each +finger as you use it—to "<i>feel</i> the note and make it conscious." +Deppe won't let me finish anything at present,<a name="page_317" id="page_317"></a> +so I can't tell how far along I am myself. His principle +is, never to learn a piece completely the first time you +attack it, but to master it three-quarters, and then let it +lie as you would fruit that you have put on a shelf to +ripen;—afterward, take it up again and finish it. The +principle <i>may</i> be a good one, but it prevents my ever +having anything to play for people, and consequently I have +ceased playing in company entirely. In fact, I find it impossible, +and I don't see how Sherwood manages it. <i>He</i> has a +whole repertoire, and sits down and plays piece after +piece deliciously. But then he is a perfect genius, and +will make a sensation when he comes out. He has that +natural repose and imperturbability that are everything +to an artist, but which, unfortunately, so few of us possess. +His compositions, too, are exquisite, and so poetical! +Mrs. Wrisley,<a name="FNanchor_I_9" id="FNanchor_I_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_I_9" class="fnanchor">[I]</a> of Boston, and Fräulein Estleben, of +Sweden, who left Kullak when I did, are also gifted +creatures, whereas I think I am only a steady old poke-along, +who <i>won't</i> give up! Sherwood, however, is head +and shoulders above all of us.</p> + +<p>[The following extract, taken from the report in the +<i>Musical Review</i> of Mr. Sherwood's address before the +Music Teachers' National Association in Buffalo, in June, +1880, would seem to show that whether this distinguished +young virtuoso, now by far the leading American concert-pianist, +gained his ideas on the study of touch and +tone from Herr Deppe or not, he certainly endorses +them in both his playing and his teaching:—"It makes +a great deal of difference whether a piano be struck with +a stick, with mechanical fingers, or with fingers that are +full of life and magnetism. I have examined Rubinstein's<a name="page_318" id="page_318"></a> +hand and arm, and found that they are not only full of +life and magnetism, but that they are extremely elastic, +and the fingers are so soft that the bones are scarcely felt. +Can practice produce these qualities? I believe so, and I +make it a point both with my pupils and myself to practice +slow motions. It is much easier to strike quickly +than slowly, but practice in the slow movement will +develop both muscular and nervous power. And the +tone obtained by this motion is much better than that +obtained by striking. The mechanical practice in vogue +at Leipsic and other European conservatories often fails +because the subject of æsthetics and tone beauties are +neglected." See pp. 288, 302-3, 334.]—E<small>D.</small></p> + +<p>My lessons with Deppe are a genuine musical excitement +to me, always. In every one is something so +new and unexpected—something that I never dreamed +of before—that I am lost in astonishment and admiration. +The weeks fly by like days before I know it. +Deppe gives me the most beautiful music, and never +wastes time over things which will be of no use to me +afterward. Every piece has an <i>aim</i>, and is lovely, +also, to play to people. Now, in Tausig's and Kullak's +conservatories I wasted quantities of time over +things which are beautiful enough, and do to play to +one's self, but which are not in the least effective to +play to other people either in the parlour or in the concert-room—as +Bach's Toccata in C, for example. Such +things take a good while to learn, and are of no practical +advantage afterward. But Deppe has an organized +<i>plan</i> in everything he does.</p> + +<p>In my study with Kullak when I had any special<a name="page_319" id="page_319"></a> +difficulties, he only said, "Practice always, Fräulein. +<i>Time</i> will do it for you some day. Hold your hand +any way that is easiest for you. You can do it in <i>this</i> +way—or in <i>this</i> way"—showing me different positions +of the hand in playing the troublesome passage—"or +you can play it with the <i>back</i> of the hand if that will +help you any!" But Deppe, instead of saying, "Oh, +you'll get this after years of practice," shows me how to +conquer the difficulty <i>now</i>. He takes a piece, and while +he plays it with the most wonderful <i>fineness</i> of conception, +he cold-bloodedly dissects the mechanical elements +of it, separates them, and tells you how to use your hand +so as to grasp them one after the other. In short, he +makes the technique and the conception <i>identical</i>, as +of course they ought to be, but I never had any other +master who trained his pupils to attempt it.</p> + +<p>Deppe also hears me play, I think, in the true way, +and as Liszt used to do: that is, he never interrupts me +in a piece, but lets me go through it from beginning to +end, and <i>then</i> he picks out the places he has +noted, and corrects or suggests. These suggestions +are always something which are not simply for that +piece alone, but which add to your whole artistic experience—a +<i>principle</i>, so to speak. So, without meaning +any disparagement to the splendid masters to whom I +owe all my previous musical culture, I cannot help +feeling that I have at last got into the hands not of +a mere piano virtuoso, however great, but, rather, +of a profound musical <i>savant</i>—a man who has been a +violinist, as well as a director, and who, without being a +player himself, has made such a study of the piano, that<a name="page_320" id="page_320"></a> +probably all pianists except Liszt might learn something +from him. You may all think me "enthusiastic," +or even <i>wild</i>, as much as you like; but whether or not I +ever conquer my own block of a hand—which has every +defect a hand <i>can</i> have!—when I come home and +begin teaching you all on Deppe's method, you'll +succumb to the genius and beauty of it just as completely +as I have. You will <i>then</i> all admit I was +R<small>IGHT</small>!</p> + +<p>July 22.—I have finally made up my mind to go to +Pyrmont when Deppe does, and spend several weeks, +keeping right on with my lessons, and perhaps, giving a +little concert there. I have always had a curiosity to +visit one of the German watering places, as I'm told they +are extremely pleasant.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">P<small>YRMONT</small>, <i>August 1, 1874</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Here I am in Pyrmont, and there's no knowing where I +shall turn up next! Fräulein Steiniger got here before +me, but Deppe has not yet arrived from Brussels, whither +he has gone to be present at the yearly exhibition of the +Conservatoire there. He has been appointed one of the +judges on piano-playing. Pyrmont is a lovely little +place. It is in a valley surrounded by hills, heavily +wooded, and has a beautiful park, as all German towns +have, no matter how small. The avenues of trees surpass +anything I ever saw. The soil has something peculiar about +it, and is particularly adapted to trees. They grow to +an immense height, and their stems look so strong, and +their foliage is so tremendously luxuriant, that it seems +as if they were ready to burst for very life!<a name="page_321" id="page_321"></a></p> + +<p>Fräulein Steiniger went with me to look up some +rooms. Every family in Pyrmont takes lodgers, so +that it is not difficult to find good accommodations. +The women are renowned for being good housekeepers +and their rooms are charmingly fitted up, but the prices +are very high, as they live the whole year on what they +make in summer. People come here to drink the waters +of the springs, and to take the baths, which are said to +be very invigorating. My rooms are near the principal +"<i>Allée</i>" or Avenue, leading from the Springs. About +half way down is a platform where the orchestra sit +and play three times a day—at seven in the morning +(which is the hour before breakfast, when it is the thing +to take a glass or two of the water, and promenade a +little), at four in the afternoon, when everybody takes +their coffee in the open air, and at seven in the evening. +As I don't drink the waters I do not rise early, and am +usually awakened by the strains of the orchestra. There +is a little piazza outside my window where I take my +breakfast and supper. For dinner I go to "table-d'hôte" +at a hotel near.—It is a great relief to get out of +Berlin and see something green once more. I find the +weather very cool, however, and one needs warm clothing +here.</p> + +<p>There are the loveliest walks all about Pyrmont that +you can imagine, and beautiful wood-paths are cut along +the sides of the hills. My favourite one is round the cone +of a small hill to the right of the town. The path completely +girdles it, and you can start and walk round the +hill, returning to the point you set out from. It is like<a name="page_322" id="page_322"></a> +a leafy gallery, and before and behind you is always this +curving vista. Whenever I take the walk it reminds me +of—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"Curved is the line of beauty,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Straight is the line of duty;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Follow the last and thou shalt see</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> The other ever following thee."</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>It is the first time I ever succeeded in combining the +carved and the straight line at the same time—because, +of course, it is my <i>duty</i> to take exercise!<a name="page_323" id="page_323"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">The Brussels Conservatoire. Steiniger. Excursion to Kleinberg.<br /> +Giving a Concert. Fräulein Timm.</p></div> + +<p class="r">P<small>YRMONT</small>, <i>August 15, 1874</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Deppe has got back from Brussels, and, as you may +imagine, he had much to tell about his flight into the +world, particularly as he had also been to London. +He had a delightful time with the professors of the +Brussels Conservatoire, who were all extremely polite +to him, and he heard some talented young pupils. +There was one girl about seventeen, whom he said +he would give a good deal to have as <i>his</i> pupil, +so gifted is she, though her playing did not suit him +in many respects. He said he could have made some +severe criticisms, but he refrained—partly because he +felt the uselessness of it, partly because he says "it <i>is</i> +extraordinary how amiable one gets when <i>young ladies</i> +are in question!" He was very enthusiastic over the +violin classes. "What a bow the youngsters do draw!" +he exclaimed. Dupont, the great piano teacher in Brussels, +must be a man of considerable "<i>esprit</i>," judging +from the two of his compositions that I am familiar +with—the "Toccata" and the "Staccato." I used to hear +a good deal about him from his pupil Gurickx, whom +I met in Weimar. Certainly Gurickx played magnificently, +and with a <i>brio</i> I have rarely heard equalled. +He is like an electric battery. Quite another school,<a name="page_324" id="page_324"></a> +however, from Deppe's—the severe, the chaste and the +classic! Extreme <i>purity of style</i> is Deppe's characteristic, +and not the passionate or the emotional. For +instance, he has scarcely given me any Chopin, but +keeps me among the classics, as he says on that side +my musical culture has been deficient. He says that +Chopin has been "so played to death that he ought to +be put aside for twenty years!"—But if Chopin were +really sympathetic to him he could never say <i>that</i>! The +truth is, the modern "problematische Natur" has no +charms for a transparent and simple temperament like +his.</p> + +<p>Steiniger has been playing most beautifully lately. +She has given two concerts of her own here, and has +played at another. Then she rehearsed with orchestra +Mozart's B flat major concerto—the most difficult +concerto in the world, and oh, <i>so</i> exquisite! Though +I had long wished to do so, I never had heard it +before, and as I listened I felt as if I never could leave +Deppe until I could play <i>that</i>! I wish you could have +heard it. It is sown with difficulties—enough to make +your hair stand on end! Steiniger played it with an +ease and perfection truly astonishing. The notes +seemed fairly to run out of her fingers for fun. The last +movement was Mozart all over, just as merry as a +cricket!—I doubt whether anybody can play this concerto +adequately who has not studied with Deppe. +The beauty of his method is that the greatest difficulties +become play to you.</p> + +<p>I love to see Deppe direct the orchestra when Steiniger +plays a concerto of Mozart. His clear blue eyes<a name="page_325" id="page_325"></a> +dance in his head and look so sunny, and he stands so +light on his feet that it seems as if he would dance off +himself on the tips of his toes, with his bâton in his +hand! He is the incarnation of Mozart, just as Liszt +and Joachim are of Beethoven, and Tausig was of +Chopin. He has a marvellously delicate musical organization, +and an instinct how things ought to be played +which amounts to second sight. Fräulein Steiniger +said to him one day: "Herr Deppe, I don't know why +it is, but I can't make the opening bars of this piece +sound right. It doesn't produce the impression it +ought." "I know why," said Deppe. "It is because +you don't strike the chord of G minor before you begin,"—and +so it was. When she struck the chord of G +minor, it was the right preparation, and brought you +immediately into the mood for what followed. It +<i>fixed</i> the key.</p> + +<p>Aside from music, Deppe, like all artists, has the +most childlike nature, and I think Mozart is so +peculiarly sympathetic to him because he has such a +simple and sunny temperament himself. We made +a beautiful excursion the other day in carriages, through +the hills, to a little village far distant, where we drank +coffee in the open air. Deppe, who knows every foot +of the ground about Pyrmont, which he has frequented +from his youth up, kept calling our attention to all +the points of the scenery over and over again with the +greatest delight, quite forgetting that he repeated the +same thing fifty times. "That little village over there +is called Kleinberg. It has a school and a church, and +the pastor's name is Koehler," he would say to me<a name="page_326" id="page_326"></a> +first. Then he would repeat it to every one in our +carriage. Then he would stand up and call it over to +the carriage behind us. Then when he had got out +he said it to the assembled crowd, and as I walked on +in advance with Fräulein Estleben, the last thing I +heard floating over the hill-top was, "The pastor's +name is Koehler,"—so I knew he was still instructing +some one in the fact. "I wonder how often Deppe +has repeated that?" I said to Fräulein Estleben. "At +least fifty times," said she, laughing. "I'm going back +to him and ask him once more what the name of the +pastor is." So I went back, and said, "By the way, +Herr Deppe, what did you say the name of the pastor +of that village is?" "<i>Koehler</i>," said dear old Deppe, +with great distinctness and with such simple good faith +that I felt reproached at having quizzed him, though +the others could scarcely keep their countenances, as +they knew what I was after.</p> + +<p>I have been preparing for some time to give a concert +of Chamber Music in the salon of the hotel here, and expect +it to take place a week from to-day. My head feels +quite <i>lame</i> from so much practicing, the consequence, I +suppose, of so much listening. I am to play a Quintette, +Op. 87, in E major, by Hummel, for piano and +strings, and a Beethoven Sonata, Op. 12, in E flat, for +violin and piano, and the other instruments will play a +Quartette by Haydn in between. It is a beautiful little +programme, I think—every piece perfect of its kind. +If I succeed in this concert as I hope, I shall probably +listen to Deppe's implorings and remain under his +guidance another season. Deppe believes that one<a name="page_327" id="page_327"></a> +<i>must</i> go through successive steps of preparation before +one is fitted to attack the great concert works. I've +found out (what he took good care not to tell me in +the beginning!) that his "course" is three years!! +and you can't hurry either him or his method. Your +fingers have got to grow into it.—I do not at all +regret, with you, not having hitherto played in concert; +on the contrary, I think it providential that I +did not. You see, you and I started out with wholly +impracticable and ridiculous ideas. We thought that +things could be done quickly. Well, they <i>can't</i> be +done quickly and be worth anything. One must +keep an end in view for years and gradually work up +to it. The length of time spent in preparation has to +be the same, whether you begin as a child (which is +the best, and indeed the only proper way), or whether +you begin after you have grown up. It is a ten years' +labour, take it how you will.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">P<small>YRMONT</small>, <i>August 15, 1874</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>My concert came off yesterday evening, and Deppe +says it was a complete success. I did not play any +solos, after all, though I had prepared some beautiful +ones, for Deppe said the programme would be too +long, and he was not quite sure of my courage. +"You'd be frightened, if you were a <i>Herr Gott</i>!" said +he; but, contrary to my usual habit, I wasn't frightened +in the least, and I think I did as well as such a +shaky, trembly concern as I, could have expected, particularly<a name="page_328" id="page_328"></a> +as my hands are two little fiends who <i>won't</i> +play if they don't feel like it, do what I will to make +them!—My programme was <i>à la</i> Joachim (!)—only +three pieces of Chamber Music:—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left">1.</td><td align="left">Quintette, Op. 87, E major,</td><td align="left">Hummel.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">2.</td><td align="left">Quartette, G major,</td><td align="left">Haydn.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">3.</td><td align="left">Sonata for piano and violin, Op. 12, E flat. </td><td align="left">Beethoven.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Deppe arranged the whole thing most practically. +We had a large <i>salle</i> in the Hotel Bremen which was +admirably proportioned, and a new grand piano from +Berlin. Deppe had only so many chairs placed as he +had given out invitations, and the consequence was +that every chair was filled, and there were no rows of +empty seats. My "public" was very musical and +critical, and there were so many good judges there +that I wonder I wasn't nervous; but a sort of inspiration +came to me at the moment.</p> + +<p>The musicians who accompanied me were exceedingly +good ones for such a place as Pyrmont, and my +strictly <i>classic</i> selections were received with great +favour by the audience! That quintette of Hummel's +is a most charming composition—so flowing and elegant—and +one can display a good deal of virtuosity in +the last part of it. I played first and last, and the +quartette in between was performed by the stringed +instruments alone. After I had finished the quintette, +Deppe, who was at the extreme end of the hall, +sent me word that I was "doing famously, and that +he was delighted," and this encouraged me so that my<a name="page_329" id="page_329"></a> +sonata went beautifully, too. When it was over, ever +so many people came up and congratulated me, and +Fräulein Timm, Deppe's head teacher in Hamburg, +even complimented me on my "extraordinary facility +of execution." I couldn't help laughing at that, with +my stubborn hand which never will do anything, and +which only the most intense study has schooled—but +in truth I was quite surprised myself at the plausible +way in which it went over all difficulties! Quite a +number of Deppe's scholars were present, all of them +critics and several of them beautiful pianists. Two +nice American girls, sisters, from the West, came on +from Berlin on purpose for my concert. They helped +me dress, and presented me with an exquisite bouquet. +One of them is taking lessons of Deppe, and the other +has a great talent for drawing, and has been two +years studying in Berlin. She says she has only made +a "beginning" now, and that she wishes to study +"indefinitely" yet.—So it is in Art! I think her +heads are excellent already.</p> + +<p>After the concert was over, Deppe gave me a little +champagne supper, together with Fräuleins Timm, +Steiniger, and these two young ladies. When he +poured out the wine he said he was going to propose +a toast to two ladies; one of them, of course, was +myself, "and the other," said he, "is in America, +namely, the friend of Fräulein Fay, whom I judge to +be a woman of genius, so truly and rightly does she +feel about art (I've translated H's letters to him), +and so nobly has she sympathized with and stood by +Fräulein Fay.—To Mrs. A., whose acquaintance I long<a name="page_330" id="page_330"></a> +to make!"—You may be sure I drank to <i>that</i> toast +with enthusiasm. Ah, it was a pleasant evening, +after so many years of fruitless toil! The fat +and jolly old landlord came himself to put me +into the carriage and to say that everybody in the +audience had expressed their pleasure and gratification +at my performance. I rather regret now that I +did not play my solos, but perhaps it is just as well to +leave them until another time. I have "sprung over +one little mound"—to use Deppe's simile—and got an +idea of the impetus that will be necessary to "carry +me over the mountain."</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">P<small>YRMONT</small>, <i>September 4, 1874</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>After the unwonted exaltation of the success of +my little concert, I have been suffering a corresponding +reaction, partly because Fräulein Timm, +Deppe's Hamburg assistant, with whom I am now +studying, began her instructions, as teachers always +do, by chucking me into a deeper slough of despond +than usual. Consequently, I haven't been very bright, +though I am gradually coming up to the surface +again, for I'm pretty hard to drown!</p> + +<p>Fräulein Timm belongs to the single sisterhood, +but is one of the fresh and placid kind, and as neat as +wax. She's got a great big brain and a remarkable gift +for teaching, for which she has a <i>passion</i>. I quite +adore her when she gets on her spectacles, for then +she looks the personification of Sagacity! She has<a name="page_331" id="page_331"></a> +been associated with Deppe for years in teaching, and +"keeps all his sayings and ponders them in her heart." +Indeed, she knows his ideas almost better than he +does himself, and carries on the whole circle of pupils +that he left in Hamburg when he came to Berlin. +Every now and then he runs down to see how they +are getting on, gives them all lessons, reviews what +they have done, and brings Fräulein Timm all the +new pieces he has discovered and fingered. She also +comes occasionally to Berlin to see him, takes a lesson +every day, fills herself with as many new ideas as possible, +and then returns to her post. Together, they +form a very strong pair, and I think it a capital illustration +of your theory that men ought to associate +women with them in their work, and that "men +should <i>create</i>, and women <i>perfect</i>."</p> + +<p>Deppe makes Fräulein Timm and Fräulein Steiniger +his partners and associates in his ideas, and +the consequence is they add all their ingenuity to +impart them to others. This spares him much of the +tedious technical work, and leaves him free for the +higher spheres of art, as they take the beginners and +prepare them for him. <i>He</i> has made <i>them</i> magnificent +teachers, and they employ their gifts to further +<i>him</i>. I don't doubt that through them his method +will be perpetuated, and even if he should die it would +not be lost to the world. On the other hand, he +has given them something to live for.—Curious that +the <i>practicalness</i> of this association with women +doesn't strike the masculine mind oftener!</p> + +<p>So I am going down to Hamburg to study for a<a name="page_332" id="page_332"></a> +time with this Fräulein Timm, as I think she will +develop my hand quicker than Deppe, even. Deppe +has always urged me to it, but I never would do it, +as I did not know her personally, and did not wish to +leave him. Now that I have tried her, however, I find +he was right, as he <i>always</i> is! At present she is +throwing her whole weight upon my wrist, which I +hope will get limber under it! She has an obstinacy +and a perseverance in sticking at you that drive +you almost wild, but make you learn "lots" in +the end. I think my grand trouble all these years has +been a stiff wrist and a heavy arm. I have borne +down too heavily on wrist and arm, whereas the whole +weight and power must be just in the tips of the +fingers, and the wrist and arm must be quite light +and free, the hand turning upon the wrist as if it +were a pivot.</p> + +<p>Pyrmont is an exquisite little place, and I regret to +leave it. At first I almost perished with loneliness, +but now that I have a few acquaintances here I am +enjoying it. It is a fashionable watering place, but +chiefly visited by ladies. There are about a hundred +women to one man! The first week I was here I +lived at a Herr S.'s, but finding it too expensive I +looked up another lodging and am now living with a +jolly old maid. I like living with old maids. I think +they are much neater than married women, and they +make you more comfortable. As the season is now +over, this one's house is quite empty, and it is exquisitely +kept. I took two rooms in the third story, +small but very cozy, and with a lovely view of the +hills.<a name="page_333" id="page_333"></a></p> + +<p>We have just had the loveliest illumination I ever +saw. It was one Sunday evening—"Golden Sunday" +they call it here, though why they <i>should</i> call it so, I +know not. I accepted the information, however, without +inquiry into first causes, and went out in the evening +to promenade in the Allée with the rest. The +Allée is not all on a level, but descends gradually +from the springs to a fountain which is at the opposite +end. Rows and rows of Japanese lanterns +were festooned across the trees. As you walked down +the path, you saw the festoons one below the other. +The fountain was illuminated with gas jets behind +the water. You could not see the water till you got +close up, and at a distance only the rows of gas jets were +apparent. As you neared it, however, the watery veil +seemed flung over them, like the foamy tulle over +a bride. It was very fascinating to look at, and I +kept receding a few paces and then returning. As I +receded, the watery veil would disappear, and as +I approached it would again take form. It reminded +me of some people's characters, of which you see the +bright points from the first, and think you know them +so well, but when you draw closer, even in the moments +of greatest intimacy, you always feel a veil +between you and them—a thin, impalpable something +which you cannot annihilate, even though you may +see <i>through</i> it.</p> + +<p>We walked up and down the Allée a long time listening +to the orchestra, which was playing. The +magnificent great trees looked more beautiful than +ever, with their lower boughs lit up by the lanterns,<a name="page_334" id="page_334"></a> +and their upper ones disappearing mysteriously into +shadow. At last the tapers in the lanterns burned out +one after another, the avenue was wrapped in gloom, +and we finished this poetic evening in the usual +prosaic manner by returning home and going to bed!<a name="page_335" id="page_335"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cb">Music in Hamburg. Studying Chamber Music. Absence<br /> +of Religion in Germany. South Americans.<br /> +Deppe once more. A Concert<br /> +Début. Postscript.</p></div> + +<p class="r">H<small>AMBURG</small>, <i>February 1, 1875</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Hamburg is a lovely city, though I <i>am</i> having such a +dreadfully dreary and stupid time here—partly because +my boarding-place is so intensely disagreeable, and +partly because I made up my mind when I came to +make no acquaintances and to do nothing but study. +I have stuck to my resolution, though I'm not sure it +is not a mistake, for there is a most elegant and luxurious +society in this ancestral town of ours.<a name="FNanchor_J_10" id="FNanchor_J_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_J_10" class="fnanchor">[J]</a></p> + +<p>Life is solid and material here, however, and music is +at a low ebb. The Philharmonic concerts are wretched, +and nobody goes to even the few piano concerts there +are. That little Laura Kahrer, now Frau Rappoldi, that +I heard in Weimar at Liszt's, has been wanting to come +here with her husband, who is an eminent violinist, but +she has not dared to do it, because all the musicians +tell her she would not make her expenses. She played +at the Philharmonic, too, but since then they won't +have any more piano playing at the Philharmonic.<a name="page_336" id="page_336"></a> +Nobody cares for it, unless Bülow or Rubinstein or +Clara Schumann are the performers. I thought Frau +Rappoldi played magnificently, but I was the only person +who <i>did</i> think so. She made a dead failure here. +Everybody was down on her. As to the criticism, it was +about like this: "Frau Rappoldi played quite prettily +and in a lady-like manner, but she had no tone, +etc." Poor thing! The next day when Schubert +went to see her she wept bitterly, and well she might. +Schubert is one of the directors of the Philharmonic, +and it was through him she got the chance of playing. +He, too, felt awfully cut up at her want of success. +"That is what one gets," said he to me, "by recommending +people. If they don't succeed, <i>you</i> get all +the blame for it." He felt he had burnt his fingers! +I think the whole secret of Frau Rappoldi's want of +success was that she did not <i>look</i> pretty. She was so +dowdily dressed, and her hair looked like a Feejee +Islander's. People laughed at her before she began. +Too true!—that "dress makes the woman."<a name="FNanchor_K_11" id="FNanchor_K_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_K_11" class="fnanchor">[K]</a></p> + +<p>Deppe's darling Fannie Warburg gave a concert here +last month, and she, also, got a pretty poor criticism, +and for the same reason, viz.: people haven't the musical +sense to appreciate her—at least in my opinion. The +action of her hands on the piano is grace itself, and +the elasticity of her wrist is wonderful. Her touch +completely realizes Deppe's ideal of "letting the notes +fall from the finger-tips like drops of water," and she +executes better with the left hand, if that be possible, +than with the right! At any rate, there is <i>no</i> difference.<a name="page_337" id="page_337"></a> +It is the most heavenly enjoyment to hear her, +and you feel as if you would like to have her go on +forever. And yet, I don't believe she will make a great +career. She has not fire enough to make the public appreciate +the immensity of her performance. No rush—no +<i>abandon</i>! She has no <i>presence</i> either, but is a +timid, meek, childlike little maiden—docility itself, but +a <i>made</i> player, as it were, not a spontaneous one. Such +is life! To me, her playing is the purest music—"<i>die +reine Musik</i>"—and the bigger the hall the more that +<i>tone</i> of hers rolls out and fills it!</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">H<small>AMBURG</small>, <i>March 1, 1875</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I wish I could write up Deppe's system for publication, +but it is a very difficult thing to give any adequate +idea of. Fräulein Timm tells me it is only +comparatively recently that he has perfected it himself +to its present point (though he has long had the +conception of it), and that accounts for its not being +known. He was completely buried in Hamburg, +where there is no scope for art. I believe his ambition +is to found a School of this exquisitely pure and perfect +and almost idealized piano-playing, which may +serve as a counterpoise to the warmer and more sensuous +prevailing one—<i>sculpture</i> as contrasted with +<i>painting</i>!</p> + +<p>I have been chiefly studying <i>Kammer-Musik</i> (Chamber +Music) this winter—that is, trios, quartettes, etc. +Fräulein Timm is giving me such a training as I never +had before. She has the most astonishing talent for<a name="page_338" id="page_338"></a> +teaching, and has reduced it to a science. I don't play +anything up to tempo under her—always slow, slow, +<i>slow</i>. She really dissects every tone, and shows me +when and why it doesn't sound well. My whole attention +is now bent upon <i>tone</i>. Ah, M., <i>that's</i> the thing +in playing!—To bring out the <i>soul</i> there is in the key +simply by touching it, as the great masters do.—It is +the pianist's highest art, though amid the dazzle of +piano pyrotechnics the public often forget it.</p> + +<p>I am just finishing Beethoven's third Trio, Op. 1. +The last movement is the loveliest thing! It makes +me think of a wood in spring filled with birds. One +minute you hear a lot of gossiping little sparrows +twittering and chippering, and then comes some rare +wild bird with a sort of cadence, and then come others +and whistle and call. It is bewitching, and the most +perfect imitation of nature imaginable; gay—<i>so</i> gay! +as only Beethoven can be when he begins to play. +Everything is on the wing. It is, of course, exceedingly +difficult, because, like all this pure, classic music, to +make any effect it has to be executed with the utmost +perfection. I am so infatuated with it that when I +get through practicing it, I feel as if I were tipsy!</p> + +<p>These Beethoven trios are a perfect mine in themselves. +Each one seems to be entirely different from +all the rest. There are twelve in all, and Deppe wants +me to learn them all. Think what a piece of work! +This enormous amount of literature that you must +have to form a repertoire—the trios, quartettes, quintettes, +concertos, etc., it is that makes it so long before +one is a finished artist. And then you must consider<a name="page_339" id="page_339"></a> +the hours and hours that go to waste on <i>studies</i>, just +to get your hand into a condition to play these masterpieces. +Oh, the arduousness of it is incalculable! I +often ask myself, "What demon has tempted me here?" +as I sit and drudge at the piano. I play all day, take +a walk with L. in the afternoon, and at night tumble +into bed and sleep like a log—that is, when my hardest +of beds and shivering room will <i>let</i> me sleep. That is +my life, day after day. I only see the people of the +house at meals.</p> + +<p>I am the only lady in this family. All the other +boarders are very young men, almost boys, who are +here to learn German or commerce. There are three +South Americans, one Portugese, one Brazilian, one +Russian and one Frenchman. I hear Spanish and +French all the while, but no English, and with the +German it is very confusing.—I feel very sorry for all +these young fellows, their lives are so bare and disagreeable, +and so wholly devoid of any influence that can +make them better or happier. As for our landlady, it +would take a Balzac to do justice to such a combination. +She is a good housekeeper. The cooking is excellent, +and my room (when warm) is pleasant. Indeed, the +Hamburg standard of housekeeping is much higher +than in Berlin. Things are <i>much</i> daintier. But her +power of making you physically and mentally uncomfortable +in other ways is unsurpassed. Were it not +that my stay is indefinite, and that I have already +moved once, I would not remain here. As it is, I prefer +putting up with it to the trouble and expense of +changing; beside which, I have found that when once<a name="page_340" id="page_340"></a> +you have left your own home-circle, you have to bear, +as a rule, with at least one intensely disagreeable person +in every house.</p> + +<p>My opinion of human nature has not risen since I +came abroad, and I think that this winter has quite +cured me of my natural tendency to skepticism.—I +now realize too well what people's characters, both men +and women, may become without religion either in +themselves or in those about them. I suppose there +<i>is</i> religion in Germany, but <i>I</i> have seen very little of +it, either in Protestants or Catholics, and the results +I consider simply dreadful! You see, there is <i>no</i> adequate +motive to check the indulgence of <i>any</i> impulse—I +have come to the conclusion that jealousy is the +national vice of the Germans. Everybody is jealous +of everybody else, no matter how absurdly or causelessly. +Old women are jealous of young ones, and +even sisters in the same family are jealous of each +other to a degree that I couldn't have believed, had I +not seen it.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">H<small>AMBURG</small>, <i>Easter Sunday, 1875</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>With regard to playing in concert, I find myself +doubting whether on general principles it is best to +get one's whole musical training under one master +only, as Fannie Warburg, for instance, has done; for +my experience teaches me that though nearly all +masters can give you something, none can give you +everything. If, with my present light, I could +begin my study over again, I should first stay three<a name="page_341" id="page_341"></a> +years with Deppe, in order to endow the spirit of +music that I hope is within me, with the outward form +and perfection of an artist. Next, I should study a year +with Kullak, to give my playing a brilliant <i>concert dress</i>, +and finally, I would spend two seasons with Liszt, in +order to add the last ineffable graces—(for never, +<i>never</i> should an artist complete a musical course +without going to L<small>ISZT</small>, while he is on this earth!)—The +trouble is, however, that one master always feels +hurt if you leave him for another! No one can bear +the imputation that he <i>can't</i> "give you everything."</p> + +<p>But in truth I am getting very impatient to be +at home where I can study by myself, and take +as much time as I think necessary to work up my +pieces. Deppe and Fräulein Timm are like Kullak in +one thing. They never will give me time enough, but +hurry me on so from one thing to another, that it is +impossible for me to prepare a programme. So I +have given up my plan of a concert in Berlin this +spring. They have one set of ideas and I another, +and I see I shall never be able to play in public until +I abandon masters and start out on my own course. +Two people never think exactly alike. Masters can +put you on the road, but they can't make you go. +You must do that for yourself. As Dr. V. says, +"If you want to do a thing you have got to <i>keep</i> doing +it. You mustn't stop—certainly not!" Concert-playing, +like everything else, is <i>routine</i>, and has got to be +learned by little and little, and perhaps, with many +half-failures. But if the "great public" will only tolerate +one as a pupil long enough, eventually, one<a name="page_342" id="page_342"></a> +must succeed. At any rate, I<small>T</small> is probably the best and +the only "master" for me now!</p> + +<p>On Wednesday I return for a while to Berlin, to the +American boarding-house, No. 15 Tauben Strasse, +whither you can all direct as formerly. This winter has +been rather a contrast to last. Then I lived entirely +among North Americans, whereas here I am almost +exclusively with South Americans. There are any number +of these latter in Hamburg, and you have no idea +how fascinating many of them are—so handsome and so +bright. They all have a talent for music and dancing. +Their music is entirely of a light character, but they +have <i>rhythm</i> and grace in a remarkable degree. +When I hear them play I always think of George +Sands's description in her novel "<i>Malgré-tout</i>" of +the artist Abel—the hero of the book, and a great +violinist. She says, "<i>Il racla un air sur son violon +avec entrain</i>."—That is just what these South Americans +do—"<i>racler!</i>" They all play the piano just as +with us the negro plays the fiddle, without instruction, +apparently, and simply because "it is their nature to." +I saw at once where Gottschalk got his "Banjo" and +"Bananier," and the peculiar style of his compositions +generally, and since I've met so many South Americans +I can readily imagine why he spent so much of +his time in South America. I long to go there myself. +I think it must be a fascinating place for an artist.</p> + +<p>One of the South Americans here at the house is a +boy of fifteen, named Juan di Livramento, or, I should +say, Juan Moreiro Aranjo di Livramento! (They all +have about a dozen names in the grandiloquent style<a name="page_343" id="page_343"></a> +of the Spaniards.) This boy is a curious youngster. He +is tall and lithe, with the most magnificent dark eyes +I ever saw or conceived, thick silky black hair, all in +a tumble about his head, a delicate and very expressive +face, and a clear olive complexion—a perfect type of +a Spaniard. He seems born to dance the Bolero, like +Belinda, in Mrs. Edwards's novel. It is the prettiest +thing to see him do it—and in fact he does it on +all occasions without any reference to propriety, +being an utterly lawless individual. He frequently +gets up from the dinner-table, throws his napkin over +his shoulders, snaps his thumbs, and begins a dance in +the corner of the room, between the courses. It has +got to be such an every-day thing that nobody looks +surprised or pays any attention to him. We dine late, +and as there are a good many boarders, it takes some +time always to change the plates. Juan, who is like +so much mercury, never can sit still during these +intervals. When asked to ring the bell for the servant, +he will spring up like a shot, give it a violent +pull, and then take advantage of being up to dance in +the corner, or at least to cut a few antics, fling his +leg over the back of his chair, and come down astride +of it. This is his usual mode of resuming his seat.</p> + +<p>On the days when he doesn't dance, he keeps up a +continual talking. He will rattle on in Spanish till +Herr S. gets desperate, and tries to reduce him to +order. It is a rule that German must be spoken at +table, but Juan thinks it sufficient if he applies the rule +only so far as not to speak Spanish, his native language. +He goes to school where, of course, he learns<a name="page_344" id="page_344"></a> +English and French, and he is always trying to get off +some remarks in these languages. He speaks all +wrong, but that does not cause him the least embarrassment.—On +Sundays especially is Juan perfectly +irrepressible, for then Frau S. goes to dine and +spend the evening with her parents, and Herr S. is +left to maintain order. He is an indulgent old man, +and very fond of Juan, so that the latter has not the +least fear of him, and I nearly die trying to keep my +face straight when they have one of their scenes.</p> + +<p>"You shall <small>NOT</small> speak Spanish at the table," said +poor old S. the other day, in a rage. Spanish is +jargon to him, and Juan had been talking it for some +time at the top of his voice across Herr S., to his +friend Candido, who sat opposite. Juan knew very +well that that meant he must speak German, but +instead of that he began in foreign languages, and +said to Herr S., in English, "Do you spoke Russish +(Do you speak Russian)?"</p> + +<p>Herr S., to whom English is as unintelligible as +Spanish, naturally making no reply to this brilliant +remark, Juan continued—"'Spring is Coming,' Poem +by James K. Blake," and then he began to recite with +much gesticulation—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"Spring is coming, spring is coming,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Birds are singing, insects humming;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Flowers are peeping from their sleeping,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Streams escape from winter's keeping, etc."</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>I won't pretend to say what the rest of it was, as his +pronunciation was utterly unintelligible. Herr S. +rolled up his eyes and made no further protest, for he<a name="page_345" id="page_345"></a> +found he only got "out of the frying-pan into the fire," +Juan having a historical anecdote called "The Dead +Watch," which he occasionally substitutes for the +poem.</p> + +<p>After dinner he generally has an affectionate turn, +and goes round the table shaking hands with those +still seated, or putting his arm around their necks, and +then he seems like some gentle wild animal which +comes and rubs its head up against you, and it is +impossible to help loving him. As soon, however, as +T. or anybody thrums a waltz on the piano, he +instantly throws himself into the attitude to dance. +He is so very light on his feet that you don't hear +him, and often I am surprised on looking up, without +thinking, to see Juan poised on one toe like a ballet +dancer, and his great eyes shining soft on me like two +suns. It is most peculiar. There are <i>no</i> eyes like the +Spanish eyes. Not only have they so much <i>fire</i>, but +when their owners are in a sentimental mood, they can +throw a languor and a sort of droop into them that is +irresistible. This is the way Juan does, and though he +is too young to be sentimental, he <i>looks</i> as if he were. +One minute he is all ablaze, and the next perfectly +melting.—The other day Frau S. took him to task +for his extreme animation.—"<i>Junge</i>," (German for +"Boy"), "you mustn't scream so all over the house. You +really are a nuisance." Juan was offended at this, and +began to defend himself. "Why do you scold me," he +said. "I'm always in good humour. I never sulk or +find fault with anything. <i>Ja, immer vergnügt</i> (Yes, +always in a good humour), and ready to amuse everybody,<a name="page_346" id="page_346"></a> +and I never get angry." Frau S. admitted +that was true, but at the same time suggested it would +be well for him to remember we were not all deaf. +Juan withdrew in dudgeon.—Well, I suppose you are +tired of hearing about him, but these South Americans +are a type by themselves, and I felt as if I must touch +off one of them for the benefit of the family.</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>April 18, 1875</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Since my return I have been enjoying extremely +what I suppose I must consider my last lessons with +Deppe. After studying with Fräulein Timm I know +much better what he is driving at. The technique +seems to be unfolding to me like a ribbon. So all her +<i>maulings</i> were to some purpose! Yesterday I played +him a sonata of Beethoven's and he said, "God grant +that you may still be left to me some time longer! +Now you are really beginning to be my scholar."—And +indeed, having studied his technique so long with Fräuleins +Timm and Steiniger, it does seem hard that I +have to leave him! How I wish I could stay on indefinitely +and give myself up to his purely <i>musical</i> side +and get the benefit of all his deep and beautiful ideas. +There never <i>was</i> such a teacher! If I could only come +up to his standard I should be perfectly happy. Lucky +girl—that Steiniger! Think of it! She has <i>nine</i> concertos +that she could get up for concert any minute. +That's the crushing kind of repertoire he gives his pupils—so +exhaustive and complete in every department. +He knows the whole piano literature, and is<a name="page_347" id="page_347"></a> +continually fishing up some new or old pearl or other +to surprise one with.</p> + +<p>I find Deppe is getting to be much more recognized +in Berlin this year than he was before. He has just +been directing a new opera here which has created +quite a sensation, and he is continually engaged in +some great work. Fortunate that I found him out +when I did! for he takes fewer pupils than ever. He +says he can't teach people who are not sympathetic to +him. The other day he presented a beautiful overture +of his own composition to the Duke of Mecklenburg, +who accepted it in person and sent Deppe an exquisite +pin in token of recognition. When simple little Deppe +gets <i>that</i> stuck in his scarf, he will be a terrific swell!</p> + +<p>Now for a piece of news! I was paying my French +teacher, Mademoiselle D., a call one evening last week, +and I played for her and for a friend of hers who is +very musical, and who gives lessons herself. She at +once said very decidedly that I "ought to be heard in +concert." Her brother is the director of the Philharmonic +Society in a place called Frankfurt-an-der-Oder—a +little city not far from here. What should +she do but write to her brother about me, and what +should <i>he</i> do but immediately write up for me to come +down and play in a Philharmonic concert there the first +week in May. As I have been so anxious to play in a +concert before leaving Germany, and yet have seen no +way to do it, I am going, of course, and am most grateful +to his sister for thinking of it. But it is always +the Unexpected that helps you out!<a name="page_348" id="page_348"></a></p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p class="r">B<small>ERLIN</small>, <i>May 13, 1875</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Well, dear, my little début was a decided success, +and I had one encore, beside being heartily +applauded after every piece. I went on to Frankfurt +on Monday morning, and when I got there Herr Oertling, +the Philharmonic Director, was at the station to +meet me with a droschkie. We drove to the Deutches +Haus, an excellent hotel, where I was shown into a large +and comfortable room. Here I rested until dinner +time, and after dinner, about five o'clock, Herr +Oertling came back. He took me to the house of +a musical friend of his who was to lend me his grand +piano, and there we tried our sonata. As soon as +Oertling touched his violin I saw that he was a superior +artist, and that immediately inspired me. His +playing carried me right along, and I think I played +well. At all events, he seemed entirely satisfied, and +said, "We could have played that sonata without rehearsing +it." After we finished the sonata, I played +for about an hour, all sorts of things. There were +quite a number of people present to judge of my +powers. Herr W., the owner of the piano, was a +remarkable judge of music, and made some excellent +criticisms and suggestions. We stayed there to supper, +but I went back to the hotel early and went to +bed about half-past nine, where I slept like a log till +eight the next morning.</p> + +<p>After breakfast Oertling came to take me to try the +pianos of a celebrated manufacturer of uprights. +I played there three or four hours. The maker's name<a name="page_349" id="page_349"></a> +was Gruss, and his pianos were the best uprights +I had ever seen; nearly as powerful as a grand, and +with a superb tone and action. On the wall was +a testimonial from Henselt, framed. It seems Henselt +goes to Frankfurt every year to visit a Russian +lady there, who is the grandee of the place +and a great patroness of artists. In the afternoon, +Oertling came for me to go and rehearse in the +hall. Everything went beautifully, and I returned to +the hotel in good spirits. By the time I was dressed +for the concert, which was to begin at seven, Oertling +appeared again, in evening costume, and presented me +with a bouquet. We drove to the hall through a pouring +rain. It was crowded, notwithstanding, for he +had had the assurance to print that the concert was +"to be brilliant through the performance of an American +Virtuosin, named Miss Amy Fay. This young +lady has studied with the greatest masters, and has +had the most perfect success everywhere in her concert +tours!" Did you ever!—You can imagine how +I felt on reading it and seeing that I was expected to +perform as if I had been on the stage all my life! +Oertling had arranged the programme judiciously. +Our sonata came <i>first</i>, so that I plunged right in and +didn't have to wait and tremble! Then came two +pieces by the orchestra; next, my three solos in a +row, and a symphony of Haydn closed the programme. +The sonata went off very smoothly. In my first solo +I occasionally missed a note, but my second was without +slip, and my third—Chopin's Study in Sixths—was +encored, though I took the tempo too fast. However,<a name="page_350" id="page_350"></a> +the Frau Excellency von X. said she had frequently +heard it from Henselt, but that I played it +"just as well as he did." That's absurd, of course, +though not bad considered as a <i>compliment</i>! They +all said, "What a pity Henselt wasn't here!" I said to +myself, "What a blessing Henselt wasn't!"—though I +would give much to see him, as he is the greatest piano +virtuoso in the world after Liszt.</p> + +<p>After the concert Oertling and some of the musicians +accompanied me to the hotel, where I was obliged +to sit at table and have my health drunk in champagne +till two o'clock in the morning! for you know +when the Germans once begin that sort of thing +there's no end to it. They drank to my health, and +then they drank to my future performance in the first +Philharmonic next season, and then they drank to our +frequent reunion, etc., etc. When they had finished +I had to respond. So I toasted the Herr Director and +I toasted the piano-maker, and I toasted the orchestra, +and what not. At last I was released and could go to +my room. The next morning I left for Berlin, which +I reached in time for dinner, and as soon as I appeared +at table the boarders saluted me with a burst of applause!—I +found it a very pleasant <i>finale</i>.</p> + +<p>I translate for you the criticism from the <i>Frankfurter +Zeitung und Allgemeiner Anzeiger</i> for May 11. +Herr Oertling sent it to me yesterday:</p> + +<p>"The Philharmonic concert which took place last +Friday evening, must be considered as an excellent recommendation +of the active members of that association +to the public. For not only did the playing of<a name="page_351" id="page_351"></a> +the pianist, Fräulein Amy Fay, give great pleasure to +all those who love and understand music, but there +was also no fault to be found with the interpretations +of the orchestra. * * * With regard to the +performance of Fräulein Fay, we were equally charmed +by her clear and certain touch and by her conception +of the various solo pieces she played. The concert +opened with the Sonata in E flat major for violin and +piano by Beethoven. The whole effect of the work +was a very sympathetic and satisfactory one, and +showed a thoughtful interpretation on the part of the +artist. The beauty of her conception was especially +evident in the Raff "Capriccio," and in Hiller's "Zur +Guitarre," given as an encore upon her recall by the +audience, and we can but congratulate the teacher of +the young lady, Herr Ludwig Deppe, of Berlin, upon +such a scholar."</p> + +<p class="cb">———</p> + +<p>[Two weeks after the concert, the relative to whom +most of the foregoing letters were written, joined the +writer at Berlin, and the correspondence came to an +end. In the following September, after an absence +of six years, my sister returned home.—My sister +hopes that no American girl who reads this book will +be influenced by it rashly to attempt what she herself +undertook, viz.: to be trained in Europe from an amateur +into an artist. Its pages have afforded glimpses, +only, of the trials and difficulties with which a girl +may meet when studying art alone in a foreign land, +but they should not therefore be underrated. Piano<a name="page_352" id="page_352"></a> +teaching has developed immensely in America since +the date of the first of the foregoing letters, and not +only such celebrities as Dr. William Mason, Mr. Wm. +H. Sherwood, and Mrs. Rivé King, but various other +brilliant or exquisite pianists in this country are as able +to train pupils for the technical demands of the concert-room +as any masters that are to be found abroad. +American teachers best understand the American +temperament, and therefore are by far the best +for American pupils until they have got beyond the +pupil stage.—Not manual skill, but musical insight +and conception, wider and deeper musical comprehension, +and "concert style" are what the young artist +should now go to seek in that marvellous and only +real home of music—G<small>ERMANY</small>.]—E<small>D.</small><a name="page_353" id="page_353"></a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="cb">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> This was written before the full development of the Thomas Orchestra. +The writer had heard it only in its infancy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> Christ is risen out of bonds and death. He promises joy and blessing +to all the world, which for this glorifies Him.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> In Mr. Longfellow's Poems of Places is a translation of Gerok's poem +on the subject:— +</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"Over three hundred were counted that day</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Riderless horses who joined in the fray,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Over three hundred saddles, O horrible sight!</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Were emptied at once in that terrible fight."</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> This letter, which was published in <i>Dwight's Journal of Music</i>, is +the one alluded to on p. 193.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> Liszt was born in 1811.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> In German, the fourth and fifth fingers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_7" id="Footnote_G_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> See <a href="#page_220">p. 220.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_H_8" id="Footnote_H_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_H_8"><span class="label">[H]</span></a> See <a href="#page_224">p. 294.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I_9" id="Footnote_I_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I_9"><span class="label">[I]</span></a> Now Mrs. Sherwood.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_J_10" id="Footnote_J_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_J_10"><span class="label">[J]</span></a> The writer's grandmother was the daughter of a leading Hamburg merchant +who fled with his family to America when Napoleon entered it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_K_11" id="Footnote_K_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_K_11"><span class="label">[K]</span></a> Frau Rappoldi is now a celebrity.</p></div> + +</div> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Music-Study in Germany, by Amy Fay + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY *** + +***** This file should be named 37322-h.htm or 37322-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/3/2/37322/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Music-Study in Germany + from the Home Correspondence of Amy Fay + +Author: Amy Fay + +Editor: Fay Peirce + +Release Date: September 5, 2011 [EBook #37322] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + + + +MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY + +[Illustration: colophon] + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + +NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS +ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO + +MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED + +LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA +MELBOURNE + +THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD, +TORONTO + + + + +MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY + +FROM + +THE HOME CORRESPONDENCE +OF AMY FAY + +EDITED BY + +MRS. FAY PEIRCE + +AUTHOR OF "CO-OPERATIVE HOUSEKEEPING" + +"The light that never was on sea or land." + +WORDSWORTH + +"Pour admirer assez il faut admirer trop, et un peu d'illusion +est necessaire au bonheur." + +CHERBULIEZ + +WITH A PREFATORY NOTE +BY O. G. SONNECK + +NEW YORK +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY +1922 + +_All rights reserved_ + +COPYRIGHT, +JANSEN, McCLURG & COMPANY +1880. + +COPYRIGHT, 1896, +BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + +Printed August, 1896; reprinted June, 1897; +September, 1900; February, 1903; March, 1905; +June, 1908; July, 1909; August, 1913; April, 1922. + +Norwood Press: +Berwick & Smith, Norwood, Mass., U. S. A. + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE. + + +Comparatively few books on music have enjoyed the distinction of +reissue. Twenty-one editions is an amazing record for a book of so +narrow a subject as "Music Study in Germany." The case of Miss Amy Fay's +volume becomes all the more unusual, if one considers that her letters +were written only for home, not for a public audience and further that +within twenty years from the year of first publication, her observations +had become more or less obsolete. + +The Germany of the years 1869-1875 was quite different from the Germany +of 1900 and certainly of 1912, even down to German table-manners. The +earlier "Spiessbuergertum" of which Miss Fay gives such entertaining +glimpses even in high quarters with their pomp and circumstance, was +rapidly being replaced, at least outwardly, by the more cosmopolitan +culture of the _fin de siecle_, not to mention the ambition for +political, industrial and commercial "Weltmacht" in a nation thitherto +known, perhaps too romantically, as a nation of "Denker und Dichter." + +Most of the heroes of the book are long since dead, Miss Fay included, +who died in 1921. While even as late as 1890, Miss Fay's volume could +have been used as a guide of orientation by the would-be student of +music in Germany, certainly it could no longer serve such a purpose +during the years just prior to the war, when the lone American student +of her book who despised Germany and everything German was definitely in +the ascendency. In other words, her personal observations had ceased to +be applicable except in certain details of ambient and had passed into +the realm of autobiography valuable for historical reading. As a piece +of historical literature proper, I doubt that the book would have +survived the war, because it is lamentably true that the average +American music-student or even cultured lover of music is not +particularly interested in musical history as such. + +To this must be added the indisputable fact that "music study in +Germany" or in France, for that matter, had become a mere matter of +personal taste and predilection, and was not a necessity as in the days +of Miss Fay's amusing experiments with this or that German teacher of +renown. An endless stream of excellent European artists and teachers had +poured into America since then, augmented by the equally broad stream of +native Americans who had learned their _metier_ abroad. Music study in +America thus became an easy matter and many an aspiring virtuoso would +have done more wisely by staying and studying at home, instead of +venturing to a European country with its different language, its +different temperament, its different mode of living, customs and so +forth. Germany, in particular, is still a "marvellous home of music," to +quote an editorial remark of Miss Fay's sister, but it is no longer the +"only real home of music," thanks precisely to such artists as Miss Amy +Fay herself. + +To point out the radical change in conditions in that respect is one +thing, quite another to deny, as some rather zealotic patriots do, that +Europe, Germany included, can still give the American music-student +something which he does not have at home quite in the same manner. +Debate on that subject is futile. Let the American music-student at some +time in his career, but only when he is ripe for further study in a +foreign country, sojourn a few years in Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, +Vienna, Rome, London, and he will profitably encounter, whether it be to +his taste or not, that indefinable something which the old world in +matters of life, art, and art-life possessed as peculiarly its own in +1870, still possesses to-day, and will possess for many, many years to +come. + +What, then, gives to Miss Fay's book its vitality? What is it that +justifies the publisher in keeping the book accessible for the benefit +of those who wish to study music in Germany instead of elsewhere or of +those even who study music in America? + +Of course, there is first of all the charm of Miss Fay's own +personality, the charm of her observations intimately, entertainingly, +and shrewdly expressed. That makes for good reading. Incidentally, it +teaches a student-reader to be observant, which unfortunately many +musicians are not, even in matters of technique on their chosen +instrument. Secondly, the seriousness of purpose of the authoress, the +determination to improve her understanding of art and technique to the +very limit of her natural ability, will act as a stimulating tonic for +him or her who despairs of ever conquering the often so forbidding +difficulties of music. The book will teach patience to Americans, +patience and endurance in endeavor, qualities which are none too +frequent in us. Young America forgets too often that the _Gradus ad +Parnassum_ is not only steep; it is long and rough. + +There is furthermore in these letters that respect for solid +accomplishment of others, that reverential attitude toward the great in +art and toward art itself, without which no musician, however talented, +will ever reach the commanding heights of art. There permeates these +letters the enthusiasm of youth, that perhaps sometimes overshoots its +mark but for which most of us would gladly exchange the more critical +attitude of maturer years. For we learn to appreciate sooner or later +that enthusiasm is the propelling force and the refreshing source of +inspiration. Finally, born of all these elements there appear on the +pages of Miss Fay's letters such fascinating pen-portraits as that of +her revered master, Franz Liszt, the incomparable. Turning the pages of +the volume to refresh my memory and impression of it, I confess that I +skipped quite a few because their interest seemed so remote and +personal, but I found myself absorbing every word Miss Fay had to say in +her chapters about Liszt and his Weimar circle. An enjoyable experience +which one may safely recommend to those who desire first-hand +impressions of the golden days of pianism in Germany, of the romantic, +indeed almost legendary figure of Franz Liszt, and consequently a touch +of the stuff out of which art-novels are made, into the bargain. + + O. G. SONNECK + + + + +PREFACE. + + +In preparing for the public letters which were written only for home, I +have hoped that some readers would find in them the charm of style which +the writer's friends fancy them to possess; that others would think the +description of her masters amid their pupils, and especially Liszt, +worth preserving; while piano students would be grateful for the +information that an analysis of the piano technique has been made, such +as very greatly to diminish the difficulties of the instrument. + +How much of Herr Deppe's piano "method" is original with himself, +pianists must decide. That he has at least made an invaluable _resume_ +of all or most of their secrets, my sister believes no student of the +instrument who fairly and conscientiously examines into the matter will +deny. + + M. FAY PEIRCE. + +CHICAGO, Dec., 1880. + + + + +PREFACE + +TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. + + +Miss Fay's little book has been so popular in her own country as to have +gone through half a dozen editions, and even in German, into which it +was translated soon after its first appearance, it has had much success. +It is strange that it has not been already published in England, where +music excites so much attention, and where works on musical subjects are +beginning to form a distinct branch of literature. This is the more +remarkable because it is thoroughly readable and amusing, which books on +music too rarely are. The freshness and truth of the letters is not to +be denied. We may laugh at the writer's enthusiasm, at the readiness +with which she changes her methods and gives up all that she has already +learnt at the call of each fresh teacher, at the certainty with which +every new artist is announced as quite the best she ever heard, and at +the glowing and confident predictions--not, alas, apparently always +realised. But no one can laugh at her indomitable determination, and the +artistic earnestness with which she makes the most of each of her +opportunities, or the brightness and ease with which all is described +(in choice American), and each successive person placed before us in his +habit as he lives. Such a gift is indeed a rare and precious one. Will +Miss Fay never oblige us with an equally charming and faithful account +of music and life in the States? Hitherto musical America has been +almost an unknown land to us, described by the few who have attempted it +in the most opposite terms. Their singers we already know well, and in +this respect America is perhaps destined to be the Italy of the future, +if only the artists will consent to learn slowly enough. But on the +subject of American players and American orchestras, and the taste of +the American amateurs, a great deal of curiosity is felt, and we commend +the subject to the serious attention of one so thoroughly able to do it +justice. + + GEORGE GROVE. + +December, 1885. + + + + +PREFACE + +TO THE GERMAN EDITION. + + +Die vorliegenden Briefe einer Amerikanerin in die Heimath, die im +Original bereits in zweiter Auflage erschienen sind, werden, so hoffen +wir, auch dem deutschen Leser nicht minderes Vergnuegen, nicht geringere +Anregung als dem amerikanischen gewaehren, da sie in unmittelbarer +Frische niedergeschrieben, ein lebendiges Bild von den Beziehungen der +Verfasserin zu den hervorragendsten musikalischen Persoenlichkeiten, wie +Liszt, v. Buelow, Tausig, Joachim u. s. w. bieten. + +Wir geben das Buch in wortgetreuer Uebersetzung und haben es nur um +diejenigen Briefe gekuerzt, die in Deutschland Allzubekanntes behandeln. +Hingegen glaubten wir die Stellen dem Leser nicht vorenthalten zu +duerfen, welche zwar nicht musikalischen Inhalts sind, uns aber zeigen, +wie manche unserer deutschen Zu-oder Missstaende von Amerikanern +beurtheilt werden. + + Robert Oppenheim, Publisher. + +Berlin, 1882. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +IN TAUSIG'S CONSERVATORY. + +CHAPTER I. + PAGE. + +A GERMAN INTERIOR IN BERLIN. A GERMAN PARTY. JOACHIM. +TAUSIG'S CONSERVATORY. 13 + + +CHAPTER II. + +CLARA SCHUMANN AND JOACHIM. THE AMERICAN MINISTER'S. THE +MUSEUM. THE CONSERVATORY. OPERA. TAUSIG. CHRISTMAS. 25 + + +CHAPTER III. + +TAUSIG AND RUBINSTEIN. TAUSIG'S PUPILS. THE BANCROFTS. A +GERMAN RADICAL. 37 + + +CHAPTER IV. + +OPERA AND ORATORIO IN BERLIN. A TYPICAL AMERICAN. PRUSSIAN +RUDENESS. CONSERVATORY CHANGES. EASTER. 51 + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE THIER-GARTEN. A MILITARY REVIEW. CHARLOTTENBURG. +TAUSIG. BERLIN IN SUMMER. POTSDAM AND BABELSBERG. 64 + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE WAR. GERMAN MEALS. WOMEN AND MEN. TAUSIG'S TEACHING. +TAUSIG ABANDONS HIS CONSERVATORY. DRESDEN. KULLAK. 79 + +WITH KULLAK. + +CHAPTER VII. + +MOVING. GERMAN HOUSES AND DINNERS. THE WAR. CAPTURE OF +NAPOLEON. KULLAK'S AND TAUSIG'S TEACHING. JOACHIM. WAGNER. +TAUSIG'S PLAYING. GERMAN ETIQUETTE. 95 + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CONCERTS. JOACHIM AGAIN. THE SIEGE OF PARIS. PEACE DECLARED. +WAGNER. A WOMAN'S SYMPHONY. OVATION TO WAGNER IN +BERLIN. 111 + + +CHAPTER IX. + +DIFFICULTIES OF THE PIANO. TRIUMPHAL ENTRY OF THE TROOPS. +PARIS. 123 + + +CHAPTER X. + +A RHINE JOURNEY. FRANKFORT. MAINZ. SAIL DOWN THE RHINE. +COLOGNE. BONN. THE SEVEN MOUNTAINS. WORMS. SPIRE. +HEIDELBERG. TAUSIG'S DEATH. 131 + + +CHAPTER XI. + +EISENACH. GOTHA. ERFURT. ANDERNACH. WEIMAR. TAUSIG. 145 + + +CHAPTER XII. + +DINNER-PARTY AND RECEPTION AT MR. BANCROFT'S. AUDITION AT +TAUSIG'S HOUSE. A GERMAN CHRISTMAS. THE JOACHIMS. 157 + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +VISIT TO DRESDEN. THE WIECKS. VON BUeLOW. A CHILD PRODIGY. +GRANTZOW, THE DANCER. 163 + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +A RISING ORGANIST. KULLAK. VON BUeLOW'S PLAYING. A PRINCELY +FUNERAL. WILHELMI'S CONCERT. A COURT BEAUTY. 174 + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE BOSTON FIRE. AGGRAVATIONS OF MUSIC STUDY. KULLAK. +SHERWOOD. HOCH SCHULE. A BRILLIANT AMERICAN. GERMAN +DANCING. 182 + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A GERMAN PROFESSOR. SHERWOOD. THE BARONESS VON S. VON +BUeLOW. A GERMAN PARTY. JOACHIM. THE BARONESS AT HOME. 192 + + +WITH LISZT. + +CHAPTER XVII. + +ARRIVES IN WEIMAR. LISZT AT THE THEATRE.--AT A PARTY. AT +HIS OWN HOUSE. 205 + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +LISZT'S DRAWING-ROOM. AN ARTIST'S WALKING PARTY. LISZT'S +TEACHING. 218 + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +LISZT'S EXPRESSION IN PLAYING. LISZT ON CONSERVATORIES. ORDEAL +OF LISZT'S LESSONS. LISZT'S KINDNESS. 227 + + +CHAPTER XX. + +LISZT'S COMPOSITIONS. HIS PLAYING AND TEACHING OF BEETHOVEN. +HIS "EFFECTS" IN PIANO-PLAYING. EXCURSION TO JENA. A +NEW MUSIC MASTER. 235 + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +LISZT'S PLAYING. TAUSIG. EXCURSION TO SONDERSHAUSEN. 248 + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +FAREWELL TO LISZT! GERMAN CONSERVATORIES AND THEIR METHODS. +BERLIN AGAIN. LISZT AND JOACHIM. 263 + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +KULLAK AS A TEACHER. THE FOUR GREAT VIRTUOSI, CLARA SCHUMANN, +RUBINSTEIN, VON BUeLOW AND TAUSIG. 272 + +WITH DEPPE. + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +GIVES UP KULLAK FOR DEPPE. DEPPE'S METHOD IN TOUCH AND IN +SCALE-PLAYING. FRAeULEIN STEINIGER. PEDAL STUDY. 283 + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +CHORD-PLAYING. DEPPE NO MERE "PEDAGOGUE." SHERWOOD. +MOZART'S CONCERTOS. PRACTICING SLOWLY. THE OPERA BALL. 299 + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +A SET OF BEETHOVEN VARIATIONS. FANNIE WARBURG. DEPPE'S +INVENTIONS. HIS ROOM. HIS AFTERNOON COFFEE. PYRMONT. 311 + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +THE BRUSSELS CONSERVATOIRE. STEINIGER. EXCURSION TO KLEINBERG. +GIVING A CONCERT. FRAeULEIN TIMM. 328 + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +MUSIC IN HAMBURG. STUDYING CHAMBER MUSIC. ABSENCE OF RELIGION +IN GERMANY. SOUTH AMERICANS. DEPPE ONCE MORE. +A CONCERT DEBUT. POSTSCRIPT. 331 + + + + +IN TAUSIG'S CONSERVATORY. + + + + +MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. + +CHAPTER I. + + A German Interior in Berlin. A German Party. Joachim. Tausig's + Conservatory. + + + BERLIN, _November 3, 1869_. + +Behold me at last at No. 26 Bernburger Strasse! where I arrived exactly +two weeks from the day I left New York. Frau W. and her daughter, +Fraeulein A. W., greeted me with the greatest warmth and cordiality, and +made me feel at home immediately. The German idea of a "large" room I +find is rather peculiar, for this one is not more than ten or eleven +feet square, and has one corner of it snipped off, so that the room is +an irregular shape. When I first entered it I thought I could not stay +in it, it seemed so small, but when I came to examine it, so ingeniously +is every inch of space made the most of, that I have come to the +conclusion that it will be very comfortable. It is not, however, the +apartment where "the last new novel will lie upon the table, and where +my daintily slippered feet will rest upon the velvet cushion." No! +rather is it the stern abode of the Muses. + +To begin then: the room is spotlessly clean and neat. The walls are +papered with a nice new paper, grey ground with blue figures--a cheap +paper, but soft and pretty. In one corner stands my little bureau with +three deep drawers. Over it is a large looking-glass nicely framed. In +the other corner on the same side is a big sofa which at night becomes a +little bed. Next to the foot of the sofa, against the wall, stands a +tiny square table, with a marble top, and a shelf underneath, on which +are a basin and a minute soap-dish and tumbler. In the opposite corner +towers a huge grey porcelain stove, which comes up to within a few feet +of the ceiling. Next is one stiff cane-bottomed chair on four stiff +legs. Then comes the lop-sided corner of the room, where an upright +piano is to stand. Next there is a little space where hangs the +three-shelved book-case, which will contain my _vast_ library. Then +comes a broad French window with a deep window-seat. By this window is +my sea-chair--by far the most luxurious one in the house! Then comes my +bureau again, and so on _Da Capo_. In the middle is a pretty round +table, with an inlaid centre-piece, and on it is a waiter with a large +glass bottle full of water, and a glass; and this, with one more stiff +chair, completes the furniture of the room. My curtains are white, with +a blue border, and two transparencies hang in the window. My towel-rack +is fastened to the wall, and has an embroidered centre-piece. On my +bureau is a beautiful inkstand, the cover being a carved eagle with +spread wings, perched over a nest with three eggs in it. It is quite +large, and looks extremely pretty under the looking-glass. + +After I had taken off my things, Frau W. and her daughter ushered me +into their parlour, which had the same look of neatness and simplicity +and of extreme economy. There are no carpets on any of the floors, but +they have large, though cheap, rugs. You never saw such a primitive +little household as it is--that of this German lawyer's widow. We think +our house at home small, but I feel as if we lived in palatial +magnificence after seeing how they live here, _i. e._, about as our +dressmakers used to do in the country, and yet it is sufficiently nice +and comfortable. There are two very pretty little rooms opposite mine, +which are yet to be let together. If some friend of mine could only take +them I should be perfectly happy. + +At night my bed is made upon the sofa. (They all sleep on these sofas.) +The cover consists of a feather bed and a blanket. That sounds rather +formidable, but the feather bed is a light, warm covering, and looks +about two inches thick. It is much more comfortable than our bed +coverings in America. I tuck myself into my nest at night, and in the +morning after breakfast, when I return to my +room--_agramento-presto-change!_--my bed is converted into a sofa, my +basin is laid on the shelf, the soap-dish and my combs and brushes are +scuttled away into the drawer; the windows are open, a fresh fire +crackles in my stove, and my charming little bed-room is straightway +converted into an equally charming sitting-room. How does the picture +please you? + +This morning Frau and Fraeulein W. went with me to engage a piano, and +they took me also to the conservatory. Tausig is off for six weeks, +giving concerts. As I went up the stairs I heard most beautiful playing. +Ehlert, Tausig's partner, who has charge of the conservatory, and +teaches his pupils in his absence, examined me. After that long voyage I +did not dare attempt anything difficult, so I just played one of Bach's +Gavottes. He said some encouraging words, and for the present has taken +me into his class. I am to begin to-morrow from one o'clock to two. It +is now ten P. M., and tell C. we have had five meals to-day, so Madame +P.'s statement is about correct. The cooking is on the same scale as the +rest of the establishment--a little at a time, but so far very good. We +know nothing at all about rolls in America. Anything so delicious as the +rolls here I never ate in the way of bread. In the morning we had a cup +of coffee and rolls. At eleven we lunched on a cup of bouillon and a +roll. At two o'clock we had dinner, which consisted of soup and then +chickens, potatoes, carrots and bread, with beer. At five we had tea, +cake and toast, and at nine we had a supper of cold meat, boiled eggs, +tea and bread and butter. Fraeulein W. speaks English quite nicely, and +is my medium of communication with her mother. I begin German lessons +with her to-morrow. They both send you their compliments, and so you +must return yours. They seem as kind as possible, and I think I am very +fortunate in my boarding place. + +Be sure to direct your letters "Care Frau Geheimraethin W." (Mrs. +Councillor W.), as the German ladies are very particular about their +_titles_! + + * * * + + BERLIN, _November 21, 1869_. + +Since I wrote to you not much of interest has occurred. I am delighted +with Berlin, and am enjoying myself very much, though I am working hard. +I am so thankful that all my sewing was done before I came, for I have +not a minute to spare for it, and here it seems to me all the dresses +fit so dreadfully. It would make me miserable to wear such looking +clothes, and as I can't speak the language, the difficulties in the way +of giving directions on the technicalities of dressmaking would be +terrific. Tell C. he is very wise to continue his German conversation +lessons with Madame P. Even the few that I took prove of immense +assistance to me, as I can understand almost everything that is said to +me, though I cannot answer back. He ought to make one of his lessons +about shopping and droschkie driving, for it is very essential to know +how to ask for things, and to be able to give directions in driving. I +had a very funny experience with a droschkie the other day, but it would +take too long to write it. Frau W. cannot understand English, and she +gets dreadfully impatient when Fraeulein A. and I speak it, and always +says "_Deutsch_" in a sepulchral tone, so that I have to begin and say +it all over again in German with A.'s help. + +When I got fairly settled I presented myself and my letters at the +Bancrofts, the B's. and the A's., and was very kindly and cordially +received by them all. Mrs. Bancroft and Mrs. B. have since called in +return, and I have already been to a charming reception at the house of +the latter, and to the grand American Thanksgiving dinner at the Hotel +de Rome, at which Mr. Bancroft presided, and made very happy speeches +both in English and German. I enjoyed both occasions extremely, and made +some pleasant acquaintances. I have also been to one German tea-party +with Frau W. and A., and there I had "the jolliest kind of a time." +There were only twelve invited, but you would have supposed from the +clatter that there were at least a hundred. At the American dinner there +was nothing like the noise of conversation that this little handful kept +up. Before supper it was rather stupid, for the men all retired to a +room by themselves, where they sat with closed doors and played whist +and smoked. It is not considered proper for ladies to play cards except +at home, and I, of course, did not say much, for the excellent reason +that I _couldn't_! At ten o'clock supper was announced, and the +gentlemen came and took us in. Herr J. was my partner. He is a +delightful man, though an elderly one, and knows no end of things, as he +has spent his whole life in study and in travelling. He looks to me like +a man of very sensitive organization, and of very delicate feelings. He +is a tremendous republican, and a great radical in every respect, and +has an unbounded admiration for America. + +As soon as every one was seated at the table with due form and ceremony, +all began to talk as hard as they could, and you have no idea what a +noise they made, and how it increased toward the end with the potent +libations they had. The bill of fare was rather curious. We began with +slices of hot tongue, with a sauce of chestnuts, and it was extremely +nice, too. Then we had venison and boiled potatoes! Then we had a +dessert consisting of fruit, and some delicious cake. There were several +kinds of wine, and everybody drank the greatest quantity. The host and +hostess kept jumping up and going round to everybody, saying: "But you +drink nothing," and then they would insist upon filling up your glass. I +don't dare to think how many times they filled mine, but it seemed to be +etiquette to drink, and so I did as the rest. The repast ended with +coffee, and then the gentlemen lit their cigars, and were in such an +extremely cheerful frame of mind that they all began to sing, and I even +saw two old fellows kiss each other! The venison was delicious, and +nicer than any I ever ate. Herr J. was the only man in the room who +could speak any English, and since then he takes a good deal of interest +in me, and lends me books. Every Sunday Fran W. takes me to her sister's +house to tea. I like to go because I hear so much German spoken there, +and they all take a profound interest in my affairs. They know to a +minute when I get a letter, and when I write one, and every incident of +my daily life. It amuses them very much to see a real live wild Indian +from America. I am soon going to another German party, and I look +forward to it with much pleasure; not that the parties here give me the +same feeling as at home, but they are amusing because they are so +entirely different. + +There is so much to be seen and heard in Berlin that if one has but the +money there is no end to one's resources. There are the opera and the +Schauspielhaus every night, and beautiful concerts every evening, too. +They say that the opera here is magnificent, and the scenery superb, +and they have a wonderful ballet-troupe. So far, however, I have only +been to one concert, and that was a sacred concert. But Joachim +played--and Oh-h, what a tone he draws out of the violin! I could think +of nothing but Mrs. Moulton's voice, as he _sighed_ out those +exquisitely pathetic notes. He played something by Schumann which ended +with a single note, and as he drew his bow across he produced so many +shades that it was perfectly marvellous. I am going to hear him again on +Sunday night, when he plays at Clara Schumann's concert. It will be a +great concert, for she plays much. She will be assisted by Joachim, +Mueller, De Ahna, and by Joachim's wife, who has a beautiful voice and +sings charmingly in the serious German style. Joachim himself is not +only the greatest violinist in the world, but one of the greatest that +ever lived. De Ahna is one of the first violinists in Germany, and +Mueller is one of the first 'cellists. In fact, this quartette cannot be +matched in Europe--so you see what I am expecting! + +Tausig has not yet returned from his concert tour, and will not arrive +before the 21st of December. I find Ehlert a splendid teacher, but very +severe, and I am mortally afraid of him. Not that he is cross, but he +exacts so much, and such a hopeless feeling of despair takes possession +of me. His first lesson on touch taught me more than all my other +lessons put together--though, to be sure, that is not saying much, as +they were "few and far between." At present I am weltering in a sea of +troubles. The girls in my class are three in number, and they all play +so extraordinarily well that sometimes I think I can never catch up with +them. I am the worst of all the scholars in Tausig's classes that I have +heard, except one, and that is a young man. I know that Ehlert thinks I +have talent, but, after all, talent must go to the wall before such +_practice_ as these people have had, for most of them have studied a +long time, and have been at the piano four and five hours a day. + +It is very interesting in the conservatory, for there are pupils there +from all countries except France. Some of them seem to me splendid +musicians. On Sunday morning (I am sorry to say) once in a month or six +weeks, they have what they call a "Musical Reading." It is held in a +piano-forte ware-room, and there all the scholars in the higher classes +play, so I had to go. Many of the girls played magnificently, and I was +amazed at the technique that they had, and at the artistic manner in +which even very young girls rendered the most difficult music, and all +without notes. It gave me a severe nervous headache just to hear them. +But it was delightful to see them go at it. None of them had the least +fear, and they laughed and chattered between the pieces, and when their +turn came they marched up to the piano, sat down as bold as lions, and +banged away so splendidly! + +You have no idea how hard they make Cramer's Studies here. Ehlert makes +me play them tremendously _forte_, and as fast as I can go. My hand gets +so tired that it is ready to break, and then I say that I cannot go on. +"But you _must_ go on," he will say. It is the same with the scales. It +seems to me that I play them so loud that I make the welkin ring, and he +will say, "But you play always _piano_." And with all this rapidity he +does not allow a note to be missed, and if you happen to strike a wrong +one he looks so shocked that you feel ready to sink into the floor. +Strange to say, I enjoy the lessons in _Zusammenspiel_ (duet-playing) +very much, although it is all reading at sight. Four of us sit down at +two pianos and read duets at sight. Lesmann is a pleasant man, and he +always talks so fast that he amuses me very much. He always counts and +beats time most vigorously, and bawls in your ear, "_Eins--zwei! +Eins--zwei!_" or sometimes, "_Eins!_" only, on the first beat of every +bar. When, occasionally, we all get out, he looks at us through his +glasses, and then such a volley of words as he hurls at us is wonderful +to hear. I never can help laughing, though I take good care not to let +him see me. + +But Weitzmann, the Harmony professor, is the funniest of all. He is the +dearest old man in the world, and it is impossible for him to be cross; +but he takes so much pains and trouble to make his class understand, and +he has the most peculiar way of talking imaginable, and accents +everything he says tremendously. I go to him because Ehlert says I must, +but as I know nothing of the theory of music (and if I did, the names +are so entirely different in German that I never should know what they +are in English) it is extremely difficult for me to understand him at +all. He knew I was an American, and let me pass for one or two lessons +without asking me any questions, but finally his German love of +thoroughness has got the better of him, and he is now beginning to take +me in hand. At the last lesson he wrote some chords on the blackboard, +and after holding forth for some time he wound up with his usual +"_Verstehen Sie wohl--Ja?_ (Do you understand--Yes?)" to the class, who +all shouted "_Ja_," except me. I kept a discreet silence, thinking he +would not notice, but he suddenly turned on me and said, "_Verstehen_ +Sie _wohl--Ja?_" I was as puzzled what to say as the Pharisees were when +they were asked if the baptism of John were of heaven or of men. I knew +that if I said "_Ja_," he might call on me for a proof, and that if I +said "_Nein_," he would undertake to enlighten me, and that I should not +understand him. + +After an instant's consideration I concluded the latter course was the +safer, and so I said, boldly, "_Nein_." "_Kommen Sie hierher!_ (Come +here!)" said he, and to my horror I had to step up to the blackboard in +front of this large class. He harangued me for some minutes, and then +writing some notes on the bass clef, he put the chalk into my hands and +told me to write. Not one word had I understood, and after staring +blankly at the board I said, "_Ich verstehe nicht_ (I don't +understand.)" "_Nein?_" said he, and carefully went over all his +explanation again. This time I managed to extract that he wished me to +write the succession of chords that those bass notes indicated, and to +tie what notes I could. A second time he put the chalk into my hands, +and told me to write the chords. "Heaven only knows what they are!" +thinks I to myself. In my desperation, however, I guessed at the first +one, and uttered the names of the notes in trembling accents, expecting +to have a cannon fired off at my head. Thanks to my lucky star, it +happened to be right. I wrote it on the blackboard, and then as my wits +sharpened I found the other chords from that one, and wrote them all +down right. I drew a long breath of relief as he released me from his +clutches, and sat down hardly believing I had done it. I have not now +the least idea what it was he made me do, but I suppose it will come to +me in the course of the year! As he does not understand a word of +English, I cannot say anything to him unless I can say it in German, and +as he is determined to make me learn Harmony, it would be of no use to +explain that I did not know what he was talking about, for he would +begin all over again, and go on _ad infinitum_. I have got a book on the +Theory of Music, which I am reading with Fraeulein W. She has studied +with Weitzmann, also, and when I have caught up with the class I shall +go on very easily. I quite adore Weitzmann. He has the kindest old face +imaginable, and he hammers away so indefatigably at his pupils! The +professors I have described are all thorough and well-known musicians of +Berlin, and I wonder that people could tell us before I came away, and +really seem to believe it, "that I could learn as well in an American +conservatory as in a German one." In comparison with the drill I am now +receiving, my Boston teaching was mere play. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + Clara Schumann and Joachim. The American Minister's. The Museum. + The Conservatory. The Opera. Tausig. Christmas. + + + BERLIN, _December 12, 1869_. + +I heard Clara Schumann on Sunday, and on Tuesday evening, also. She is a +most wonderful artist. In the first concert she played a quartette by +Schumann, and you can imagine how lovely it was under the treatment of +Clara Schumann for the piano, Joachim for the first violin, De Ahna for +the second, and Mueller for the 'cello. It was perfect, and I was in +raptures. Madame Schumann's selection for the two concerts was a very +wide one, and gave a full exhibition of her powers in every kind of +music. The Impromptu by Schumann, Op. 90, was exquisite. It was full of +passion and very difficult. The second of the Songs without Words, by +Mendelssohn, was the most fairy-like performance. It is one of those +things that must be tossed off with the greatest grace and smoothness, +and it requires the most beautiful and delicate technique. She played it +to perfection. The terrific Scherzo by Chopin she did splendidly, but +she kept the great octave passages in the bass a little too subordinate, +I thought, and did not give it quite boldly enough for my taste, though +it was extremely artistic. Clara Schumann's playing is very objective. +She seems to throw herself into the music, instead of letting the music +take possession of her. She gives you the most exquisite pleasure with +every note she touches, and has a wonderful conception and variety in +playing, but she seldom whirls you off your feet. + +At the second concert she was even better than at the first, if that is +possible. She seemed full of fire, and when she played Bach, she ought +to have been crowned with diamonds! Such _noble_ playing I never heard. +In fact you are all the time impressed with the nobility and breadth of +her style, and the comprehensiveness of her treatment, and oh, if you +_could_ hear her _scales_! In short, there is nothing more to be desired +in her playing, and she has every quality of a great artist. Many people +say that Tausig is far better, but I cannot believe it. He may have more +technique and more power, but nothing else I am sure. Everybody raves +over his playing, and I am getting quite impatient for his return, which +is expected next week. I send you Madame Schumann's photograph, which is +exactly like her. She is a large, very German-looking woman, with dark +hair and superb neck and arms. At the last concert she was dressed in +black velvet, low body and short sleeves, and when she struck powerful +chords, those large white arms came down with a certain splendor. + +As for Joachim, he is perfectly magnificent, and has amazing _power_. +When he played his solo in that second Chaconne of Bach's, you could +scarcely believe it was only one violin. He has, like Madame Schumann, +the greatest variety of tone, only on the violin the shades can be made +far more delicate than on the piano. + +I thought the second movement of Schumann's Quartette perhaps as +extraordinary as any part of Clara Schumann's performance. It was very +rapid, very _staccato_, and _pianissimo_ all the way through. Not a note +escaped her fingers, and she played with so much magnetism that one +could scarcely breathe until it was finished. You know nothing can be +more difficult than to play staccato so very softly where there is great +execution also. Both of the sonatas for violin and piano which were +played by Madame Schumann and Joachim, and especially the one in A +minor, by Beethoven, were divine. Both parts were equally well +sustained, and they played with so much fire--as if one inspired the +other. It was worth a trip across the Atlantic just to hear those two +performances. + +The Sing-Akademie, where all the best concerts are given, is not a very +large hall, but it is beautifully proportioned, and the acoustic is +perfect. The frescoes are very delicate, and on the left are boxes all +along, which add much to the beauty of the hall, with their scarlet and +gold flutings. Clara Schumann is a great favorite here, and there was +such a rush for seats that, though we went early for our tickets, all +the good parquet seats were gone, and we had to get places on the +_estrade_, or place where the chorus sits--when there is one. But I +found it delightful for a piano concert, for you can be as close to the +performer as you like, and at the same time see the faces of the +audience. I saw ever so many people that I knew, and we kept bowing away +at each other. + +Just think how convenient it is here with regard to public amusements, +for ladies can go anywhere alone! You take a droschkie and they drive +you anywhere for five groschen, which is about fifteen cents. When you +get into the concert hall you go into the _garde-robe_ and take off your +things, and hand them over to the care of the woman who stands there, +and then you walk in and sit down comfortably as you would in a parlour, +and are not roasted in your hat and cloak while at the concert, and +chilled when you go out, as we are in America. Their programmes, too, +are not so unconscionably long as ours, and, in short, their whole +method of concert-giving is more rational than with us. I always enjoy +the garde-robe, for if you have acquaintances you are sure to meet them, +and you have no idea how exciting it is in a foreign city to see anybody +you know. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _December 19, 1869_. + +I suppose you are muttering maledictions on my head for not writing, but +I am so busy that I have no time to answer my letters, which are +accumulating upon my hands at a terrible rate. This week I have been out +every night but one, so that I have had to do all my practicing and +German and Harmony lessons in the day-time; and these, with my daily +hour and a half at the conservatory, have been as much as I could +manage. + +On Monday I went to a party at the Bancroft's, which I enjoyed +extremely. It was a very brilliant affair, and the toilettes were +superb. At the entrance I was ushered in by a very fine servant dressed +in livery. A second man showed me the dressing-room, where my bewildered +sight first rested on a lot of Chinamen in festive attire. I could not +make out for a second what they were, and I thought to myself, "Is it +possible I have mistaken the invitation, and this is a masquerade?" +Another glance showed me that they were Chinese, and it turned out that +Mr. Burlingame, the Chinese Minister, was there, and these men were part +of his suite. The ladies and gentlemen had the same dressing-room, which +was a new feature in parties to me, and as we took off our things the +servant took them and gave us a ticket for them, as they do at the +opera. I should think there were about a hundred persons present. There +were a great many handsome women, and they were beautifully dressed and +much be-diamonded and pearled. Corn-colour seemed to be the fashion, and +there were more silks of that colour than any other. + +Mr. Burlingame seemed to be a very genial, easy man. I was not presented +to him, but stood very near him part of the time. He looks upon the +introduction of the Chinese into our country as a great blessing, and +laughs at the idea of it being an evil. He says that the reason +railroads can't be introduced into China is because the whole country is +one vast grave-yard, and you can't dig any depth without unearthing +human bones, so that there would be a revolution on the part of the +people if it were done now, but it will gradually be brought about. He +travels with a suite of forty attendants, and says he has got all his +treaties here arranged to his wishes, and that Prussia has promised to +follow the United States in everything that they have agreed on with +China. He is going to resign his office in a year and go back to +America, where he wants to get into politics again. Mr. Bancroft +introduced many of the ladies to the Chinese, one of whom could speak +English, and he interpreted to the others. It was very quaint to see +them all make their deep bows in silence when some one was presented to +them. They were in the Chinese costume--Turkish trousers, white silk +coats, or blouses, and red turbans, and their hair braided down their +backs in a long tail that nearly touched their heels. + +On Thursday I went to Dr. A.'s to dinner. He seems to be a very +influential man here, and is a great favorite with the Americans. He has +a great big heart, and I suspect that is the reason of it. Mrs. A., too, +is very lovely. I saw there Mr. Theodore Fay, who used to be our +minister in Switzerland, and who is also an author. He is very +interesting, and the most earnest Christian I ever met. He has the +tenderest sympathies in the world, and in a man this is very striking. +He has a high and beautiful forehead, and a certain spirituality of +expression that appeals to you at once and touches you, also. At least +he makes a peculiar impression on _me_. There is something entirely +different about him from other men, but I don't know what it is, unless +it be his deep religious feeling, which shines out unconsciously. + +Last week I made my first visit to the Museum. It is one of the great +sights of Berlin, but it is so immense that I only saw a few rooms. In +fact there are two Museums--an old and a new. I was in the new one. It +is a perfect treasure house, and the floors alone are a study. All are +inlaid with little coloured marbles, and every one is different in +pattern. One of the most beautiful of the rooms was a large circular +dome-roofed apartment round which were placed the statues of the gods, +and in the centre stood a statue in bronze of one of the former German +kings in a Roman suit of armour. Half way up from the floor ran round a +little gallery in which you could stand and look down over the railing, +and here were placed on the walls Raphael's cartoons, which are +fac-similes of those in the Vatican, and are all woven in arras. They +are very wonderful, and you feel as if you could not look at them long +enough. The contrast is impressive as you look down and see all the +heathen statues standing on the marble floor, each one like a separate +sphinx, and then look up and see all the Christian subjects of Raphael. +The statues are so cold and white and distant, and the pictures are so +warm and bright in colour. They seem to express the difference between +the ancient and the modern religions. We went through the rooms of Greek +and Roman statues, of which there is an immense number, and on the walls +are Greek and Italian landscapes, all done by celebrated painters. + +We had to pass through these rooms rather hastily in order to get a +glimpse of the "Treppen Halle," which is the place where the two grand +stair-cases meet that carry you into the upper rooms of the Museum. +This is magnificent, and is all gilding and decoration. An immense +statue stands by each door, and on the wall are six great pictures by +Kaulbach, three on each side. "The Last Judgment," of which you're seen +photographs, is one of them. I ought to go to the Museum often to see it +properly, but it is such a long distance off that I can't get the time. +Berlin is a very large city, and the distances are as great as they are +in New York. + +At the last "Reading" at the conservatory the four best scholars played +last. One of them was an American, from San Francisco, a Mr. Trenkel, +but who has German parents. He plays exquisitely, and has just such a +poetic musical conception as Dresel, but a beautiful technique, also. He +is a thorough artist, and he looks it, too, as he is dark and pale, and +very striking. I always like to see him play, for he droops his dark +eyes, and his high pale forehead is thrown back, and stands out so well +defined over his black brows. His expression is very serious and his +manner very quiet, and he has a sort of fascination about him. He is a +particular favorite of Tausig's. + +After he played, came a young lady who has been a pupil of Von Buelow for +two years. She plays splendidly, and I could have torn my hair with envy +when she got up, and Ehlert went up to her and shook her hand and told +her before the whole school that she had "_real_ talent." After her came +_my_ favorite, little Fraeulein Timanoff, who sat down and did still +better. She is a little Russian, only fifteen, and is still in short +dresses. She has almost white hair, it is so light, and she combs it +straight back and wears it in two long braids down her back, which makes +her look very childish. It is really wonderful to see her! She takes her +seat with the greatest confidence, and plays with all the boldness of an +artist. + +Almost all the scholars in Tausig's class are studying to play in +public, and I should think he would be very proud of all those that I +have heard. There are many scholars in the conservatory, but he teaches +only the most advanced. He only returned to Berlin on Saturday, and I +have not yet seen him, though I am dying to do so, for all the Germans +are wild over his playing. The girls in his class are mortally afraid of +him, and when he gets angry he tells them they play "like a rhinoceros," +and many other little remarks equally pleasing. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _January 11, 1870_. + +Since my last letter I have been quite secluded, and have seen nothing +of the gay world. I have been to the opera twice--once to "_Fantaska_," +a grand ballet, and the second time to "_Trovatore_." The opera house +here is magnificent, and I would that I could go to it every week. It is +extremely difficult to get tickets to it, as the rich Jews manage to get +the monopoly of them and the opera house is crowded every night. It is +the most brilliant building, and so exquisitely painted! All the heads +and figures of the Muses and portraits of composers and poets which +decorate it, are so soft and so beautifully done. The curtain even is +charming. It represents the sea, and great sea monsters are swimming +about with nymphs and Cupids and all sorts of things, and one lovely +nymph floats in the air with a thin gauzy veil which trails along after +her. The scenery and dresses are superb, and I never imagined anything +to equal them. The orchestra, too, plays divinely. + +The singing is the only thing which could be improved. The Lucca, who is +the grand attraction, is a pretty little creature, but I did not find +her voice remarkable. The Berlinese worship her, and whenever Lucca +sings there is a rush for the tickets. Wachtel and Niemann are the star +singers among the men. Niemann I have not heard, but Wachtel we should +not rave over in America. I am in doubt whether indeed the Germans know +what the best singing is. They have most wonderful choruses, but when it +comes to soloists they have none that are really great--like Parepa and +Adelaide Phillips; at least, that is my judgment after hearing the best +singers in Berlin, though as the voice is not my "instrument," I will +not be too confident about it. Everything else is so far beyond what we +have at home that perhaps I unconsciously expect the climax of all--the +solo singing, to be proportionally finer also. + +They have beautiful ballet-dancers here, though. There is one little +creature named Fraeulein David, who is a wonderful artist. She does such +steps that it turns one's head to see her. She is as light as down, and +so extremely graceful that when you watch her floating about to the +enchanting ballet music, it is too captivating. There were four other +dancers nearly as good, who were all dressed exactly alike in white +dresses trimmed with pink satin. They would come out first, and dance +all together, sometimes separately and sometimes forming a figure in the +middle of the stage. Then suddenly little David, who was dressed in +white and blue, would bound forward. The others would immediately break +up and retire to the side of the stage, and she would execute a +wonderful _pas seul_. Then _she_ would retire, and the others would come +forward again, and so it went. It was perfectly beautiful. Finally they +all danced together and did everything exactly alike, though little +David could always bend lower, and take the "positions" (as we used to +say at Dio Lewis's,) better than all the rest. + +On Friday I am going to hear Rubinstein play. I suppose he will give a +beautiful concert, as he and Buelow, Tausig and Clara Schumann are the +grand celebrities now on the piano, Liszt having given up playing in +public. After our lesson was over yesterday, Ehlert took his leave, and +left us to wait for TAUSIG--my dear!--who was to hear us each play. He +came in very late, and just before it was time to give his own lesson. +He is precisely like the photograph I sent you, but is very short +indeed--too short, in fact, for good looks--but he has a remarkably +vivid expression of the eyes. He came in, and, scarcely looking at us, +and without taking the trouble to bow even, he turned on me and said, +imperiously, "_Spielen Sie mir Etwas vor_. (Play something for me.)" I +got up and played first an _Etude_, and then he asked for the scales, +and after I had played a few he told me I "had talent," and to come to +his lessons, and I would learn much. I went accordingly the next +afternoon. There were two girls only in the class, but they were both +far advanced. I had never heard either of them play before. The second +one played a fearfully difficult concerto by Chopin, which I once heard +from Mills. It is exquisitely beautiful, and she did it very well. From +time to time Tausig would sweep her off the stool, and play himself, and +he is indeed a perfect wonder! If, as they say, Liszt's trill is "like +the warble of a bird," his is as much so. It is not surprising that he +is so celebrated, and I long to hear him in concert, where he will do +full justice to his powers. He thrills you to the very marrow of your +bones. He is divorced from his wife, and I think it not improbable that +she could not live with him, for he looks as haughty and despotic as +Lucifer, though he has a very winning way with him when he likes. His +playing is spoken of as _sans pareil_. + +I spent a very pleasant Christmas. The family had a pretty little tree, +and we all gave each other presents. It was charming to go out in the +streets the week before. The Germans make the greatest time over +Christmas, and the streets are full of Christmas trees, the shops are +crammed with lovely things, and there are little booths erected all +along the sidewalks filled with toys. They have special cakes and +confections that they prepare only at this season. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + Tausig and Rubinstein. Tausig's Pupils. The Bancrofts. A German + Radical. + + + BERLIN, _February 8, 1870_. + +I have heard both Rubinstein and Tausig in concert since I last wrote. +They are both wonderful, but in quite a different way. Rubinstein has +the greatest power and _abandon_ in playing that you can imagine, and is +extremely exciting. I never saw a man to whom it seemed so easy to play. +It is as if he were just sporting with the piano, and could do what he +pleased with it. Tausig, on the contrary, is extremely restrained, and +has not quite enthusiasm enough, but he is absolutely _perfect_, and +plays with the greatest expression. He is pre-eminent in grace and +delicacy of execution, but seems to hold back his power in a concert +room, which is very singular, for when he plays to his classes in the +conservatory he seems all passion. His conception is so very refined +that sometimes it is a little too much so, while Rubinstein is +occasionally too precipitate. I have not yet decided which I like best, +but in my estimation Clara Schumann as a whole is superior to either, +although she has not their unlimited technique. + +This was Tausig's programme: + + 1. Sonate Op. 53, Beethoven. + + 2. a. Bourree, Bach. + b. Presto Scherzando, Mendelssohn. + c. Barcarole Op. 60, } + d. Ballade Op. 47, } Chopin. + e. Zwei Mazurkas Op. 59 u 33,} + f. Aufforderung zum Tanz, Weber. + + 3. Kreisleriana Op. 16, 8 Phantasie Stuecke, Schumann. + 4. a. Staendchen von Shakespeare nach Schubert, } Liszt. + b. Ungarische Rhapsodie, } + +Tausig's octave playing is the most extraordinary I ever heard. The last +great effect on his programme was in the Rhapsody by Liszt, in an octave +variation. He first played it so _pianissimo_ that you could only just +hear it, and then he repeated the variation and gave it tremendously +_forte_. It was colossal! His scales surpass Clara Schumann's, and it +seems as if he played with velvet fingers, his touch is so very soft. He +played the great C major Sonata by Beethoven--Moscheles' favorite, you +know. His conception of it was not brilliant, as I expected it would be, +but very calm and dreamy, and the first movement especially he took very +_piano_. He did it most beautifully, but I was not quite satisfied with +the last movement, for I expected he would make a grand climax with +those passionate trills, and he did not. Chopin he plays divinely, and +that little Bourree of Bach's that I used to play, was magical. He +played it like lightning, and made it perfectly bewitching. + +Altogether, he is a great man. But Clara Schumann always puts herself +_en rapport_ with you immediately. Tausig and Rubinstein do not sway you +as she does, and, therefore, I think she is the greater interpreter, +although I imagine the Germans would not agree with me. Tausig has such +a little hand that I wonder he has been able to acquire his immense +virtuosity. He is only thirty years old, and is much younger than +Rubinstein or Buelow. + +The day after Tausig's concert I went, as usual, to hear him give the +lesson to his best class of girls. I got there a little before the hour, +and the girls were in the dressing-room waiting for the young men to be +through with their lesson. They were talking about the concert. "Was it +not beautiful?" said little Timanoff, to me; "I did not sleep the whole +night after it!"--a touch of sentiment that quite surprised me in that +small personage, and made me feel some compunctions, as I had slept +soundly myself. "I have practiced five hours to-day already," she added. +Just then the young men came out of the class-room and we passed into +it. Tausig was standing by the piano. "Begin!" said he, to Timanoff, +more shortly even than usual; "I trust you have brought me a study +_this_ time." He always insists upon a study in addition to the piece. +Timanoff replied in the affirmative, and proceeded to open Chopin's +_Etudes_. She played the great A minor "Winter Wind" study, and most +magnificently, too, starting off with the greatest brilliancy and "go." +I was perfectly amazed at such a feat from such a child, and expected +that Tausig would exclaim with admiration. Not so that Rhadamanthus. He +heard it through without comment or correction, and when Timanoff had +finished, simply remarked very composedly, "So! Have you taken the +_next_ Etude, also?" as if the great A minor were not enough for one +meal! It is eight pages long to begin with, and there is no let-up to +the difficulty all the way through. Afterward, however, he told the +young men that he "could not have done it better" himself. + +Tausig is so hasty and impatient that to be in his classes must be a +fearful ordeal. He will not bear the slightest fault. The last time I +went into his class to hear him teach he was dreadful. Fraeulein H. +began, and she has remarkable talent, and is far beyond me. She would +not play _piano_ enough to suit him, and finally he stamped his foot at +her, snatched her hand from the piano, and said: "_Will_ you play +_piano_ or not, for if not we will go no farther?" The second girl sat +down and played a few lines. He made her begin over again several times, +and finally came up and took her music away and slapped it down on the +piano,--"You have been studying this for weeks and you can't play a note +of it; practice it for a month and then you can bring it to me again," +he said. + +The third was Fraeulein Timanoff, who is a little genius, I think. She +brought a Sonata by Schubert--the lovely one in A minor--and by the way +he behaved Tausig must have a particular feeling about that particular +Sonata. Timanoff began running it off in her usual nimble style, having +practiced it evidently every minute of the time when she was not +asleep, since the last lesson. She had not proceeded far down the first +page when he stopped her, and began to fuss over the expression. She +began again, but this time with no better luck. A third time, but still +he was dissatisfied, though he suffered her to go on a little farther. +He kept stopping her every moment in the most tantalizing and +exasperating manner. If it had been I, I should have cried, but Timanoff +is well broken, and only flushed deeply to the very tips of her small +ears. From an apple blossom she changed to a carnation. Tausig grew more +and more savage, and made her skip whole pages in his impatience. "Play +here!" he would say, in the most imperative tone, pointing to a half or +whole page farther on. "This I cannot hear!--Go on farther!--It is too +bad to be listened to!" Finally, he struck the music with the back of +his hand, and exclaimed, in a despairing way, "_Kind, es liegt eine +Seele darin. Weiss du nicht es liegt eine_ SEELE _darin_? (Child, +there's a soul in the piece. Don't you know there is a _soul_ in it?)" +To the little Timanoff, who has no soul, and who is not sufficiently +experienced to counterfeit one, this speech evidently conveyed no +particular idea. She ran on as glibly as ever till Tausig could endure +no more, and shut up the music. I was much disappointed, as it was new +to me, and I like to hear Timanoff's little fingers tinkle over the +keys, "Seele" or no "Seele." She has a most accurate and dainty way of +doing everything, and somehow, in her healthy little brain I hardly wish +for _Seele_! + +Last of all Fraeulein L. played, and she alone suited Tausig. She is a +Swede, and is the best scholar he has, but she has such frightfully ugly +hands, and holds them so terribly, that when I look at her I cannot +enjoy her playing. Tausig always praises her very much, and she is +tremendously ambitious. + +Tausig has a charming face, full of expression and very sensitive. He is +extremely sharp-sighted, and has eyes in the back of his head, I +believe. He is far too small and too despotic to be fascinating, +however, though he has a sort of captivating way with him when he is in +a good humor. + +I was dreadfully sorry to hear of poor Gottschalk's death. He had a +golden touch, and equal to any in the world, I think. But what a +romantic way to die!--to fall senseless at his instrument, while he was +playing "_La Morte_." It was very strange. If anything more is in the +papers about him you must send it to me, for the infatuation that I and +99,999 other American girls once felt for him, still lingers in my +breast! + +On Saturday night I went for the first time to hear the Berlin Symphony +Kapelle. It is composed only of artists, and is the most splendid music +imaginable. De Ahna, for instance, is one of the violinists, and he is +not far behind Joachim. We have no conception of such an orchestra in +America.[A] The Philharmonic of New York approaches it, but is still a +long way off. This orchestra is so perfect, and plays with such +precision, that you can't realize that there are any performers at all. +It is just a great wave of sound that rolls over you as smooth as glass. +As the concert halls are much smaller here, the music is much louder, +and every man not only plays _piano_ and _forte_ where it is marked, but +he draws the _tone_ out of his violin. They have the greatest pathos, +consequently, in the soft parts, and overwhelming power in the loud. +Where great expression is required the conductor almost ceases to beat +time, and it seems as if the performers took it _ad libitum_; but they +understand each other so well that they play like one man. It is _too_ +ecstatic! I observed the greatest difference in the horn playing. +Instead of coming in in a monotonous sort of way as it does at home, and +always with the same degree of loudness, here, when it is solo, it +begins round and smooth and full, and then gently modulates until the +tone seems to sigh itself out, dying away at last with a little tremolo +that is perfectly melting. I never before heard such an effect. When the +trumpets come in it is like the crack of doom, and you should hear the +way they play the drums. I never _was_ satisfied with the way they +strike the drums in New York and Boston, for it always seemed as if they +thought the parchment would break. Here, sometimes they give such a +sharp stroke that it startles me, though, of course, it is not often. +But it adds immensely to the accent, and makes your heart beat, I can +tell you. They played Schubert's great symphony, and Beethoven's in B +major, and I could scarcely believe my own ears at the difference +between this orchestra and ours. It is as great as between---- and +Tausig. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _March 4, 1870_. + +Tausig is off to Russia to-day on a concert tour, and will not return +until the 1st of May. Out of six months he has been in Berlin about two +and a half! However, as I am not yet in his class it doesn't affect me +much, but I should think his scholars would be provoked at such long +absences. That is the worst of having such a great artist for a master. +I believe we are to have no vacation in the summer though, and that he +has promised to remain here from May until November without going off. +Ehlert and Tausig have had a grand quarrel, and Ehlert is going to leave +the conservatory in April. I am very sorry, for he is an admirable +teacher, and I like him extremely. + +We had another Musical Reading on Sunday, at which I played, but all the +conservatory classes were there, and all the teachers, with Tausig, +also, so it was a pretty hard ordeal. The girls said I turned deadly +pale when I sat down to the piano, and well I might, for here you cannot +play any thing that the scholars have not either played themselves or +are perfectly familiar with, so they criticise you without mercy. Tausig +plays so magnificently that you know beforehand that a thing can never +be more than comparatively good in his eyes. Fraeulein L. is the only one +of his pupils that plays to suit him. I do not like her playing so much +myself, because it sounds as if she had tried to imitate him +exactly--which she probably does. It does not seem spontaneous, and she +is an affected creature. They all think 'the world' of her at the +conservatory, and I suppose she _is_ quite extraordinary; but I prefer +Fraeulein Timanoff--"_die kleine Person_," as Tausig calls her--and she +is, indeed, a "little person." On Sunday Fraeulein L. played the first +part of a Sonata by Chopin, and Tausig was quite enchanted with her +performance. I thought he was going to embrace her, he jumped up so +impetuously and ran over to her. He declared that it could not be better +played, and said he would not hear anything else after that, and so the +school was dismissed, although several had not played that expected to +do so. + +Tausig has one scholar who is a very singular girl--the Fraeulein H. I +mentioned to you before, who has studied with Buelow. She is half French +and half German, and speaks both languages. She is full of talent and +cannot be over eighteen, but she is the most intense character, and is a +perfect child of nature. One can't help smiling at everything she does, +because she goes at everything so hard and so unconsciously. When the +other girls are playing she folds her arms and plays with her fingers +against her sides all the time, and when her turn comes she seizes her +music, jumps up, and rushes for the piano as fast as she can. She hasn't +the least timidity, and on Sunday when Tausig called out her name he +scarcely got the words out before she said, "_Ja_," to the great +amusement of the class (for none of us answered to our names) and ran to +the piano. + +She sat down with the chair half crooked, and almost on the side of it, +but she never stopped to arrange herself, but dashed off a prelude out +of her own head, and then played her piece. When she got through she +never changed countenance, but was back in her seat before you could say +"Jack Robinson." She is as passionate as Tausig, and so they usually +have a scene over her lesson. He is always either half amused at her or +very angry, and is terribly severe with her. When he stamps his foot at +her she makes up a face, and the blood rushes up into her head, and I +believe she would beat him if she dared. She always plays as impetuously +as she does everything else, and then he stops his ears and tells her +she makes too much "_Spectakel_" (his favorite expression). Then she +begins over again two or three times, but always in the same way. He +snatches the music from the piano and tells her that is enough. Then the +class bursts out laughing and she goes to her seat and cries. But she is +too proud to let the other girls see her wipe her eyes, and so she sits +up straight, and tries to look unconcerned, but the tears trickle down +her cheeks one after the other, and drop off her chin all the rest of +the hour. By the time she has had a piece for two lessons she comes to +the third, and at last she has managed to tone down enough, and then she +plays it splendidly. She is a savage creature. The girls tell me that +one time she sat down to the piano (a concert-grand) with such violence +as to push the instrument to one side, and began to play with such +vehemence that she burst the sleeve out of her dress behind! She is +going to be an artist, and I told her she must come to America to give +concerts. She said "_Ja_," and immediately wanted to know where I lived, +so she could come and see me. I think she will make a capital concert +player, for she is always excited by an audience, and she has immense +power. I am a mere baby to her in strength. Perhaps when she is ten +years older she will be able to restrain herself within just limits, and +to put in the light and shade as Fraeulein L. does. + +Since I last wrote I have been to hear Rubinstein again. He is the +greatest sensation player I know of, and, like Gottschalk, has all sorts +of tricks of his own. His grand aim is to produce an _effect_, so it is +dreadfully exciting to hear him, and at his last concert the first piece +he played--a terrific composition by Schubert--gave me such a violent +headache that I couldn't hear the rest of the performance with any +pleasure. He has a gigantic spirit in him, and is extremely poetic and +original, but for an entire concert he is too much. Give me Rubinstein +for a few pieces, but Tausig for a whole evening. Rubinstein doesn't +care how many notes he misses, provided he can bring out his conception +and make it vivid enough. Tausig strikes _every_ note with rigid +exactness, and perhaps his very perfection makes him at times a little +cold. Rubinstein played Schubert's Erl-Koenig, arranged by Liszt, +_gloriously_. Where the child is so frightened, his hands flew all over +the piano, and absolutely made it shriek with terror. It was enough to +freeze you to hear it. + +Last week I went to a party at Mrs. Bancroft's in honour of Washington's +birthday, and had a lovely time, as I always do when I go there. +Bismarck was present, and wore a coat all decorated with stars and +orders. He is a splendid looking man, and is tall and imposing. No one +could be kinder than Mr. Bancroft. He and Mrs. Bancroft live in a +beautiful house, furnished in perfect taste and full of lovely pictures +and things, and they entertain most charmingly. They seem to do their +utmost for the Americans who are in Berlin, and I am very proud of our +minister. His reputation as our national historian, together with his +German culture and early German associations, all combine to render him +an admirable representative of our country to this haughty kingdom, and +I hear that he is very popular with its selfsatisfied citizens. As for +Mrs. Bancroft, one could hardly be more elegant, or better suited to the +position. Mr. Bancroft is passionately fond of music, and knows what +good music is,--which is of course an additional title to _my_ high +opinion! + +The other day Herr J. called for me to go and take a walk through the +Thier-Garten, and see the skating. It was the first time I had been +there, though it is not far from us, and I was delighted with it. It is +the natural forest, with beautiful walks and drives cut through it, and +statues here and there. We went to see the skating, and it was a lovely +sight. The band was playing, and ladies and gentlemen were skating in +time to the waltz. Many ladies skate very elegantly, and go along with +their hands in their muffs, swaying first to one side and then to the +other. It is grace itself. Carriages and horses pranced slowly around +the edge of the pond, and at last the Prince and Princess Royal came +along, drawn by two splendid black horses. + +The carriage stopped and they got out to walk. "Now," said I to Herr J., +"you must take off your hat"--for everybody takes off his hat to the +Crown Prince. As they passed us he did take it off, but blushed up to +his ears, which I thought rather odd, until he said, in a half-ashamed +tone, "That is the first time in my life that I ever took off my hat to +a Prince." "Well, what did you do it for?" said I. "Because you told me +to," said he. He is such a red hot republican, that even such a little +act of respect as this grated upon him! I only told him in fun, any way, +but I was very much amused to see how he took it. He always raves over +the United States, and says we are the greatest country in the world. He +is a strange man, and you ought to hear his theory of religion. He sets +the Bible entirely aside--like most German cultivated men. We were +talking of it one night, and he said, "We won't speak of that +_blockhead_ Peter, stupid fisherman that he was! but we will pass on to +Paul, who was a man of some education." David, he calls "that rascal +David, etc." Of course, I hold to my own belief, but I can't help +laughing to hear him, it sounds so ridiculous. The world never had any +beginning, he says, and there is no resurrection. We live only for the +benefit of the next generation, and therefore it is necessary to lead +good lives. We inherit the result of our father's labours, and our +children will inherit ours. So we shall go on until the human race comes +to a state of perfection. "And then what?" said I. Oh--then, he didn't +know. Perhaps the world would explode, and go off in meteors. "We _do_ +know," said he, "that there are lost stars. Occasionally a star +disappears and we can't tell what has become of it; and perhaps the +earth will become a wandering star, or a comet. The intervals between +the stars are so great as to admit of a world wandering about--and there +is no police in those regions, I fancy," concluded he, with a shrug of +his shoulders. "Do you really _believe_ that, Herr J.?" I asked. "Oh," +said he, "we won't speak about _beliefs_. Now we are _speculating_!" He +is a delightful companion, and I think he is scrupulously conscientious. +Though he does not profess the Christian faith, he acts up to Christian +principles. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + Opera and Oratorio in Berlin. A Typical American. Prussian + Rudeness. Conservatory Changes. Easter. + + + BERLIN, _March 20, 1870_. + +On Wednesday the Bancrofts most kindly called for me to go to the opera +with them. They came in their carriage, with two horses and footmen, so +it was very jolly, and we bowled rapidly through Unter den Linden (the +Broadway of Berlin), in rather a different manner from the pace I +usually crawl along in a droschkie. They had fine opera glasses, of +course, and we took our seats just as the overture was about to begin, +so that everything was charming except that instead of Lohengrin, which +we had expected to hear, they had changed the opera to Faust, which I +had heard the week before. Faust is, however, a fascinating opera, and +it is beautifully given here, albeit the Germans stick to it that it is +Gounod's Faust and not Goethe's. + +Since I have come here I have a perfect passion for going to the opera, +for everything is done in such superb fashion, and they have the +orchestra of the Symphony Kapelle, which is so splendid that it could +not be better. It is a pity the singers are not equally good, but I +don't believe Germany is the land of great voices. However, the men sing +finely, and the prima donnas have much talent, and _act_ beautifully. +The prima donna on this occasion was Mallinger, the rival of Lucca. She +is especially good as Margaretta. Niemann and Wachtel are the great men +singers. Wachtel was formerly a coachman, but he has a lovely voice. His +acting is not remarkable, but Niemann is superb, and he sings and acts +delightfully. He is very tall and fair, with light whiskers, and golden +hair crowning a noble head, in truth a regular Viking. When he comes out +in his crimson velvet mantle and crimson cap, with a white plume, and +begins singing these delicious love songs to Margaretta, he is perfectly +enchanting! He and Mallinger throw themselves into the long love scene +which fills the third act, and act it magnificently. It was the first +time I ever saw a love scene well done. The fourth act is most +impressive. The curtain rises, and shows the interior of a church. The +candles are burning on the altar, and the priests and acolytes are +standing in their proper order before it. The organ strikes up a fugue +and all the peasants come in and kneel down. Then poor Margaretta comes +in for refuge, but when she kneels to pray a voice is heard which tells +her that for her there is no refuge or hope in heaven or earth. + +This scene Mallinger does so well that it is nature itself. When the +voice is heard she gives a shriek, totters for a moment, and then falls +upon the floor senseless, and O, _so_ naturally that one is entirely +carried away by it. The organ takes up the fugue, and the curtain drops. +The contrast between the two acts makes it all the more effective, for +in the third it is all love and flowers and languishing music, and in +the fourth one is suddenly recalled to the sanctity and severity of the +church; also, after the orchestra this subdued fugue on the organ makes +a very peculiar impression. In the fifth act Margaretta is in prison, +and Faust and Mephistopheles come to rescue her. This is a powerful +scene, for at first she hesitates, and thinks she will go with them, and +then her mind wanders, and she recalls, as in a vision, the happy scenes +of earlier days. They keep urging her, and try to drag her along with +them, but at last she breaks free from them and cries, "To Thee, O, God, +belongs my soul," and falls upon her straw pallet, and dies. Then the +scene changes, and you see four angels gradually floating up to heaven, +supporting her dead body, while the chorus sings: + + "Christ ist erstanden + Aus Tod und Banden + Frieden und Heil verkeisst + Aller Welt er, die ihn preist."[B] + +This ends the opera, which is very exciting throughout. I am going to +read the original as soon as I know a little more German, so that I +shan't have to read with a dictionary. I am just getting able to read +Goethe without one, and think he is the most entrancing writer. There +never could have been a man who understood women so well as he! His +female characters are perfectly captivating, but he is not very +flattering to his own sex, and generally makes them, in love, (what they +are) weak and vacillating. + +I met a very agreeable young countryman at a dinner the other day--a Mr. +P.--and a great contrast to any of Goethe's ill-regulated heroes. He was +the typical American, I thought. Wide awake, bright, with a sharp eye +to business, very republican, with a hearty contempt for titles and a +great respect for women, practical and clear-headed. When the wine was +passed round he refused it, and said he had never drunk a glass of wine +or touched tobacco in his life. I was so amused, for he looked so young. +I said to myself, "probably you are just out of college, and are +travelling before you settle down to a profession." After a while he +said something about his wife. I was a little surprised, but still I +thought "perhaps you have only been married a few months." A little +further on he mentioned his children. I was still more surprised, but +thought he couldn't have more than two; but when Mrs. B. asked him how +many he had, and he said "three living and two dead," adding very +gravely, "I have been twice left childless," I could scarcely help +bursting out laughing, for I had thought him about twenty-one, and these +revelations of a wife and numerous family seemed too preposterous!--But +it was very nice to see such a model countryman, too. It is such men +that make the American greatness. + +After dinner I went with my hostess to hear Mendelssohn's Oratorio of +St. Paul. It is a great work, a little tedious as a whole, but with +wonderfully beautiful numbers interspersed through it. There are several +lovely chorales in it. I was disappointed in the performance, though, +for in the first place there is no organ in the Sing-Akademie, and I +consider the effect of the organ and the drums indispensable to an +oratorio; and in the second, the solos all seemed to me indifferently +sung. The choruses were faultless, however. They understand how to +drill a chorus here! Next Friday I am going to Haydn's "Jahreszeiten," +which I never happened to hear in Boston. + +Germany is a great place for birds and flowers. All winter long we have +quantities of saucy-looking little sparrows here, and they have the most +thievish expression when they fly down for a crumb. I sometimes put +crumbs on my window-sill, and in a short time they are sure to see them. +Then they stand on the edge of a roof opposite, and look from side to +side for a long time, the way birds do. At last they make up their +minds, swoop down on the sill, stretch their heads, give a bold look to +see if I am about, and then snatch a crumb and fly off with it. They +never can get over their own temerity, and always give a chirp as they +fly away with the crumb; whether it is a note of triumph over their +success, or an expression of nervousness, I cannot decide. One cold day +I passed a tree, on every twig of which was a bird. They were holding a +political meeting, I am sure, for they were all jabbering away to each +other in the most excited manner, and each one had his breast bulged +out, and his feathers ruffled. They were "awfully cunning!" + +On Tuesday I went out to Borsig's greenhouse. He is an immensely rich +man here, who makes a specialty of flowers. He lives some way out of +Berlin, and has the largest conservatories here. The inside of the +portico which leads into them is all covered with ivy, which creeps up +on the inside of the walls, and covers them completely. When we came +within, the flowers were arranged in perfect _banks_ all along the +length of the greenhouse, so that you saw one continuous line of +brilliant colours, and oh--the perfume! The hyacinths predominated in +all shades, though there were many other flowers, and many of them new +to me. Camelias were trained, vine fashion, all over the sides of the +greenhouse, and hundreds of white and pink blossoms were depending from +them. All the centre of the greenhouse was a bed of rich earth covered +with a little delicate plant, and at intervals planted with azalea +bushes so covered with blossoms that one could scarcely see the leaves. +At one end was a very large cage filled with brilliant birds, and at the +other was a lovely fountain of white marble--Venus and Cupid supported +on three shells. But I was most struck by the tree ferns, which I had +never before seen. They were perfectly magnificent, and were arranged on +the highest side of the greenhouse with many other rare plants most +artistically mingled in. After we had finished looking at the flowers we +went into a second house, where were palm trees, ferns, cacti and all +sorts of strange things growing, but all placed with the same taste. It +was a beautiful sight, and I never had any idea of the garden of Eden +before. I must try and bring home a pot of the "Violet of the Alps." It +is the most delicate little flower, and looks as if it grew on a high, +cold mountain. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _April 1, 1870_. + +To-day is April Fool's day, and the first real month of spring is begun. +I have not fooled anybody yet, but as soon as dinner is ready, I shall +rush to the window and cry, "There goes the king!" Of course they will +all run to see him, and then I shall get it off on the whole family at +once. I shall wait until the "kleiner Hans," Frau W.'s son, comes home. +I call him the "Kleinen" in derision, for in reality he is immense. I +have been very much struck with the height of the people here. As a rule +they are much taller than Americans, and sometimes one meets perfect +giants in the streets. The Prussian men are often semi-insolent in their +street manners to women, and sometimes nearly knock you off the +sidewalk, from simply not choosing to see you. I suppose this arrogance +is one of the benefits of their military training! They _will_ have the +middle of the walk where the stone flag is laid, no matter what _you_ +have to step off into! + +I went to hear Haydn's Jahreszeiten a few evenings since, and it is the +most charming work--such a happy combination of grave and gay! He wrote +it when he was seventy years old, and it is so popular that one has +great difficulty in getting a ticket for it. The _salon_ was entirely +filled, so that I had to take a seat in the _loge_, where the places are +pretty poor, though I went early, too. The work is sung like an +oratorio, in arias, recitatives and choruses, and is interspersed with +charming little songs. It represents the four seasons of the year, and +each part is prefaced by a little overture appropriate to the passing +of each season into the next. The recitatives are sung by Hanna and +Lucas, who are lovers, and by Simon, who is a friend of both, +apparently. The autumn is the prettiest of the four parts, for it +represents first the joy of the country people over the harvests and +over the fruits. Then comes a splendid chorus in praise of Industry. +After that follows a little love dialogue between Hanna and Lucas, then +a description of a hunt, then a dance; lastly the wine is brought, and +the whole ends with a magnificent chorus in praise of wine. The dance is +too pretty for anything, for the whole chorus sings a waltz, and it is +the gayest, most captivating composition imaginable. The choruses here +are so splendidly drilled that they give the expression in a very vivid +manner, and produce beautiful effects. All the parts are perfectly +accurate and well balanced. But the solo singers are, as I have remarked +in former letters, for the most part, ordinary. + +I took my last lesson of Ehlert yesterday. I am very sorry that he and +Tausig have quarrelled, for he is a splendid teacher. He has taught me a +great deal, and precisely the things that I wanted to know and could not +find out for myself. For instance, those twists and turns of the hands +that artists have, their way of striking the chords, and many other +little technicalities which one must have a master to learn. He always +seemed to take great pleasure in teaching me, and I am most grateful to +him for his encouragement. I think Tausig behaves very strangely to be +off for such a long time. He does not return until the first of May, and +all this month we are to be taught by one of his best scholars until he +comes back and engages another teacher. He has just given concerts at +St. Petersburg, and I am told that at a single one he made six thousand +rubles. They are in an immense enthusiasm there over him. + +Last night I went with Mr. B. to hear Bach's Passion Music. Anything to +equal that last chorus I never heard from voices. I felt as if it ought +to go on forever, and could not bear to have it end. That chorale, "O +Sacred Head now wounded," is taken from it, and it comes in twice; the +second time with different harmonies and without accompaniment. It is +the most exquisite thing; you feel as if you would like to die when you +hear it. But the last chorus carries you straight up to heaven. It +begins: + + "We sit down in tears + And call to thee in the grave, + Rest soft--rest soft." + +It represents the rest of our Saviour after the stone had been rolled +before the tomb, and it is _divine_. Everybody in the chorus was dressed +in black, and almost every one in the audience, so you can imagine what +a sombre scene it was. This is the custom here, and on Good Friday, when +the celebrated "Tod Jesu" by Graun, is performed, they go in black +without exception. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _April 24, 1870_. + +I thought of you all on Easter Sunday, and wondered what sort of music +you were having. I did not go to the English church, as is my wont, but +to the Dom, which is the great church here, and is where all the court +goes. It is an extremely ugly church, and much like one of our old +Congregational meeting-houses; but they have a superb choir of two +hundred men and boys which is celebrated all over Europe. Haupt (Mr. J. +K. Paine's former master) is the organist, and of course they have a +very large organ. I knew, as this was Easter, that the music would be +magnificent, so I made A. W. go there with me, much against her will, +for she declared we should get no seat. The Germans don't trouble +themselves to go to church very often, but on a feast day they turn out +in crowds. + +We got to the church only twenty minutes before service began, and I +confess I was rather daunted as I saw the swarms of people not only +going in but coming out, hopeless of getting into the church. However, I +determined to push on and see what the chances were, and with great +difficulty we got up stairs. There is a lobby that runs all around the +church, just as in the Boston Music Hall. All the doors between the +gallery and the lobby were open, and each was crammed full of people. I +thought the best thing we could do would be to stand there until we got +tired, and listen to the music, and then go. Finally, the sexton came +along, and A. asked him if he could not give us two seats; he shrugged +his shoulders and said, "Yes, if you choose to pass through the crowd." +We boldly said we would, although it looked almost hopeless, and then +made our way through it, followed by muttered execrations. At last the +sexton unlocked a door, and gave us two excellent seats, and there was +plenty of room for a dozen more people; but I don't doubt he frightened +them away just as he would have done us if he could. He locked us in, +and there we sat quite in comfort. + +At ten the choir began to sing a psalm. They sit directly over the +chancel, and a gilded frame work conceals them completely from the +congregation. They have a leader who conducts them, and they sing in +most perfect time and tune, entirely without accompaniment. The voices +are tender and soft rather than loud, and they weave in and out most +beautifully. There are a great many different parts, and the voices keep +striking in from various points, which produces a delicious effect, and +makes them sound like an angel choir far up in the sky. After they had +finished the psalm the organ burst out with a tremendous great chord, +enough to make you jump, and then played a chorale, and there were also +trombones which took the melody. Then all the congregation sang the +chorale, and the choir kept silence. You cannot imagine how easy it is +to sing when the trombones lead, and the effect is overwhelming with the +organ, especially in these grand old chorales. I could scarcely bear it, +it was so very exciting. + +There was a great deal of music, as it was Easter Sunday, and it was +done alternately by the choir and the congregation; but generally the +Dom choir only sings one psalm before the service begins, and therefore +I seldom take the trouble to go there. The rest of the music is entirely +congregational, and they only have trombones on great occasions. We sat +close by the chancel, and the great wax candles flared on the altar +below us, and the Lutheran clergyman read the German so that it sounded +a good deal like Latin. I was quite surprised to see how much like Latin +German _could_ sound, for it has these long, rolling words, and it is +just as pompous. Altogether it made a strange but splendid impression. I +thought if they had only had their choir in the chancel, and in white +surplices, it would have been much more beautiful, but perhaps the music +would not have sounded so fine as when the singers were overhead. The +Berlin churches all look as if religion was dying out here, so old and +bare and ill-cared for, and so few in number. They are only redeemed by +the great castles of organs which they generally have; and it is a +difficult thing to get the post of organist here. One must be an +experienced and well-known musician to do it. They sing no chants in the +service, but only chorales. + +To-night is the last Royal Symphony Concert of this season, and of +course I shall go. This wonderful orchestra carries me completely away. +It is too marvellous how they play! such expression, such _elan!_ I +heard them give Beethoven's Leonora Overture last week in such a fashion +as fairly electrified me. This overture sums up the opera of Fidelio, +and in one part of it, just as the hero is going to be executed, you +hear the post-horn sound which announces his delivery. This they play so +softly that you catch it exactly as if it came from a long distance, and +you cannot believe it comes from the orchestra. It makes you think of +"the horns of elf-land faintly blowing." + +Tausig is expected back this week, and he has indeed been gone long +enough. He is going to give a lesson every Monday to the best scholars +who are not in his class, and as I stand at the head of these I hope to +have a lesson from him every week. This would suit me better than two, +as he is so dreadfully exacting, and it will give me time to learn a +piece well. Then I should have my regular lesson beside from Mr. +Beringer, or whoever he appoints to take Ehlert's place. Beringer, who +is a young man about twenty-five years old, has turned out a capital +teacher, and I am learning much with him. He plays beautifully himself, +and is a great favorite of Tausig's. He has been with him so long that +he teaches his method excellently, and gives me pieces that he has +studied with him. I believe he is to come out at the Gewandhaus, in +Leipsic, in October, and after that he will settle in London. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + The Thier-Garten. A Military Review. Charlottenburg. Tausig. Berlin + in Summer. Potsdam and Babelsberg. + + + BERLIN, _June 5, 1870_. + +We've had the vilest possible weather this spring, but Berlin looks +perfectly lovely now. There are a great many gardens attached to the +houses here. Everything is in bloom, and is laden with the scent of +lilacs and apple blossoms. The streets are planted with lindens and +horse chestnut trees, and on the fashionable street bordering on the +Thier-Garten, all the houses have little lawns in front, carpeted with +the most dazzling green grass, and rising out of it are solid banks of +flowers. The shrubs are planted according to their height, close +together, and one behind the other, and as they are all in blossom you +see these great masses of colour. It is like a gigantic bouquet growing +up before you. + +The Thier-Garten is perfectly beautiful. It is so charming to come upon +this unfenced wood right in the heart of an immense city, with roads and +paths cut all through it, and each over-arched with vivid green as far +as the eye can reach. When you see the gay equipages driving swiftly +through it, and ladies and gentlemen glancing amid the trees on +horseback, it is very romantic. + +Frau W.'s brother, "Uncle S." as I call him, announced the other day +that he was going to take us to Charlottenburg. I had often been told +that I must go there and see the "Mausoleum," but as you know I never +ask for explanations, this did not convey any particular idea to my +mind, and I started out on this excursion in my usual state of blissful +ignorance. We took two droschkies for our party, and meandered slowly +through the Thier-Garten and along the Charlottenburg road till we +arrived at our point of destination. This was announced from afar by an +absurd statue poised on one toe on the top of the castle which stands in +front of the park containing the Mausoleum. + +The first thing we did on alighting was to go into a little beer garden +close by to take coffee. It was a perfect afternoon, and the trees and +flowers were in all their June glory. We sat down around one of those +delightful tables which they always have under the trees in Germany. The +coffee was soon served, hot and strong, and Uncle S. took out a cigar to +complete his enjoyment. Then we began to stroll. We went through a gate +into the grounds surrounding the castle, and after passing through the +orangery emerged into a garden, which soon spread into a beautiful park +filled with magnificent trees, and with beds of flowers cut in the +smooth turf for some distance along the borders of the avenues. We +turned to the right (instead of to the left, which would have brought us +directly to the Mausoleum) in order to see the flowers first, then the +river, and then come round by the pond where the carp are kept. + +The Germans certainly understand laying out parks to perfection. They +are not _too_ rigidly kept, and there is an air of nature about +everything. This Charlottenburg park is a particularly fascinating one. +A dense avenue borders the River Spree, which is broad at this point, +and flows gloomily and silently along. The branches of the trees +overhang the stream, and also lock together across the walk, forming a +leafy avenue before and behind you. We met very few people, scarcely any +one, in fact, and the songs of the birds were the only sounds that broke +the all-pervading calm. The path finally left the river, and we came out +on an open spot, where was a pretty view of the castle through a little +cut in the trees. We sat down on a bench and looked about us for awhile, +and then went up on the bridge which crosses the pond where the carp are +kept. The Germans always feed these carp religiously, and that is a +regular part of the excursion. The fish are very old, many of them, and +we saw some hoary old fellows rise lazily to the surface and condescend +to swallow the morsels of cake that we threw them. They were evidently +accustomed to good living, and, like all swells, considered it only +their due! + +At last we came gradually round towards the Mausoleum. An avenue of +hemlocks led to it--"Trauer-Baeume (mourning-trees)," as the Germans call +them, and it was an exquisite touch of sentiment to make _this_ avenue +of these dark funereal evergreens. At first you see nothing, for the +avenue is long, and you turn into it gay and smiling with the influence +of the birds, the trees, and the flowers fresh upon you. But the +drooping boughs of the sombre hemlocks soon begin to take effect, and +the feeling that comes over one when about half way down it is certainly +peculiar. It seems as if one were passing between a row of tall and +silent _sentinels_ watching over the abode of death! + +Involuntarily you begin repeating from Edgar Poe's haunting poem: + + "Then I pacified Psyche and kissed her, + And conquered her scruples and gloom, + And banished her scruples and gloom, + And we passed to the end of the vista + Till we came to the door of a tomb; + And I said, 'What is written, sweet sister, + On the door of this legended tomb?' + And she said, 'Ulalume, Ulalume, + 'Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume." + +And so, too, does _your_ eye become fixed upon a door at the end of +_this_ vista, which comes nearer and nearer until finally the Mausoleum +takes form round it in the shape of a little Greek temple of polished +brown marble. A small flower garden lies in front of it, and it would +look inviting enough if one did not know what it was. Two officials +stand ready to receive you and conduct you up the steps. + +Within these walls a royal pair lie buried--King Friedrich Wilhelm III. +and his beautiful wife, Luisa, who so calmly withstood the bullying of +Napoleon I. and for whom the Prussians cherish such a chivalrous +affection. They are entombed under the front portion of the temple, and +two slabs in the pavement mark their resting places. These are lit from +above by a window in the roof filled with blue glass, which throws a +subdued and solemn light into the marble chamber. You walk past them to +the other end of the temple, which is cruciform in shape, go up one step +between pillars, and there, in the little white transept, lie upon two +snowy marble couches the sculptured forms of the dead king and queen +side by side. Though this apartment is lit by side windows of plain +glass high up on the walls, so that it is full of the white daylight, +yet the blueish light from the outer room is reflected into it just +enough to heighten the delicacy of the marble and to bestow on +everything an unearthly aspect. + +Queen Luisa was celebrated for her beauty, and the sculptor Rauch, who +knew and adored her, has breathed it all into the stone. There she lay, +as if asleep, her head easily pressing the pillow, her feet crossed and +the outlines of her exquisite form veiled but not concealed by the thin +tissue-like drapery. It covered even the little feet, but they seemed to +define themselves all the more daintily through the muslin. There is no +look of death about her face. She seems more like a bonny "Queen o' the +May," reclining with closed eyes upon her flowery bed. The statue has +been criticised by some on account of this entire absence of the +"_beaute de la mort_." There is no transfigured or glorified look to it. +It is simply that of a beautiful woman in deep repose. But it seems to +me that this is a matter of taste, and that the artist had a perfect +right to represent her as he most felt she was. The king's statue is +clothed in full uniform, and he looks very striking, too, lying there +in all the dignity of manhood and of kingship, with the drapery of his +military cloak falling about him. His features are delicate and regular, +and he is a fit counterpart to his lovely consort. Against the back wall +an altar is elevated on some steps, and there is an endless fascination +in leaning against it and gazing down on those two august forms +stretched out so still before you. On either side of the statues are +magnificent tall candelabra of white marble of very rich and beautiful +design, and appropriate inscriptions from the German Bible run round the +carved and diapered marble walls. Altogether, this garden-park, with its +river, its Mausoleum, its avenue of hemlocks, and its glorious statues +of the king and queen, is one of the most exquisite and ideal +conceptions imaginable. As we returned it was toward sunset. The evening +wind was sighing through the tall trees and the waving grasses. An +indefinable influence hovered in the air. The supernatural seemed to +envelop us, and instinctively we hastened a little as we retraced our +steps. + +When we emerged from the hemlock avenue Uncle S., I thought, seemed +rather relieved, for the contemplation of a future life is not +particularly sympathetic to him! After he had asked me if I did not +think the Mausoleum "_sehr schoen_ (very beautiful)," and had ascertained +that I _did_ think so, he restored his equilibrium by taking out another +cigar, which he lighted, and we leisurely made our way through the +garden to our droschkies and drove home. It was quite dark as we were +coming through the Thier-Garten, and it seemed like a forest. The stars +were shining through the branches overhead, and their soothing light +gave the last poetic touch to a lovely day. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _June 26, 1870_. + +Last week the Emperor of Austria was here, and they had a parade in his +honour. The B.'s took me in their carriage to see it. We drove to a +large plain outside the city, and there we saw a mock battle, and all +the manoeuvers of an army--how they advance and retreat, and how they +form and deploy. There was a continual fire of musketry and artillery, +and it was very exciting. The enemy was only imaginary, but the +attacking party acted just as if there were one, and at last it ended +with the taking by storm, which was done by the attacking party rushing +on with one continued cheer, or rather yell, from one end of the lines +to the other. Then they all broke up, the bands played the Russian Hymn, +the King and the Emperor mounted horses and led off a great body of +cavalry, and away we all clattered home--carriages and horses all +together. It was a great sight, and I enjoyed it very much. + +I am going to play before Tausig next Monday, and have been studying +very hard. He praised me very much the last time, and said he would soon +take me into his regular class; but he is such a whimsical creature that +one can't rely on him much. Two of the girls have almost finished their +studies with him, and soon are going to give concerts. I am playing +Scarlatti, which he is _awfully_ particular with, and expect to have my +head taken off. Two of his scholars are playing the same pieces that I +am, and he told one of them that she played "like a nut-cracker." He is +very funny sometimes. The other day one of the young men played the +Pastoral Sonata to him. Tausig gave a sigh, and said, "This _should_ be +a garden of roses, but, as you play it, I see only potato plants." +Scarlatti is charming music. He writes _en suite_ like Bach, and is +still more quaint and full of humour. + +I find Berlin very pleasant, even in summer. Most of the better houses +are made with balconies or bow windows, and around each one they will +have a little frame full of earth in which is planted mignonette, +nasturtiums, geraniums, etc., which trail over the edge, and as you look +up from the street it seems as if the houses were festooned with +flowers. On many of them woodbine is trained so that every window is set +in a deep green frame. All the nice streets have pretty little front +yards in which roses are planted, and I never saw anything like them. +The branches are cut to one thick, straight stem, which is tied to a +stick. They grow very tall, and each one is crowned with a top-knot of +superb roses. Every yard looks like a little orchard of roses, and they +are of every imaginable shade of colour. Every American who comes here +must be struck with the want of beauty in the cities he has left at +home; and it is really shameful, that when our people are so much better +off, and when such immense numbers of them see this European culture +every year, still they do not introduce the same things into our +country. Take Fifth Avenue or Beacon Street, for example, and one won't +see anything the whole length of them but a little green grass and an +occasional woodbine, whereas here they would be adorned with flowers and +all sorts of contrivances to make them beautiful. + +On Thursday a little party of three, including myself, was made up to +take me out to Potsdam. The Museum, Charlottenburg and Potsdam, are, as +Mr. T. B. says, "the three sights of Berlin." I have written you of the +first two, and you shall now have the third. Potsdam is sixteen miles +from here, and it took about as long to go there by train as it does +from Boston to Lynn. It is the royal summer residence. On arriving we +bought a large quantity of cherries and then seated ourselves in a +carriage to drive through the city to Charlottenhof. Here we got out and +walked into a superb park, filled with splendid old trees. The first +thing we saw was a beautiful little building in the Pompeian style. This +was where Humboldt used to stay with the last king and queen in summer. +We went into it and found it the sweetest little place you can imagine. +When we opened the door, instead of a hall was a little court with a +fountain in it and two low, broad staircases (of marble, I think) +sweeping up to the main story. The walls were delicately tinted and +frescoed all round the borders with Pompeian devices. The windows were +of some sort of thin transparent stained glass, through which the light +could penetrate easily, and were also in the Pompeian fashion, with +chariots, and horses, and goddesses, etc. The rooms all opened into +each other, but we were obliged to go through them so hastily that I +could not look at them much in detail. The walls were covered with +lovely pictures, and there were tables inlaid with precious marbles and +all sorts of beautiful things. We saw the table and chair where the king +always sat, just as he had left it, with his papers and drawings; and +the queen's boudoir, with her writing materials and her sewing +arrangements. From her window one looked out on a fountain at the right, +and on the left was a long arcade covered with vines which led to a +garden of roses. + +We opened a door and passed through this arcade, and, after looking at +the flowers, went on through the park until we came to another house, +which was Pompeian, also, or Greek, I couldn't exactly tell which. It +was built only to bathe in. The floors were all of stone, and it was as +cool and fresh as could be. The bath itself was a large semi-circular +place into which one went down by steps. It was large enough to swim in. +Those old peoples understood pretty well how to make themselves +comfortable, didn't they? There was an ancient bath-tub there, set upon +a pedestal, made of some precious stone, which Humboldt had appraised at +half a million of thalers. Outside was a lovely little garden, of +course, and one of the prettiest things I saw was a quantity of those +flowers which only grow in cool, moist places, sheltered under an +awning. The awning was circular, and stretched down to the ground on +three sides, so that one could only see the flowers by standing just in +front. There were any number of lady-slippers of every shade, each +mottled exquisitely with a different colour, and behind them rose other +flowers in regular gradation, and all of brilliant tints. It seemed as +if they were all nestling under a great shaker bonnet, and they looked +as coy and bewitching as possible. I thought it was a charming idea. + +After we left this place we went on until we came to Sans Souci, which +was built simply for the benefit of the orange trees--to give them a +shelter in winter. At least, this was the pretext. It has a most +dazzling effect in the sunshine as you look at it from below. Terrace +rises above terrace, and at the top is this airy white building rising +lightly into the sky, with galleries and towers, groups of statuary, +colonnades, fountains, flowers, and every device one can imagine to make +it look as much like a fairy palace as possible. The great burly orange +trees stand in rows in the gardens in large green pots. Many of them +were in blossom, and cast their heavy perfume on the air. You couldn't +turn your eyes any where that _something_ was not arranged to arrest and +surprise them. Here I saw another way of training roses. Running along +on the green turf was a certain low growing variety, the branches of +which they pin to the earth with a kind of wooden hair-pin, so that it +does not show. They thus lie perfectly flat, and the grass is +_literally_ "carpeted" with them. It was lovely. After we had +sufficiently admired the exterior of the palace, we ascended the flights +of steps which lead up the terraces, and went into it. Outside were the +long galleries where the orange trees stand, and then we passed into +the large and noble rooms. First came the one which is devoted to +Raphael's pictures. Copies of them all hang upon the walls. After we had +gazed at them a long time, we looked at the other apartments, all of +which were furnished in some extraordinary way, but I glanced at them +too hastily to retain any recollection of them. I only remember that one +was all of malachite and gold. + +The next thing we did was to go over the palace originally named "Sans +Souci," where Frederick the Great lived. We saw the benches--ledges +rather--on which his poor pages had to sit in the corridor, and which +were purposely made so narrow in order to prevent their falling asleep +while on duty. The armchair in which he died is there, and the bust of +Charles XII still stands on the floor at the foot of the statue of +Venus, where Frederick placed it in derision, because Charles was a +woman-hater. I think it was a very small piece of malice on Frederick's +part, and in fact he had such a bad heart that none of his relics +interested me in the least. + +After we had seen everything we went to a little restaurant at the foot +of Sans Souci, where we drank beer and coffee and ate cake seated round +a little table under the trees. This fashion that the Germans have of +eating out of doors in summer is perfectly delightful, I think. I laid +in a fresh stock of cherries, though I had already eaten an immense +quantity, but they looked so nice, piled in little pyramids upon a vine +leaf, like the cannon balls at the Cambridge arsenal, that there was no +resisting them. I've thought of you ever since the cherry season began. +They are so extremely cheap here, that two groschens (about six cents) +will buy as many as two persons can eat at one time. We drove from Sans +Souci to Fingstenberg, which is only a place to see a view of the +country. The landscape was perfectly flat, but it had the charm of quiet +cultivation. It was green with beautiful trees, and the river wound +along dotted with white sails, and there were wind-mills turning in +every direction. After we left Fingstenberg we drove down to an inn +where we ordered dinner, and this also was served out of doors. It was +about six o'clock in the evening, and we were all very hungry, so we +enjoyed this part of the programme very much. + +When we had finished our cutlet and green peas we got into the carriage +again, and drove to Babelsberg. This is a little retreat which belongs +to the queen, and where the royal family sometimes passes a few weeks in +summer. We walked through a noble park where the ground swelled upward +on our left and sloped downward on our right. After following the +windings of the road for a long distance, we at last arrived at the +little castle, perched upon a hill-side and embowered in trees. A smart +looking maid showed us through it, and I was more impressed here than by +all I had previously seen. As Balzac says, "People who talk about a +house 'being like a palace' should see one first,"--although, as Herr J. +observed, "Babelsberg is not a palace, but is more like the home of an +English nobleman." It is just a quiet little retreat, but the beauty +with which everything is arranged is quite indescribable. Every window +is planned so that you cannot look out without having something +exquisite before you. Here it will be a little mosaic of rare flowers; +there a fountain, etc. And then the bronzes, the pictures, the rare old +pieces of glass and china, the thousand curious and beautiful objects of +art that one must see over and over again to be able really to take in. +In these castles, too, there are no end of little nooks and crannies +where two or three persons, only, can sit and talk. Dainty little +recesses made for enjoyment. + +I walked into the grand salon and imagined an elegant assemblage of +people in it, with all the means of entertainment at hand. It was a +circular room, and large enough to dance the German in very comfortably. +We went up stairs and through the different apartments. I went into the +Princess Royal's room, and "surveyed my queenly form" in the superb +mirror, and arranged my veil by her toilette glass--which I envied her, +I assure you, for it shone like silver. We saw the cane of Frederick the +Great, with a lion couchant on it--the one which he shook on some +occasion and frightened somebody--(now you know, don't you?) Last of all +we went up into the tower, and after climbing the dizzy staircase, we +stood on the balconies for a long time, and looked over the splendid +park about the country. Altogether, I was enchanted with Babelsberg, and +nothing will suit me now but to have it for the retreat of my old age. I +think I shall apply to be a servant there, for it must be a delightful +situation. The royal family is only a short time there, and the servants +have this exquisite habitation, which is always kept in perfect order, +all the rest of the year, and have nothing to do but show visitors over +it and take in half thalers! + +After we left Babelsberg we took a carriage and drove to the station, +where we got into the cars about half-past nine, and went back to +Berlin. Herr J. had made himself extremely agreeable, and had exerted +himself the whole day on our behalf. We had a most perfect time of its +kind, and I enjoyed every minute of it, but came back in the worst of +spirits, as I generally do. It seems so hard that one can never get +together _all_ the elements of perfect happiness! Here in Babelsberg +everything was so lovely that one could scarcely believe that there had +ever been a "Fall." It seemed as if people _must_ be happy there, and +yet I'm told that the queen is very unhappy. I suppose because she has +such a faithless old husband. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + The War. German Meals. Women and Men. Tausig's Teaching. Tausig + Abandons his Conservatory. Dresden. Kullak. + + + BERLIN, _July 23, 1870_. + +Just now the grand topic of course is this dreadful war that has just +been declared between Prussia and France, and everybody is in the +wildest state of excitement over it. It broke out so very suddenly that +it is only just one week since it has been decided upon, and ever since, +the drafting has been going on, and the streets are filled with +regiments and with droves of horses, cannon, and all the implements of +war. The trains are going out all the time packed with soldiers, and the +railroad stations are the constant scene of weeping women of all +classes, come to see the last of their dear ones. There is such a storm +of indignation against Napoleon that one hears nothing but curses +against him. I am entirely on the German side, and am anxious to see the +result, for between two such great nations, and with so much at stake, +it will be a tremendous struggle. + +We are promised a holiday soon, when I shall have a let-up from +practicing, and only practice three hours a day, instead of five or six. +Don't think I am making extraordinary progress because I practice so +much. I find that the strengthening and equalizing of the fingers is a +terribly slow process, and that it takes much more time to make a step +forward than I expected. You may know how a thing _ought_ to be played, +but it is another matter to get your hands into such a training that +they obey your will. Sometimes I am very much encouraged, and feel as if +I should be an artist "immediately, if not sooner," and at others I fall +into the blackest despair. I don't know but that S. J. was in the right +of it, not to attempt anything, for it is an awful pull when you _do_ +once begin to study! + +I wish S. could come here and spend a winter. I am sure it would be +capital for her health. The Germans have a great idea that you must +"_staerken_ (strengthen)" yourself. So they eat every few hours. When you +first arrive you feel stuffed to bursting all the time, for you +naturally eat heartily at every meal, because, as we only eat three +times a day in America, we are accustomed to take a good deal at once. +Here they have five meals a day, and one has to learn how to take a +little at a time. But it is a pretty good idea, for you are continually +repairing yourself, and you never have such a strain on your system as +to get hungry! The German women are plump roly-polies, as a general +rule, and it is probably in consequence of this continual +"strengthening." One has full opportunity to observe their condition, +for they generally have their dress "_aus-geschnitten_ (square neck)," +as they call it, in order to save collars, and you will see them +strolling along the streets with their dresses out open in front. They +are not handsome--irregular features and muddy complexions being the +rule. The way they neglect their teeth is the worst. They are always +complimenting Americans on what they call our "fine Grecian noses," and, +in fact, since they have said so much about it, I have noticed that +nearly all Americans _have_ straight and reasonably proportioned +noses.--One sees a great many handsome _men_ on the street, +however--many more than we do at home. Perhaps it is because the +Prussian uniform sets them off so, and then their blonde beards and +moustaches give them a _distingue_ air. + +From what you tell me of the shock of our respected friend---- over B.'s +travelling from the West under Mr. S.'s escort, I think the +"conventionalities" are taking too strong a hold in America, and it will +not be many years before they are as strict there as they are here, +where young people of different sexes can never see anything of each +other. I regard it as a shocking system, as the Germans manage it. Young +ladies and gentlemen only see each other in parties, and a young man can +never call on a girl, but must always see her in the presence of the +whole family. I only wonder how marriages are managed at all, for the +sexes seem to live quite isolated from each other. The consequence is, +the girls get a lot of rubbish in their heads, and as for the men, I +know not what they think, for I have not seen any to speak of since I +have been here. You can imagine that with my co-education training and +ideas, I have given Fraeulein W.'s moral system a succession of shocks. +She has been fenced up, so to speak, her whole life, and, consequently, +was dumbfounded at the bold stand I take. I cannot resist giving her a +sensation once in a while, so I come out with some strong expression. Do +you know, since I've seen so much of the world I've come to the +conclusion that the New England principle of teaching daughters to be +independent and to look out for themselves from the first, is an +excellent one. I've seen the evil of this German system of never +allowing children to think for themselves. It _does_ make them so +mawkish. A girl here nearly thirty years old will not know where to buy +the simplest thing, or do without her mother any more than a baby. The +best plan is the old-fashioned American one, viz.: Give your children a +"stern sense of duty," and then throw them on their own resources. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _August 6, 1870_. + +Until yesterday I have had no holiday, for I got into Tausig's class +finally, so I had to practice very hard. He was as amiable to me as he +ever can be to anybody, but he is the most trying and exasperating +master you can possibly imagine. It is his principle to rough you and +snub you as much as he can, even when there is no occasion for it, and +you can think yourself fortunate if he does not hold you up to the +ridicule of the whole class. I was put into the class with Fraeulein +Timanoff, who is so far advanced that Tausig told her he would not give +her lessons much longer, for that she knew enough to graduate. You can +imagine what an ordeal my first lesson was to me. I brought him a long +and difficult Scherzo, by Chopin, that I had practiced carefully for a +month, and knew well. Fancy how easy it was for me to play, when he +stood over me and kept calling out all through it in German, "Terrible! +Shocking! Dreadful! O Gott! O Gott!" I was really playing it well, too, +and I kept on in spite of him, but my nerves were all rasped and excited +to the highest point, and when I got through and he gave me my music, +and said, "Not at all bad" (very complimentary for him), I rushed out of +the room and burst out crying. He followed me immediately, and coolly +said, "What are you crying for, child? Your playing was not at all bad." +I told him that it was "impossible for me to help it when he talked in +such a way," but he did not seem to be aware that he had said anything. + +And now to show how we all have our troubles, and that blow falls upon +blow--I will tell you that at our last lesson Tausig informed us that he +was _not going to give another lesson to anybody_, and that the +conservatory would be shut up on the first of October!! This is the most +_awful_ disappointment to me, for just as I have worked up to the point +where I am prepared to profit by his lessons, he goes away! I suppose +that he has left Berlin by this time, or that he will very soon, but he +wouldn't tell when or where he was going, and only said that he was +going off, and did not know when he was coming back, or what would +become of him. Of course he _does_ know, but he does not want to be +plagued with applications from scholars for private lessons. I heard +that he was only going to retain two of his scholars, and that one was a +princess and the other a countess. + +He is a perfect rock. I went to his house to see if I could persuade him +to give me private lessons. He came into the room and accosted me in his +sharpest manner, with "_Nun, was ist's?_ (Well, what is it?)" I soon +found that no impression was to be made on him. He only said that when +he happened to be in Berlin, if I would come and play to him, he would +give me his judgment. But I never should venture to do this, for as +likely as not he would be in a bad humour, and send me off--he is such a +difficult subject to come at. I told him I thought it was very hard +after I had come all this way, and had been at so much expense only to +have lessons from him, that I should have to go back without them. He +said he was very sorry, but that most of his scholars came from long +distances, and that he could not show any special favor to me. He asked +me why I insisted upon having lessons from him, and said that Kullak or +Bendel both teach as well as he does. The fact is, he is a capricious +genius, entirely spoiled and unregulated, and the conservatory is a mere +plaything to him. He amused himself with it for a while, and now he is +tired of it, and doesn't like to be bound down to it, and so he throws +it up. Money is no consideration to him. + +It really seems almost as difficult to get a _great_ teacher in Europe +as in America. Tausig is the only celebrity who teaches, and now he has +given up. He rather advised my taking lessons of Bendel, who is a +resident artist here, and a pupil of Liszt's. + +I suffered terribly over Tausig's going off. I heard of it first two +weeks ago, and couldn't sleep or anything. The only consolation I bare +is that I should have been "worn to the bone," as H. C. says, if I had +kept on with him, for all his pupils except little Timanoff, who is at +the age of plump fifteen, look as thin as rails. However--"the +bitterness of death is past!" When one is stopped off in one direction, +there is nothing for it but to turn in another. But it seems as if the +more one tried to accomplish a thing, the thicker hindrances and +difficulties spring up about one, like the dragon's teeth. I suppose I +shall end by going to Kullak. He used to be court pianist here before +Tausig and has had immense experience as a teacher. Indeed, Professor J. +K. Paine recommended me to go to him in the first place, you remember. +If I do, I hope I shall have a better fate than poor young N., whom, +also, Professor Paine recommended to go to Kullak. He could not +stand--or else _under_stand the snubbing and brow-beating they gave him +in Kullak's conservatory, and from being deeply melancholy over it, he +got desperate, and actually committed suicide! + +Germans cannot understand blueness. They are never blue themselves, and +they expect you always to preserve your equanimity, and torment you to +death to know "what is the matter?" when there is nothing the matter, +except that you are in a state of disgust with everything. Moods are +utterly incomprehensible to them. They feel just the same every day in +the year. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _August 21, 1870_. + +I suppose that C. has described to you in full our Dresden visit, and +what a lovely time we had. It was really a poetic five days, as +everything was new to both of us. We were a good deal surprised at many +things in Dresden. In the first place, the beauty of the city struck us +very forcibly, and we both remarked how singular it was that of all the +people we know who have been there no one should have spoken of it. The +Bruehl'sche Terrasse is the most lovely promenade imaginable. It runs +along the bank of the Elbe River, which is here quite broad and +handsome, and I always felt myself under a species of enchantment as +soon as we had ascended the broad flight of steps that lead to it. We +always took tea in the open air, and listened to a band of music +playing. The Germans just live in the open air in summer, and it is +perfectly fascinating. They have these gardens everywhere, filled with +trees, under which are little tables and chairs and footstools; and +there you can sit and have dinner or tea served up to you. At night they +are all lighted up with gas. + +It seemed like fairy land, as we sat there in Dresden. The evenings were +soft and balmy, the very perfection of summer weather. The terrace is +quite high above the river, and you look up and down it for a long +distance. The city lies to the left, below you, and the towers rise so +prettily--precisely as in a picture. This air of the culture of +centuries lies over everything, and the soft and lazy atmosphere lulls +the soul to rest. We used to walk until we came to the Belvidere, which +is a large restaurant with a gallery up-stairs running all round it. +There was a band of music, and here we sat and took our tea, and spent +two or three hours, always. The moonlight, the river flowing along and +spanned with beautiful bridges, the thousands of lamps reflected in it +and trembling across the water and under the arches, the infinity of +little steamers and wherries sailing to and fro and brilliantly lighted +up, the music, and the throngs of people passing slowly by, put one into +a delicious and bewildered sort of state, and one feels as if this world +were heaven! + +The day after we arrived we went, of course, to the picture gallery, and +here I was entirely taken by surprise. Nothing one reads or hears gives +one the least idea of the magnificence of the pictures there. I never +knew what a picture was before. The softness and richness of the +colouring, and their exquisite beauty, must be seen to be understood. +The Sistine Madonna fills one with rapture. It is perfectly glorious, +and one can't imagine how the mind of man could have conceived it. One +sees what a flight it was after looking at all the other Madonnas in the +Gallery, many of which are wonderful. But this one soars above them all. +Most of the Madonnas look so stiff, or so old, or so matronly, or so +expressionless, or, at best, as in Corregio's Adoration of the Shepherds +(a magnificent picture), the rapture of the mother only is expressed in +the face. In the Sistine Madonna the virgin looks so young and +innocent--so virgin-like--not like a middle-aged married woman. The +large, wide-open blue eyes have a dewy look in them, as if they had +wept many tears, and yet such an innocence that it makes you think of a +baby whom you have comforted after a violent fit of crying. The majesty +of the attitude, and the perfect repose of the face, upon which is a +look of _waiting_, of ineffable expectancy, are very striking. Mr. T. B. +says it looked to him as though she had been overwhelmed at the +tremendous dignity that had been put upon her, and was yet lost in the +awe of it--which I think an exquisite idea. St. Sixtus, who is kneeling +on the right of the virgin, has an expression of anxious solicitude on +his features. He is evidently interceding with her for the congregation +toward whom his right hand is outstretched, for this picture was +intended to be placed over an altar. The only fault to be found with the +picture, I think, is in the face of Santa Barbara, who kneels on the +left. She looks sweetly down upon the sinners below, but with a slight +self-consciousness. The two cherubs underneath are exquisite. Their +little round faces wear an exalted look, as if their eyes fully took in +the august pair to whom they are upturned. The background of the +picture--all of the faces of angels cloudily painted--gives the +finishing touch to this astounding creation. But you must see it to +realize it. + +Since my return I have finally decided to take private lessons of +Kullak. Kullak is a very celebrated teacher, and plays splendidly +himself, I am told, though he doesn't give concerts any more. He used to +be court pianist here, and has had so much experience in teaching that +I hope a good deal from him, though I don't believe he will equal our +little Tausig, capricious and ill-regulated though he is. Never shall I +forget the _iron_ way he used to stand over those girls, his hand +clenched, determined to _make_ them do it! No wonder they played so! +They didn't dare not to. He told one of the class that "it was _in_ me, +and he could knock it out of me if he had chosen to keep on with me." +And I know he could--and that is what distracts me! + +But just think what a way to behave--to leave his conservatory so, at a +day's notice, in holiday time, without even informing his teachers! He +left everything to be attended to by Beringer. Many of the scholars are +very poor, and have made a great effort to get here in order to learn +his method. Off he went like a shot, because he suddenly got disgusted +with teaching, and he hasn't told a soul where he was going, or how long +he intended to remain away. He wrote to Bechstein, the great piano-maker +here, "I am going away--away--away." He wouldn't condescend to say more. +Mr. Beringer has been to his house to see him on business connected with +the conservatory, but he was flown, and his housekeeper told Beringer +that both letters and telegrams had come for Tausig, and she did not +know where to send them. Did you ever hear of such a capricious +creature? I was so provoked at him that after the first week I ceased to +grieve over his departure. One cannot rely on these great geniuses, but +I hope that, as Kullak makes a business of teaching, and not of playing, +more is to be gained from him. At any rate, he will not be off on these +long absences. + +I am just studying my first concerto. It is Beethoven's C minor, and it +is extremely beautiful. Mr. Beringer tells me that two years is too +short a time to make an artist in; and indeed one does not know how +extremely difficult it is until one tries it. He plays splendidly +himself, and is to make his _debut_ in the Gewandhaus in Leipsic, this +October. The best orchestra in Germany is there. Tausig has turned out +five artists from his conservatory this summer. Time will show if any of +them become first class. + +Aunt H. was right in thinking that this would be one of the most +dreadful wars that ever was, though she needn't be anxious on my +account. The Prussians are winning everything, and are pushing on for +Paris as hard as they can go. They have just taken Chalons. The battles +have been _terrible_, and immense numbers have been killed and wounded +on both sides. They have really fought to the death. The spirit of the +two peoples seems to me entirely different. The French seem only to be +possessed by a mad thirst for glory, and manifest a blood-thirstiness +which is perfectly appalling. One reads the most revolting stories in +the papers about their creeping around the battle-field after the battle +is over, and killing and robbing the wounded Prussians, cutting out +their tongues and putting out their eyes. The Prussians are so on the +alert now, however, that I hope few such things can take place. One +Prussian writes that he was lying wounded upon the field of battle, and +another man was not far off in the same helpless condition, when an old +Frenchman came up and clove this other man's head with a hatchet. The +first screamed loudly for help, when a party of Prussians rushed up and +rescued him, and overtook the old man, and shot him. We hear every day +of some dreadful thing. O.'s cousin, who is just my age, and is three +years married, has lost her husband, her favorite brother is fatally +wounded with three balls and lies in the hospital, and her second +brother has a shot in each leg and they don't know whether he will ever +be able to walk again. He is a young fellow nineteen years old. + +In the first days after the war was declared, I felt as if no punishment +could be too hot for Napoleon. The people just gave up everything, and +stood in the streets all day long on each side of the railroad track. +The trains passed every fifteen minutes, packed with the brave fellows +who were going off to lose their lives on a mere pretext. Then there +would be one continual cheering all along as they passed, and all the +women would cry, and the men would execrate Napoleon. The Prussians +don't seem to have any feelings of revenge, but regard the French as a +set of lunatics whom they are going to bring to reason. The hatred of +Napoleon is intense. They regard him as the leader of a people whom he +has willfully blinded, and are determined to make an end of him, if +possible. The Prussian army is such a splendid one that it is difficult +to imagine that it can be overcome. You see everybody under a certain +age is liable to be drafted, and no one is allowed to buy a substitute. +So everybody is interested. Bismarck has two sons who are common +soldiers, and all the ministers together have twelve sons in the war. +Then the King and the Crown Prince being with the army, gives a great +enthusiasm. The Crown Prince has distinguished himself, and seems to +have great military ability. The King was very angry with Prince +Friedrich Carl, because in the last battle he exposed one regiment so +that it was completely mowed down. Only two or three men escaped. But it +makes one groan for the poor Frenchmen when one sees these terrible +great cannon passing by. The largest-sized ones were ordered for the +storming of Metz, and each one requires twenty-four horses to draw it! + + + + +WITH KULLAK. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Moving. German Houses and Dinners. The War. The Capture of + Napoleon. Kullak's and Tausig's Teaching. Joachim. Wagner. Tausig's + Playing. German Etiquette. + + + BERLIN, _September_ 29, 1870. + +I must request you in future to direct your letters to No. 30 +Koeniggraetzer Strasse, as we move in three days. The people who live on +the floor under us wouldn't bear my practicing for five or six hours +daily, and so Frau W. has looked up another lodging. The German houses +are about as uncomfortable as can be imagined. Only the newest ones have +gas and water-works, or even the ordinary conveniences that _every_ +house has with us. No carpets on the floors, stiff, straight-backed +chairs, precious little fire in cold weather, etc. The rooms have no +closets, and one always has to have a great clumsy wardrobe with wooden +pegs in it, instead of hooks, so that when you go to take down one dress +all the others tumble down, too. In short, the Germans are fifty years +behind us. Of course the rich people have superb houses, but I speak now +of people in ordinary circumstances. I often look back upon the solid +comfort of the Cambridge houses. I think people understand there pretty +well how to live. I shall relish a good dinner when I come home, for +this is the land where what we call "family dinners" are unknown. They +have _parts_ of meals five times a day, but never a complete one. The +meat is dreadful, and I never can tell what kind of an animal it grows +on. They give me two boiled eggs for supper, so I manage to live, but O! +_has_ beefsteak vanished into the land of dreams? and _is_ turkey but +the figment of my disordered imagination? They have delicious bread and +butter, but "man cannot live by bread alone." Mr. F. says that where +_he_ boards they give him "pear soup, and cherry soup, and plum soup!" + +Everything here is saddened by this fearful war. You have no idea how +frightful it is. The men on both sides are just being slaughtered by +thousands. Haven't the Prussians made a magnificent campaign I declare, +I think it is marvellous what they have done. The French haven't had the +smallest success, and have had to give up one tremendous stronghold +after another. It is expected that Metz will surrender in about eight +days. It is a terrific place, and was believed to be impregnable. Over +and over again the poor French have tried to cut through the Prussian +army, and just so often they have been beaten back into the city. +Finally they will have to give over. Their generals must be shameful, +for they have fought to the death, but they can't make any headway +against these formidable Prussians. The German papers say that the +French fire too high, for one thing. They are not such practiced +marksmen as the Germans, and their balls fly over the enemy's heads. The +French are a savage people, however, and cruelty runs in their veins. +One reads the most awful things, but for the credit of human nature it +is to be hoped that the worst of them are not true. + +I believe I have not written to you since the capture of the Emperor +Napoleon, which of course you heard of as soon as it happened. The +Germans, as you may imagine, were completely carried away with the +glorious news, and could scarcely believe in their own good fortune. On +the 3d of September, when I came out to breakfast, Frau W. called out to +me from behind the newspaper, with a face all ablaze with triumph and +excitement, "_Der Kaiser Napoleon ist gefangen_. (The Emperor Napoleon +is taken.)" "_No!_" said I, for it did not seem possible that anything +so great and unexpected _could_ have happened. "It is _true_" said she; +"look at this paper, which I just sent out for." The instant I saw that +Frau W. had been guilty of the unwonted extravagance of purchasing the +morning paper, it became clear to me that Napoleon _must_ have been +taken prisoner. Generally we do not get the paper till it is a day old, +when Frau W. brings it carefully home from her brother's in her +capacious bag. He subscribes for it, and after his family have perused +it, she borrows it for our benefit--an economical arrangement upon which +she frequently congratulates herself. + +I fancy there was little work done or business transacted _that_ day in +Berlin! After I had finished my coffee, I went and stood by the window +and watched the people pour through the streets. Everybody streamed up +Unter den Linden past the palace, their faces full of joy. The street +boys took an active part in the general jollification, and were as +ubiquitous as boys always are when anything extraordinary is going on. +They conceived the brilliant idea of climbing up on the equestrian +statue of Frederick the Great, which is just opposite the palace +windows. The Crown Princess, who was looking out, immediately had it +announced to them that he who got to the top first should receive a +silver cup and some pieces of money. That was all the boys needed. Away +they went, struggling and tumbling over each other like a swarm of bees. +At last one little urchin secured the coveted position, and was +afterward called up to the palace window to receive the prize.--If the +Crown Princess, by the way, were more given to such little acts of +generosity, she would be more popular by far, for the Germans sniff at +her for being too economical. They are the closest possible economisers +themselves, but they despise the trait in foreigners! + +At night there was a grand illumination in honour of the victory, and of +course we all went to see it. Such a time as we had! The whole city was +blazing with light, and all the large firms had put up something +brilliant and striking before their places of business. Stars, eagles, +crosses (after the celebrated "iron cross" of Prussia), beside countless +tapers, were burning away in every direction, and all the carriages and +droschkies in Berlin were slowly crawling along the streets, much +impeded by the dense throng of pedestrians crowding through. All the +private houses were lit up with tapers, and thousands of flags were +flying. Over every public building and railroad station, and on all the +public squares were transparencies in which the substantial form of +_Germania_ flourished extensively, leaning upon her shield, and gazing +sentimentally into vacancy. But I always enjoy "Germania." It seems a +sort of recognition of the feminine element. + +We were in a droschkie, like other people, taking the prescribed tour +round by the Rath-Haus (City-Hall), and were frequently brought to a +stand-still by the crush. At such times we were the target for all the +small boys standing in our neighbourhood. The "Berlinger Junge" is +almost as famous for his talent for repartee as the Paris "Gamin." "Do +be careful!" said one to me; "you will certainly tumble out, your +carriage is going so fast." This was intended as a double sarcasm, for +in the first place we were not in a carriage at all, but in a +second-class droschkie, and in the second place we had been standing +stock still for half an hour, and there was no prospect of getting +started for half an hour more. Many more such little speeches were +addressed to us which we pretended not to hear, though we were secretly +much amused.--It was a strange sort of feeling to be put in the streets +at night with this glare of light, these crowds of people, and this +suppressed excitement in the air. I thought it gave some idea of the Day +of Judgment. + +The women are tremendously patriotic and self-sacrificing, and they seem +to be throwing themselves heart and soul into the war. With the +catholicity of the female sex, however, they could not help taking a +peep at the _French_ prisoners when they came on, but went to the +station to see them arrive, and bestowed many little hospitalities upon +them in the way of cigars, luncheon, etc., at all of which the papers +were patriotically indignant, and indulged in many sarcasms on the "warm +and sympathetic" reception given by the German women to their enemies. +Quite as many women go into nursing as was the case in our own war. I +know one young lady who spends her whole time in the hospitals among the +wounded soldiers, who are all the time being sent on in ambulances. Her +name is Fraeulein Hezekiel, and she has received a decoration from the +Government. + +Just after I wrote you last I went to Kullak, as I told you I should, +and engaged him to give me one private lesson a week. He looks about +fifty, and is charming. I am enchanted with him. He plays magnificently, +and is a splendid teacher, but he gives me immensely much to do, and I +feel as if a mountain of music were all the time pressing on my head. He +is so occupied that I have to take my lesson from seven to eight in the +evening. + +Tausig's conservatory closes on the first of October, and I feel very +sorry, for my three grand friends, Mr. Trenkel, Mr. Weber and Mr. +Beringer, are all going away, and I shall be awfully lonely without +them. Weber is very handsome, and has the most splendid forehead I think +I ever saw. He composes like an angel, besides being remarkably clever +in every way. He will be famous some day, I know, and he belongs to the +Music of the Future. Beringer is poetic, passionate and vivid. He has +golden hair and golden eyes, I may say, for they are of a peculiar light +hazel, almost yellow, but with a warmth and sunniness, and often a +tenderness of expression that is extremely fascinating. Weber cannot +speak English, and as he is from Switzerland, he speaks an entirely +different dialect from the Berlinese, so that it took me some time to +understand him. He is a perfect child of nature, and has a great deal of +humour. He and Beringer are devoted friends, and are about my age. +Trenkel is older. He has the blackest hair and eyes, and a dark Italian +skin. He is intellectual and highly cultured, and at the same time such +a very peculiar character that he interested me greatly. Most of his +life has been spent in America: first in Boston, where he seems to know +everybody, and afterwards in San Francisco, whither he is about to +return. He has been studying with Tausig for two years, and is a +heavenly musician, though he hasn't Beringer's great technique and +passion. His conception is more of the Chopin order, extremely finely +shaded and "filed out," as the Germans have it. + +It was so pleasant to have these three musical friends, who all play so +much better than I, as they often met and made lovely music in my little +room. Weber and Beringer took tea with us only yesterday evening. Weber +was in one of his good moods, and played to Beringer and me his most +beautiful compositions for ever so long. We settled ourselves +comfortably, one in two chairs, the other on the sofa, and enjoyed it. +The Andante out of a great sonata he is composing, is perfectly lovely. +It is entirely original, and different from any music I have ever heard. +Then he played the second movement of his symphony, and it is the most +exquisite _morceau_ you can imagine. I asked him to compose a little +piece for me, and so yesterday morning he sat down and wrote seven +mazurkas, one after the other. Whether he actually gives me one is +another matter, for, like all geniuses, he is not very prodigal with his +gifts, and is not very easy to come at. But I would like to have even +four bars written by him, for he is so individual that it would be worth +keeping. + +Weber looks perfectly charming when he plays. He never glances at the +keys, but his large blue eyes gaze dreamily into vacancy, and his noble +brow stands out white and lofty. His conception is extremely musical, +but as he only practices when he feels like it (as he does everything +else), he doesn't come up to the other two. Tausig burst out laughing at +him at his last lesson. That individual, by the way, came back as +suddenly as he went off, but announced that he would give no more +lessons except to these favoured three. All the rest of us had to go +begging. It didn't make so much difference to me, as I had already gone +to Kullak, who is now the first teacher in Germany, as all the greatest +virtuosi have given up teaching. + +Kullak himself is a truly splendid artist, which I had not expected. He +used to have great fame here as a pianist, but I supposed that as he had +given up his concert playing he did not keep it up. I found, however, +that I was mistaken. His playing does not suffer in comparison with +Tausig's even, whom I have so often heard. Why in the world he has not +continued playing in public I can't imagine, but I am told that he was +too nervous. Like all artists, he is fascinating, and full of his whims +and caprices. He knows everything in the way of music, and when I take +my lessons he has two grand pianos side by side, and he sits at one and +I at the other. He knows by heart everything that he teaches, and he +plays sometimes with me, sometimes before me, and shows me all sorts of +ways of playing passages. I am getting no end of ideas from him. I have +enjoyed playing my Beethoven Concerto so much, for he has played all the +orchestral parts. Just think how exciting to have a great artist like +that play second piano with you! I am going to learn one by Chopin next. + +Kullak is not nearly so terrible a teacher as Tausig. He has the +greatest patience and gentleness, and helps you on; but Tausig keeps +rating you and telling you, what you feel only too deeply, that your +playing _is_ "awful." When Tausig used to sit down in his impatient way +and play a few bars, and then tell me to do it just so, I used always to +feel as if some one wished me to copy a streak of forked lightning with +the end of a wetted match. At the last lesson Tausig gave me, however, +he entirely changed his tone, and was extremely sweet to me. I think he +regretted having made me cry at the previous lesson, for just as I sat +down to play, he turned to the class and made some little joke about +these "_empfindliche Amerikanerinnen_ (sensitive Americans)." Then he +came and stood by me, and nothing could have been gentler than his +manner. After I had finished, he sat down and played the whole piece +for me, a thing he rarely does, introducing a magnificent trill in +double thirds, and ending up with some peculiar turn in which he allowed +his virtuosity to peep out at me for a moment. Only for a moment though, +for he is much too proud and has too much contempt for _Spectakel_ to +"show off," so he suppressed himself immediately. It was as if his +fingers broke into the trill in spite of him, and he had to pull them up +with a severe check. Strange, inscrutable being that he is! + + * * * + + BERLIN, _October 13, 1870_. + +My room in our new lodging is a charming one. Quite large, and a front +one, and there is no _vis-a-vis_. We look right over across the street +into Prince Albrecht's Garden. It is very uncommon to have such a nice +outlook, particularly in Berlin. But it is so long since I have lived +among trees that at first it affected my spirits dreadfully. As I sit by +my window and hear the autumn wind rushing through them, and see all the +leaves quivering and shaking, and think that they have only a few short +weeks more to sway in the breeze, it makes me wretched. I suppose that +we shall now have two months of dismal weather. + +I wish you were here to counsel me over my dresses. I have just bought +two--one for a street dress, and the other for demi-evening toilette, +but heaven only knows when they will be done, or how they will fit! You +ought to see the biases of the dresses here! They all go zig-zag. The +Berlin dressmakers are abominable. Mrs.----, of the Legation, told me +that when she first came here she cried over every new dress she had +made, and I could not sufficiently rejoice last winter that I had got +all my things before I sailed. M. E., too, who gets all her best things +from Paris, told M. she was never so happy as when her mother sent her +over an "American dress."--"They are _so_ comfortable and _so_ +satisfactory," said she. + +Yesterday I took my fourth lesson of Kullak. He plays much more to me +than Tausig did, and I am surprised to see how much I have got on in +four weeks. Tausig didn't deign to do more than play occasional +passages, and we had only one piano in the room where he taught. But at +Kullak's there are two grand pianos side by side. He sits at one and I +at the other, and as he knows everything by heart which he teaches, as I +told you, he keeps playing with me or before me, so that I catch it a +great deal better. Sometimes he will repeat a passage over and over, and +I after him, like a parrot, until I get it _exactly_ right. He has this +excessively finished and elegant fantasia style of playing, like +Thalberg or De Meyer. He has great fame as a teacher, and is perhaps +more celebrated in this respect than Tausig, but I was with Tausig too +short a time to judge personally which teaches the best. + +This war is perfectly awful. The men are simply being slaughtered like +cattle. New regiments are all the time being sent on. The Prussians have +taken over two hundred thousand prisoners, to say nothing of the killed +and wounded. But they lose fearful numbers themselves also. It is +expected in a few days that Metz will surrender. It is a tremendous +stronghold, and contains an army of fifty thousand men. But isn't it +extraordinary how disastrous the war has been to the French? They had an +immense army of several hundred thousand men. And then they had all the +advantages of position. The Prussians have had to fight their way +through all these strong defences one after another. They will soon +bombard Paris. As Herr S. says, this war is a disgrace to the +governments. He says that they ought to have united against it (America +included), and to have said that on such an unjust pretext they would +not permit it. I read the other day a most touching letter that was +found on the dead body of a common soldier from his old peasant father. +He said, "What have we poor people done that the _lieber Gott_ visits us +with such fearful judgments? When I got thy letter, my dear son, saying +that thou art safe come out of the last battle with thy brother, I fell +on my knees and thanked God for His goodness." Then he goes on to +describe the joy of his mother and sister and sweetheart, and how he +read his letter to all the neighbours, "who rejoiced much at thy +safety," and his hope and confidence that his son would return alive to +his old father. But in a few days his son fell in another battle, +desperately wounded. He was carried to the house of a lady who did all +she could for him, but he died, and she sent this letter to the paper. +Do you get many of the anecdotes in the American papers? Such as that of +the three hundred and two horses which, at the usual signal after the +battle that called the regiments together, came back riderless? I think +that was very touching in the poor things.[C] Or have you heard of the +Frenchman who, when informed that the Emperor was taken prisoner, coolly +replied: "_Moi aussi!_" But these are already old stories, and you have +doubtless heard them. I think one of the worst incidents of the war is +that bomb that fell into a girls' school at Strasbourg. When one thinks +of innocent young girls having their eyes torn out, and being killed and +wounded, it seems too terrible.--I always pity the poor horses so much. +At the surrender of Sedan, the French forgot to detach them from the +cannon, and to give them food and drink. Finally, frantic with thirst, +they broke themselves loose and rushed wildly through the streets. It +was said that any body could have a horse for the trouble of catching +him. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _November 25, 1870_. + +I went last week to hear Joachim, who lives here, and is giving his +annual series of quartette soirees. Oh! he is a wonderful genius, and +the sublimest artist I have yet heard. I am amazed afresh every time I +hear him. He draws the most extraordinary _tone_ from his violin, and +such a powerful one that it seems sometimes as if several were playing. +Then his expression is so marvellous that he holds complete sway over +his audience from the moment he begins till he ceases. He possesses +magnetic power to the highest degree. + +On Saturday night I went to a superb concert given for the benefit of +the wounded. The royal orchestra played, and as it was in the +Sing-Akademie, where the acoustic is very remarkable, the orchestral +performance seemed phenomenal. Generally, this orchestra plays in the +opera house, which is so much larger that the effect is not so great. +The last thing they played was the "Ritt der Walkueren," by Wagner. It +was the first time it was given in Berlin, and it is a wonderful +composition. It represents the ride of the Walkuere-maidens into +Valhalla, and when you hear it it seems as if you could really see the +spectral horses with their ghostly riders. It produces the most +unearthly effect at the end, and one feels as if one had suddenly +stepped into Pandemonium. I was perfectly enchanted with it, and +everybody was excited. The "bravos" resounded all over the house. Tausig +played Chopin's E minor concerto in his own glorious style. He did his +very best, and when he got through not only the whole orchestra was +applauding him, but even the conductor was rapping his desk with his +baton like mad. I thought to myself it was a proud position where a man +could excite enthusiasm in the hearts of these old and tried musicians. +As a specimen of his virtuosity, what do you say to the little feat of +playing the running passage at the end, two pages long, and which was +written for both hands in unison, in octaves instead of single +notes?--Gigantic! [Later Kullak gave this great concerto to my sister to +study, and as she was struggling with its difficulties he said: "Ah yes, +Fraeulein, when I think of the time and labour I spent over that concerto +in my youth, I could weep _tears of blood_!"]--ED. + +Yesterday evening I went to a party at the house of a relative of the +M.'s. Madame de Stael was right in saying that etiquette is terribly +severe in Germany. It is downright law, and everybody is obliged to +submit to it. What other people in the world, for example, would insist +on your coming at eight and remaining until nearly four in the morning, +when the party consists of a dozen or twenty people, almost all of them +married and middle-aged, or elderly? I nearly expire of fatigue and +ennui, but they would all take it so ill if I didn't go, that there is +no escape. Last night I came home with such a dreadful nervous headache +from sheer exhaustion, that I could scarcely see. You know in a dancing +party the excitement keeps one up, and one doesn't feel the fatigue +until afterward. But to sit three mortal hours before supper, and keep +up a conversation with a lot of people much older than yourself in whom +you have not the slightest interest, and in a foreign language, when you +wouldn't be brilliant in your own, and then another long three hours at +the supper table, and then _still_ an hour or so afterwards, to an +American mind is terrible! I always groan in spirit when I think how +comfortably I used to jump into the carriage at nine o'clock, in +Cambridge, go to the party, and come home at half-past eleven or +twelve. These long parties are what the Germans call being "_gemuethlig_ +(sociable and friendly)." The French would call them "_assommant_," and +they would be entirely in the right. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Concerts. Joachim again. The Siege of Paris. Peace Declared. + Wagner. A Woman's Symphony. Ovation to Wagner in Berlin. + + + BERLIN, _December 11, 1870_. + +I haven't been doing much of anything lately, except going to concerts, +of which I have heard an immense number, and all of them admirable.--I +wish you _could_ hear Joachim! I went last night to his third soiree, +and he certainly is the wonder of the age. Unless I were to _rave_ I +never could express him. One of his pieces was a quartette by Haydn, +which was perfectly bewitching. The adagio he played so wonderfully, and +drew such a pathetic tone from his violin, that it really went through +one like a knife. The third movement was a jig, and just the gayest +little piece! It flashed like a humming bird, and he played every note +so distinctly and so fast that people were beside themselves, and it was +almost impossible to keep still. It received a tremendous encore. + +Joachim is so bold! You never imagined such strokes as he gives the +violin--such tones as he brings out of it. He plays these great _tours +de force_, his fingers rushing all over the violin, just as Tausig +dashes down on the piano. So free! And then his conception!! It is like +revealing Beethoven in the flesh, to hear him. + +I heard a lady pianist the other day, who is becoming very celebrated +and who plays superbly. Her name is Fraeulein Menter, and she is from +Munich. She has been a pupil of Liszt, Tausig and Buelow. Think what a +galaxy of teachers! She is as pretty as she can be, and she looked +lovely sitting at the piano there and playing piece after piece. I +envied her dreadfully. She plays everything by heart, and has a +beautiful conception. She gave her concert entirely alone, except that +some one sang a few songs, and at the end Tausig played a duet for two +pianos with her, in which he took the second piano. Imagine being able +to play well enough for such a high artist as he to condescend to do +such a thing! It was so pretty when they were encored. He made a sign to +go forward. She looked up inquiringly, and then stepped down one step +lower than he. He smiled and applauded her as much as anybody. I thought +it was very gallant in him to stand there and clap his hands before the +whole audience, and not take any of the encore to himself, for his part +was as important as hers, and he is a much greater artist. I was charmed +with her, though. She goes far beyond Mehlig and Topp, though Mehlig, +too, is considered to have a remarkable technique. + +I regret so much that M. will have to go back to America without seeing +Paris--the most beautiful city in the world! Nobody knows how long the +war is going to last. The Prussians have so surrounded Paris that it is +cut off from the country, and can't get any supplies. They have eaten up +all their meat, and now the French are living upon rats, dogs and cats! +Just think how horrid! They catch the rats in the Paris sewers, and +cook them in champagne and eat them. (At least that is the story.) It +seems perfectly inconceivable. The poor things have no milk, no salt, no +butter and no meat. I wonder what they do with all the little babies +whose mothers can't nurse them, and with young children. They will not +give up, however, for they have bread and wine enough to last all +winter, and they declare that Paris is too strong to be taken. Of course +if the Prussians remain where they are, eventually Paris will be starved +out, and will be obliged to surrender. + +It is a difficult position for the Prussians, for they must either +bombard the city, or starve it out. If they bombard it, they must be in +a situation to begin it from all sides, or else the French will break +through their lines, and establish a communication with the rest of +France. Now the circle round Paris is twelve miles long, so that it +would take an enormous army to keep up such a bombardment, and although +the Prussian army _is_ enormous, I don't know whether it is equal to +that, for the French have so much the advantage of position that they +can fire down on the Prussians, and kill them by thousands. On the other +hand, if they starve Paris out, the poor soldiers will have to lie out +in the cold all winter, and many of them will die from the exposure. + +The men are getting very restless from so many weeks of inactivity. +Nobody knows how it is to end. The King is opposed to bombardment, for +aside from the terrible loss of life it would cause, it seems too +inhuman to lay such a splendid city in the dust. Fresh troops are sent +on all the time, and every day the trains pass my windows packed with +soldiers. It seems as if every man in Germany were being called out, and +that looks like bombardment. It is a terrible time, and everybody feels +restless and disturbed. One sees few soldiers on the streets except +wounded ones. I often meet a young man who is wheeled about in a chair, +who has had both legs cut off. The poor fellow looks so sad--and I know +of another who has lost both hands and both feet. + +It is curious to note the condescending attitude taken by people here +toward the French in this war. They never for a moment speak of them as +if they were antagonists on equal ground, but always as if they were a +set of fools bent on their own destruction, who must be properly +chastised and restored to their equilibrium by the Germans. "_Ja!--die +Franzosen!_" the Germans will say with a shrug which implies the deepest +conviction of their entire imbecility. They admit, however, that the +French are an "amusing people," and that "_Paris ist_ DOCH _die +Welt-Stadt_. (Paris is _the_ city of the world.)" + + * * * + + BERLIN, _February 26, 1871_. + +I am going to send you a song out of the Meistersaenger, which I think is +one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. It is called Walther's +Traumlied (Walter's Dream Song). The idea of it is that he sees his love +in a dream or vision as she will be when she is his wife. You must +begin to sing in a dreamy way, as if you were in a trance, and then you +must gradually become more and more excited until you end in a grand +gush of passion. You will be quite in the music of the future if you +sing out of the Meistersaenger. It is one of Wagner's greatest operas, +and is very beautiful, in my opinion. It caused a grand excitement when +it came out last winter. + +The whole musical world is in a quarrel over Wagner. He is giving a new +direction to music and is finding out new combinations of the chords. +Half the musical world upholds him, and declares that in the future he +will stand on a par with Beethoven and Mozart. The other half are +bitterly opposed to him, and say that he writes nothing but dissonances, +and that he is on an entirely false track. I am on the Wagner side +myself. He seems to me to be a great genius.--Pity he is such a moral +outlaw! + +Since I began this letter Paris has capitulated, and PEACE has been +declared. The anxiety and suspense have lasted so long, however, that +the news did not cause much excitement or enthusiasm. Nothing like that +with which the capture of Napoleon was received. But that was decidedly +_the_ event of the war. The politic Bismarck would not allow the troops +to march triumphantly through Paris, but only permitted them to pass +through as small a corner of it as was consistent with the national +honour. This has caused a good deal of murmuring and discontent among +the Germans.--"Our poor soldiers! after all their fatigues and +hardships, they ought have been allowed the satisfaction of marching +through the city!"--is the general opinion I hear expressed. However, +they will probably acquiesce in Bismarck's wisdom in not triumphing over +a fallen foe when they come to think it over. We are now to have six +weeks of mourning for those who have been killed in the war, and then in +May the army will come back in triumph. The King is to meet them at the +Brandenburger Gate, and lead them up the Linden. All Berlin will be wild +with excitement, and I expect it will be a great sight. The windows on +Unter den Linden are already selling at enormous prices for the +occasion. + +The Germans, by the way, "take no stock" at all in the King's pious +expressions throughout the campaign. They laugh at him greatly for +calling himself victorious "by the grace of God." "Such a nonsense!" +Herr J. says, contemptuously. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _April 22, 1871_. + +I haven't a mortal thing to say, for all the little I have done I +communicated in a letter to N. S. Kullak has been praising my playing +lately, but I cannot believe in it myself. I have been learning a +Ballade of Liszt's. It is beautiful but very hard, and with some +terrific octave passages in it. It has the double roll of octaves in it, +and this is the first time I ever learned how it was done. I am now +studying octaves systematically. Kullak has written three books of them, +and it is an exhaustive work on the subject, and as famous in its way as +the Gradus ad Parnassum. The first volume is only the preparation, and +the exercises are for each hand separately. There are a lot of them for +the thumb alone, for instance. Then there are others for the fourth and +fifth fingers, turning over and under each other in every conceivable +way. Then there are the wrist exercises, and, in short, it is the most +minute and complete work. Kullak himself is celebrated for his octave +playing. That I knew when I was in Tausig's conservatory, as Tausig used +to tell his scholars that they must study Kullak's Octave School. + +Wagner has come to Berlin for a visit, and next week he will have a +grand concert, when some of his compositions are to be brought out, and +he will, himself, conduct. Weitzmann says that he is a great conductor. +I heard his opera of Tannhaueser the other day, and I was perfectly +carried away with the overture, which I had not heard for a long time. +The orchestra played it magnificently, and I think it quite equal to +Beethoven. Wagner's theory is that music is a cry of the mind, and his +compositions certainly illustrate it. All other music pales before it in +passion and intensity. + +Did you read my letter to N. S. in which I told her about Alicia Hund, +who composed and conducted a symphony? That is quite a step for women in +the musical line. She reminded me of M., as she had just such a +high-strung face. All the men were highly disgusted because she was +allowed to conduct the orchestra herself. I didn't think myself that it +was a very _becoming_ position, though I had no prejudice against it. +Somehow, a woman doesn't look well with a baton in her hand directing a +body of men. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _May 18, 1871_. + +Wagner has just been in Berlin, and his arrival here has been the +occasion of a grand musical excitement. He was received with the +greatest enthusiasm, and there was no end of ovations in his honour. +First, there was a great supper given to him, which was got up by Tausig +and a few other distinguished musicians. Then on Sunday, two weeks ago, +was given a concert in the Sing-Akademie, where the seats were free. As +the hall only holds about fifteen hundred people, you may imagine it was +pretty difficult to get tickets. I didn't even attempt it, but luckily +Weitzmann, my harmony teacher, who is an old friend of Wagner's, sent me +one. + +The orchestra was immense. It was carefully selected from all the +orchestras in Berlin, and Stern, who directed it, had given himself +infinite trouble in training it. Wagner is the most difficult person in +the world to please, and is a wonderful conductor himself. He was highly +discontented with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipsic, which thinks +itself the best in existence, so the Berlinese felt rather shaky. The +hall was filled to overflowing, and finally, in marched Wagner and his +wife, preceded and followed by various distinguished musicians. As he +appeared the audience rose, the orchestra struck up three clanging +chords, and everybody shouted _Hoch!_ It gave one a strange thrill. + +The concert was at twelve, and was preceded by a "greeting" which was +recited by Frau Jachmann Wagner, a niece of Wagner's, and an actress. +She was a pretty woman, "fair, fat and forty," and an excellent speaker. +As she concluded she burst into tears, and stepping down from the stage +she presented Wagner with a laurel crown, and kissed him. Then the +orchestra played Wagner's Faust Overture most superbly, and afterwards +his Fest March from the Tannhaeuser. The applause was unbounded. Wagner +ascended the stage and made a little speech, in which he expressed his +pleasure to the musicians and to Stern, and then turned and addressed +the audience. He spoke very rapidly and in that child-like way that all +great musicians seem to have, and as a proof of his satisfaction with +the orchestra he requested them to play the Faust Overture under _his_ +direction. We were all on tiptoe to know how he would direct, and indeed +it was wonderful to see him. He controlled the orchestra as if it were a +single instrument and he were playing on it. He didn't beat the time +simply, as most conductors do, but he had all sorts of little ways to +indicate what he wished. It was very difficult for them to follow him, +and they had to "keep their little eye open," as B. used to say. He held +them down during the first part, so as to give the uncertainty and +speculativeness of Faust's character. Then as Mephistopheles came in, he +gradually let them loose with a terrible crescendo, and made you feel as +if hell suddenly gaped at your feet. Then where Gretchen appeared, all +was delicious melody and sweetness. And so it went on, like a succession +of pictures. The effect was tremendous. + +I had one of the best seats in the house, and could see Wagner and his +wife the whole time. He has an enormous forehead, and is the most +nervous-looking man you can imagine, but has that grim setting of the +mouth that betokens an iron will. When he conducts he is almost beside +himself with excitement. That is one reason why he is so great as a +conductor, for the orchestra catches his frenzy, and each man plays +under a sudden inspiration. He really seems to be improvising on his +orchestra. + +Wagner's object in coming here was to try and get his Nibelungen opera +performed. It is an opera which requires four evenings to get through +with. Did you ever hear of such a thing? He lays out everything on such +a colossal scale. It reminded me of that story they tell of him when he +was a boy. He was a great Shakespeare enthusiast, and wanted to write +plays, too. So he wrote one in which he killed off forty of the +principal characters in the last act! He gave a grand concert in the +opera house here, which he directed himself. It was entirely his own +compositions, with the exception of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which he +declared nobody understood but himself. That rather took down Berlin, +but all had to acknowledge after the concert that they had never heard +it so magnificently played. He has his own peculiar conception of it. +There was a great crowd, and every seat had been taken long before. All +the artists were present except Kullak, who was ill. I saw Tausig +sitting in the front rank with the Baroness von S. There must have been +two hundred players in the orchestra, and they acquitted themselves +splendidly. The applause grew more and more enthusiastic, until it +finally found vent in a shower of wreaths and bouquets. Wagner bowed and +bowed, and it seemed as if the people would never settle down again. At +the end of the concert followed another shower of flowers, and his +Kaiser March was encored. Such an effect! After the tempest of sound of +the introduction the drums came in with a sharp tat-tat-tat-tat-tat! +Then the brass began with the air and came to a crescendo, at last +_blaring_ out in such a way as shivered you to the very marrow of your +bones. It was like an earthquake yawning before you. + +The noise was so tremendous that it was like the roaring of the surf. I +never conceived of anything in music to approach it, and Wagner made me +think of a giant Triton disporting himself amid the billows and tossing +these great waves of sound from one hand to the other. You don't see his +face, of course--nothing but his back, and yet you know every one of his +emotions. Every sinew in his body speaks. He makes the instruments +prolong the tones as no one else does, and the effect is indescribably +beautiful, yet he complains that he never _can_ get an orchestra to +_hold_ the tone as they ought. His whole appearance is of arrogance and +despotism personified. + +By the end of the concert the bouquets were so heaped on the stage in +front of the director's desk, that Wagner had no place left big enough +to stand on without crushing them. Altogether, it was a brilliant +affair, and a great triumph for his friends. He has a great many bitter +enemies here, however. Joachim is one of them, though it seems +unaccountable that a man of his musical gifts should be. Ehlert is also +a strong anti-Wagnerite, and the Jews hate him intensely.--Perhaps his +character has something to do with it, for he has set all laws of +honour, gratitude and morality at defiance all his life long. It is a +dreadful example for younger artists, and I think Wagner is depraving +them. In this country everything is forgiven to audacity and genius, and +I must say that if Germany can teach _us_ Music, we can teach _her_ +morals! + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Difficulties of the Piano. Triumphal Entry of the Troops. Paris. + + + BERLIN, _June 25, 1871_. + +I have been learning Beethoven's G major Concerto lately, and it is the +most horribly difficult thing I've ever attempted. I have practiced the +first movement a whole month, and I can't play it any more than I can +fly. If you hear Miss Mehlig play it, I trust you will take in what a +feat it is. Kullak gave me a regular rating over it at my last lesson, +and told me I must stick to it till I _could_ play it. It requires the +greatest rapidity and facility of execution, and I get perfectly +desperate over it. Kullak took advantage of the occasion to expand upon +all the things an artist must be able to do, until my heart died within +me. "What do you know of double thirds?" said he. I had to admit that I +knew nothing of double thirds, and then he rushed down the piano like +lightning from top to bottom in a scale in double thirds, just as if it +were a common scale. + +In one respect Kullak is a more discouraging teacher than Tausig, for +Tausig only played occasionally before you, where it was absolutely +necessary, and contented himself with scolding and blaming. Kullak, on +the contrary, doesn't scold much, but as he plays continually before and +with you, with him you see how the thing _ought_ to be done, and the +perception of your own deficiencies stands out before you mercilessly. +My constant thought is, "When _will_ my passages pearl? When _will_ my +touch be perfectly equal? When _will_ my octaves be played from a +lightly-hung wrist? When _will_ my trill be brilliant and sustained? +When _will_ my thumb turn under and my fourth finger over without the +slightest perceptible break? When _will_ my arpeggios go up the piano in +that peculiar _roll_ that a genuine artist gives?" etc., etc. All this +gives a heavy heart, and so disinclines me to write that you must excuse +my frequent silences. + +We are having such a horrid cold summer that I sit and shiver all the +time. I wish we could have a little of the hot weather you speak of. I +have put on a muslin dress only once. Berlin is a very severe climate, I +think. + +The week before last was the triumphal entry or "Einzug" of the troops. +They all went past my window, so I had a full view of them. The Emperor +had made immense preparations, for he is very proud of his army. All +along the Koeniggraetzer Strasse (the street we live in), to the +Brandenburger Gate, a distance of two or three miles, were set tall +poles at intervals of a few feet, connected by wreaths of green. These +were painted red and white, and had gilded pinnacles; they were +surmounted by the Prussian flag, which is black and white, with a black +eagle in the centre. About half way down the poles was set a coat of +arms, with the flags of the older German States grouped about it. As +they were of different colours, the effect was very gay, and they made +a triumphal path of waving banners for the troops to pass under. All +along the last part of the Koeniggraetzer Strasse, before you come to the +Linden, were set the French cannon which were captured, and on them was +printed the name of the place where the battle was, and one read on them +"Metz, Sedan, Strasburg," etc. All up the Linden, too, the way for the +soldiers was hemmed in on each side with cannon. The mitrailleuses +interested me the most, because they had thirty bores in each one, and +could fire as many balls in succession. In this way, you see, a single +cannon could _rain_ shot. Luckily the French aim so badly that they +couldn't have killed half so many Prussians as they expected. On every +Platz (as the Germans call the squares), were columns and statues set +up, and enormous scaffolds for people to sit on, all decked out with +flags and coloured cloth. In short, the whole city was got up in gala +array, and looked as gay as possible. + +Of course there were thousands of strangers who had come on to see it, +and the streets were crowded. For about a week beforehand there was one +continual stream of people going by our house, and a long line of +carriages and droschkies as far as one could see, creeping along at a +snail's pace behind each other. I got worn out with the noise and +confusion long before the eventful day came. When it _did_ arrive, +already at six o'clock in the morning, when I looked out of my window, +the walls of Prince Albrecht's garden opposite were covered with boys +and men, and there they had to sit until nearly twelve o'clock, with +their legs dangling down, and nothing to eat or drink, before the +procession came by, and _then_ it took four hours to pass! Such is +German endurance, and a still more striking instance of it was shown by +an orchestra stationed on the sidewalk opposite my window. There were no +seats or awnings for them, and there they stood on the stones in the hot +sun for fully six hours, playing every little while on those heavy +French horns and trumpets. Just imagine it! I was astonished that there +was no scaffold erected for them to sit on, and wondered how the poor +fellows could _stand_ it. + +Just before eleven o'clock the gate of Prince Albrecht's garden flew +open, and out he rode, accompanied by a large suite, and they remained +there awaiting the Emperor, who was to ride by on his way to meet the +troops. I wish you could have seen them in their superb uniforms, seated +on their magnificent horses. They looked like knights of the olden time, +with their embroidered saddle-cloths and gay trappings. Preceding the +Emperor came the Empress and all the ladies of the royal family in about +ten carriages, each one with six horses and the Empress's with eight. +The ladies were gorgeously dressed, of course, in light coloured silks +with lace over-dresses. Then came the Emperor and his escort, riding +slowly and majestically along. The enthusiasm was immense as they passed +by, and they were indeed a proud sight. Bismarck, Moltke and Von Roon +rode in one row by themselves. Bismarck looked very imposing in his +uniform entirely of white and silver, with enormous top-boots, and a +brazen helmet surmounted by a silver eagle. There was every variety of +uniform, and the Crown Prince looked very handsome in his. He is a +splendid-looking man, with a very soldierly bearing, and he rides to +perfection. + +The royal party went out to the parade ground, where they met the army, +and then returned at the head of it, riding very slowly. Then, for four +hours, the soldiers poured by at a very quick step. If you could have +seen that _river_ of men roll along, you would have some idea of the +strength of this nation. They were tall for the most part, and their +helmets and guns glittered in the sun. They were dressed in their old +uniforms, just as they came from the field of battle. The people +showered wreaths and bouquets upon them as they passed, and every man +presented a festal appearance with his helmet crowned, a bouquet on the +point of his bayonet, and flowers in his button hole. The Emperor's way +was literally carpeted with flowers, and his grooms rode behind him +picking them up, and hanging the wreaths upon their saddle-bows. +Bismarck, Moltke and Von Roon and all the men of mark during the war +were similarly favoured. + +The army marched along at an astonishingly quick pace. I was surprised +to see them walk so fast, heavily laden as they were with their guns and +knapsacks and blankets, etc. Many of them had been marching a good part +of the night to get to the place of rendezvous, and they had had a +parade early in the morning. A good many of them fainted and had to be +carried out of the ranks, and eight of them died! It was the hottest day +we have had this summer.--I was the most interested in the Uhlanen. They +were the greatest terror of the French, and were light cavalry with no +arms except a large pistol and a lance. Just below the head of the +lance was a little Prussian flag attached, and nearly every one was +splashed with the blood of some poor Frenchman. When one looked at those +terrible spikes, it seemed a most dreadful death, and I don't wonder +that the French lost all courage at the sight of them. You see, being on +horseback and so lightly armed, the Uhlanen could go about like +lightning, and were able to appear suddenly at the most unexpected +points. As I was not on the Linden I did not see the army received at +the Brandenburger Gate by the four hundred young ladies dressed in +white, so I can't give you any account of _that_. Bismarck, who always +knows what to do, took a handful of wreaths from his saddle-bow, and +flung them smilingly over among the welcoming maidens. He is a courtly +creature. I was nearly dead from just looking out of my window, and +listening to the continual music of the bands, and I did not get over +the fatigue and nervous excitement for several days; but I was very +fortunate to be able to see it from the house, for many persons who had +to sit on the scaffolds were dreadfully burned, and were thrown into a +fever by it. You see they weren't allowed to put up their parasols, as +that obscured the view of the people behind them. I had one friend who +suffered awfully with her face, and did not sleep for three nights. She +said it was as if she had been burnt by fire, and the whole skin peeled +off. + +July 4th.--As usual, it is over a week since I began this letter, and I +have just decided to start at once on a summer journey with Mrs. and +Miss V. N., Mr. P. and Mrs., Mr. and Miss S. Kullak is away for his +vacation, so I shall lose no lessons. We shall go first to Cologne and +then to Bonn and Coblentz and down the Rhine. Perhaps we shall get as +far as Heidelberg. We got one of those return tickets, which makes the +journey very cheap; only you are limited to a certain time. We expect to +be gone until the 1st of August. I intend to walk a great deal between +the different points. Where the scenery is picturesque we shall +occasionally walk from station to station. We take no baggage except a +little bag (which we sling over our backs with straps), containing a +change of linen and a brush and comb and tooth brush. We shall wear the +same dress all the time and have our linen washed at the hotel. I +thought it was a good chance for me, and as we shall be a party of +embryo artists, we expect to go along in the Bohemian and happy-go-lucky +style of our class. I think of writing a novel on the way! Won't it be +romantic? Only, unluckily for Miss S. and myself, we shall have no +adorers, as Mr. P. and Miss V. G. are engaged, and Mr. S. is only about +eighteen! + +Just before the Einzug I was at a party at the Bancroft's, and was +standing near a doorway talking to one of N.'s class-mates in Harvard, +when a portly gentleman pushed very rudely between us and stood there +talking to Mr. Bancroft, who was on the other side of me. We gazed at +him for a minute before we went on with our conversation. Presently the +gentleman took his leave and bustled away. "That was the Duke of +Somerset," said Mr. Bancroft to me. I was rather surprised, for I had +just been thinking to myself, "What an unmannerly creature you are!"--I +suppose he had come on to the Einzug. + +Triumphant Berlin, by the way, is rather a contrast to Paris under the +Commune. Such a horrible time as they have been having there! It is +enough to make one's blood run cold to think of it. What insane +barbarians they are--and the worst of it is the part the women take in +it. I saw a picture of Thiers' house which they burnt down. It was a +magnificent mansion, and crammed full of exquisite works of art. Mr. +Bancroft grieved over it, for he had dined there, and knew what +treasures it contained. He said it was one of the most beautiful houses +he had ever been in.--And then the idea of pulling down the column of +the Place Vendome! Napoleon had built it from cannon which he had +captured in his great battles and melted down, so that in a special +manner it was a monument of their victories over other nations. There is +a stupidity about them which makes them perfectly pitiable. + +[In 1848 Saint Beuve wrote the following almost prophetic words: +"Nothing is swifter to decline in crises like the present (the +Revolution of 1848) than civilization. In three weeks the result of many +centuries are lost. Civilization, life, is a thing learned and invented. +* * * * After years of tranquility men are too forgetful of this truth; +they come to think that culture is innate, that it is the same thing as +nature. But in truth barbarism is but a few paces off and begins again +as soon as our hold is slackened."]--ED. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + A Rhine Journey. Frankfort. Mainz. Sail down the Rhine. Cologne. + Bonn. The Seven Mountains. Worms. Spire. Heidelberg. Tausig's + Death. + + +ROLANDSECK AM RHEIN, _July 14, 1871_. + +You will be surprised to get this letter, dated from a little village on +the Rhine, and I shall proceed to tell you how I came here, if the +vilest of vile paper and pens will permit. I wrote a letter to L. just +before I left Berlin, in which I informed her that I meant to go on a +little trip with a party of friends, as Berlin in summer is malarious, +and I felt the need of a change. + +Thursday a week ago we left Berlin and rode straight through to +Frankfort. It was a long journey, and lasted from six o'clock in the +morning until ten at night. I got up at four in the morning in a most +halcyon frame of mind. In fact, I felt as if I were going to get +married, owing to my putting on everything new from top to toe! The +laundress had made such ravages upon my linen that I found myself +suddenly obliged to replenish throughout, and consequently I arrayed +myself with great satisfaction in new stockings, new under-clothes, new +flannel, new skirts, new hat, new veil and new shoes to _boot_! I put on +my black silk short suit, took my bag and shawl, and sallied to the +station, where I found the others waiting for me. + +It was a lovely ride from Berlin to Frankfort, and having been shut up +in a city for nearly two years, the country appeared perfectly charming +and new to me, and every little smiling tuft of daisies had a special +significance. I don't know whether you stopped at Frankfort on your +travels. I fell dead in love with it, and liked it better than any part +of Germany I have seen. It is such a quiet town and has such an air of +elegance, and there are such lovely walks all about. Everything looks so +clean, and the streets are so handsomely laid out, and then there are no +_smells_, as there are in Berlin. The river flows all along the outside +of the city, and the promenade along it is delightful. I went to see the +house where my adorable Goethe was born, and afterward walked over the +bridge over which he used to go to school. There was a gilded cock +perched upon it, which he used to be very fond of as a child. We saw his +statue, and then visited the Museum where was Danecker's great +masterpiece, Ariadne sitting on the Panther. It is the most exquisite +thing, and it is cut out of one solid block of Carrara marble. Through a +pink curtain a rosy light is thrown on it from above, which gives the +marble a delicious tinge. Strange that he should have risen to such a +poetic conception, and never done anything afterwards of importance. + +We went into a great room where life-size pictures of all the Emperors +of Germany were. Some of them are very handsome men, and the Latin +mottoes underneath are very funny. One of them was: "If you don't know +how to hold your tongue, you'll never know the right place to speak." I +hope P. will keep L. well at her Latin and her history, and teach her +something about architecture and mythology, for these one needs to know +when one travels abroad. We only stayed one day in Frankfort, for there +isn't a great deal to be seen there. The afternoon we spent in walking +about and in sitting on logs by the river-side. Oh, what a sweet place +one of those beautiful villas by the swiftly flowing river would be to +live in! + +We left Frankfort at seven P. M., and rode to Mainz, which is only a +ride of two hours, I believe. As we came over the railroad bridge into +the town, we got our first glimpse of the Rhine, and it was a splendid +sight. Our hotel was very near the river, and as our rooms were front +rooms, and three stories up, we had a magnificent view of it. In the +evening it was so fascinating to watch the lights on the water and the +boats plying up and down, that it was long before we could make up our +minds to leave the windows and go to bed. At Mainz we saw our first +cathedral. It is six hundred years old, and had suffered six times by +fire, but it was very fine, notwithstanding. We spent a long time +studying it out. Afterwards we visited another church and ascended a +tower which was built 30, B. C. It seemed almost as firm as the day it +was finished. The view from it is magnificent, and the top of it is all +overgrown with harebells, golden rod and grass. It was very picturesque. + +On Sunday evening we took the boat for Cologne which we reached at four +o'clock in the afternoon. Oh, that sail down the Rhine was too +delicious! The weather was perfect, and everything seemed to me like a +fairy tale. It is one of the most beautiful parts of the Rhine, and it +was too lovely to see those old castles in every degree of ruin, jutting +out over the steep rocks, so high in the air, and then the vineyards +sloping down the hillsides to the water's edge. The whole lay of the +land was so exquisite. I didn't wonder that it is so celebrated, and +that so much has been written about it. A funny old Englishman came and +sat beside me, and we had a long conversation, pretty much as follows: + +Englishman.--"England is no doubt the finest country in the world. You +know the people there are so enormous rich, they can do as they please." +"Ah, indeed," said I, "have you travelled much in Germany?" "O yes! I've +been all over Germany. I come up the Rhine every year," said he. "It's +all very pretty when you've never seen it before, but it's nothing to me +now." "Have you been to Berlin?" asked I. "O yes," said he. "Shouldn't +want to live there. Your Prussians are so confounded arrogant. They +think they're the greatest people in the world." "How did you like +Dresden?" said I. "Stupid hole," said he. "Leipsic?" "Dull town." +"Stuttgardt?" "Quite pretty." "Kissingen?" "'Orrible place, nothing but +fanatics; every other day a Saint's day, and the shops shut up." +"Wiesbaden?" "Very fine place." "Ems?" "Never been to Hems." "Mainz?" +"Nasty hole." "Cologne?" "Stinking place." "Munich?" "Dreadful +unhealthy. They have fevers there, typhus, etc. _I_ call 'em fevers." +"How do you like the Rhine wines?" "Don't like them at all. It's very +seldom a man gets to drink a decent glass of wine here. I don't drink +'em at all. I like a glass of port." "Beer?" "O, the German beer isn't +fit to drink. The English beer is the best in the world. German beer is +'orrible bad stuff. Nothing but slops,--slops!" Here I burst out +laughing, for his flattering descriptions were too much for me. He gave +me a quizzical look and said, "Well, I'm glad I made you laugh. You're +from America, aren't you?" "Yes," said I. "Very unhealthy place, I'm +told." "Indeed? I never heard so," said I. "O yes, _very_!" said he. +Then he went off, and after a long while he returned. "I've been +asleep," said he, "I've slept two hours and a half, all through the fine +scenery." "_What!_" said I, "don't you enjoy it?" "No, I don't enjoy it +at all." Then he told me he lived in Rotterdam, and that I must come to +Holland. He was very complaisant over the Dutch, whom he said were +"nice, decent people, like the English. There's nothing of the German in +them," said he, "they're quite another people--not so +en-_thu_si-_as_tic,"--with a contemptuous air. We got out at Cologne, +and he went on to his dear Rotterdam. So I saw him no more. + +Oh! isn't the Cologne Cathedral magnificent? It quite took my breath +away as I entered it. The priests were just having vespers as we went +in, and there was scarcely a person in the cathedral beside. It was so +solemn and so touching to see them all by themselves intoning the +prayers, their voices swelling and falling in that vast place. And when +the superb organ struck up, and they began to sing a hymn, so wildly +sweet, with an interlude most beautifully worked up at the end of each +line by the organist--as we sat there under those great arches which +soar up to such an immense height, I felt as if I were in Heaven. + + * * * + + ANDERNACH, _July 16, 1871_. + +I believe I left off in my last with our arrival at Cologne, of which I +saw very little, as I was extremely tired, and remained at the hotel. +The Cathedral was, of course, the main point of interest, and that I saw +thoroughly, as I went to it twice, and spent a number of hours each +time. I was entirely carried away by its beauty and grandeur, as +everybody must be. The descriptions I had heard and the photographs I +had seen of it didn't prepare me at all. The _height_ of the great pile +is one of the most astounding things, I think. The three and four story +houses about it look like huts beside it. Beside the Cathedral I only +saw the church where the eleven thousand virgins are buried, but that +was more curious than beautiful.--I was much taken down by the shops in +Cologne, which I think much finer than the Berlin ones, and saw no end +of things in the windows I should like to have bought. The cravats alone +quite turned my head! + +We only spent two days in Cologne, and then sailed for Bonn, which is +but a very short distance. Here we were in a hotel directly upon the +river, and I had a sweet little room quite to myself. The view up and +down the river was superb, and we could see the Seven Mountains most +beautifully. Bonn is the most quiet, sleepy little town you can imagine, +and just the place to study, I should think. We saw the house where +Beethoven was born, a little yellow, two-story house, and then we +visited the Minster, which is nine hundred years old. We saw there a +tomb devoted to the memory of the first architect of the Cologne +Cathedral, with his statue lying upon it. He had a severely beautiful +face, and I could very well imagine him capable of such a great +conception. We had great difficulty in getting a dinner at Bonn, as, +being a university town, the students gobble up everything. Finally, we +found a little restaurant where they got us up one, consisting of steak +and potatoes. After dinner I went to walk with Mr. S. and we ate +cherries all the way, and finally sat down on a bench by the river's +side, where we had an enchanting view. Then we went back to the hotel, +and I went directly to bed. It was delicious to lie there and hear the +little waves washing up outside my window. It is just the place for a +honey-moon--so out of the world as it seems, and with none of the +activity and bustle of other cities. + +At six o'clock the next morning we took the boat, and in about half an +hour we landed at a little town on the side of the river opposite to +Bonn, and began our pedestrian tour through the Seven Mountains, of +which we ascended and descended four. They were all very steep and +difficult to climb, and it reminded me of my trip to Mount Mansfield, +years ago, only _then_ we had horses. We spent the night on one of +them, the Loewenberg (Lion-mountain). This was a funny experience, as all +we five ladies had to sleep in one room, and in one great bed of straw +made up on the floor. The fleas bit us all night, so we did not sleep +_too_ much. I mentioned the little fact to the servant next day, to +which she replied, "Yes, when you aren't used to fleas and bed-bugs, it +_is_ hard to sleep!" I agreed with her perfectly!--Our walk was +enchanting in spite of the difficulty of the ascent, and of the fact +that all of us had satchels slung over our shoulders, and a shawl and +umbrella to carry, which made locomotion rather difficult. We were in +the sylvan shades, following delicious footpaths scented with flowers, +and with the birds singing and trilling as loud as they could over our +heads. + +It was heavenly on the Loewenberg, for the view was glorious on every +side, and it seemed as if we were on the highest peak in the universe. I +sat for hours looking over the lovely country and following the +meanderings of the Rhine. The atmospheric effects produced by the sunset +were wonderful, and when it got to be nine o'clock we saw the lights +twinkle up one by one from the distant villages below like little +earth-stars--reflections of the heavenly ones above. The last mountain +we ascended was the Drachenfels (Dragon-rock), and a fearful pull it +was. The three others had been so easy, comparatively, that we none of +us knew what we were in for. Soon found out, though! It was like trying +to go up a wall, it was so steep. But when we got up we were rewarded, +for the view was superb, and there was an interesting old Roman ruin up +there. We wandered all about, and got an excellent dinner, and then +came down late in the afternoon, took a row boat and rowed across the +Rhine to Rolandseck--a fashionable watering place, and as charming as +German towns have a way of being. + + * * * + + GOTHA, _July 27, 1871_. + +Since I wrote you from Andernach I have been travelling steadily. The +whole party except Mrs. V. N. and myself made a pedestrian tour along +the Rhine from Rolandseck to Bingen, a distance of sixty miles. I +started to walk, but when I had gone fifteen miles I gave out, and was +glad to take the boat. Mrs. V. N. was an invalid and couldn't walk, so I +took charge of her, and we would travel on together. When we got to the +station where we had agreed to wait for the others, I would seat her +somewhere with the bags of the party piled up around her, and then I +would make a sortie, look at the hotels, and engage our rooms. + +We saw the Rhine from Cologne to Worms very thoroughly--for we kept +stopping all along. It is truly magnificent, and nothing can be more +interesting and picturesque than those old ruined castles which look as +if they had grown there. Bingen is the sweetest place, and just the spot +to spend a summer. We travelled from there to Worms, which is a +delightful old city. We were there only an hour or two, but the walk +from the boat to the cars was through the prettiest part of it, I should +judge, and was very romantic, through winding walks overshadowed with +trees. We saw that great Luther monument there, which is most imposing. +The exterior of the Cathedral is splendid, and in quite another style +of architecture from the Cologne Cathedral. From Worms we went to Spire, +in order to see the Cathedral there, which is superb, and very +celebrated. It was founded in 1030 by Conrad the Second, as a burial +place for himself and his successors. It has no stained windows at all, +even in the chancel, which surprised me, but the frescoes and the whole +interior colouring are gorgeous in the extreme. It is in the Romanesque +style of architecture, and is so entirely different from the Cologne +Cathedral that it was very interesting, but there's nothing equal to the +Gothic, after all. + +From Spire we went to Heidelberg. I was enchanted with Heidelberg. It is +the most romantic and beautiful place I was ever in. The Castle is the +prince of ruins. I had made up my mind all along that I was going to +enjoy myself at Heidelberg, for my friend Dr. S. was studying there, and +I knew I should have him to go about with. So I had been urging the +party to go there from the first. As soon as we arrived, off I went to +find him, which I soon accomplished. He was very glad to see me, and put +himself at once at my disposal. You know the S.'s used to live at +Heidelberg, among other places, so he knows it all by heart. After +dinner we all went up to the Castle, of course. I was very sorry that I +had never read Hyperion. We had to ascend a long hill before we got to +it, but the weather was perfect, so we didn't mind. It is so high up +that the view of the town and of the Neckar winding through it, with the +wooded hills on the opposite shore, is panoramic. + +The Castle itself is an enormous ruin, and very richly ornamented. Ivy +two hundred years old climbs over it in great luxuriance. We passed +through a gateway over which stand two stone knights which are said to +change places with each other at midnight, and there are all sorts of +charming stories like that connected with the place. We saw a +beautifully carved stone archway which was put up in a single night, in +honour of somebody's birthday, and a monument with an inscription over +it stood in one corner of the grounds, stating that here had stood some +distinguished personage (I always forget all the names, unluckily, but +"the _principle_ remains the same"), when the Castle was being besieged +by the French. Two balls came from opposite directions, passed close by +him, and struck against each other, miraculously leaving him unharmed! + +After we had walked around the outside of the Castle sufficiently we +went inside. It took us a long time to go over it, it was so large. We +saw the stone dungeon, which was called the "Never Empty," because +somebody was always confined there--a dreadful hole, and it must have +been in perfect darkness--and we saw the great Heidelberg cask which had +a scaffolding on the top of it big enough to dance a quadrille on. But +the finest of everything was the ascending of the tower. Just as we got +to the top of it, and had begun to take in the magnificent scenery, an +orchestra at a little distance below struck up Wagner's "Kaiser March." +It was the one touch which was needed to make the _ensemble_ perfect. On +one side the landscape lay far below us, with the silver river winding +through it; on the other the hills rose behind the Castle to an immense +height, and with the greatest boldness of outline. The tops were thickly +wooded, and lower down the trees were beautifully grouped, and the +velvety turf rolled and swelled to the foot of the Castle. The sun was +just setting in a clear sky, and cast long shadows athwart the scene, +and I thought I had never seen anything more striking. Then to hear +Wagner's Kaiser March by a well-trained orchestra come soaring up, made +a combination such as one gets perhaps not more than once in a +life-time. + +The march is superb, so pompous and majestic, and with delicious +melodies occasionally interwoven through it. Wagner's melodies are so +heavily and intoxicatingly sweet, that they are almost narcotic. His +music excites a set of emotions that no other music does, and he is a +great original. It has the power of expressing longing and aspiration to +a wonderful degree, and it always seems to me as if two impulses were +continually trying to get the mastery. The one is the embodiment of all +those vague yearnings of the soul to burst its prison house, and the +other is the cradling of the body in the lap of pleasure. I always feel +as if I should like to swoon away when I hear his compositions. Then his +harmonies are so strangely seductive, so complicated, so "grossartig," +as the Germans say, and so peculiar! Oh, I have an immense admiration +for him! He thinks that music is not the impersonation of an idea, but +that it _is_ the idea. + +But to return to the Castle.--We stayed up in the tower for some time, +and then we made the tour of the interior. Afterwards we walked and sat +about until all the party thought it was time to go back to the hotel +Dr. S. and I thought we would stay up there to supper. So we went where +the orchestra was playing, which was in an enclosed space near the +Castle. We took our seats at a little table in the open air, and ordered +a delicious little supper, also + + "A bottle of wine + To make us shine" + +in _conversation!_--and so glided by the most ideal evening, as far as +surroundings go, that I ever spent. + +In our hotel at Heidelberg I kept hearing a man play splendidly in the +room below us, and every time we passed his door it was open, and we +could partly see the interior of a charming room with a grand piano in +it, at which he was seated. A pretty woman was always lying back in the +corner of the sofa listening to him, apparently. The presence of a large +wax doll indicated that there must be a child about, and the perfume of +flowers stole through the open doorway. My interest was at once excited +in these people, and I said to myself as I heard this gentleman practice +every day, "This must be some artist passing the summer here and getting +up his winter programme." Accordingly, on Sunday afternoon when he was +playing beautifully, I roused myself up and enquired of a servant who he +was. "Nicolai Rubinstein, from St. Petersburg," replied she. He is the +brother of the great Anton Rubinstein, and is nearly as fine a pianist. +I know a scholar of Tausig's who had studied with him, and Tausig had a +high opinion of him. + +Oh, isn't it _dreadful_? When we were at Bingen we saw the news of +Tausig's DEATH in the paper! He died at Leipsic, on the 17th of July, of +typhus fever, brought on by over-taxing his musical memory. It was a +dreadful blow to me, as you may imagine, and when I think of his +wonderful playing silenced forever, and comparatively in the beginning +of his career, I cannot get reconciled to it. If you could have heard +those matchlessly trained fingers of his, you would be able to +sympathize with me on the subject. I had counted so on hearing him next +winter, for he gave no concerts in Berlin last winter. He was only +thirty-one years old! + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Eisenach. Gotha. Erfurt. Andernach. Weimar. Tausig. + + + BERLIN, _August 15, 1871_. + +Well, here I am back in smelly old Berlin! I really hated to leave +Heidelberg, it was such a paradisiacal spot, but we saw so much that was +beautiful afterwards, that my impression of it has become a little +dimmed. From Heidelberg we went to Eisenach, its rival in a different +way, for here we went over the Wartburg--the Castle famous for having +been the dwelling of the holy St. Elizabeth, and where Luther translated +the Bible and spent ten months of his life disguised as a knight. I saw +his room, a bare and comfortless hole, but with a splendid view from the +windows. The Castle is in good repair, and is a noble pile. I suppose +the Duke of Weimar spends some time there every summer, as it looks as +if it were lived in. It is endlessly interesting. There is a lovely +little chapel in it where Luther used to preach, with everything left in +just as it was in his time--a little gem. The Wartburg is on a very high +hill, and the views from it are superb. Among other things to be seen +from it is the Venusberg, which is the mountain Wagner has introduced in +his famous opera of Tannhaeuser. He was so carried away by the Wartburg +when he concealed himself near it, as he was being pursued by the +government to be arrested as a revolutionary, twenty years ago, that he +never rested until he had united the legends of St. Elizabeth and of the +Venusberg in his opera. Liszt, also, wrote an oratorio on St. Elizabeth +as _his_ tribute to the Wartburg. + +From Eisenach we went to Gotha, a lovely place, all shaded with trees, +and surmounted by a very imposing castle, with two immense towers. It is +an enormous edifice, and is surrounded by a magnificent park, through +which goes the slowly winding river. I believe that Gotha belongs to the +Duke of Saxe-Coburg, brother of the Queen of England, or something. At +all events, in the middle of this river is an island where the ducal +family is buried, and it is so thickly planted with trees whose boughs +hang over the water, that their graves are quite shrouded from the +vulgar eye. Pretty idea! The river laps lazily against the grassy slope +which covers the princely ones, and the wind rushing through the trees, +sings their dirge. + +From Gotha we went to Erfurt, where we only spent one night, in order to +see the Cathedral. Erfurt is an Undine of a place, full of running +streams and bridges and mills roaring all about you. I saw one street +with a brook rippling down the very middle of it at a most rattling +pace, and at every little distance two or three stepping stones by which +to cross it. Just think how fascinating for children! I longed to stay +and have a good play there myself. The Erfurt Cathedral is much smaller +than those of Spire and Cologne, but the exterior is wonderfully +beautiful. The transept is a masterpiece, and has fifteen enormous +windows of rich old stained glass going round it. The nave did not +please me so well, because in addition to its not being very rich, the +side aisles were of equal height with the main body of the Cathedral, +and were not sufficiently marked off from it to prevent the roof's +looking like a ceiling. I believe the side aisles were of equal height +with the main aisle in the Cologne Cathedral, but the archways and +pillars cut them off more, so that it had a different effect.--I am more +interested in cathedrals than anything else, and should like to travel +all over Europe and see all the different ones. There is a lovely old +church at Andernach, Roman Catholic, as most of the churches on the +Rhine are. I went there to church one Sunday morning, and stayed through +the service. They had the most powerful church music I've ever heard. +There was an excellent boy choir which sang in unison and led the +congregation, _every person_ of which joined in. The organ was fine, as +was also the organist, and the singing was so universal that the old +church walls rang again. The priest preached an excellent sermon, +too--the best I have heard in Germany. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _August 31, 1871_. + +Germany is a most lovely country, and perfectly delicious to travel +through. I believe I have described all the places we went to excepting +Weimar. Weimar is delightful, and so interesting, because Goethe and +Schiller, Wieland and Herder lived there, and everything is connected +with them, and especially with the first two. There are many fine +statues in the little city, and a delicious great park along the river +which was laid out under Goethe's superintendence.--One group of Goethe +and Schiller standing together in front of the theatre is magnificent. +One hardly knows which to admire the most, Goethe, with his courtly mein +and commanding features, or Schiller, with his extreme ideality and his +head a little thrown back as if to take in inspiration direct from the +sky. It is a most striking conception. + +The palace of the Grand Duke of Weimar is the principal "show" of the +place. It is filled with the richest works of art, and is beautifully +frescoed in rooms devoted each to a particular author, and representing +his most celebrated works. There is the Goethe room, and the Wieland +room, etc. The Wieland room is the most charming thing. The frescoes on +the walls are all illustrative of his "Oberon," which is his most +celebrated work, and one picture represents what happened when Oberon +blew his horn. You must know that when Oberon blows his horn everybody +is obliged to dance. So in this picture he is represented blowing it in +a convent, and all the fat friars and nuns are dancing away like mad. +They look so serious, and as if they didn't want to do it at all, but +their feet _will_ fly up in the air in spite of them. The nuns' slippers +scarcely stick on, and it looks so absurd! I was as highly amused at it +as the mischievous Oberon himself must have been, so delicately has the +artist touched it off. There was another design representing a band of +nymphs dancing in the sky, hand in hand in the twilight, and it was the +most graceful thing!--Their delicate little bare feet with every pretty +turn a foot could have, their clothes and hair streaming in the breeze, +and every attitude so airy. It was _lovely_! The Goethe frescoes were by +another painter, and not so fine, but I prefer pictures to frescoes. +Only one suite of the ducal rooms was frescoed. The others had superb +pictures by the old masters, many of them originals. + +The Duke is an artist himself, and designs a great many pretty things. +For instance, he designed the large candelabra which stood on each side +of one of the doorways,--Cupid peeping through a wreath of thistles and +nettles. He was kneeling on one knee, and pushing them aside with each +hand. It was all done in gilt metal and made a very dainty conceit, +beside being a good illustration of the pains of love! I think the Duke +probably designed some of the picture frames, for they were peculiarly +rich and artistic; for instance, the frames of the original cartoons of +Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper were entirely composed of the leaves and +flowers of the calla lily. The leaves lapped one over the other, and +here and there a lily was laid between. The flowers were done in a +different coloured gilding from the leaves. They were _very_ beautiful. +The pictures were not all hung together, so as to confuse your eye, but +here a gem and there a gem--and O, I saw the most bewitching little +statue there that ever I saw in my life! The subject was "Little Red +Riding Hood," and it stood in the corner of one of the great salons. It +was about two feet high, and represented the most fascinating little +girl you can imagine, clothed in the wolf's skin, which hung down behind +and had formed the little hood. The child herself was quite +indescribable--the daintiest little creature, with the most captivating +expression of innocence and roguishness. If she looked like that I +should have followed the wolf's example and eaten her up! It was really +a perfect little _pearl_ of a statue. I would give anything to possess +it. In short, I wish the Duke of Weimar were my intimate friend, for he +must be a man worth knowing. Now, if I could only play like Liszt!--I +don't wonder Liszt spends so much of his time in Weimar. I am getting +perfectly crazy to hear him, by the way, for everybody says there is +nobody in the world like him, and that he is the only artist who +combines _everything_. He does not play in public any more, but +Weitzmann says that he is amiability itself, and that it would probably +not be difficult for me to get an opportunity to hear him in private. + +In the palace I also saw the little boudoir of the Duchess. It was all +panelled in white satin, and the furniture was of the richest white +brocaded silk. The window frames were of malachite, and one looked out +through the single great plate of glass on to the beautiful park, and +the winding river spanned by a bridge which suggests immediately to your +mind, "Walk over me into the Garden of Paradise, for I was made for your +express benefit!" The park lies on each side of this little river Ilm, +and Goethe's exquisite taste has given it more a look of nature than of +art. It seems as if you were walking in a delicious meadow, the trees +being sometimes grouped together, sometimes growing thickly along the +water's edge. You go in and out of sunshine and shadow, and here and +there are dusky little retreats, and, to borrow Goldsmith's elegant +style,--"the winding walks assume a natural sylvage." Some distance up +the river, on the side of a gentle hill, was a small house in the woods +where Goethe used to live in summer. Here he slept sometimes, and +farther up the hill was a summer house where he took his coffee after +dinner. To the left of this summer house he had had made a long +alley-way or vista of trees whose tops met overhead and formed a leafy +ceiling. It was like a cloister, and here he could pace up and down and +muse. It was a delightful idea. To the right of the summer house was a +small garden, and beyond that was a path which wound through the wood +down to the path below. In one of the rocks there Goethe had had a +little poem cut. I was sorry afterward that I hadn't copied it, it was +so pretty.--But it was such a charming place to read and study, and it +seemed to give me a better impression of him than anything else. + +I saw a piano in the Duke's palace upon which Beethoven had played. It +was a funny little instrument of about five octaves, but it was so +wheezy with age that there wasn't much tone to be got out of it. After +we had finished looking at the palace, we went over to see the ducal +library. Here I saw a superb bust of Goethe as a young man. It was so +handsome that it spurns description. He must have been a perfect Apollo. +I also saw a likeness of him painted upon a cup by some great artist, +for which he sat thirty-four times! The old librarian, who had known +Goethe, said that it was _exactly_ like him, and the miniature painting +was so wonderful that when you looked at it with a magnifying glass it +was only finer and _more_ accurate instead of less so! There was also a +most noble bust of the composer Glueck. The face was all scarred with +small-pox, so that the cast must have been moulded from his features +after death, but I never saw such a living, animated, likeness in +marble. It looked as if it were going to speak to you. There was a funny +toy there, nearly three hundred years old. It was a drummer boy, with a +little baby strapped on his back. The librarian wound him up, and then +he beat his drum lustily, rolled his eyes from side to side, and wagged +his head, while the baby on his back hopped up and down. Whenever little +children see it, it scares them, and they begin to cry. It had on a red +flannel coat, and hasn't had a new one since it was made.--"Nearly three +hundred years old, and never had a new coat," is worse than when C. P. +bought himself a trunk, and went round the house saying, "Twenty-seven +years old, and been in twenty-three states of the Union, and _never_ had +a new trunk before!" + +Goethe's house is not exhibited, which I think highly inexcusable in the +Goethe family, but Schiller's is. So we saw that, and what a contrast it +was to the ducal palace!--You go to a small yellow house on one of the +principal streets, enter a little hall by a little door, go up two +flights of a little stair-case, and in the very low-ceilinged third +story was Schiller's home--"home" I say, and the _whole_ of it, so +please take it in! The first room you enter is a sort of ante-room where +photographs are now sold. The next room was the parlour, and of late +years it has been comfortably furnished by the ladies of Weimar in the +usual cheap German taste. The third room was Schiller's study, with an +infinitesimal fourth room, or large closet, opening from it, which was +his sleeping apartment. The study is precisely as he left it, and +nothing could be more bald and bare. No carpet on the floor, the three +windows slightly festooned at the top with a single breadth of Turkey +red, his own portrait and a few wretched prints on the walls--in short, +such a sordid habitation for such a soaring nature as seemed almost +incredible! His writing table, with a globe, inkstand, and pens upon it, +stands at one window, and his wife's tiny little piano with her guitar +on top, is against the wall. There are two or three chairs, and a +wash-stand with a minute washing apparatus. In one corner is the tiny +unpainted wooden bedstead on which he died; a bed not meant to stretch +out in, but to lie, as Germans do, half reclining, and so low, narrow, +plain and mean that I never saw anything like it. In it and hanging on +the wall over it are wreaths which leading German actresses have brought +there as votive offerings to their great national dramatist, their white +satin ribbons yellowing by time. At the foot of the stair-case as you go +out, you see the little walled-up garden at the back of the house where +the poet loved to sit. + +After getting through with the abodes of the living, we visited the +ducal vault where Goethe and Schiller are buried. It is the crypt of a +sort of temple built in the old secluded cemetery in Weimar, and in it +all the coffins are laid in rows on supporters. Goethe and Schiller lie +apart from the others, side by side, near the foot of the stair-case +leading down into the crypt. Their coffins, especially Schiller's, are +covered with wreaths and bouquets brought by strangers and laid there. +Schiller's had on it a garland of silver leaves presented by the women +of Hamburg, and another of leaves of green gauze or crape, on every one +of which was worked in gold thread the name of one of his plays. A great +actress had made it herself as her tribute to his genius. From all I +observe, I should judge that the German people love Schiller much more +than they do Goethe. The dukes and duchesses lie farther back in the +vault in their red velvet coffins, quite unnoticed. So much better is +genius than rank! Hummel is buried also in the cemetery, which is the +most beautiful I ever saw--not stiff and "arranged" like ours, but so +natural! with over-grown foot-paths, and with much fewer and simpler +grave-stones and monuments, and many more vines and flowers and roses +creeping over the graves. We went to Hummel's grave, and had I been +Goethe and Schiller I should much rather have been buried out of doors +like him, amid this sweet half-wild, half-gentle nature, than in that +dismal vault. + +Speaking of Hummel reminds me of Tausig's death. Was it not terrible +that he should have died so young! Such an enormous artist as he was! I +cannot get reconciled to it at all, and he played only twice in Berlin +last winter. + +He was a strange little soul--a perfect misanthrope. Nobody knew him +intimately. He lived all the last part of his life in the strictest +retirement, a prey to deep melancholy. He was taken ill at Leipsic, +whither he had gone to meet Liszt. Until the ninth day they had hopes of +his recovery, but in the night he had a relapse, and died the tenth day, +very easily at the last. His remains were brought to Berlin and he was +buried here. Everything was done to save him, and he had the most +celebrated physicians, but it was useless. So my last hope of lessons +from him again is at an end, you see! I never expect to hear such +piano-playing again. It was as impossible for him to strike one false +note as it is for other people to strike right ones. He was absolutely +infallible. The papers all tell a story about his playing a piece one +time before his friends, from the notes. The music fell upon the keys, +but Tausig didn't allow himself to be at all disturbed, and went on +playing through the paper, his fingers piercing it and grasping the +proper chords, until some one rushed to his aid and set the notes up +again. Oh, he was a wonder, and it is a tragic loss to Art that he is +dead. He was such a _true_ artist, his standard was so immeasurably +high, and he had such a proud contempt for anything approaching +clap-trap, or what he called _Spectakel_. I have seen him execute the +most gigantic difficulties without permitting himself a sign of effort +beyond an almost imperceptible compression of one corner of his +mouth.--And then his touch! Never shall I forget it!--that _rush_ of +silver over the keys. However, he entirely overstrained himself, and his +whole nervous system was completely shattered long before his illness. +He said last winter that the very idea of playing in public was +unbearable to him, and after he had announced in the papers that he +would give four concerts, he recalled the announcement on the plea of +ill health. Then he thought he would go to Italy and spend the winter. +But when he got as far as Naples, he said to himself, "_Nein, hier +bleibst du nicht_ (No, you won't stay here);" and back he came to +Berlin. He doesn't seem to have known what he wanted, himself; his was +an uneasy, tormented, capricious spirit, at enmity with the world. +Perhaps his marriage had something to do with it. His wife was a +beautiful artist, too, and they thought the world of each other, yet +they couldn't live together. But Tausig's whole life was a mystery, and +his reserve was so complete that nobody could pierce it. If I had only +been at the point in music two years ago that I am now, I could have +gone at once into his class. His scholars were most of them artists +already, or had got to that point where they had pretty well mastered +the technique. A number of them came out last winter, and the little +Timanoff played duets with Rubinstein for two pianos, at St. Petersburg. + +Since my return I have gone into the first class in Kullak's +conservatory, instead of taking private lessons of him. I think it will +be of use to me to hear his best pupils play. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + Dinner-Party and Reception at Mr. Bancroft's. Auction at Tausig's + House. A German Christmas. The Joachims. + + + BERLIN, _October 2, 1871_. + +This week I have been to a dinner-party at the Bancroft's. There were +several eminent Germans there, and I was taken out by Boetticher, the +Herr who has arranged all the casts in the Museum, and who knows +everything about Art. He couldn't speak a word of English, so we +_Germaned_ it. We talked about Sappho all through dinner, and he gave me +several details about that young woman which I did not know before. As +C. used to say, we had one of those dinners "such as you read about in +the Arabian Nights," topping off with a glass of my favourite Tokay, +which, I regret to say, I so prolonged the pleasure of drinking, that +finally the signal was given to adjourn to the drawing-room, and I was +obliged to leave my glass standing half full, to be swallowed by the +waiter as soon as my back was turned. Sad, but true! + +On another evening, at a Bancroft reception, I talked with a Miss R., +who was charming. She is twenty-two or three, I should think, very +pretty and extremely elegant, and with the most delicious way of +speaking you can imagine. Such softness of manner and such a +delightfully pitched voice, and then along with this perfect repose, +such a vivid way of describing things! I was immensely taken with her, +and was delighted to have her for a countrywoman. She gave me a +wonderful account of the Island of Java. I had a lot of questions to ask +her, for you remember how persistently I read that book by a naturalist +(Wallace) who went to Java in search of the Bird of Paradise. Miss R. is +so extremely intelligent, and yet so unassuming; and then this high-bred +manner.--I did not have time to hear her talk half enough, and, +unfortunately, her party went away the next day. + +The other day was an auction in poor little Tausig's house, and all his +furniture was sold. It was very handsome, all of solid oak, beautifully +carved. He had spent five thousand thalers on it. His wardrobe was sold, +too, and I don't know how many pairs of his little boots and shoes were +there, his patent leather concert boots among others. His little velvet +coat that he used to wear went with the rest. I saw it lying on a chair. +I came home quite ill, and was laid up two days. It was the fatigue, I +suppose, and miserable reflections. I wanted to buy a picture, but they +were all sold in a lot. He had excellent ones of all the great +composers, down to Liszt and Wagner, hanging over his piano in the room +where he always played. Kullak deplores Tausig's death very deeply. He +had visited him in Leipsic two days before he was taken ill, and said no +one would have dreamed that Tausig was going to die, he looked so well. +Kullak said Tausig was one of the three or four great _special_ +pianists. "Who will interpret to us so again?" said he; and I echoed, +sadly enough, "Who, indeed?" + +Kullak, by the way, is a wonderfully _finished_ teacher. He is a great +friend of Liszt's, and Liszt has taught him a good many things. I doubt, +however, how M. will fare with him, if she is only going to be here a +year. My experience is that it takes fully a year to get started under a +first class master. These great teachers won't take a pupil raw from +America, still less trouble themselves with a scholar who cannot +immediately comprehend. I have written her to-day a three-sheet letter +in which I have set forth the disadvantages of Germany in a sufficiently +forcible manner to prevent her feeling disappointed if she still insists +upon the journey. I have come to the conclusion that I am no criterion +as to other people's impressions. Unless people have an enthusiasm for +art I don't see the least use in their coming abroad. If they cannot +appreciate the _culture_ of Europe, they are much better off in America. +There is no doubt whatever that as to the _comfort_ of every-day life, +we are a long way ahead of every nation, unless perhaps the English, +whom, however, I have not seen. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _December 25, 1871_. + +To-day is Christmas-day, and I have thought much of you all at home, and +have wondered if you've been having an apathetic time as usual. I think +we often spend Christmas in a most shocking fashion in America, and I +mean to revolutionize all that when I get back. So long a time in +Germany has taught me better. Here it is a season of universal joy, and +_everybody_ enters into it. Last night we had a Christmas tree at the +S.'s, as we always do. We went there at half past six, and it was the +prettiest thing to see in every house, nearly, a tree just lighted, or +in process of being so. As a separate family lives on each floor, often +in one house would be three trees, one above the other, in the front +rooms. The curtains are always drawn up, to give the passers-by the +benefit of it. They don't make a fearful undertaking of having a +Christmas tree here, as we do in America, and so they are attainable by +everybody. The tree is small, to begin with, and nothing is put on it +except the tapers and bonbons. It is fixed on a small stand in the +centre of a large square table covered with a white cloth, and each +person's presents are arranged in a separate pile around it. The tree is +only lighted for the sake of beauty, and for the air of festivity it +throws over the thing.--After a crisp walk in the moonlight (which I +performed in the style of "Johnny-look-up-in-the-air," for I was engaged +in staring into house-windows, so far as it was practicable), we sat +down to enjoy a cup of tea and a piece of cake. I had just begun my +second cup, when, Presto! the parlour doors flew open, and there stood +the little green tree, blossoming out into lights, and throwing its +gleams over the well-laden table. There was a general scramble and a +search for one's own pile, succeeded by deep silence and suspense while +we opened the papers. Such a hand shaking and embracing and thanking as +followed! concluding with the satisfactory conviction that we each had +"just what we wanted." Germans do not despise the utilitarian in their +Christmas gifts, as we do, but, between these and their birthday +offerings, expect to be set up for the rest of the year in the +necessaries of life as well as in its superfluities. Presents of +stockings, under-clothes, dresses, handkerchiefs, soaps--nothing comes +amiss. And every one _must_ give to every one else. That is LAW. + +I have just heard a young artist from Vienna who made a great impression +on me. His name is Ignaz Bruehl. He is quite exceptional, and has not +only a brilliant technique, but also a peculiar and beautiful +conception.--But the best concert I have heard this season was one given +by Clara Schumann a week ago last Monday. She was assisted by Joachim +and his wife, and _that_ galaxy is indeed unequalled. Frau Joachim sings +deliciously. Not that her voice is so remarkable. You hear such voices +all the time. But she manages it consummately, and sings German songs as +no one but a German _could_ sing them. Indeed I never heard any woman +approach her in unobtrusive yet perfect art. She does not take you by +storm, and when I first came here I did not think much of her, but every +time I hear her I am struck with how exquisite it is. Every word takes +on a meaning, and on this account I think you have to understand the +language before you can realize the beauty of it. One of her songs was +Schumann's "Spring Song," with that rapid _agitato_ accompaniment, you +know.--She came out and started off in it with a half breath and a +tremor just like a bird fluttering up out of its nest, and then went up +on a portamento with _such_ abandon!--like the bird soaring off in its +flight. I never _shall_ forget that effect! Of course it carried you +completely away. + +Beside singing so admirably she is a beauty--a sort of baby beauty--and +when she comes out in a pale pink silk, contrasting with her dark hair +and revealing her imperial neck and arms, she is ravishing. I've been +told she wasn't anything remarkable when Joachim married her. No doubt +dwelling with such a genius has developed her. They say that Joachim has +had such a happy life that he wants to live forever! He certainly does +overtop everything. On this occasion he played Beethoven's great +Kreutzer Sonata for violin and piano, with Clara Schumann, and I thought +it the _most magnificent performance I ever heard_! I perfectly adore +Joachim, and consider him the wonder of the age. It is simple ecstasy to +listen to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Visit to Dresden. The Wiecks. Von Buelow. A Child Prodigy. Grantzow, + the Dancer. + + + BERLIN, _February 10, 1872_. + +A week ago last Monday I went to Dresden with J. L. to visit B. H. We +got there at about five in the afternoon, and were met at the station by +B.'s maid, who conducted us straightway to their house in Christian +Strasse. B. and Mrs. H. received us with the greatest cordiality, and we +had a splendid time. I came home only the day before yesterday, and J. +is still there. The H.'s have a charming lodging, and Mrs. H. is a +capital housekeeper. The _cuisine_ was excellent, and you can imagine +how I enjoyed an American breakfast once more, after nothing but "rolls +and coffee" for two years. B. did everything in her power to amuse us, +and she is the soul of amiability. She kept inviting people to meet us, +and had several tea-parties, and when we had no company she took us to +the theatre or the opera. She invited Marie Wieck (the sister of Clara +Schumann) to tea one night. I was very glad to meet her, for she is an +exquisite artist herself, and plays in Clara Schumann's style, though +her conception is not so remarkable. Her touch is perfect. At B.'s +request she tried to play for us, but the action of B.'s piano did not +suit her, and she presently got up, saying that she could do nothing on +that instrument, but that if we would come to _her_, she would play for +us with pleasure. + +I was in high glee at that proposal, for I was very anxious to see the +famous Wieck, the trainer of so many generations of musicians. Fraeulein +Wieck appointed Saturday evening, and we accordingly went. B. had +instructed us how to act, for the old man is quite a character, and has +to be dealt with after his own fashion. She said we must walk in (having +first laid off our things) as if we had been members of the family all +our lives, and say, "Good-evening, Papa Wieck,"--(everybody calls him +Papa). Then we were to seat ourselves, and if we had some knitting or +sewing with us it would be well. At any rate we must have the apparent +intention of spending several hours, for nothing provokes him so as to +have people come in simply to call. "What!" he will say, "do you expect +to know a celebrated man like me in half an hour?" then (very +sarcastically), "perhaps you want my autograph!" He hates to give his +autograph. + +Well, we went through the prescribed programme. We were ushered into a +large room, much longer than it was broad. At either end stood a grand +piano. Otherwise the room was furnished with the greatest simplicity. My +impression is that the floor was a plain yellow painted one, with a rug +or two here and there. A few portraits and bas-reliefs hung upon the +walls. The pianos were of course fine. Frau Wieck and "Papa" received us +graciously. We began by taking tea, but soon the old man became +impatient, and said, "Come! the ladies wish to perform (_vortragen_) +something before me, and if we don't begin we shan't accomplish +anything." He _lives_ entirely in music, and has a class of girls whom +he instructs every evening for nothing. Five of these young girls were +there. He is very deaf, but strange to say, he is as sensitive as ever +to every musical sound, and the same is the case with Clara Schumann. +Fraeulein Wieck then opened the ball. She is about forty, I should think, +and a stout, phlegmatic-looking woman. However, she played superbly, and +her touch is one of the most delicious possible. After hearing her, one +is not surprised that the Wiecks think nobody can teach touch but +themselves. She began with a nocturne by Chopin, in F major. I forgot to +say that the old Herr sits in his chair with the air of being on a +throne, and announces beforehand each piece that is to be played, +following it with some comment: _e. g._, "This nocturne I allowed my +daughter Clara to play in Berlin forty years ago, and afterward the +principal newspaper in criticising her performance, remarked: 'This +young girl seems to have much talent; it is only a pity that she is in +the hands of a father whose head seems stuck full of queer new-fangled +notions,'--so new was Chopin to the public at that time." That is the +way he goes on. + +After Fraeulein Wieck had finished the nocturne, I asked for something by +Bach, which I'm told she plays remarkably. She said that at the moment +she had nothing in practice by Bach, but she would play me a _gigue_ by +a composer of Bach's time,--Haesler, I think she said, but cannot +remember, as it was a name entirely unknown to me. It was very +brilliant, and she executed it beautifully. Afterward she played the +last movement of Beethoven's Sonata in E flat major, but I wasn't +particularly struck with her conception of that. Then we had a pause, +and she urged me to play. I refused, for as I had been in Dresden a week +and had not practiced, I did not wish to sit down and not do myself +justice. My hand is so stiff, that as Tausig said of himself (though of +him I can hardly believe it), "When I haven't practiced for fourteen +days I can't do anything." The old Herr then said, "Now we'll have +something else;" and got up and went to the piano, and called the young +girls. He made three of them sing, one after the other, and they sang +very charmingly indeed. One of them he made improvise a _cadenza_, and a +second sang the alto to it without accompaniment. He was very proud of +that. He exercises his pupils in all sorts of ways, trains them to sing +any given tone, and "to skip up and down the ladder," as they call the +scale. + +After the master had finished with the singing, Fraeulein Wieck played +three more pieces, one of which was an exquisite arrangement by Liszt of +that song by Schumann, "_Du meine Seele_." She ended with a _gavotte_ by +Glueck, or as Papa Wieck would say, "This is a gavotte from one of +Glueck's operas, arranged by Brahms for the piano. To the superficial +observer the second movement will appear very easy, but in _my_ opinion +it is a very hard task to hit it exactly." I happened to know just how +the thing ought to be played, for I had heard it three times from Clara +Schumann herself. Fraeulein Wieck didn't please me at all in it, for she +took the second movement twice as quickly as the first. "Your sister +plays the second movement much slower," said I. "_So?_" said she, "I've +never heard it from her." She then asked, "So slow?" playing it slower. +"Still slower?" said she, beginning a third time, at my continual +disapproval. "_Streng im Tempo_ (in strict time)", said I, nodding my +head oracularly. "_Vaeterchen_." called she to the old Herr, "Miss Fay +says that Clara plays the second movement _so_ slow," showing him. I +don't know whether this correction made an impression, but he was then +_determined_ that I should play, and on my continued refusal he finally +said that he found it very strange that a young lady who had studied +more than two years in Tausig's and Kullak's conservatories shouldn't +have _one_ piece that she could play before people. This little fling +provoked me, so up I jumped, and saying to myself, "_Kopf in die Hoehe, +Brust heraus,--vorwaerts!_" (one of the military orders here), I marched +to the piano and played the fugue at the end of Beethoven's A flat +Sonata, Op. 110. They all sat round the room as still as so many statues +while I played, and you cannot imagine how dreadfully nervous I was. I +thought fifty times I would have to stop, for, like all fugues, it is +such a piece that if you once get out you never can get in again, and +Buelow himself got mixed up on the last part of it the other night in his +concert. But I got well through, notwithstanding, and the old master was +good enough to commend me warmly. He told me I must have studied a +great deal, and asked me if I hadn't played a great many _Etuden_. I +informed him in polite German "He'd better believe I had!" + +I should like to study with the Wiecks in my vacation next summer if +they would take me. Perhaps I may. They are considered somewhat +old-fashioned in their style, and I shouldn't wish to exchange Kullak +for them, but they are _such_ veterans that one could not help getting +many valuable ideas from them. Papa Wieck used to be Buelow's master +before he went to Liszt. + +Did I tell you how carried away with Buelow I was? He is magnificent, and +just between Rubinstein and Tausig. I am going to hear him again on +Saturday, and then I'll write you my full opinion about him. He is +famous for his playing of Beethoven, and I wish you could have heard the +Moonlight Sonata from him. One thing he does which is entirely peculiar +to himself. He runs all the movements of a sonata together, instead of +pausing between. It pleased me very much, as it gives a _unity_ of +effect, and seems to make each movement beget the succeeding one. + + +BERLIN, _May 30, 1872_. + +I wish L. were here studying piano with Kullak's son. He has one little +fairy of a scholar ten years old. Her name is Adele aus der Ohe--(isn't +that an old knightly name?)--and it is the most astonishing thing to +hear that child play! I heard her play a concerto of Beethoven's the +other day with orchestral accompaniment and a great cadenza by +Moscheles, absolutely _perfectly_. She never missed a note the whole way +through. I suppose she will become, like Mehlig, a great artist. But +perhaps, like her, she won't have a great conception, but will do +everything mechanically. One never can tell how these child-prodigies +will turn out.--Please don't form any exalted ideas of _my_ playing! I'm +a pretty stupid girl, and go forward slowly. I never expect to play as +Miss Mehlig does. If I can ever get up to Topp, I shall be satisfied. +You wouldn't believe how long it takes to get to be a virtuoso unless +you tried it. Mehlig, you know, studied steadily for ten years, under +the _best_ of teaching all the time, and she had probably more talent to +start with than I have. Miss V. and Mr. G. have been here _five_ years +studying steadily, and they are no farther than I am now. Not so far. It +makes all the difference in the world what kind of hand and wrist a +person has. Mine, you know, were pretty stiff, and then it is a great +disadvantage to begin studying after one is grown up. One ought to be +learning while the hand is forming. + +I am just now learning that A minor concerto of Schumann's that Topp +played at the Handel and Haydn Festival in Boston. The cadenza is tough, +I can tell you. That is the worst of these concertos. There is always a +grand cadenza where you must play all alone and "make a splurge." I +don't know how it feels to be left all at once without any support from +the orchestra. It is bad enough when Kullak lies back in his chair and +ceases accompanying me. He plays with me on two pianos, and I get so +excited that my wrists tremble. He is a magnificent pianist, and his +technique is perfect. There's nothing he can't do. Like all artists, he +is as capricious and exasperating as he can be, and, as the Germans say, +he is "_ein Mal im Himmel und das naechste Mal im Keller_ (one time in +heaven and the next time in the cellar)!" He has a deep rooted prejudice +against Americans, and never loses an opportunity to make a mean remark +about them, and though he has some remarkably gifted ones among his +scholars, he always insists upon it that the Americans have no real +talent. As far as I know anything about his conservatorium just now, his +_most_ talented scholars are Americans. There is a young fellow named +Sherwood, who is only seventeen years old, and he not only plays +splendidly but composes beautifully, also. In my own class Miss B. and I +are far ahead of all the others. Kullak will praise us very +enthusiastically, and then when some one plays particularly badly in the +class he will say to them, "Why, Fraeulein, you play exactly as if you +came from America." It makes Miss B. and me so indignant that we don't +know what to do. Of course we can't say anything, for he addresses this +remark in a lofty way to the whole class. Miss V. couldn't bear Kullak, +and the other day, when she and Mr. G. were taking leave of him to go to +America, she let him see it. He said to her, "And when shall I see you +again?" "_Never_," exclaimed she! We have only one way of revenging +ourselves, and that is when he gives us the choice of taking one of his +compositions or a piece by some one else, always to take the other +person's. For instance, he said to me, "Fraeulein, you can take +Schumann's concerto or _my_ concerto." I immediately got Schumann's. + +The other night I went to see a great ballet-dancer. Her name is +Fraeulein Grantzow, and she is the court dancer at St. Petersburg, where +I've heard that the ballet surpasses everything of the kind in the +world. This danseuse is a wonder, and they say there has never been such +dancing since the days of Fanny Ellsler. She has the figure of a Venus, +and the most expressive face imaginable. When she dances, it is not only +dancing, but a complete representation of character, for she plays a +role by her motions just the same as if she were an actress. I have seen +many a ballet, but I never conceived what an art dancing is before. I +saw her in "Esmeralda," a ballet which is arranged from Victor Hugo's +romance and modified for the stage. Fraeulein Grantzow took the part of +Esmeralda. In the first act a man is condemned to death, but is pardoned +on condition that one of the women present will promise to marry him. +The women, represented by about fifty ballet dancers, come up one after +the other, contemplate the poor victim, pirouette round him, and reject +him in turn with a gesture of contempt. At last Esmeralda (a gypsy) +comes dancing along, asks what is the matter, and on being told, has +compassion on the poor wretch, and promises to marry him in order to +save him from his fate. + +When the time came for Grantzow to appear, the crowd of dancers +suddenly divided, and she bounded out from the back of the stage. _Such_ +an apparition as she was! In the first place her toilettes surpassed +everything, and she appeared in a fresh dress in every act. In this +first one she had on a most dazzling shade of green gauze for her skirt. +From her waist fell a golden net-work, like a cestus, with little golden +tassels all round. She wore a little scarlet satin jacket all fringed +with gold coins, and a broad golden belt, pointed in front, clasped her +waist. On her head was a tiny scarlet cap, also fringed with coins, and +she had some golden bangles round her neck. In her hand was a tambourine +from which depended four knots of coloured ribbons with long ends. +Shaking her tambourine high in the air, out she sprang like a panther, +made one magnificent circuit all round the stage, and after executing an +immensely difficult _pas_ with perfect ease, she suddenly posed to the +audience in the most ravishing and impossible attitude and with the most +captivating grace conceivable. Anything like her _elan_, her _aplomb_, I +never saw. Such a daring creature! Well, I cannot tell you all the +things she did. She is a perfect Terpsichorean genius. All through the +first act she danced very slowly, merely to show her wonderful grace, +and the beauty and originality of her positions. She had a way of +folding her arms over her breast and dancing with a dreamy step that was +quite different from anybody else, and it produced an entrancing effect. +Through the second and third acts she made a regular crescendo, just to +display her technique and show what she could do. All the other dancers +seemed like blocks of wood in comparison with her.--Fraeulein Grantzow is +said to be between thirty-five and thirty-eight years old. As the papers +said, her art shows the perfection that only maturity can give. The men +are all crazy over her, as you may imagine, and she was showered with +bouquets as large as the top of a barrel. The play of her features was +as extraordinary as the play of her muscles. Her whole being seemed to +be the soul of motion. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + A Rising Organist. Kullak. Von Buelow's Playing. A Princely Funeral. + Wilhelmj's Concert. A Court Beauty. + + + BERLIN, _July 1, 1872_. + +Since I have been here X. has gradually developed into a great organ +player, and I fancy he is now one of the first organ virtuosi in the +world. His musical activity is immense, and I don't doubt he will be one +of the great musical authorities here by the time he is a few years +older. He is a good-hearted little demon, the incarnation of German dirt +and good humour, and he pretends to be desperately devoted to me. Last +Sunday he was at M.'s and went home with us afterward. Generally I go in +front with A. or Herr J. and let X. give his arm to M., but this time I +accorded him the honour of taking it myself. He is about a foot shorter +than I am, but he trotted along by my side in a state of high +satisfaction, and asked me what he should play at this concert. I told +him he might play the G Minor Prelude and Fugue, as I had just taken it, +"_but_," said I, "mind you play it well, for I shall study it very hard +during the next fortnight, and I shall know if you strike one false +note. I'll allow you six faults, but if you make one more I'll beat +you." This amused him highly, but he said, "It is a very complicated +fugue, and it isn't so easy to play it perfectly, with all the pedal +passages. What will you do for me if I come off without making _one_ +fault?" I told him there was plenty of time to think about that, and I +didn't believe he could. I have no doubt that he _will_ play it +magnificently, but I love to plague him. I wish that his department were +secular rather than church music, for if he were only a conductor of an +orchestra, or something of that sort, he could give me many a lift. He +doesn't dare play the piano any more since I played to him a few times. +He used nearly to kill me with his extemporizations, for he has no +memory, and so he always had to extemporize. I generally went off into a +secret convulsion of laughter when he went bang! bang! Donner and +Blitz!--splaying all over the key-board. It was the funniest thing I +ever heard, and when I heard him burst forth in such grand style on the +organ, I was perfectly amazed, and couldn't reconcile it with his piano +playing at all. He is a great reader, of course, and can transpose at +sight, and all that sort of thing. I've known him to play accompaniments +at sight in a great concert in the Dom and transpose them at the same +time! + +July 6.--You ask me why I gave up going to the Wiecks in Dresden this +summer.--Because they make everybody begin at the very beginning of +their system and go through it before they give them a piece, and at my +stage of progress that would be losing time. They think nobody can teach +touch but themselves, but Kullak is a much greater musician, and I +should not be willing to exchange him for Fraeulein Wieck, who does not +begin to equal him in reputation. Much as Kullak enrages me, I have to +admit that he is a great master, and that he is thoroughly capable of +developing artistic talent to the utmost. He makes Miss B. so provoked +that she had very strong thoughts of going to Stuttgardt. The Stuttgardt +conservatorium is so crowded that it is very difficult to get admission. +Lebert (Mehlig's master,) sent word on her writing to enquire, that he +would only take her on condition that she brought him a letter from +Kullak authorizing her leaving him, as Kullak was a personal friend of +his own, and so great an artist, that only the most important reasons +could justify her giving up his instructions! Of course that put the +stopper on any such movement. + +I've always forgotten to describe Buelow's playing to you, and it is now +so long since I heard him that my impressions of it are not so vivid. He +has the most forcible style I ever heard, and phrases wonderfully. It is +like looking through a stereoscope to hear him. All the points of a +piece seem to start out vividly before you. He makes me think of +Gottschalk a little, for he is full of his airs. His expression is proud +and supercilious to the last degree, and he looks all round at his +audience when he is playing. He always has two grand pianos on the +stage, one facing one way, and one the other, and he plays alternately +on both. His face seems to say to his audience, "You're all cats and +dogs, and I don't care what you think of my playing." Sometimes a look +of infinite humour comes over it, when he is playing a rondo or anything +gay. It is very funny. He has remarkable magnetic power, and you feel +that you are under the sway of a tremendous will. Many persons find +fault with his playing, because they say it is pure intellect (_der +reine Verstand_) but I think he has too much passion to be called purely +intellectual. Still, it is always passion controlled. Beethoven has been +the grand study of his life, and he plays his sonatas as no one else +does. + +If he goes to America next winter, you _must_ hear him thoroughly, +_coute que coute_. So I advise you to be saving up your pennies, and be +sure to get a place near the piano so that you can see his face, for it +is a study. I always sit in the second or third row here. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _October 27, 1872_. + +This week has been quite an eventful one. It began on Monday with the +funeral of Prince Albrecht, the youngest brother of the Emperor, and it +was a very imposing spectacle. I was in hopes that Mr. B. would send me +a card of admission to the Dom, where the services were to be held, but +as he didn't, I was obliged to content myself with a sight of the +procession and general arrangement outside. I took my stand on a wagon +with H., and we got an excellent view. There was a roadway built of wood +from the royal Castle to the Dom, carpeted with black, over which the +procession was to pass. We waited about an hour before it came along, +but we were pretty well amused by the gorgeous equipages and liveries of +the different diplomatic corps which dashed past. + +We were on the opposite side of the canal which separated us from the +square in front of the Dom. On the right of the Dom is the Castle, and +the Museum is on the left. All this square was surrounded by military, +for as Prince Albrecht was a Field-Marshal, the funeral had a military +character. They were beautifully arranged, the cavalry on one side and +the infantry on the other, and the different uniforms were contrasted +with each other so as to make the best effects in colour. Both horses +and men stood as if they were carved out of marble, with the greatest +precision of position. A little before eleven the royal carriages rolled +past from the palace to the Castle, with their occupants. Presently the +bells began to toll, and exactly at eleven the procession started. The +Gardes du Corps, which is the Crown Prince's regiment, preceded the +coffin, dressed in white and silver uniforms, with glittering brass +helmets surmounted by silver eagles. The coffin itself was borne on a +catafalque, and drawn by eight horses covered with black velvet +trappings. It was yellow, and was surmounted by a crown of gold. On it +was laid the Prince's sword, helmet, etc., and some flowers. I was too +far away to distinguish the personages that followed. Of course the +Emperor was nearest, and all were on foot. Behind the coffin the +Prince's favorite horse was led, saddled and bridled. All the servants +of his household walked together in silver liveries and with large +triangular hats with long bands of crape hanging down behind. The band +played a chorale, "Jesus, my Refuge," and the bells kept tolling all the +while. At the door of the Dom, the procession was received by the +clergy officiating. The coffin was so heavy that it was rolled down a +platform of boards put up for the purpose. Then it was lifted by sixteen +bearers, the glittering cortege closed round it, and they all swept it +at the open portal. + +We waited until the end of the service, as it was a short one, in order +to hear the eight rounds of firing by the artillery. It was interesting +to see how exactly they all fired the instant the signal was given. +First the musketry on one side, and then the musketry on the other, in +answer to it. The officers galloped and curveted about on their fiery +steeds, and finally, the cannon went boom--boom. The sharp crack of the +rifles made you start, but the sullen roar of the cannon made you +shudder. It gave you some idea of a battle. + +Tuesday night I went to a concert given by a new star in the musical +world, a young violinist named Wilhelmj. He is only twenty-six years +old, and is already said to be one of the greatest virtuosi living, +perhaps _the_ greatest of the romantic school, for Joachim belongs to +the severe classic. All the artists and critics and many of the +aristocracy turned out to hear him. It was his first appearance in +Berlin, and as I looked round the audience and picked out one great +musician after another, I fairly trembled for him. Joachim and de Ahna +were both present, among others, and my adorable Baroness von S. swept +in late, looking more exquisite than ever in black lace over black silk, +with jet ornaments, and her lovely hair curled and done up high on her +aristocratic little head. She was all in mourning for the Prince, even +to a black lace fan with which she occasionally shaded her eyes, so that +her peach-bloomy cheek was just to be discerned through it. She is a +charming pianist herself, I've heard, and is a great patroness of music +and musicians, especially of the "music of the future," and its +creators. I see her at all the concerts. When her face is in perfect +repose she has the most charming expression and a sort of celestial look +in her deep-set blue eyes. She is what the French call _spirituelle_, +and the Germans _geistreich_, but we've no word in our language that +just describes her. + +Well, as I was saying, my head got quite dizzy with thinking what a +trial it was to play before such an audience, but Wilhelmj seemed to +differ from me, for he came confidently down the steps with the +dignified self-poise of an artist who is master of his instrument, and +who knows what he can do. He is extremely handsome, with regular +features, massive overhanging forehead, and with an expression of power +and self-containment. He looked a perfect picture as he stood there so +quietly and played. He hadn't gone far before he made a brilliant +cadenza that took down the house, and there was a general burst of +applause. His _tone_ (which is the grand thing in violin-playing) was +magnificent, and his technique masterly. He didn't play with that +tenderness of feeling and wonderful variety of expression that Joachim +does, but it was as if he didn't care to affect people in that way. It +made me think of Tausig on the piano. He played with the greatest +intensity and _aplomb_, and the strings seemed actually to seethe. +People were taken by storm. The second piece was a concerto by Raff. +Wilhelmj was in the midst of the Andante, and was sawing our hearts with +every saw of his bow, when suddenly a string snapped under the strain of +his passionate fingers. He instantly ceased playing, and retired up the +steps to the back of the stage to put on another string. Unfortunately +he had not brought along an extra one in his pocket, and had to borrow +one from one of the orchestra. Weitzmann, who in his youth was himself +an eminent concert violinist, was amazed at Wilhelmj's temerity. "What +_rashness_," exclaimed he, "and the G string, too!" (one of the most +important). After a pause Wilhelmj came down and began again, but the +string was so out of tune that he retired a second time. He must have +been furious inwardly, one would think, and at his _Berlin_ debut, too! +but he came down the third time with the utmost imperturbability, and +got through the concerto. The whole effect of the concert was spoiled, +though, and he had also to change the solos he had intended playing, so +as to avoid the G string as much as possible. Instead of the lovely +Chopin Nocturne in D flat (his own arrangement), he played an Aria by +Bach. He did it so wonderfully that I was really startled.--I never +shall forget the _nuances_ he put into his trill. But at his second +concert, where he _did_ give the Nocturne, it was evident that the +romantic is his great forte, and on a first appearance, and before his +large and critical audience, he should have been heard in that +_genre_.[D] + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + The Boston Fire. Aggravations of Music Study. Kullak. Sherwood. + Hoch Schule. A Brilliant American. German Dancing. + + +BERLIN, _November 24, 1872_. + +All the papers over here have been ringing with the Boston fire, the +horse pestilence, shipwrecks, explosions, etc., until I feel as if all +America were going to the bad. What an awful calamity that fire is! I +can't take it in at all. All the Germans are wondering what our fire +companies are made of that such conflagrations _can_ take place. They +say it would be an impossibility _here_, where the organization is so +perfect. The men are trained to the work for years, and are on the spot +in a twinkling, knowing just what to do. They are as fully convinced of +their super-excellence in the Fire Department as in every other, and +nothing can make them believe that if two or three of their little +fire-engines had been there, and worked by _their_ firemen, the Chicago +and Boston fires could not have been put out! You know their machines +are pumped by _hand_, too, instead of by steam, as ours are, which makes +the assumption all the more ludicrous. It reminds me of a German party I +was at once, where our war was the subject of conversation. "Oh, you +don't know anything about fighting over there," said one gentleman, +nodding at me patronizingly across the table. "If you had had two or +three of _our_ regiments, with one of _our_ generals, your war would +have been finished up in no time!" + +I've had _such_ a vexation to-day that I'm really quite beside myself! I +was to play the first movement of my Rubinstein Concerto in the +conservatory with the orchestra. I've been straining every nerve over it +for several weeks, practicing incessantly, and had learned it perfectly. +When I played it in the class the other day it went beautifully, and I +think even Kullak was satisfied. Well, of course I was anticipating +playing it with the orchestra before an audience, with much pleasure, +and hoped I was going to distinguish myself. Music-director Wuerst and +Franz Kullak always take charge of these orchestra lessons, sometimes +one directing and sometimes the other. I got up early this morning, and +practiced an hour and a half before I went to the conservatory, and I +was there the first of all who were to play concertos. I spoke to Wuerst +and told him what I was to play, and he said "All right." Wouldn't you +have thought now, that he would have let me play first? Not a bit of it. +He first heard the orchestra play a stupid symphony of Haydn's, which +they might just as well have left out. Then he began screaming out to +know if Herr Moszkowski was there? Herr Moszkowski, however, was _not_ +there, and I began to breathe freer, for he is a finished artist, and +has been studying with Kullak for years, and plays in concerts. Of +course if he had played first, it would have been doubly hard for me to +muster up my courage, and you would have thought that Wuerst would have +taken that into consideration. As Moszkowski was absent, I thought I +certainly should be called up next, but another girl received the +preference. She played extremely well, and Wuerst paid her his +compliments, and then took his departure, leaving Franz Kullak to +conduct. Then one of my class played Beethoven's G major concerto most +wretchedly. Poor creature, she was nervous and frightened, and couldn't +do herself any sort of justice. At last it was over, and at last Franz +Kullak sung out, "We will now have Rubinstein's concerto in D minor." + +I got up, went to the piano, wiped off the keys, which were completely +_wet_ from the nervous fingers of those who had preceded me, and was +just going to sit down, when a young fellow approached from the other +side with the same intention. "O, Fraeulein Fay, you have the same +concerto? Very well, you can play it the _next_ time. To-day Herr +So-and-So plays it!" Now, did you ever know anything so provoking? I +hoped at least that the young fellow would play it well, and that I +should learn something, but he perfectly _murdered_ it, and there I had +to sit through it all, with the piece tingling at my fingers ends--and +now there's no knowing _when_ I shall play it, as the orchestra lessons +are so seldom and so uncertain. I hope there will be one two weeks from +to-day, but even so I probably shan't do half so well as I should have +done to-day, for the freshness will be all out of the piece, and I've +practiced it so much _now_ that I hate the sound of it, and can't bear +to waste any more time over it. Such is life! I thought this time that I +had taken every precaution to ensure success, for I had risen early +every day, and eaten no end of the "bread of carefulness," and the +result is--nothing at all! Not even a failure. It is the more to be +regretted as to-day was the first Sunday of the month, and I wanted to +go to church, especially as the bad weather kept me at home for two +Sundays. However, I'm determined I _will_ play the concerto _yet_, if I +stake "_Kopf und Kragen_ (head and collar)" on it, as the Germans +say.--But oh, the difficulty of doing _anything_ at all in this world! + +December 18, 1872.--_At last_ I played my Rubinstein concerto a week ago +Sunday with the orchestra, and had the pleasure of being told by +Scharwenka that I had had a brilliant success. Franz Kullak said that my +octave passages were superbly played, and Moszkowski (who, to my +surprise, was playing first violin) applauded. So I was complimented by +the three of whom I stood most in awe. Scharwenka and Moszkowski are +both finished artists and exquisite composers, and play a great deal in +concerts this winter. Scharwenka is very handsome. He is a Pole, and is +very proud of his nationality. And, indeed, there _is_ something +interesting and romantic about being a Pole. The very name conjures up +thoughts of revolutions, conspiracies, bloody executions, masked balls, +and, of _course_, grace, wit and beauty! Scharwenka certainly sustains +the traditions of his race as far as the latter qualification is +concerned. I never talked with him, as I have but a bowing acquaintance +with him, so I don't know what sort of a _mind_ he has, but I find +myself looking at him and saying to myself with a certain degree of +satisfaction, "He is a Pole." Why I should have this feeling I know not, +but I seem to be proud of knowing Poles!--Scharwenka has a clear olive +complexion, oval face, hazel eyes (I _think_) and a mass of brown silky +hair which he wears long, and which falls about his head in a most +picturesque and attractive fashion. He always presides over the piano at +the orchestral lessons in the conservatory on Sunday mornings, and +supplies those parts which are wanting. When concertos are performed he +accompanies. He has a delightful serenity of manner, and sits there with +quiet dignity, his back to the windows, and the light striking through +his fluffy hair. He plays beautifully, and composes after Chopin's +manner. Perhaps he will do greater things and develop a style of his own +by and by. Every winter he gives a concert in Berlin in the +Sing-Akademie. + +By the way, I would not advise your paying any attention to what G. says +about music. She is incapable of forming a correct judgment on the +subject, and she used to provoke me to death with her ignorant and +sweeping criticisms. I continually set her right, but to hear her go on +about music and musicians is much like hearing S. R. and the M. crowd +talk about art. What _can_ be easier or more absurd, than to set +yourself up and say that "nobody satisfies you." _Stuff!_--As for +Kullak, I think a master must be judged by the number of players he +turns out. In the two years that I have studied with him he has formed +six or eight artists to my knowledge, beside no end of pupils who play +extremely well. People come to him from all over the world, and as an +artist himself he ranks first class. + +I must tell you about a new acquaintance I've just made, a Mr. P., a +Harvard man, very fascinating, very brilliant, a great swell, and the +most perfect _dancer_ I ever saw. I first met this phoenix at a +dinner, when he fairly sparkled. He seemed to have the history of all +countries at his tongue's end, and went through revolutions and reigns +in the most rapid way. We had an animated discussion over the Germans, +whom he loathes and despises, and he brought up all the historical +events he could to justify his disgust. I was on the defensive, of +course. "They've no _delicacy_," said P., in his emphatic way, and I had +to give in there. Indeed, I can imagine that to a fastidious creature +like him, imbued, too, with all the Southern chivalry, the Germans would +be startling, to say the least. "Why," he cried, "they help you at table +with their own forks after they've been eating with them! What do you +think my host did to-day? He took a piece of meat that he had begun to +eat, from _his own plate!_ and put it on to mine with _his own fork!!_ +saying, 'Try this, this is a good piece!'--His intentions were +excellent, but it never occurred to him that I shouldn't be delighted to +eat after him."--P. can't bear it when the waiters at the restaurants +pretend to think him a lord and address him as "Herr Graf." "I'll teach +them to _Herr Graf_ me," he said between his teeth, lowering his head, +his eyes flashing dangerous fire. But it is quite likely that they do +suppose him a lord, for he looks it, "every inch." + +I met him again at a reception, and was having a most charming +conversation with him about Goethe, whom he was dissecting in his keen +way, when in came Mr. and Mrs. N. I knew at once that there was an end +of our delightful talk, for though Mrs. N. has a most fascinating and +high-bred husband herself, and is, moreover, extremely jealous of him, +she is never content unless the most agreeable man in the room is +devoted to her, also. Sure enough, she came straight toward us, and took +occasion to whisper some senseless thing in my ear. Of course Mr. P. had +to offer her his seat. She was, however, not quite bare-faced enough to +take it, but she had succeeded in breaking the tete-a-tete and in +distracting his attention. Soon after another gentleman came up to speak +to me, Mr. P. bowed, and for the rest of the evening he was pinned to +Mrs. N.'s side. Such are the satisfactions of parties! Either one does +not meet any one worth talking to, or the conversation is sure to be +interrupted. It takes these women of the world, like Mrs. N., to get the +plums out of the pudding. + +However, seeing him dance gave me almost as much pleasure as talking +with him. He has this air of having danced millions of Germans, and is +grace and elegance incarnate. Just at the end of the party, he asked me +for a turn, and we took three long ones. I never enjoyed dancing so +much. He manages to annihilate his legs entirely, and his arm, though +strong, is so light that you feel yourself borne along like a bubble, +and are only conscious that you are sustained and guided. He inspired me +so that I danced really well, but when he complimented me, I basely +refrained from letting him know it was all owing to him! By a funny +coincidence he is the son of that elegant Mrs. P. who was on the steamer +with me, and his father is very prominent in politics. I remember +perfectly the pride with which Mrs. P. spoke to me of this son, and how +slightly interested I was. He accompanied her to the steamer, and in +fact the first time I saw her was when Mr. T., who was standing by me on +the deck, said, "That was a _mother's_ kiss," as she rapturously +embraced him on taking leave. I didn't notice Mr. P. at all, though he +says he remembers me perfectly standing there. He is going, or has gone, +to Russia, and from there he will rejoin his family in Paris. That is +the worst of being abroad. Charming people pass over your path like +comets and disappear never to be seen again. + +By the way, I now feel equal to anything in the shape of a German dance. +Perhaps that may seem to you a trifling statement; but little do you +know on the subject if it does. If you've ever read "Fitz Boodle's +Confessions," you will remember that he represents the German dancing as +a thing fearful and wonderful to the inexperienced, and how the match +between him and Dorothea was broken off by his falling with her during +the waltz, and rolling over and over. Here _everybody_ dances, old and +young, and you'll see fat old married ladies waddle off with their gray +and spindle-shanked husbands. Declining doesn't help you in the least, +and you are liable to be whisked off without notice by some old fellow +who revolves with you like lightning on the tips of his toes, his +coat-tails flying at an angle of considerably _more_ than forty-five +degrees. Reversing is unknown, and consequently you see the room go +spinning round with you. + +I always thought, though, that if one _could_ take their steps, it might +be pretty good fun. So, after a pause of three years, I finally +concluded this winter to go to some German balls and try it again. The +first one I attended was an artists' ball. There was first a little +concert (at which I played), then a supper at ten o'clock, and then the +dancing began. The dancing cards were handed round at supper, and my +various acquaintances came up to ask me for different dances. The first +one asked me for the Polonaise. "Delighted!" said I;--not that I had the +remotest idea what a "polonaise" was, but I was determined not to +flinch. The second engaged me for the "Quadrille a la Cour," and the +third for the "Rheinlaender," etc., etc. I assented to everything with +outward alacrity, but with some inward trepidation, for I thought it +rather a bold stroke to get up at a large ball and attempt to dance a +string of things I had never heard of! However, I was in luck. The +Polonaise turned out to be merely walking, but in different figures, and +this, before the conclusion of it, makes you continually change partners +until you have promenaded and spoken with every one of the opposite sex +in the room. This is to get the whole party acquainted. When you finally +get back to your own partner, it breaks up with a waltz, and so ends. + +My partner was a young artist, half painter, half musician, and a very +intelligent and in fact charming talker. Like most artists, his dress +was rather at sixes and sevens. He had on a swallow-tailed coat, but it +did not fit him, so I conclude it was borrowed or hired for the +occasion. It was so wide, and so long, that when I saw him dancing with +some one else, I thought I must have made a laughable figure with him, +for he was small into the bargain. However, he had that sunny, +happy-go-lucky way about him that all artists have when they're in good +humour, and he was a capital dancer. When I came back to him at the end +of the Polonaise I started off with a mental "Now for it," for the waltz +was the thing I was most afraid of; but to my surprise, I got on most +beautifully. Emboldened by success, I went on recklessly. "Rheinlaender" +turned out to be the schottisch, and "Quadrille a la Cour" the lancers, +so I was all right. They had to be danced in the German sense of the +word, of course, but with courage it is possible to do it. Since this +ball I have been to two others, and am now pronounced by the gentlemen +to be a finished dancer. I don't know how I learned, but it seemed to +come to me with a sudden inspiration. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + A German Professor. Sherwood. The Baroness von S. Von Buelow. A + German Party. Joachim. The Baroness at Home. + + + BERLIN, _February 25, 1873_. + +At Mr. P.'s we had a charming dinner the other day, which was as +sociable as possible, though we sat thirteen at table. Think what an +oversight! I believe though, that I was the only one who perceived it. I +sat next to a German professor, who is said to speak sixty-four +languages! He had a little compact head, which looked as if it were +stuffed and crammed to the utmost. I reflected a long time which of his +sixty-four languages I should start him on, but finally concluded that +as I spoke English with tolerable fluency we would confine ourselves to +that! He was perfectly delightful to talk to, as all these German +_savans_ are, and I got a lot of new ideas from him. He had been writing +a pamphlet on the subject of love, as considered in various ancient and +modern languages, and in it he proves that the passion of love used to +be quite a different thing from what it is now. All this ideality of +sentiment is entirely modern. + +My friend Miss B. is playing exquisitely now, and Sherwood is going +ahead like a young giant. To-day Kullak said that Sherwood played +Beethoven's E flat major concerto (the hardest of all Beethoven's +concertos) with a perfection that he had rarely heard equalled. So much +for being a genius, for he is still under twenty, and has only been +abroad a year or two. But he studied with our best American master, +William Mason, and played like an artist before he came. But, then, +Sherwood has one enormous advantage that no master on earth can bestow, +and that is, perfect confidence in himself. There's nothing like having +faith in yourself, and I believe _that_ is the kind of faith that "moves +mountains." + +At Mr. Bancroft's grand party for Washington's birthday, last Friday, he +presented me to the Baroness von S., but without telling her that I was +the person who wrote that letter about her and Wilhelmj that M. +published without my knowledge in _Dwight's Journal_. She was as +exquisite as I thought she would be, and is the most bewitching +creature! She is just such a woman as Balzac describes--like Honorine, +for instance. She has "_l'oeil plein de feu_," etc., and is grace and +sentiment personified. + +She was dressed in white silk, cut square neck and trimmed with a lot of +little box-plaited ruffles round the bottom. Round her throat was a +black velvet ribbon, with a necklace of magnificent pearls fastened to +it in festoons and a diamond pendant in the middle. She greeted me with +a ceremonious bow, and began the conversation by complimenting me on an +accompaniment I had been playing. I told her I was studying music here, +and that I had been in Tausig's conservatory a year. As soon as I +mentioned him we got on delightfully, for she was his favourite pupil, +and we talked a good deal about him and Buelow. She said she had heard +Tausig play everything he ever learned, she thought, and that only a +fortnight before his death, he was at her house and played Chopin's +first Sonata. The last movement comes after the well-known Funeral March +(which forms the Adagio) and is very peculiar. It is a continual running +movement with both hands in unison, and it is played all muffled, and +with the soft pedal. Kullak thinks that Chopin meant to express that +after the grave all is dust and ashes, but the Baroness said that Tausig +thought Chopin meant to represent by it the ghost of the departed +wandering about. On this occasion, when Tausig had finished playing it, +he turned and said to her, "That seems to me like the wind blowing over +my grave." A fortnight later he was dead! I asked her if it were not +dreadful that such an artist should have died so young. The most pained +look came into her beautiful eyes, and she said, "I have _never_ been +able to reconcile myself to it." + +The conversation continued in the most charming manner until von Moltke +came up to speak to her on one side and Mr. Bancroft on the other +offered his arm to lead her into the supper-room. "Did you tell her?" +whispered Mr. Bancroft. "No; how could I?" said I. "_You_ ought to tell +her." So I imagine he did tell her, as they went into supper, that I was +the young lady who had described her in the paper. I did not have a +chance to approach her again until just as I was going home. She was +standing in the door-way of an ante-room with Mr. Bancroft, wrapped in +her opera cloak and waiting for her carriage to be announced. I bade Mr. +Bancroft good-night, and as I passed her she put out her hand and said +to me with a meaning look, in her little hesitating English, "I am so +happy to have met you." I told her I owed her an apology, which I hoped +to make another time. "Oh, no," said she, smilingly, "I am very +thankful."--I suppose she meant "very much flattered," or something of +that kind. + +I heard two tremendous concerts of Buelow's lately. Oh, I do hope you'll +hear him some day! He is a colossal artist. I never heard a pianist I +liked so well. He has such perfect mastery, and yet such comprehension +and such sympathy. Among other things, he played Beethoven's last +Sonata. Such a magnificent one as it is! I liked it better than the +Appassionata. + +The other night I went to a party at a General von der G.'s. It was a +"dreadfully" elegant set of people--all countesses, Vons and generals' +wives. Stiff, oh, _how_ stiff! I felt as if the ladies did me a personal +favor every time they spoke to me. They were very handsomely dressed, +and wore their family jewels. There was a great deal of music, and a +certain old Herr von K. sat on a sofa and nodded his head _a la_ +connoisseur, while the officers stood round and scarcely dared to wink. +The formality did not abate till we adjourned to the supper-room, when, +as is always the case in German parties, everybody's tongue suddenly +became loosed.--Germans are the happiest people _at_ supper, and the +most wretched before it, that you ever saw. Their parties are _always_ +"just so." So many hours of propriety beforehand,--the ladies all by +themselves round a centre-table in one room, the young girls discreetly +sandwiched in between with their embroidery, and talking on the most +limited subjects in the most "papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism" +manner--and the men in the other room playing cards. On this occasion, +when we went into supper, there was one large central table covered with +the feast, and then there were little tables standing about, whither you +could retire with your prey when you had once secured it. I got +something, and betook myself to a table in the corner, whither a young +artist, also Miss B. and an officer, the son of the celebrated General +von W., who won the battle of something, speedily followed me. The +artist, Herr Meyer, sat opposite me, and I began to jabber with him, +unmindful of the officer, as I had previously tried him on every subject +in the known world without being able to extract a reply. We gradually +collected a miscellaneous array of plates full of things, when I dropped +one of my spoons on the floor. I picked it up, laid it aside, and began +eating out of one of my other plates. Presently the officer, who had +been glaring at me all the while out of his uniform, rose solemnly and +went to the centre-table and returned. Suddenly I became aware, by my +light being obscured, that he was standing opposite me on the other side +of the table. I glanced up, and remarked that he had a spoon in his +thumb and finger. As he did not offer it, however, it did not occur to +me that it was for me, so I went on eating. After a minute I looked up +again, and he was still standing as if he were pointing a gun, the spoon +between thumb and finger. At last it dawned upon me that he had brought +it for me, so I took it out of his hand and thanked him, whereupon he +resumed his seat. I was so overcome by this unheard-of act of gallantry +on the part of an aristocrat! and an officer!! that I felt I must say +something worthy of the occasion. So after a few minutes I remarked to +him, "Everything tastes very sweet out of _this_ spoon!"--Total silence +and impassibility of countenance on his part.--Miss B., who was sitting +opposite, remarked mischievously, "That was entirely lost, my dear," and +I was so depressed by my failure that I subsided and did not try to +kindle him again. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _April 14, 1873_. + +Colonel B. told me some weeks ago, that Kullak had told him I was ready +for the concert room, and that he would like to have me play at court. +If this is his real opinion _I_ have no evidence of it, for he knows I +am anxious to play in concert before I leave Germany, and yet he does +nothing whatever to bring me forward. It is very discouraging. In this +conservatory there is no stimulus whatever. One might as well be a +machine. + +I propose to go to Weimar the last of this week. It seems very strange +that I shall actually know Liszt at last, after hearing of him so many +years. I am wild to see him! They say everything depends upon the humour +he happens to be in when you come to him. I hope I shall hit upon one +of his indulgent moments. Every one says he gives no lessons. But I hope +at least to play to him a few times, and what is more important, to hear +_him_ play repeatedly. Happy the pianist who can catch even a faint +reflection of his wonderful style! + +Not long ago Mr. Bancroft invited me to drive out to Tegel, Humboldt's +country-seat, near here, with the Joachims, and so I had a three hours +conversation with _that_ idol! He is the most modest, unpretending man +possible. To hear him talk you wouldn't suppose he could play at all. +I've always said to myself that if anything would be heaven, it would be +to play a sonata with Joachim, but have supposed such a thing to be +unattainable--these master-artists are so proud and unapproachable. But +I think now it might not have been so difficult after all, he is so +lovely. Joachim was very quiet during the first part of the excursion, +and I couldn't think how I could get him to talk. At last I mentioned +Wagner, whom I knew he hated. His eyes kindled, and he roused up, and +after that was animated and interesting all the rest of the time! He +said that "Wagner was under the delusion that he was the only man in the +world that understood Beethoven; but it happened there _were_ other +people who could comprehend Beethoven as well as he,"--and indeed, it is +difficult to conceive of any one understanding Beethoven any better than +Joachim. + +Joachim is quite as noble and generous to poor artists as Liszt is, and +constantly teaches them for nothing. He has the greatest enthusiasm for +his class in the Hoch Schule, and I shouldn't think that any one who +wishes to study the violin would _think_ of going any where else. They +say that Joachim possesses beautiful social qualities, also, and has the +faculty of entertaining in his own house charmingly. He brings out what +there is in every one without apparently saying anything himself. + +The Baroness von S. had seemed so cordial and friendly at Mr. Bancroft's +on account of the letter you had published in _Dwight's Journal of +Music_, that I finally made up my mind to the daring act of calling on +her in order to ask her for a letter of introduction to Liszt. She lives +in a palace belonging to the Empress. There is a deep court in front of +it, with lions on the gateway. Before the door stood a soldier on guard. +As I approached, one of the Gardes du Corps (the Crown Prince's +regiment) emerged from the entrance. He was dressed all in white and +silver, with big top boots, and his helmet surmounted by a silver eagle. +He was an officer, and of course all the officers in this regiment +belong to the flower of the nobility. I was rather awed by his imposing +appearance, and advanced timidly to the doors, which were of glass, and +pulled the bell. A tall phantom in livery appeared, as if by magic, and +signed to me to ascend the grand staircase. The walls of it were all +covered with pictures. I went up, and was received by another tall +phantom in livery. I asked him "if the Frau Excellency was to be +spoken." He took my card, and discreetly said, "he would see," at the +same time ushering me into an immense ball-room, where he requested me +to be seated. It was furnished in crimson satin, there were myriads of +mirrors, and the floor was waxed. I took refuge in a corner of it, +feeling very small indeed. Those few minutes of waiting were extremely +uncomfortable, for I didn't know what she would say to my request, as I +had only seen her that one time at Mr. Bancroft's, and was not sure that +she would not regard my coming as a liberty. People are so severe in +their ideas here. + +At last the servant returned and said she would receive me, and led the +way across the ball-room to a door which he opened for me to enter. I +found myself in a large, high room, also furnished in crimson, and in +the centre of which stood two pianos nestled lovingly together. The +Baroness was not there, however, and I saw what seemed to be an endless +succession of rooms opening one out of the other, the doors always +opposite each other. I concluded to "go on till I stopped," and after +traversing three or four, I at last heard a faint murmur of voices, and +entered what I suppose is her _boudoir_. There my divinity was seated in +a little crimson satin sofa, talking to an old fellow who sat on a chair +near her, whom she introduced as Herr Professor Somebody. He had a +small, well-stuffed head, and a pale, observant eye that seemed to say, +"I've looked into everything"--and I should think it _had_ by the way he +conversed. + +The Baroness was attired in an olive-coloured silk, short, and +fashionably made. She was leaning forward as she talked, and toying with +a silver-sheathed dagger which she took from a table loaded with costly +trifles next her. She rose as I came in, and greeted me very cordially, +and asked me to sit down on the sofa by her. I explained to her my +errand, and she immediately said she would give me a letter with the +greatest pleasure. We had a very charming conversation about artists in +general, and Liszt in particular, in which the little professor took a +leading part. He showed himself the connoisseur he looked, and gradually +diverged from the art of music to that of speaking and reading, which he +said was the most difficult of all the arts, because the tone was not +there, but had to be made. He said he had never heard a perfect speaker +or reader in his life. He descanted at great length upon the art of +speaking, and finally, when he paused, the Baroness took my hand and +said, "Where do you live?" I gave her my address, and she said she would +send me the letter. I then rose to go, and she assured me again she +would say all she could to dispose Liszt favourably towards me. I +thanked her, and said good-bye. She waited till I was nearly half across +the next room, and then she called after me, "I'll say lots of pretty +things about you!" That was a real little piece of coquetry on her part, +and she knew that it would take me down! She looked so sweet when she +said it, standing and smiling there in the middle of the floor, the +door-way making a frame for her. A few days afterward I met her in the +street, and she told me she had enjoined it upon Liszt to be amiable to +me, "but," she added, with a mischievous laugh, "I didn't tell him you +wrote so well for the papers." Oh, she is too fascinating for +anything!--She seems just to float on the top of the wave and never to +think. Such exquisite perception and intelligence, and yet lightness! + +The last excitement in Berlin was over the wedding of Prince Albrecht +(the son of the one whose funeral I saw) with the Princess of Altenburg. +When she arrived she made a regular entry into the city in a coach all +gold and glass, drawn by eight superb plumed horses. A band of music +went before her, and she had an escort all in grand equipages. As she +sat on the back seat with the Crown Princess, magnificently dressed, and +bowing from side to side, you rubbed your eyes and thought you saw +Cinderella! + + + + +WITH LISZT. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Arrives in Weimar. Liszt at the Theatre. At a Party. At his own + House. + + + WEIMAR, _May 1, 1873_. + +Last night I arrived in Weimar, and this evening I have been to the +theatre, which is very cheap here, and the first person I saw, sitting +in a box opposite, was Liszt, from whom, as you know, I am bent on +getting lessons, though it will be a difficult thing I fear, as I am +told that Weimar is overcrowded with people who are on the same errand. +I recognized Liszt from his portrait, and it entertained and interested +me very much to observe him. He was making himself agreeable to three +ladies, one of whom was very pretty. He sat with his back to the stage, +not paying the least attention, apparently, to the play, for he kept +talking all the while himself, and yet no point of it escaped him, as I +could tell by his expression and gestures. + +Liszt is the most interesting and striking looking man imaginable. Tall +and slight, with deep-set eyes, shaggy eyebrows, and long iron-gray +hair, which he wears parted in the middle. His mouth turns up at the +corners, which gives him a most crafty and Mephistophelean expression +when he smiles, and his whole appearance and manner have a sort of +Jesuitical elegance and ease. His hands are very narrow, with long and +slender fingers that look as if they had twice as many joints as other +people's. They are so flexible and supple that it makes you nervous to +look at them. Anything like the polish of his manner I never saw. When +he got up to leave the box, for instance, after his adieux to the +ladies, he laid his hand on his heart and made his final bow,--not with +affectation, or in mere gallantry, but with a quiet courtliness which +made you feel that no other way of bowing to a lady was right or proper. +It was most characteristic. + +But the most extraordinary thing about Liszt is his wonderful variety of +expression and play of feature. One moment his face will look dreamy, +shadowy, tragic. The next he will be insinuating, amiable, ironical, +sardonic; but always the same captivating grace of manner. He is a +perfect study. I cannot imagine how he must look when he is playing. He +is all spirit, but half the time, at least, a mocking spirit, I should +say. I have heard the most remarkable stories about him already. All +Weimar adores him, and people say that women still go perfectly crazy +over him. When he walks out he bows to everybody just like a King! The +Grand Duke has presented him with a house beautifully situated on the +park, and here he lives elegantly, free of expense, whenever he chooses +to come to it. + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _May 7, 1873_. + +There isn't a piano to be had in Weimar for love or money, as there is +no manufactory, and the few there were to be disposed of were snatched +up before I got here. So I have lost an entire week in hunting one up, +and was obliged to go first to Erfurt and finally to Leipsic, before I +could find one--and even that was sent over as a favour after much +coaxing and persuasion. I felt so happy when I fairly saw it in my room! +As if I had taken a city! However, I met Liszt two evenings ago at a +little tea-party given by a friend and _protegee_ of his to as many of +his scholars as have arrived, I being asked with the rest. Liszt +promised to come late. We only numbered seven. There were three young +men and four young ladies, of whom three, including myself, were +Americans. Five of the number had studied with Liszt before, and the +young men are artists already before the public. + +To fill up the time till Liszt came, our hostess made us play, one after +the other, beginning with the latest arrival. After we had each +"exhibited," little tables were brought in and supper served. We were in +the midst of it, and having a merry time, when the door suddenly opened +and Liszt appeared. We all rose to our feet, and he shook hands with +everybody without waiting to be introduced. Liszt looks as if he had +been through everything, and has a face _seamed_ with experience. He is +rather tall and narrow, and wears a long abbe's coat reaching nearly +down to his feet. He made me think of an old time magician more than +anything, and I felt that with a touch of his wand he could transform us +all. After he had finished his greetings, he passed into the next room +and sat down. The young men gathered round him and offered him a cigar, +which he accepted and began to smoke. We others continued our nonsense +where we were, and I suppose Liszt overheard some of our brilliant +conversation, for he asked who we were, I think, and presently the lady +of the house came out after Miss W. and me, the two American strangers, +to take us in and present us to him. + +After the preliminary greetings we had some little talk. He asked me if +I had been to Sophie Menter's concert in Berlin the other day. I said +yes. He remarked that Miss Menter was a great favourite of his, and that +the lady from whom I had brought a letter to him had done a good deal +for her. I asked him if Sophie Menter were a pupil of his. He said no, +he could not take the credit of her artistic success to himself. I heard +afterwards that he really had done ever so much for her, but he won't +have it said that he teaches! After he had finished his cigar, Liszt got +up and said, "America is now to have the floor," and requested Miss W. +to play for him. This was a dreadful ordeal for us new arrivals, for we +had not expected to be called upon. I began to quake inwardly, for I had +been without a piano for nearly a week, and was not at all prepared to +play to him, while Miss W. had been up since five o'clock in the +morning, and had travelled all day. However, there was no getting off. A +request from Liszt is a command, and Miss W. sat down, and acquitted +herself as well as could have been expected under the circumstances. +Liszt waved his hand and nodded his head from time to time, and seemed +pleased, I thought. He then called upon Leitert, who played a +composition of Liszt's own most beautifully. Liszt commended him and +patted him on the back. As soon as Leitert had finished, I slipped off +into the back room, hoping Liszt would forget all about me, but he +followed me almost immediately, like a cat with a mouse, took both my +hands in his, and said in the most winning way imaginable, +"_Mademoiselle, vous jouerez quelque-chose, n'est-ce-pas?_" I can't give +you any idea of his _persuasiveness_, when he chooses. It is enough to +decoy you into anything. It was such a desperate moment that I became +reckless, and without even telling him that I was out of practice and +not prepared to play, I sat down and plunged into the A flat major +Ballade of Chopin, as if I were possessed. The piano had a splendid +touch, luckily. Liszt kept calling out "Bravo" every minute or two, to +encourage me, and somehow, I got through. When I had finished, he +clapped his hands and said, "Bravely played." He asked with whom I had +studied, and made one or two little criticisms. I hoped he would shove +me aside and play it himself, but he didn't. + +Liszt is just like a monarch, and no one dares speak to him until he +addresses one first, which I think no fun. He did not play to us at all, +except when some one asked him if he had heard R. play that afternoon. +R. is a young organist from Leipsic, who telegraphed to Liszt to ask him +if he might come over and play to him on the organ. Liszt, with his +usual amiability, answered that he might. "Oh," said Liszt, with an +indescribably comic look, "he improvised for me a whole half-hour in +this style,"--and then he got up and went to the piano, and without +sitting down he played some ridiculous chords in the middle of the +key-board, and then little trills and turns high up in the treble, which +made us all burst out laughing. Shortly after I had played I took my +leave. Liszt had gone into the other room to smoke, and I didn't care to +follow him, as I saw that he was tired, and had no intention of playing +to us. Our hostess told Miss W. and me to "slip out so that he would not +perceive it." Yesterday Miss W. went to see him, and he asked her if she +knew that Miss "Fy," and told her to tell me to come to him. So I shall +present myself to-morrow, though I don't know how the lion will act when +I beard him in his den. + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _May 21, 1873_. + +Liszt is so _besieged_ by people and so tormented with applications, +that I fear I should only have been sent away if I had come without the +Baroness von S.'s letter of introduction, for he admires her extremely, +and I judge that she has much influence with him. He says "people fly in +his face by dozens," and seem to think he is "only there to give +lessons." He gives _no_ paid lessons whatever, as he is much too grand +for that, but if one has talent enough, or pleases him, he lets one come +to him and play to him. I go to him every other day, but I don't play +more than twice a week, as I cannot prepare so much, but I listen to the +others. Up to this point there have been only four in the class besides +myself, and I am the only new one. From four to six P. M. is the time +when he receives his scholars. The first time I went I did not play to +him, but listened to the rest. Urspruch and Leitert, the two young men +whom I met the other night, have studied with Liszt a long time, and +both play superbly. Fraeulein Schultz and Miss Gaul (of Baltimore), are +also most gifted creatures. + +As I entered Liszt's salon, Urspruch was performing Schumann's Symphonic +Studies--an immense composition, and one that it took at least half an +hour to get through. He played so splendidly that my heart sank down +into the very depths. I thought I should never get on _there_! Liszt +came forward and greeted me in a very friendly manner as I entered. He +was in very good humour that day, and made some little witticisms. +Urspruch asked him what title he should give to a piece he was +composing. "_Per aspera ad astra_," said Liszt. This was such a good hit +that I began to laugh, and he seemed to enjoy my appreciation of his +little sarcasm. I did not play that time, as my piano had only just +come, and I was not prepared to do so, but I went home and practiced +tremendously for several days on Chopin's B minor sonata. It is a great +composition, and one of his last works. When I thought I could play it, +I went to Liszt, though with a trembling heart. I cannot tell you what +it has cost me every time I have ascended his stairs. I can scarcely +summon up courage to go there, and generally stand on the steps awhile +before I can make up my mind to open the door and go in! + +This day it was particularly trying, as it was really my first serious +performance before him, and he speaks so very indistinctly that I +feared I shouldn't understand his corrections, and that he would get out +of patience with me, for he cannot bear to explain. I think he hates the +trouble of speaking German, for he mutters his words and does not half +finish his sentences. Yesterday when I was there he spoke to me in +French all the time, and to the others in German,--one of his funny +whims, I suppose. + +Well, on this day the artists Leitert and Urspruch, and the young +composer Metzdorf, who is always hanging about Liszt, were in the room +when I came. They had probably been playing. At first Liszt took no +notice of me beyond a greeting, till Metzdorf said to him, "Herr Doctor, +Miss Fay has brought a sonata." "Ah, well, let us hear it," said Liszt. +Just then he left the room for a minute, and I told the three gentlemen +that they ought to go away and let me play to Liszt alone, for I felt +nervous about playing before them. They all laughed at me and said they +would not budge an inch. When Liszt came back they said to him, "Only +think, Herr Doctor, Miss Fay proposes to send us all home." I said I +could not play before such great artists. "Oh, that is healthy for you," +said Liszt, with a smile, and added, "you have a very choice audience, +now." I don't know whether he appreciated how nervous I was, but instead +of walking up and down the room as he often does, he sat down by me like +any other teacher, and heard me play the first movement. It was +frightfully hard, but I had studied it so much that I managed to get +through with it pretty successfully. Nothing could exceed Liszt's +amiability, or the trouble he gave himself, and instead of frightening +me, he inspired me. Never was there such a delightful teacher! and he is +the first sympathetic one I've had. You feel so _free_ with him, and he +develops the very spirit of music in you. He doesn't keep nagging at you +all the time, but he leaves you your own conception. Now and then he +will make a criticism, or play a passage, and with a few words give you +enough to think of all the rest of your life. There is a delicate +_point_ to everything he says, as subtle as he is himself. He doesn't +tell you anything about the technique. That you must work out for +yourself. When I had finished the first movement of the sonata, Liszt, +as he always does, said "Bravo!" Taking my seat, he made some little +criticisms, and then told me to go on and play the rest of it. + +Now, I only half knew the other movements, for the first one was so +extremely difficult that it cost me all the labour I could give to +prepare that. But playing to Liszt reminds me of trying to feed the +elephant in the Zoological Garden with lumps of sugar. He disposes of +whole movements as if they were nothing, and stretches out gravely for +more! One of my fingers fortunately began to bleed, for I had practiced +the skin off, and that gave me a good excuse for stopping. Whether he +was pleased at this proof of industry, I know not; but after looking at +my finger and saying, "Oh!" very compassionately, he sat down and played +the whole three last movements himself. That was a great deal, and +showed off all his powers. It was the first time I had heard him, and I +don't know which was the most extraordinary,--the Scherzo, with its +wonderful lightness and swiftness, the Adagio with its depth and pathos, +or the last movement, where the whole key-board seemed to "_donnern und +blitzen_ (thunder and lighten)." There is such a vividness about +everything he plays that it does not seem as if it were mere music you +were listening to, but it is as if he had called up a real, living +_form_, and you saw it breathing before your face and eyes. It gives +_me_ almost a ghostly feeling to hear him, and it seems as if the air +were peopled with spirits. Oh, he is a perfect wizard! It is as +interesting to see him as it is to hear him, for his face changes with +every modulation of the piece, and he looks exactly as he is playing. He +has one element that is most captivating, and that is, a sort of +delicate and fitful mirth that keeps peering out at you here and there! +It is most peculiar, and when he plays that way, the most bewitching +little expression comes over his face. It seems as if a little spirit of +joy were playing hide and go seek with you. + +On Friday Liszt came and paid me a visit, and even played a little on my +piano.--Only think what an honour! At the same time he told me to come +to him that afternoon and play to him, and invited me also to a matinee +he was going to give on Sunday for some countess of distinction who was +here for a few days. None of the other scholars were asked, and when I +entered the room there were only three persons in it beside Liszt. One +was the Grand Duke himself, the other was the Countess von M. (born a +Russian Princess), and the third was a Russian minister's wife. They +were all four standing in a little knot, speaking in French together. I +had no idea who they were, as the Grand Duke was in morning costume, and +had no star or decoration to distinguish him. I saw at a glance, +however, that they were all swells, and so I didn't speak to any of +them, luckily, though it was an even chance that I had not said +something to avoid the awkwardness of standing there like a post, for I +had been told beforehand that Liszt never introduced people to each +other. Liszt greeted me in a very friendly manner, and introduced me to +the countess, but she was so dreadfully set up that it was impossible to +get more than a few icy words out of her. I was thankful enough when +more people arrived, so that I could retire to a corner and sit down +without being observed, for it was a very uncomfortable situation to be +standing, a stranger, close to four fashionables and not dare to speak +to _any_ of them because they did not address me. + +After the company was all assembled, it numbered eighteen persons, +nearly all of whom were titled. I was the only unimportant one in it. +Liszt was so sweet. He kept coming over to where I sat and talking to +me, and promised me a ticket for a private concert where only his +compositions were to be performed. He seemed determined to make me feel +at home. He played five times, but no _great_ work, which was a +disappointment to me, particularly as the last three times he played +duetts with a leading Weimar artist named Lassen, who was present. He +made me come and turn the leaves. Gracious! how he _does_ read! It is +very difficult to turn for him, for he reads ever so far ahead of what +he is playing, and takes in fully five bars at a glance, so you have to +guess about where you _think_ he would like to have the page over. Once +I turned it too late, and once too early, and he snatched it out of my +hand and whirled it back.--Not quite the situation for timorous me, was +it? + +May 21.--To-day being my birthday, I thought I must go to Liszt by way +of celebration. I wasn't really ready to play to him, but I took his +second Ballade with me, and thought I'd ask him some questions about +some hard places in it. He insisted upon my playing it. When we came in +he looked indisposed and nervous, and there happened to be a good many +artists there. We always lay our notes on the table, and he takes them, +looks them over, and calls out what he'll have played. He remarked this +piece and called out "_Wer spielt diese grosse maechtige Ballade von +mir?_ (Who plays this great and mighty ballad of mine?)" I felt as if he +had asked "Who killed Cock Robin?" and as if I were the one who had done +it, only I did not feel like "owning up" to it quite so glibly as the +sparrow had, for Liszt seemed to be in very bad humour, and had roughed +the one who had played before me. I finally mustered up my courage and +said "_Ich_," but told him I did not know it perfectly yet. He said, "No +matter; play it." So I sat down, expecting he would take my head off, +but, strange to say, he seemed to be delighted with my playing, and said +that I had "quite touched him." Think of that from Liszt, and when I was +playing his own composition! When I went out he accompanied me to the +door, took my hand in both of his and said, "To-day you've covered +yourself with glory!" I told him I had only _begun_ it, and I hoped he +would let me play it again when I knew it better. "What," said he, "I +must pay you a still greater compliment, must I?" "Of course," said I. +"_Il faut vouz gater?_" "Oui," said I. He laughed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Liszt's Drawing-room. An Artist's Walking Party. Liszt's Teaching. + + + WEIMAR, _May 29, 1873_. + +I am having the most heavenly time in Weimar, studying with Liszt, and +sometimes I can scarcely realize that I am at that summit of my +ambition, to be _his_ pupil! It was the Baroness von S.'s letter that +secured it for me, I am sure. He is so overrun with people, that I think +it is a wonder he is civil to anybody, but he is the most amiable man I +ever knew, though he _can_ be dreadful, too, when he chooses, and he +understands how to put people outside his door in as short a space of +time as it can be done. I go to him three times a week. At home Liszt +doesn't wear his long abbe's coat, but a short one, in which he looks +much more artistic. His figure is remarkably slight, but his head is +most imposing.--It is _so_ delicious in that room of his! It was all +furnished and put in order for him by the Grand Duchess herself. The +walls are pale gray, with a gilded border running round the room, or +rather two rooms, which are divided, but not separated, by crimson +curtains. The furniture is crimson, and everything is so +_comfortable_--such a contrast to German bareness and stiffness +generally. A splendid grand piano stands in one window (he receives a +new one every year). The other window is always wide open, and looks +out on the park. There is a dove-cote just opposite the window, and the +doves promenade up and down on the roof of it, and fly about, and +sometimes whirr down on the sill itself. That pleases Liszt. His +writing-table is beautifully fitted up with things that all match. +Everything is in bronze--ink-stand, paper-weight, match-box, etc., and +there is always a lighted candle standing on it by which he and the +gentlemen can light their cigars. There is a carpet on the floor, a +rarity in Germany, and Liszt generally walks about, and smokes, and +mutters (he can never be said to _talk_), and calls upon one or other of +us to play. From time to time he will sit down and play himself where a +passage does not suit him, and when he is in good spirits he makes +little jests all the time. His playing was a complete revelation to me, +and has given me an entirely new insight into music. You cannot +conceive, without hearing him, how poetic he is, or the thousand +_nuances_ that he can throw into the simplest thing, and he is equally +great on all sides. From the zephyr to the tempest, the whole scale is +equally at his command. + +But Liszt is not at all like a master, and cannot be treated like one. +He is a monarch, and when he extends his royal sceptre you can sit down +and play to him. You never can ask him to play anything for you, no +matter how much you're dying to hear it. If he is in the mood he will +play, if not, you must content yourself with a few remarks. You cannot +even offer to play yourself. You lay your notes on the table, so he can +see that you _want_ to play, and sit down. He takes a turn up and down +the room, looks at the music, and if the piece interests him, he will +call upon you. We bring the same piece to him but once, and but once +play it through. + +Yesterday I had prepared for him his _Au Bord d'une Source_. I was +nervous and played badly. He was not to be put out, however, but acted +as if he thought I had played charmingly, and then he sat down and +played the whole piece himself, oh, _so_ exquisitely! It made me feel +like a wood-chopper. The notes just seemed to ripple off his fingers' +ends with scarce any perceptible motion. As he neared the close I +remarked that that funny little expression came over his face which he +always has when he means to surprise you, and he suddenly took an +unexpected chord and extemporized a poetical little end, quite different +from the written one.--Do you wonder that people go distracted over him? + +Weimar is a lovely little place, and there are most beautiful walks all +about. Ascension being a holiday here, all we pianists made up a walking +party out to Tiefurt, about two miles distant. We went in the afternoon +and returned in the evening. The walk lay through the woods, and was +perfectly exquisite the whole way. As we came back in the evening the +nightingales were singing, and I could not help wishing that P. were +there to hear them, as he has such a passion for birds. There are +cuckoos here, too, and you hear them calling "cuckoo, cuckoo." Metzdorf +and I danced on the hard road, to the edification of all the others. In +Tiefurt we partook of a magnificent collation consisting of a mug of +beer, brown bread and sausage! Some of the party preferred coffee, among +whom was Metzdorf, who made us laugh by sticking the coffee-pot into his +inside coat pocket as soon as he had poured out his first cup, in order +to make sure that the others didn't take more than their share; he would +coolly take it out, help himself, and put it back again. The servant who +waited got frightened, and thought he was going to steal it. Afterwards +when we were playing games and wanted the door shut, the host came and +opened it, and would not allow us to shut it, because he said we might +carry off something! How's that! + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _June 6, 1873_. + +When I first came there were only five of us who studied with Liszt, but +lately a good many others have been there. Day before yesterday there +came a young lady who was a pupil of Henselt in St. Petersburg. She is +immensely talented, only seventeen years old, and her name is Laura +Kahrer. It is a very rare thing to see a pupil of Henselt, for it is +very difficult to get lessons from him. He stands next to Liszt. This +Laura Kahrer plays everything that ever was heard of, and she played a +fugue of her own composition the other day that was really vigorous and +good. I was quite astonished to hear how she had worked it up. She has +made a grand concert tour in Russia. I never saw such a hand as she had. +She could bend it backwards till it looked like the palm of her hand +turned inside out. She was an interesting little creature, with dark +eyes and hair, and one could see by her Turkish necklace and numerous +bangles that she had been making money. She played with the greatest +_aplomb_, though her touch had a certain roughness about it to my ear. +She did not carry me away, but I have not heard many pieces from her. + +However, all playing sounds barren by the side of Liszt, for _his_ is +the living, breathing impersonation of poetry, passion, grace, wit, +coquetry, daring, tenderness and every other fascinating attribute that +you can think of! I'm ready to hang myself half the time when I've been +to him. Oh, he is the most phenomenal being in every respect! All that +you've heard of him would never give you an idea of him. In short, he +represents the whole scale of human emotion. He is a many-sided prism, +and reflects back the light in all colours, no matter how you look at +him. His pupils _adore_ him, as in fact everybody else does, but it is +impossible to do otherwise with a person whose genius flashes out of him +all the time so, and whose character is so winning. + +One day this week, when we were with Liszt, he was in such high spirits +that it was as if he had suddenly become twenty years younger. A student +from the Stuttgardt conservatory played a Liszt Concerto. His name is +V., and he is dreadfully nervous. Liszt kept up a little running fire of +satire all the time he was playing, but in a good-natured way. I +shouldn't have minded it if it had been I. In fact, I think it would +have inspired me; but poor V. hardly knew whether he was on his head or +on his feet. It was too funny. Everything that Liszt says is so +striking. For instance, in one place where V. was playing the melody +rather feebly, Liszt suddenly took his seat at the piano and said, "When +_I_ play, I always play for the people in the gallery [by the gallery he +meant the cock-loft, where the rabble always sit, and where the places +cost next to nothing], so that those persons who pay only five groschens +for their seat also hear something." Then he began, and I wish you could +have heard him! The sound didn't seem to be very _loud_, but it was +penetrating and far-reaching. When he had finished, he raised one hand +in the air, and you seemed to see all the people in the gallery drinking +in the sound. That is the way Liszt teaches you. He presents an _idea_ +to you, and it takes fast hold of your mind and sticks there. Music is +such a real, visible thing to him, that he always has a symbol, +instantly, in the material world to express his idea. One day, when I +was playing, I made too much movement with my hand in a rotatory sort of +a passage where it was difficult to avoid it. "Keep your hand still, +Fraeulein," said Liszt; "_don't make omelette_." I couldn't help +laughing, it hit me on the head so nicely. He is far too sparing of his +playing, unfortunately, and, like Tausig, only sits down and plays a few +bars at a time, generally. It is dreadful when he stops, just as you are +at the height of your enjoyment, but he is so thoroughly _blase_ that he +doesn't care to show off, and doesn't like to have any one pay him a +compliment. Even at the court it annoyed him so that the Grand Duchess +told people to take no notice when he rose from the piano. + +On the same day that Liszt was in such high good-humour, a strange lady +and her husband were there who had made a long journey to Weimar, in the +hope of hearing him play. She waited patiently for a long time through +the lesson, and at last Liszt took compassion on her, and sat down with +his favourite remark that "the young ladies played a great deal better +than he did, but he would try his best to imitate them," and then played +something of his own so wonderfully, that when he had finished we all +stood there like posts, feeling that there was _nothing_ to be said. But +he, as if he feared we might burst out into eulogy, got up instantly and +went over to a friend of his who was standing there, and who lives on an +estate near Weimar, and said, in the most commonplace tone imaginable, +"By the way, how about those eggs? Are you going to send me some?" It +seems to be not only a profound bore to him, but really a sort of +sensitiveness on his part. How he can bear to hear _us_ play, I cannot +imagine. It must grate on his ear terribly, I think, because everything +_must_ sound expressionless to him in comparison with his own marvellous +conception. I assure you, no matter how beautifully we play any piece, +the minute Liszt plays it, you would scarcely recognize it! His touch +and his peculiar use of the pedal are two secrets of his playing, and +then he seems to dive down in the most hidden thoughts of the composer, +and fetch them up to the surface, so that they gleam out at you one by +one, like stars! + +The more I see and hear Liszt, the more I am lost in amazement! I can +neither eat nor sleep on those days that I go to him. All my musical +studies till now have been a mere going to school, a preparation for +him. I often think of what Tausig said once: "Oh, compared with Liszt, +we other artists are all blockheads." I did not believe it at the time, +but I've seen the truth of it, and in studying Liszt's playing, I can +see where Tausig got many of his own wonderful peculiarities. I think he +was the most like Liszt of all the army that have had the privilege of +his instruction.--I began this letter on Sunday, and it is now Tuesday. +Yesterday I went to Liszt, and found that Buelow had just arrived. None +of the other scholars had come, for a wonder, and I was just going away, +when Liszt came out, asked me to come in a moment, and introduced me to +Buelow. There I was, all alone with these two great artists in Liszt's +_salon_! Wasn't _that_ a situation? I only stayed a few minutes, of +course, though I should have liked to spend hours, but our conversation +was in the highest degree amusing while I _was_ there. Buelow had just +returned from his grand concert tour, and had been in London for the +first time. In a few months he had given one hundred and twenty +concerts! He is a fascinating creature, too, like all these master +artists, but entirely different from Liszt, being small, quick, and airy +in his movements, and having one of the boldest and proudest foreheads I +ever saw. He looks like strength of will personified. Liszt gazed at +"his Hans," as he calls him, with the fondest pride, and seemed +perfectly happy over his arrival. It was like his beautiful courtesy to +call me in and introduce me to Buelow instead of letting me go away. He +thought I had come to play to him, and was unwilling to have me take +that trouble for nothing, though he must have wished me in Jericho. You +would think I paid him a hundred dollars a lesson, instead of _his_ +condescending to sacrifice his valuable time to _me_ for nothing. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Liszt's Expression in Playing. Liszt on Conservatories. Ordeal of + Liszt's Lessons. Liszt's Kindness. + + + WEIMAR, _June 19, 1873_. + +In Liszt I can at last say that my ideal in _something_ has been +realized. He goes far beyond all that I expected. Anything so perfectly +beautiful as he looks when he sits at the piano I never saw, and yet he +is almost an old man now.[E] I enjoy him as I would an exquisite work of +art. His personal magnetism is immense, and I can scarcely bear it when +he plays. He can make me cry all he chooses, and that is saying a good +deal, because I've heard so much music, and _never_ have been affected +by it. Even Joachim, whom I think divine, never moved me. When Liszt +plays anything pathetic, it sounds as if he had been through everything, +and opens all one's wounds afresh. All that one has ever suffered comes +before one again. Who was it that I heard say once, that years ago he +saw Clara Schumann sitting in tears near the platform, during one of +Liszt's performances?--Liszt knows well the influence he has on people, +for he always fixes his eyes on some one of us when he plays, and I +believe he tries to wring our hearts. When he plays a passage, and goes +_pearling_ down the key-board, he often looks over at me and smiles, to +see whether I am appreciating it. + +But I doubt if he feels any particular emotion himself, when he is +piercing you through with his rendering. He is simply hearing every +tone, knowing exactly what effect he wishes to produce and how to do it. +In fact, he is practically two persons in one--the listener and the +performer. But what immense self-command that implies! No matter how +fast he plays you always feel that there is "plenty of time"--no need to +be anxious! You might as well try to move one of the pyramids as fluster +_him_. Tausig possessed this repose in a technical way, and his touch +was marvellous; but he never drew the tears to your eyes. He could not +wind himself through all the subtle labyrinths of the heart as Liszt +does. + +Liszt does such bewitching little things! The other day, for instance, +Fraeulein Gaul was playing something to him, and in it were two runs, and +after each run two staccato chords. She did them most beautifully, and +struck the chords immediately after. "No, no," said Liszt, "after you +make a run you must wait a minute before you strike the chords, as if in +admiration of your own performance. You must pause, as if to say, 'How +nicely I did that.'" Then he sat down and made a run himself, waited a +second, and then struck the two chords in the treble, saying as he did +so "Bra-_vo_," and then he played again, struck the other chord, and +said again "Bra-_vo_," and positively, it was as if the piano had softly +applauded! That is the way he plays everything. It seems as if the piano +were speaking with a _human_ tongue. + +Our class has swelled to about a dozen persons now, and a good many +others come and play to him once or twice and then go. As I wrote to L. +the other day, that dear little scholar of Henselt, Fraeulein Kahrer, was +one, but she only stayed three days. She was a most interesting little +creature, and told some funny stories about Henselt, who she says has a +most violent temper, and is very severe. She said that one day he was +giving a lesson to Princess Katherina (whoever that is), and he was so +enraged over her playing that he snatched away the music, and dashed it +to the ground. The Princess, however, did not lose her equanimity, but +folded her arms and said, "Who shall pick it up?" And he had to bend and +restore it to its place. + +I've never seen Liszt look angry but once, but then he was terrific. +Like a lion! It was one day when a student from the Stuttgardt +conservatory attempted to play the Sonata Appassionata. He had a good +deal of technique, and a moderately good conception of it, but still he +was totally inadequate to the work--and indeed, only a _mighty_ artist +like Tausig or Buelow ought to attempt to play it. It was a hot +afternoon, and the clouds had been gathering for a storm. As the +Stuttgardter played the opening notes of the sonata, the tree-tops +suddenly waved wildly, and a low growl of thunder was heard muttering in +the distance. "Ah," said Liszt, who was standing at the window, with his +delicate quickness of perception, "a fitting accompaniment." (You know +Beethoven wrote the Appassionata one night when he was caught in a +thunder-storm.) If Liszt had only played it himself, the whole thing +would have been like a poem. But he walked up and down the room and +forced himself to listen, though he could scarcely bear it, I could see. +A few times he pushed the student aside and played a few bars himself, +and we saw the passion leap up into his face like a glare of sheet +lightning. Anything so magnificent as it was, the little that he _did_ +play, and the startling individuality of his conception, I never heard +or imagined. I felt as if I did not know whether I were "in the body or +out of the body."--GLORIOUS BEING! He is a two-edged sword that cuts +through everything. + +The Stuttgardter made some such glaring mistakes, not in the notes, but +in rhythm, etc., that at last Liszt burst out with, "You come from +Stuttgardt, and play like _that_!" and then he went on in a tirade +against conservatories and teachers in general. He was like a +thunder-storm himself. He frowned, and bent his head, and his long hair +fell over his face, while the poor Stuttgardter sat there like a beaten +hound. Oh, it was awful! If it had been I, I think I should have +withered entirely away, for Liszt is always so amiable that the contrast +was all the stronger.--"_Aber das geht Sie nichts an_ (But this does not +concern you)," said he, in a conciliatory tone, suddenly stopping +himself and smiling. "_Spielen Sie weiter_ (Play on)."--He meant that it +was not at the student but at the conservatories that he had been angry. + +Liszt hasn't the nervous irritability common to artists, but on the +contrary his disposition is the most exquisite and tranquil in the +world. We have been there incessantly, and I've never seen him ruffled +except two or three times, and then he was tired and not himself, and it +was a most transient thing. When I think what a little savage Tausig +often was, and how cuttingly sarcastic Kullak could be at times, I am +astonished that Liszt so rarely loses his temper. He has the power of +turning the best side of every one outward, and also the most marvellous +and instant appreciation of what that side is. If there is _anything_ in +you, you may be sure that Liszt will know it. Whether he chooses to let +you think he does, may, however, be another matter. + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _July 15, 1873_. + +Liszt is such an immense, inspiring force that one has to try and stride +forward with him at double rate, even if with double expenditure, too! +To-day I'm more dead than alive, as we had a lesson from him yesterday +that lasted four hours. There were twenty artists present, all of whom +were anxious to play, and as he was in high good-humour, he played ever +so much himself in between. It was perfectly magnificent, but exhausting +and exciting to the last degree. When I come home from the lessons I +fling myself on the sofa, and feel as if I never wanted to get up again. +It is a fearful day's work every time I go to him. First, four hours' +practice in the morning. Then a nervous, anxious feeling that takes away +my appetite, and prevents me from eating my dinner. And then several +hours at Liszt's, where one succession of concertos, fantasias, and all +sorts of tremendous things are played. You never know before whom you +must play there, for it is the musical headquarters of the world. +Directors of conservatories, composers, artists, aristocrats, all come +in, and you have to bear the brunt of it as best you can. The first +month I was here, when there were only five of us, it was quite another +matter, but now the room is crowded every time. + +Liszt gave a matinee the other day at which I played a "Soiree de +Vienne," by Tausig--awfully hard, but very brilliant and peculiar. I +don't know how I ever got through it, for I had only been studying it a +few days, and didn't even know it by heart, nor had I played it to +Liszt. He only told me the evening before, too, about eight +o'clock--"To-morrow I give a matinee; bring your Soiree de Vienne." I +rushed home and practiced till ten, and then I got up early the next +morning and practiced a few hours. The matinee was at eleven o'clock. +First, Liszt played himself, then a young lady sang several songs, then +there was a piece for piano and flute played by Liszt and a flutist, and +then I came. I was just as frightened as I could be! Metzdorf (my +Russian friend) and Urspruch sat down by me to give me courage, and to +turn the leaves, but Liszt insisted upon turning himself, and stood +behind me and did it in his dexterous way. He says it is an art to turn +the leaves properly! He was _so_ kind, and whenever I did anything well +he would call out "_charmant!_" to encourage me. It is considered a +great compliment to be asked to play at a matinee, and I don't know why +Liszt paid it to me at the expense of others who were there who play far +better than I do--among them a young lady from Norway, lately come, who +is a most _superb_ pianist. She was a pupil of Kullak's, too, but it is +four years since she left him, and she has been concertizing a good +deal. Yesterday she played Schumann's A minor concerto magnificently. I +was surprised that Liszt had not selected her, but one can never tell +what to expect from Liszt. With him "nothing is to be presumed on or +despaired of"--as the proverb says. He is so full of moods and phases +that you have to have a very sharp perception even to begin to +understand him, and he can cut you all up fine without your ever +guessing it. He rarely mortifies any one by an open snub, but what is +perhaps worse, he manages to let the rest of the class know what he is +thinking while the poor victim remains quite in darkness about it!--Yes, +he can do very cruel things. + +After all, though, people generally have their own assurance to thank, +or their own want of tact, when they do not get on with Liszt. If they +go to him full of themselves, or expecting to make an impression on +_him_, or merely for the sake of saying they have been with him, instead +of presenting themselves to sit at his feet in humility, as they ought, +and learn whatever he is willing to impart--he soon finds it out, and +treats them accordingly. Some one once asked Liszt, what he would have +been had he not been a musician. "The first diplomat in Europe," was the +reply. With this Machiavellian bent it is not surprising that he +sometimes indulges himself in playing off the conceited or the obtuse +for the benefit of the bystanders. But the real _basis_ of his nature is +compassion. _The bruised reed he does not break, nor the humble and +docile heart despise!_ + +Fraeulein Gaul tells a characteristic story about the "Meister," as we +call Liszt. When she first came to him a year or two ago, she brought +him one day Chopin's B flat minor Scherzo--one of those stock pieces +that every artist _must_ learn, and that has also been thrummed to death +by countless tyros. Liszt looked at it, and to her fright and dismay +cried out in a fit of impatience, "No, I _won't_ hear it!" and dashed it +angrily into the corner. The next day he went to see her, apologized for +his outburst of temper, and said that as a penance for it he would force +himself to give her not one, but two or three lessons on the Scherzo, +and in the most minute and careful manner--which accordingly he did! +Fancy any music teacher you ever heard of, so humbling himself to a +little girl of fifteen, and then remember that Tausig, the greatest of +modern virtuosi, said of Liszt, "No mortal can measure himself with +Liszt. He dwells upon a solitary height." + +But you need not fear that I am "giving up American standards" because I +reverence Liszt so boundlessly. Everything is topsy-turvy in Europe +according to _our_ moral ideas, and they don't have what we call "men" +over here. But they _do_ have artists that we cannot approach! It is as +a Master in Art that I look at and write of Liszt, and his mere presence +is to his pupils such stimulus and joy, that when I leave _him_ I shall +feel I have left the best part of my life behind! + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Liszt's Compositions. His Playing and Teaching of Beethoven. His + "Effects" in Piano-playing. Excursion to Jena. A New Music Master. + + + WEIMAR, _July 24, 1873_. + +Liszt is going away to-day. He was to have left several days ago, but +the Emperor of Austria or Russia (I don't know which), came to visit the +Grand Duke, and of course Liszt was obliged to be on hand and to spend a +day with them. He is such a grandee himself that kings and emperors are +quite matters of course to him. Never was a man so courted and spoiled +as he! The Grand Duchess herself frequently visits him. But he never +allows anyone to ask him to play, and even she doesn't venture it. That +is the only point in which one sees Liszt's sense of his own greatness; +otherwise his manner is remarkably unassuming. + +Liszt will be gone until the middle of August, and I shall be thankful +to have a few weeks of repose, and to be able to study more quietly. +With him one is at high pressure all the time, and I have gained a good +many more ideas from him than I can work up in a hurry. In fact, Liszt +has revealed to me an entirely new idea of piano-playing. He is a +wonderful _composer_, by the way, and that is what I was unprepared for +in him. His oratorio of _Christus_ was brought out here this summer, and +many strangers and celebrities came to hear it, Wagner among others. It +was magnificent, and one of the noblest, and decidedly the grandest +oratorio that I ever heard. I've never had time to write home about it, +for I felt that it required a dissertation in itself to do it justice. I +wish it could be performed in Boston, for his orchestral and choral +works, I am sorry to say, make their way very slowly in Germany. "Liszt +helped Wagner," said he to me, sadly, "but who will help Liszt? though, +compared with Opera it is as much harder for Oratorio to conquer a place +as it is for a pianist to achieve success when compared to a singer." So +he feels as if things were against him, though his heart and soul are so +bound up in sacred music, that he told me it had become to him "the only +thing worth living for." He really seems to care almost nothing for his +piano-playing or for his piano compositions. + +And yet, what beauty is there in those compositions! In Berlin I had +always been taught that Liszt was a would-be composer, that he could not +write a melody, that he had no originality, and that his compositions +were merely glitter to dazzle the eyes of the public. How unjust and +untrue have I found all these assertions to be! Here I have an +opportunity of hearing his piano works _en masse_, and day by day (since +all the young artists are playing them), and my previous ideas have been +entirely reversed. If Liszt is _anything_, he is _original_. One can see +that at a glance, simply by imagining his music taken out. Where is +there anything that would fill its place? When artists wish to make an +"effect" and stir up the public--"to fuse the leaden thousands," as +Chopin expressed it--what do they play? LISZT!--Not only is his music +brilliant--not only does he pour this wealth of pearls and diamonds down +the key-board, but his pieces rise to great climaxes, are grandiose in +style, overleap all boundaries, and whirl you away with the vehemence of +passion. Then what lightness of touch in the lesser _morceaux_, where he +is often the acme of tenderness, grace and fairy-like sportiveness, +while in the melancholy ones, what subtle feeling after the emotions +curled up in the remote corners of the heart! They are so rich in +harmony, so weird, so wild, that when you hear them you are like a +sea-weed cast upon the bosom of the ocean. And then what could be more +deep and poetic than Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert's and Wagner's +songs? They are altogether exquisite. Finally, Liszt's compositions +stand the severest test of merit. They _wear_ well. You can play them a +long time and never weary of them. In short, they embrace every element +_except_ the classic, and the question is, whether these airy or intense +ideas that appeal to you through their veils of shimmer and sheen are +not a sort of classics in their own way! + +Liszt's Christus is arranged for piano for four hands, and I wish I had +it, and also Buelow's great edition of Beethoven's sonatas--Oh! you +cannot _conceive_ anything like Liszt's playing of Beethoven. When _he_ +plays a sonata it is as if the composition rose from the dead and stood +transfigured before you. You ask yourself, "Did _I_ ever play that?" But +it bores him so dreadfully to hear the sonatas, that though I've heard +him teach a good many, I haven't had the courage to bring him one. I +suppose he is sick of the sound of them, or perhaps it is because he +feels obliged to be conscientious in teaching Beethoven! + +When one of the young pianists brings Liszt a sonata, he puts on an +expression of resignation and generally begins a half protest which he +afterward thinks better of.--"Well, go on," he will say, and then he +proceeds to be very strict. He always teaches Beethoven with notes, +which shows how scrupulous he is about him, for, of course, he knows all +the sonatas by heart. He has Buelow's edition, which he opens and lays on +the end of the grand piano. Then as he walks up and down he can stop and +refer to it and point out passages, as they are being played, to the +rest of the class. Buelow probably got many of his ideas from Liszt. One +day when Mr. Orth was playing the Allegro of the Sonata Op. 110, Liszt +insisted upon having it done in a particular way, and made him go back +and repeat it over and over again. One line of it is particularly hard. +Liszt made every one in the class sit down and try it. Most of them +failed, which amused him.--"Ah, yes," said he, laughing, "when I once +begin to play the pedagogue I am not to be outdone!" and then he related +as an illustration of his "pedagogism" a little anecdote of a former +pupil of his, now an eminent artist. "I liked young M. very much," said +he. "He played beautifully, but he was inclined to be lazy and to take +things easily. One morning he brought me Chopin's E minor concerto, and +he rather skimmed over that difficult passage in the middle of the first +movement as if he hadn't taken the trouble really to study it. His +execution was not clean. So I thought I would give him a lesson, and I +kept him playing those two pages over and over for an hour or two until +he had mastered them. His arms must have been ready to break when he got +through! At the next lesson there was no M. I sent to know why he did +not appear. He replied that he had been out hunting and had hurt his arm +so that he could not play. At the lesson following he accordingly +presented himself with his arm in a sling. But I always suspected it was +a stratagem on his part to avoid playing, and that nothing really ailed +him. He had had enough for one while," added Liszt, with a mischievous +smile. + +On Monday I had a most delightful tete-a-tete with Liszt, quite by +chance. I had occasion to call upon him for something, and, strange to +say, he was alone, sitting by his table and writing. Generally all sorts +of people are up there. He insisted upon my staying a while, and we had +the most amusing and entertaining conversation imaginable. It was the +first time I ever heard Liszt really talk, for he contents himself +mostly with making little jests. He is full of _esprit_. We were +speaking of the faculty of mimicry, and he told me such a funny little +anecdote about Chopin. He said that when he and Chopin were young +together, somebody told him that Chopin had a remarkable talent for +mimicry, and so he said to Chopin, "Come round to my rooms this evening +and show off this talent of yours." So Chopin came. He had purchased a +blonde wig ("I was very blonde at that time," said Liszt), which he put +on, and got himself up in one of Liszt's suits. Presently an +acquaintance of Liszt's came in, Chopin went to meet him instead of +Liszt, and took off his voice and manner so perfectly, that the man +actually mistook him for Liszt, and made an appointment with him for the +next day--"and there I was in the room," said Liszt. Wasn't that +remarkable? + +Another evening I was there about twilight and Liszt sat at the piano +looking through a new oratorio, which had just come out in Paris upon +"Christus," the same subject that his own oratorio was on. He asked me +to turn for him, and evidently was not interested, for he would skip +whole pages and begin again, here and there. There was only a single +lamp, and _that_ rather a dim one, so that the room was all in shadow, +and Liszt wore his Merlin-like aspect. I asked him to tell me how he +produced a certain effect he makes in his arrangement of the ballad in +Wagner's _Flying Dutchman_. He looked very "_fin_" as the French say, +but did not reply. He never gives a direct answer to a direct question. +"Ah," said I, "you won't tell." He smiled, and then immediately played +the passage. It was a long arpeggio, and the effect he made was, as I +had supposed, a pedal effect. He kept the pedal down throughout, and +played the beginning of the passage in a grand _rolling_ sort of manner, +and then all the rest of it with a very pianissimo touch, and so +lightly, that the continuity of the arpeggios was destroyed, and the +notes seemed to be just _strewn_ in, as if you broke a wreath of flowers +and scattered them according to your fancy. It is a most striking and +beautiful effect, and I told him I didn't see how he ever thought of it. +"Oh, I've invented a great many things," said he, +indifferently--"_this_, for instance,"--and he began playing a double +roll of octaves in chromatics in the bass of the piano. It was very +grand, and made the room reverberate. "Magnificent," said I. "Did you +ever hear me do a storm?" said he. "No." "Ah, you ought to hear me do a +storm! Storms are my _forte_!" Then to himself between his teeth, while +a weird look came into his eyes as if he could indeed rule the blast, +"_Da_ KRACHEN _die Baeume_ (Then _crash_ the trees!)" + +How ardently I wished he _would_ "play a storm," but of course he +_didn't_, and he presently began to trifle over the keys in his _blase_ +style. I suppose he couldn't quite work himself up to the effort, but +that look and tone told how Liszt _would_ do it.--Alas, that we poor +mortals here below should share so often the fate of Moses, and have +only a glimpse of the Promised Land, and that without the consolation of +being Moses! But perhaps, after all, the vision is better than the +reality. We see the _whole land_, even if but at a distance, instead of +being limited merely to the spot where our foot treads. + +Once again I saw Liszt in a similar mood, though his expression was this +time _comfortably_ rather than _wildly_ destructive. It was when +Fraeulein Remmertz was playing his E flat concerto to him. There were two +grand pianos in the room, and she was sitting at one, and he at the +other, accompanying and interpolating as he felt disposed. Finally they +came to a place where there were a series of passages beginning with +both hands in the middle of the piano, and going in opposite directions +to the ends of the key-board, ending each time in a short, sharp chord. +"_Alles zum Fenster hinaus werfen_ (Pitch everything out of the +window)," said he, in a cozy, easy sort of way, and he began playing +these passages and giving every chord a whack as if he _were_ splitting +everything up and flinging it out, and that with such enjoyment, that +you felt as if you'd like to bear a hand, too, in the work of general +demolition! But I never shall forget Liszt's look as he so lazily +proposed to "pitch everything out of the window." It reminded me of the +expression of a big tabby-cat as it sits and purrs away, blinking its +eyes and seemingly half asleep, when suddenly--!--! out it strikes with +both its claws, and woe be to whatever is within its reach! Perhaps, +after all, the secret of Liszt's fascination is this power of intense +and wild emotion that you feel he possesses, together with the most +perfect control over it. + +Liszt sometimes strikes wrong notes when he plays, but it does not +trouble him in the least. On the contrary, he rather enjoys it. He +reminds me of one of the cabinet ministers in Berlin, of whom it is said +that he has an amazing talent for making blunders, but a still more +amazing one for getting out of them and covering them up. Of Liszt the +first part of this is not true, for if he strikes a wrong note it is +simply because he chooses to be careless. But the last part of it +applies to him eminently. It always amuses him instead of disconcerting +him when he comes down squarely _wrong_, as it affords him an +opportunity of displaying his ingenuity and giving things such a turn +that the false note will appear simply a key leading to new and +unexpected beauties. An accident of this kind happened to him in one of +the Sunday matinees, when the room was full of distinguished people and +of his pupils. He was rolling up the piano in arpeggios in a very grand +manner indeed, when he struck a semi-tone short of the high note upon +which he had intended to end. I caught my breath and wondered whether he +was going to leave us like that, in mid-air, as it were, and the harmony +unresolved, or whether he would be reduced to the humiliation of +correcting himself like ordinary mortals, and taking the right chord. A +half smile came over his face, as much as to say--"Don't fancy that +_this_ little thing disturbs me,"--and he instantly went meandering down +the piano in harmony with the false note he had struck, and then rolled +deliberately up in a second grand sweep, _this_ time striking true. I +never saw a more delicious piece of cleverness. It was so quick-witted +and so exactly characteristic of Liszt. Instead of giving you a chance +to say, "He has made a mistake," he forced you to say, "He has shown how +to get out of a mistake." + +Another day I heard him pass from one piece into another by making the +finale of the first one play the part of prelude to the second. So +exquisitely were the two woven together that you could hardly tell where +the one left off and the other began.--Ah me! _Such_ a facile grace! +_Nobody_ will ever equal him, with those rolling basses and those +flowery trebles. And then his Adagios! When you hear him in one of +_those_, you feel that his playing has got to that point when it is +purified from all earthly dross and is an exhalation of the soul that +mounts straight to heaven. + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _August 8, 1873_. + +The other day we all made an excursion to Jena, which is about three +hours' drive from here. We went in carriages in a long train, and pulled +up at a hotel named The Bear. There we took our second breakfast. There +was to be a concert at five in a church, where some of Liszt's music was +to be performed. After breakfast we went to the church, where Liszt met +us, and the rehearsal took place. After the rehearsal we went to dinner. +We had three long tables which Liszt arranged to suit himself, his own +place being in the middle. He always manages every little detail with +the greatest tact, and is very particular never to let two ladies or two +gentlemen sit together, but always alternately a lady and a gentleman. +"_Immer eine bunte Reihe machen_ (Always have a little variety)," said +he. The dinner was a very entertaining one to me, because I could +converse with Liszt and hear all he said, as he was nearly opposite me. +I was in very high spirits that day, and as Kellerman, Bendix and +Urspruch were all near me, too, we had endless fun. We had new potatoes +for dinner, boiled with their skins on, and Liszt threw one at me, and I +caught it. There was another young artist there from Brussels named +Gurickx, whom I didn't know, because he spoke only French, and as I do +not speak it, we had never exchanged words in the class. I wasn't paying +any attention to him, therefore, when suddenly my left-hand neighbour +touched my arm. I looked round and he handed me a flower made of bread +"from Monsieur Gurickx." I wish you could have seen it! It had the +effect of a tube rose. Every little leaf and petal was as delicately +turned as if nature herself had done it. The bread was fresh, and +Gurickx had worked it between his fingers to the consistency of clay, +and then modelled these little flowers which he stuck on to a stem. It +was so artistically done, and it was such a dainty little thing to do, +that I saw at once that he was interesting and that he possessed that +marvellous French taste. + +Since then we have become very good friends, and he is teaching me to +speak French. He plays beautifully, and was trained in the famous +Brussels conservatory, of which Dupont is the head. Servais also got his +musical education there. They both advise me to go there for a year, as +Dupont is a very great master indeed, and Brussels is the very home and +centre of art and taste of every description--a "little Paris"--but more +earnest, more German. Gurickx went through the art-school in Brussels as +well as the conservatory, so that he paints as well as plays, and he had +quite a struggle with himself to decide to which art he should devote +himself. His style is the grandiose and fiery. Rubinstein is his model, +and he plays Liszt's Rhapsodies as I never heard any one else. He brings +out all their power, brilliancy and careering wildness, and makes the +greatest sensation of them. Such tremendous sweeping chords! Liszt +himself doesn't play the chords as well as Gurickx;--perhaps because he +does not care now to exert the strength. + +But to return to Jena. After dinner Liszt said, "Now we'll go to +Paradise." So we put on our things, and proceeded to walk along the +river to a place called Paradise, on account of its loveliness. We +passed the University, on one corner of which is a tablet with "W. von +Goethe" written against the wall of the room which Goethe occupied. It +seemed strange to me to be passing the room of my beloved Goethe, with +our equally beloved Liszt!--This walk along the river was enchanting. +The current was very rapid, and the willows were all blowing in the +breeze. There is an odd triangular-shaped hill that rises on one side +very boldly and abruptly, called the Fox's Head. The way was under a +double row of tall trees, which met at the top and formed a green arch +over our heads. It was all breeze and freshness, and the sunlight struck +picturesquely aslant the hill-sides. I started to walk with Liszt, but +he was so surrounded that it was difficult to get near him, so I walked +instead with an interesting young artist named O., who was at once +extraordinarily ugly and extremely clever. + +After our walk we went to the concert, which was lovely, and then at +seven we were all invited to tea at the house of a friend of Liszt's. He +was a very tall man, and he had a very tall and hospitable daughter, +nearly as big as himself, who received us very cordially. The tea was +all laid on tables in the garden, and the sausages were cooking over a +fire made on the grounds. We sat down pell-mell, anywhere, I next to +Liszt, who kept putting things on my plate. When supper was over he +retreated to a little summer house with some of his friends, to smoke. +We sauntered round the grass plat in front of it until Liszt called us +to come in and sit by him, which we did until he was ready to go. + +I've heard of a new music master lately. When my friend Miss B. was +here, she told me that she had met a "Herr Director Deppe" in Berlin, +after I left, and had told him all about me and my struggle to conquer +the piano. He seemed very much interested and said, "O, if she had only +come to me! _I_ would have helped her," and from all I can hear I think +he must be the man for me. He is interested in Sherwood, who used to +talk to me about him last winter. Sherwood says he is wholly +disinterested and devoted to art, and lives entirely in music, and that +he is a noble-hearted man, and the "most musical person he ever met." +Sherwood often wavers between him and Kullak, and Deppe would like to +teach Sherwood if he could, simply out of interest for him.--Deppe has a +pupil whom he has trained entirely himself, and whom he is going to +bring out next winter. Sherwood says he never heard anything so +beautiful as her playing. She is spending the summer near Deppe, and he +hears her play the programme she is going to give in Berlin next winter, +every day. Think what immense certainty that must give! + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + Liszt's Playing. Tausig. Excursion to Sondershausen. + + WEIMAR, _August 23, 1873_. + +Liszt has returned from his trip, and I have played to him twice this +week, and am to go again on Monday. He praised me very much on Tuesday, +and said I played admirably. I knew he was pleased, because whenever he +corrected me he would say, "_Nein, Kindchen_" in such a gentle way! +"_Kind_" is the German for child, and "_Kindchen_" is a diminutive, and +whenever he calls you that you can tell he has a leaning toward you. + +This week is the first time that I have been able to play to him without +being nervous, or that my fingers have felt warm and natural. It has +been a fearful ordeal, truly, to play there, for not only was Liszt +himself present, but such a crowd of artists, all ready to pick flaws in +your playing, and to say, "She hasn't got much talent." I am so glad +that I stayed until Liszt's return, for now the rush is over, and he has +much more time for those of us who are left, and plays a great deal more +himself. Yesterday he played us a study of Paganini's, arranged by +himself, and also his Campanella. I longed for M., as she is so fond of +the Campanella. Liszt gave it with a velvety softness, clearness, +brilliancy and pearliness of touch that was inimitable. And oh, his +grace! _Nobody_ can compare with him! Everybody else sounds heavy +beside him! + +However, I have felt some comfort in knowing that it is not Liszt's +genius alone that makes him such a player. He has gone through such +technical studies as no one else has except Tausig, perhaps. He plays +everything under the sun in the way of _Etuden_--has played them, I +mean. On Tuesday I got him talking about the composers who were the +fashion when he was a young fellow in Paris--Kalkbrenner, Herz, +etc.--and I asked him if he could not play us something by Kalkbrenner. +"O yes! I must have a few things of Kalkbrenner's in my head still," and +then he played part of a concerto. Afterward he went on to speak of +Herz, and said: "I'll play you a little study of Herz's that is +infamously hard. It is a stupid little theme," and then he played the +theme, "but _now_ pay attention." Then he played the study itself. It +was a most hazardous thing, where the hands kept crossing continually +with great rapidity, and striking notes in the most difficult positions. +It made us all laugh; and Liszt hit the notes every time, though it was +disgustingly hard, and as he said himself, "he used to get all in a heat +over it." He had evidently studied it so well that he could never forget +it. He went on to speak of Moscheles and of his compositions. He said +that when between thirty and forty years of age, Moscheles played +superbly, but as he grew older he became too old-womanish and set in his +ways--and then he took off Moscheles, and played his Etuden in his +style. It was very funny. But it showed how Liszt has studied +_everything_, and the universality of his knowledge, for he knows +Tausig's and Rubinstein's studies as well as Kalkbrenner and Herz. There +cannot be many persons in the world who keep up with the whole range of +musical literature as he does. + +Liszt loved Tausig as his own child, and is always delighted when we +play any of his music. His death was an awful blow to Liszt, for he used +to say, "He will be the inheritor of my playing." I suppose he thought +he would live again in him, for he always says, "Never did such talent +come under my hands." I would give anything to have seen them together, +for Tausig was a wonderfully clever and captivating man, and I can +imagine he must have fascinated Liszt. They say he was the naughtiest +boy that ever was heard of, and caused Liszt no end of trouble and +vexation; but he always forgave him, and after the vexation was past +Liszt would pat him on the head and say, "_Carlchen, entweder wirst du +ein grosser Lump oder ein grosser Meister_ (You'll turn out either a +great blockhead or a great master)." That is Liszt all over. He is so +indulgent that in consideration of talent he will forgive anything. + +Tausig's father, who was himself a music-master, took him to Liszt when +he was fourteen years old, hoping that Liszt would receive the little +marvel as a pupil and protege. + +But Liszt would not even hear the boy play. "I have had," he declared +positively, "enough of child prodigies. They never come to much." +Tausig's father apparently acquiesced in the reply, but while he and +Liszt were drinking wine and smoking together, he managed to smuggle the +child on to the piano-stool behind Liszt, and signed to him to begin to +play. The little Tausig plunged into Chopin's A flat Polonaise with such +fire and boldness that Liszt turned his eagle head, and after a few bars +cried, "I take him!" I heard Liszt say once that he could not endure +child prodigies. "I have no time," said he, "for these artists _die_ +WERDEN _sollen_ (that _are_ to be)!" + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _September 9, 1873_. + +This week has been one of great excitement in Weimar, on account of the +wedding of the son of the Grand Duke. All sorts of things have been +going on, and the Emperor and Empress came on from Berlin. There have +been a great many rehearsals at the theatre of different things that +were played, and of course Liszt took a prominent part in the +arrangement of the music. He directed the Ninth Symphony, and played +twice himself with orchestral accompaniments. One of the pieces he +played was Weber's Polonaise in E major, and the other was one of his +own Rhapsodies Hongroises. Of these I was at the rehearsal. When he came +out on the stage the applause was tremendous, and enough in itself to +excite and electrify one. I was enchanted to have an opportunity to hear +Liszt as a concert player. The director of the orchestra here is a +beautiful pianist and composer himself, as well as a splendid conductor, +but it was easy to see that he had to get all his wits together to +follow Liszt, who gave full rein to his imagination, and let the _tempo_ +fluctuate as he felt inclined. As for Liszt, he scarcely _looked_ at the +keys, and it was astounding to see his hands go rushing up and down the +piano and perform passages of the utmost rapidity and difficulty, while +his head was turned all the while towards the orchestra, and he kept up +a running fire of remarks with them continually. "You violins, strike in +_sharp_ here." "You trumpets, not too loud there," etc. He did +everything with the most immense _aplomb_, and without seeming to pay +any attention to his hands, which moved of themselves as if they were +independent beings and had their own brain and everything! He never did +the same thing twice alike. If it were a scale the first time, he would +make it in double or broken thirds the second, and so on, constantly +surprising you with some new turn. While you were admiring the long roll +of the wave, a sudden spray would be dashed over you, and make you catch +your breath! No, never was there such a player! The nervous intensity of +his touch takes right hold of you. When he had finished everybody +shouted and clapped their hands like mad, and the orchestra kept up such +a _fanfare_ of applause, that the din was quite overpowering. Liszt +smiled and bowed, and walked off the stage indifferently, not giving +himself the trouble to come back, and presently he quietly sat down in +the parquet, and the rehearsal proceeded. The concert itself took place +at the court, so that I did not hear it. Metzdorf was there, however, +and he said that Liszt played fabulously, of course, but that he was +not as inspired as he was in the morning, and did not make the same +effect. + + * * * + + WEIMAR, _September 15, 1873_. + +The other day an excursion was arranged to Sondershausen, a town about +three hours' ride from Weimar in the cars. There was to be a concert +there in honour of Liszt, and a whole programme of his music was to be +performed. About half a dozen of the "Lisztianer"--as the Weimarese dub +Liszt's pupils--agreed to go, I, of course, being one. Liszt himself, +the Countess von X. and Count S. were to lead the party. The morning we +started was one of those perfect autumnal days when it is a delight +simply to _live_. + +After breakfast I hurried off to the station, where I met the others, +everybody being in the highest spirits. Liszt and his titled friends +travelled in a first class carriage by themselves. The rest of us went +second class, in the next carriage behind. We were very gay indeed, and +the time did not seem long till we arrived at Sondershausen, where we +exchanged our seats in the cars for seats in an omnibus, and drove to +the principal hotel. There were not sufficient accommodations for us +all, owing to the number of strangers who had come to the festival, so +Mrs. S. and I went to a smaller hotel in a more distant part of the town +to engage rooms, intending to return and dine with Liszt and the rest. +Just as our noisy vehicle clattered up to the inn and some of the +gentlemen jumped out to arrange matters, the solemn strains of a chorale +were heard from a church close by, with its grand and rolling organ +accompaniment. Somehow it made me feel sad to hear it, and a sense of +the _transitoriness_ of things came over me. It seemed like one of those +voices from the other world that call to us now and then. + +After we had engaged our rooms, we drove back to the hotel where Liszt +was staying, and where we were to dine immediately. It was in the centre +of the town, and directly opposite the palace, which rose boldly on a +sort of eminence with great flights of stone steps sweeping down to the +road on each side. It looked quite imposing. An avenue wound up the hill +to the right of it. In the dining-room of the hotel a long table was +spread and all the places were carefully set. My place was next Count S. +and not far from Liszt. So I was very well seated. Everybody began +talking at once the minute dinner was served, as they always do at table +in Germany. Toward the close of it were the usual number of toasts in +honour of Liszt, to which he responded in rather a bored sort of way. I +don't wonder he gets tired of them, for it is always the same thing. He +did not seem to be in his usual spirits, and had a fatigued air. + +After dinner he said, "Now let us go and see Fraeulein Fichtner." +Fraeulein Fichtner was the young lady who was going to play his concerto +in A major at the concert that evening. She is a well-known pianist in +Germany, and is both pretty and brilliant. We started in a procession, +which is the way one always walks with Liszt. It reminds me of those +snow-balls the boys roll up at home--the crowd gathers as it proceeds! +When we got to the house we entered an obscure corridor and began to +find our way up a dark and narrow staircase. Some one struck a wax +match. "Good!" called out Liszt, in his sonorous voice. "_Leuchten Sie +voraus_ (Light us up)." When we got to the top we pulled the bell and +were let in by Fraeulein Fichtner's mother. Fraeulein Fichtner herself +looked no ways dismayed at the number of her guests, though we had the +air of coming to storm the house. She gaily produced all the chairs +there were, and those who could not find a seat had to stand! She was in +Weimar for a few days this summer. So we had all met her before, and I +had once heard her play some duets by Schumann with Liszt, who enjoyed +reading with "Pauline," as he calls her. It is to her that Raff has +dedicated his exquisite "_Maerchen_ (Fairy story)." She is a sparkling +brunette, with a face full of intelligence. They say she writes charming +little poems and is gifted in various ways. Not to tire her for the +concert we only stayed about twenty minutes. + +Going back, Liszt indulged in a little graceful _badinage_ apropos of +the concerto. You know he has written two concertos. The one in E flat +is much played, but this one in A very rarely. It is exceedingly +difficult and is one of the few of his compositions that it interests +Liszt to know that people play. "I should write it otherwise if I wrote +it now," he explained to me as we were walking along. "Some passages are +very troublesome (_haecklig_) to execute. I was younger and less +experienced when I composed it," he added, with one of those +illuminating smiles "like the flash of a dagger in the sun," as Lenz +says. + +When we reached the hotel everybody went in to take a siesta--that +"Mittags-Schlaf" which is law in Germany. I did not wish to sleep and +felt like exploring the old town. So Count S. and I started on a walk. +Sondershausen is a dreamy, sleepy place, with so little life about it +that you hardly realize there are any people there at all. It is +pleasantly situated, and gentle hills and undulations of land are all +about it, but it seems as if the town had been dead for a long time and +this were its grave over which one was quietly walking. We took the road +that wound past the castle. It was embowered in trees, and behind the +castle were gardens and conservatories. The road descended on the other +side, and we followed it till we came unexpectedly upon a little +circular park. Such a deserted, widowed little park it seemed! Not a +soul did we encounter as we wandered through its paths. Bordering them +were great quantities of berry-laden snow-berry bushes, of which I am +very fond. The park had a sort of rank and unkempt aspect, as if it were +abandoned to itself. The very stream that went through it flowed +sluggishly along, and as if it hadn't any particular object in life.--I +enjoyed it very much, and it was very restful to walk about it. One felt +there the truth of R.'s favourite saying, "It doesn't make any +difference. _Nothing_ makes any difference." + +Count S. rattled on, but I didn't hear more than half of what he said. +He is a pleasure-loving man of the world, fond of music, but a perfect +materialist, and untroubled by the "_souffle vers le beau_" which +torments so many people. At the same time he is appreciative and very +amusing, and one has no chance to indulge in melancholy with _him_. We +sauntered about till late in the afternoon, and then returned to the +hotel for coffee before going to the concert, which began at seven. The +concert hall was behind the palace and seemed to form a part of it. +Liszt, the Countess von X., and Count S. sat in a box, aristocratic-fashion. +The rest of us were in the parquet. I was amazed at the orchestra, which +was very large and played gloriously. It seemed to me as fine as that of +the Gewandhaus in Leipsic, though I suppose it cannot be.--"Why has no +one ever mentioned this orchestra to me?" I asked of Kellermann, who sat +next, "and how is it one finds such an orchestra in such a place?" "Oh," +said he, "this orchestra is very celebrated, and the Prince of +Sondershausen is a great patron of music." This is the way it is in +Germany. Every now and then one has these surprises. You never know when +you are going to stumble upon a jewel in the most out-of-the-way corner. + +We were all greatly excited over Fraeulein Fichtner's playing, and it +seemed very jolly to be behind the scenes, as it were, and to have one +of our own number performing. We applauded tremendously when she came +out. She was not nervous in the least, but began with great _aplomb_, +and played most beautifully. The concerto made a generally dazzling and +difficult impression upon me, but did not "take hold" of me +particularly. I do not know how Liszt was pleased with her rendering of +it, for I had no opportunity of asking him. She also played his +Fourteenth Rhapsody with orchestral accompaniment in most bold and +dashing style. Fraeulein Fichtner is more in the bravura than in the +sentimental line, and she has a certain breadth, grasp, and freshness. +The last piece on the programme was Liszt's Choral Symphony, which was +magnificent. The chorus came at the end of it, as in the Ninth Symphony. +Mrs. S. said she was familiar with it from having heard Thomas's +orchestra play it in New York.--That orchestra, by the way, from what I +hear, seems to have developed into something remarkable. It is a great +thing for the musical education of the country to have such an +organization travelling every winter. And what a revelation is an +orchestra the first time one hears it, even if it be but a poor +one!--Music come bodily down from Heaven! And here in their musical +darkness, the Americans in the provinces are having an orchestra of the +very highest excellence burst upon them in full splendour. What _could_ +be more American? They always have the best or none! + +At nine o'clock in the evening the concert was over, and we all returned +to the hotel for supper. We were all desperately hungry after so much +music and enthusiasm. Everybody wanted to be helped at once, and the +waiters were nearly distracted. Count S. sat next me and was very funny. +He kept rapping the table like mad, but without any success. Finally he +exclaimed, "_Jetzt geh'_ ICH _auf Jagd_ (Now _I'm_ going hunting)!" and +sprang up from his chair, rushed to the other end of the dining-room, +possessed himself of some dishes the waiters were helping, and returned +in triumph. I couldn't help laughing, and he made a great many jokes at +the expense of the waiters and everybody else. I could not hear any of +Liszt's conversation, which I regretted, but he seemed in a quiet mood. +I do not think he is the same when he is with aristocrats. He must be +among _artists_ to unsheathe his sword. When he is with "swells," he is +all grace and polish. He seems only to toy with his genius for their +amusement, and he is never serious. At least this is as far as _my_ +observation of him goes on the few occasions I have seen him in the +_beau monde_. The presence of the proud Countess von X. at Sondershausen +kept him, as it were, at a distance from everybody else, and he was not +overflowing with fun and gayety as he was at Jena. She, of course, did +not go with us to see Fraeulein Fichtner, which was fortunate. After +supper one and all went to bed early, quite tired out with the day's +excitement. + +This haughty Countess, by the way, has always had a great fascination +for me, because she looks like a woman who "has a history." I have often +seen her at Liszt's matinees, and from what I hear of her, she is such a +type of woman as I suppose only exists in Europe, and such as the +heroines of foreign novels are modelled upon. She is a widow, and in +appearance is about thirty-six or eight years old, of medium height, +slight to thinness, but exceedingly graceful. She is always attired in +black, and is utterly careless in dress, yet nothing can conceal her +innate elegance of figure. Her face is pallid and her hair dark. She +makes an impression of icy coldness and at the same time of tropical +heat. The pride of Lucifer to the world in general--entire abandonment +to the individual. I meet her often in the park, as she walks along +trailing her "sable garments like the night," and surrounded by her four +beautiful boys--as Count S. says, "each handsomer than the other." They +have such romantic faces! Dark eyes and dark curling hair. The eldest is +about fourteen and the youngest five. + +The little one is too lovely, with his brown curls hanging on his +shoulders! I never shall forget the supercilious manner in which the +Countess took out her eye-glass and looked me over as I passed her one +day in the park. Weimar being such a "_kleines Nest_ (little nest)," as +Liszt calls it, every stranger is immediately remarked. She waited till +I got close up, then deliberately put up this glass and scrutinized me +from head to foot, then let it fall with a half-disdainful, +half-indifferent air, as if the scrutiny did not reward the trouble.--I +was so amused. Her arrogance piques all Weimar, and they never cease +talking about her. I can never help wishing to see her in a fashionable +toilet. If she is so _distinguee_ in rather less than ordinary dress, +what _would_ she be in a Parisian costume? I mean as to grace, for she +is not pretty.--But as a psychological study, she is more interesting, +perhaps, as she is. She always seems to me to be gradually going to +wreck--a burnt-out volcano, with her own ashes settling down upon her +and covering her up. She is very highly educated, and is preparing her +eldest son for the university herself. What a subject she would have +been for a Balzac! + +We stayed over the next day in Sondershausen, as there was to be another +orchestral concert--this time with a miscellaneous programme. Fraeulein +Fichtner had already departed, but the first violinist played +Mendelssohn's famous concerto for violin.--Not in Wilhelmj's masterly +style, but extremely well. We took the train for Weimar about five P. M. +Going back I was in the carriage with Liszt. He sat opposite me, and +gradually began to talk. The conversation turned upon Weitzmann, my +former harmony teacher, who, you remember, was so determined to make me +learn. Liszt remarked upon the extent of his knowledge and said, "If I +were not so old I should like to go to school again to Weitzmann." He +was talking to Weitzmann one day, he said, and Weitzmann proposed to him +that he should write a canon. "I sat down and worked over it a good +while, but finally gave it up.--I know not why, but I never had any +success in writing canons. Weitzmann then sat down, and in half an hour +had produced two excellent ones." He gave this as an instance of +Weitzmann's readiness.--A canon, you know, is a sort of musical puzzle. +The right hand plays the theme. The left hand takes it up a little later +and imitates the right. The two interweave, and the theme forms the +melody and the accompaniment at the same time, according as it is played +by the right or left hand--something on the principle of singing rounds. +The difficulty consists in avoiding monotony with this continual +iteration of the theme, which can be brought on at different intervals, +inverted, etc., at will. It seems to be more a mathematical than a +musical style of composition. I should suppose that _Bach_ could fire +off canons without end! He developed it in every imaginable +form.--Liszt, however, is of rather a different school! + +We got back to Weimar about eight in the evening, and this delicious +excursion, like all others, _had to end_. But the quiet old town, with +its musical name and its great orchestra, will long remain in my memory. + +Adieu, Sondershausen! + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + Farewell to Liszt! German Conservatories and their Methods. Berlin + Again. Liszt and Joachim. + + + WEIMAR, _September 24, 1873_. + +We had our last lesson from Liszt a few days ago, and he leaves Weimar +next week. He was so hurried with engagements the last two times that he +was not able to give us much attention. I played my Rubinstein concerto. +He accompanied me himself on a second piano. We were there about six +o'clock P. M. Liszt was out, but he had left word that if we came we +were to wait. About seven he came in, and the lamps were lit. He was in +an awful humour, and I never saw him so out of spirits. "How is it with +our concerto?" said he to me, for he had told me the time before to send +for the second piano accompaniment, and he would play it with me. I told +him that unfortunately there existed no second piano part. "Then, child, +you've fallen on your head, if you don't know that at least you must +have a second copy of the concerto!" I told him I knew it by heart. +"Oh!" said he, in a mollified tone. So he took my copy and played the +orchestra part which is indicated above the piano part, and I played +without notes. I felt inspired, for the piano I was at was a magnificent +grand that Steinway presented to Liszt only the other day. Liszt was +seated at another grand facing me, and the room was dimly illuminated +by one or two lamps. A few artists were sitting about in the shadow. It +was at the twilight hour, "_l'heure du mystere_," as the poetic Gurickx +used to say, and in short, the occasion was perfect, and couldn't happen +so again. You see we always have our lessons in the afternoon, and it +was a mere chance that it was so late this time. So I felt as if I were +in an electric state. I had studied the piece so much that I felt +perfectly sure of it, and then with Liszt's splendid accompaniment and +his beautiful face to look over to--it was enough to bring out +everything there was in one. If he had only been himself I should have +had nothing more to desire, but he was in one of his bitter, sarcastic +moods. However, I went rushing on to the end--like a torrent plunging +down into darkness, I might say--for it was the end, too, of my lessons +with Liszt! + +In answer to your musical questions, I don't know that there is much to +be told about conservatories of which you are not aware. The one in +Stuttgardt is considered the best; and there the pupils are put through +a regular graded method, beginning with learning to hold the hand, and +with the simplest five finger exercises. There are certain things, +studies, etc., which _all_ the scholars have to learn. That was also the +case in Tausig's conservatory. First we had to go through Cramer, then +through the Gradus ad Parnassum, then through Moscheles, then Chopin, +Henselt, Liszt and Rubinstein. I haven't got farther than Chopin, +myself, but when I went to Kullak I studied Czerny's School for +Virtuosen a whole year, which is the book he "swears by." I'm going on +with them this winter. It takes years to pass through them all, but when +you _have_ finished them, you are an artist. + +I think myself the "Schule des Virtuosen" is indispensable, much as I +loathe it. First, there is nothing like it for giving you a technique. +It consists of passages, generally about two lines in length, which +Czerny has the face to request you to play from twenty to thirty times +successively. You can imagine at that rate how long it takes you to play +through one page! Tedious to the _last_ degree! But it greatly equalizes +and strengthens the fingers, and makes your execution smooth and +elegant. It teaches you to take your time, or as the Germans call it, it +gives you "_Ruhe_ (repose)," the _grand sine qua non_! You learn to +"play out" your passages ("_aus-spielen_," as Kullak is always saying); +that is, you don't hurry or blur over the last notes, but play clearly +and in strict time to the end of the passage. I saw Lebert, the head of +the Stuttgardt conservatory, here this summer, and had several long +conversations with him, and he told me he considered Bach the best +study, and put the Well-Tempered Clavichord at the foundation of +everything. The Stuttgardters study Bach every day, and I think it a +capital plan myself. I have begun doing it, too. It was a great thing +for me, that quarter of Bach that I took with Mr. Paine in Cambridge, +and was one of your inspirations, when you "builded better than you +knew."--I never _saw_ a person with such an instinct to find out the +right thing as you have! If it hadn't been for that, I should never +have got so familiarized with Bach, or got into the way of studying him +for myself, as I have done a great deal. It is as great for the fingers +as it is "good for the soul." Lenz, in his sketch of Chopin, says that +Chopin told him when he prepared for a concert he never studied his own +compositions at all, but shut himself up and practiced Bach! + +However, I suppose it comes to the same thing in the end if one studies +Bach, Czerny, or Gradus, only you must _keep at_ one of them all the +while. The grand thing is to have each of your five fingers go "dum, +dum," an equal number of times, which is the principle of all three! +Tausig was for Gradus, you know, and practiced it himself every day. He +used to transpose the studies in different keys, and play just the same +in the left hand as in the right, and enhance their difficulties in +every way, but _I_ always found them hard enough as they were written! +Bach strengthens the fingers and makes them independent. Czerny +equalizes them and gives an easy and elegant execution, and Gradus is +not only good for finger technique--it trains the arm and wrist also, +and gives a much more powerful execution. + +I think that in all conservatories they have at least six lessons a +week, two solo, two in reading at sight, and two in composition. Then +there are often lectures held on musical subjects by some of the +Professors, or by some one who is engaged for that purpose. All large +conservatories have an orchestra, composed generally out of the scholars +themselves, with a few professionals hired to eke out deficiencies. With +this the best piano scholars play their concertos once a month, or once +in six weeks. The number of public representations varies in every +conservatory. In the Hoch Schule in Berlin they have two yearly in the +Sing-Akademie. Kullak _professes_ to have _one_, but he has so little +interest in his scholars that he omits it when it suits his convenience. +In Stuttgardt I believe they have four. I don't know much about the +interior arrangements of Kullak's conservatory, because I only went to +his own class. I lived too far away to attempt the theory and +composition class. Liszt says that Kullak's pupils are always the best +schooled of any, which rather surprised me, because there is a certain +intimacy between him and Stuttgardt, and he always recommends scholars +to the Stuttgardt conservatory. + + +The Stuttgardters do have immense technique, and I think they are better +taught how to study. It strikes me as if Stuttgardt were the place to +get the machine in working order, but I rather think that Kullak trains +the head more. There is a young American here named Orth, who studied +two years with Kullak, then he spent a year in Stuttgardt, and now he is +going to return to Kullak. He says he thinks that not Lebert, but +Pruckner, is the real backbone of the Stuttgardt conservatory, but that +even with _him_ one year is sufficient. Fraeulein Gaul, on the contrary, +with whom Lebert has taken the greatest possible pains, thinks him a +magnificent master, and certainly he has developed her admirably. It is +probably with him as with them all. If they take a fancy to you, they +will do a great deal for you; if not, _nothing_! Liszt is no exception +to this rule. I've seen him snub and entirely neglect young artists of +the most remarkable talent and virtuosity, merely because they did not +please him personally. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _October 8, 1873_. + +_Voila!_ as Liszt always says. Here I am back again in old Berlin, and +if I ever felt "like a cat in a strange garret," I do now. I left dear +little Weimar two days ago, and parted from our adored Liszt a week ago +to-day. He has gone to Rome. _Never_ did I feel leaving anybody or any +place so much, and Berlin seems to me like a great roaring wilderness. +The distances are so _endless_ here. You either have to kill yourself +walking, or else spend a fortune in droschkies. The houses all seem to +me as if they had grown. There is an immense number of new ones going up +on all sides, and the noise, and the crowd, and the confusion are enough +to set one distracted, after the idyllic life I've been leading. Ah, +well! _Es war eben_ ZU _schoen!_ (It was _too_ beautiful!) + +Yesterday and to-day I've been looking about for a new boarding-place. +I've had two invitations to dinner since my return, but everybody and +everything seems so dull and stupid, prosaic and tedious to me, that I +declined them both, and haven't given any of my friends my address until +I have had a little time to let myself down gradually from the delights +of Weimar. + +Liszt was kindness itself when the time came to say good-bye, but I +could scarcely get out a word, nor could I even thank him for all he had +done for me. I did not wish to break down and make a scene, as I felt I +should if I tried to say anything. So I fear he thought me rather +ungrateful and matter-of-course, for he couldn't know that I was feeling +an excess of emotion which kept me silent. I miss going to him +inexpressibly, and although I heard my favourite Joachim last night, +even _he_ paled before Liszt. He is on the violin what Liszt is on the +piano, and is the only artist worthy to be mentioned in the same breath +with him. + +Like Liszt, he so vitalizes everything that I have to take him in all +over again every time I hear him. I am always astonished, amazed and +delighted afresh, and even as I listen I can hardly believe that the man +_can_ play so! But Liszt, in addition to his marvellous playing, has +this unique and imposing personality, whereas at first Joachim is not +specially striking. Liszt's face is all a play of feature, a glow of +fancy, a blaze of imagination, whereas Joachim is absorbed in his +violin, and his face has only an expression of fine discrimination and +of intense solicitude to produce his artistic effects. Liszt never looks +at his instrument; Joachim never looks at anything else. Liszt is a +complete actor who intends to carry away the public, who never forgets +that he is before it, and who behaves accordingly. Joachim is totally +oblivious of it. Liszt subdues the people to him by the very way he +walks on to the stage. He gives his proud head a toss, throws an +electric look out of his eagle eye, and seats himself with an air as +much as to say, "Now I am going to do just what I please with you, and +you are nothing but puppets subject to my will." He said to us in the +class one day, "When you come out on the stage, look as if you didn't +care a rap for the audience, and as if you knew more than any of them. +That's the way I used to do.--Didn't that provoke the critics though!" +he added, with an ineffable look of malicious mischief. So you see his +principle, and that was precisely the way he did at the rehearsal in the +theatre at Weimar that I wrote to you about. Joachim, on the contrary, +is the quiet gentleman-artist. He advances in the most unpretentious +way, but as he adjusts his violin he looks his audience over with the +calm air of a musical monarch, as much as to say, "I repose wholly on my +art, and I've no need of any 'ways or manners.'" In reality I admire +Joachim's principle the most, but there is something indescribably +fascinating and subduing about Liszt's willfulness. You feel at once +that he is a great genius, and that you _are_ nothing but his puppet, +and somehow you take a base delight in the humiliation! The two men are +intensely interesting, each in his own way, but they are extremes. + +[Beside his playing and his compositions, what Liszt has done for music +and for musicians, and why, therefore, he stands so pre-eminently the +greatest and the best beloved master in the musical world, may appear to +the general reader in the following extract taken from a translation in +_Dwight's Journal_, Oct. 23, 1880, of "Franz Liszt, a Musical Character +Portrait" by La Mara, in the _Gartenlaube_: "We must count it among the +exceptional merits of Liszt, that he has paved the way to recognition +for innumerable aspirants, as he always shows an open heart and open +hands to all artistic strivings. He was the first and most active +furtherer of the immense Bayreuth enterprise, and the chief founder of +the Musical Societies or Unions that flourish throughout Germany. And +for how many noble and philanthropic objects has he not exerted his +artistic resources! If, during his earlier virtuoso career, he made his +genius serve the advantage of others far more than his own--saving out +of the millions that he earned only a modest sum for himself, while he +alone contributed many thousands for the completion of Cologne +Cathedral, for the Beethoven monument at Bonn, and for the victims of +the Hamburg conflagration--so since the close of his career as a pianist +his public artistic activity has been exclusively consecrated to the +benefit of others, to artistic undertakings, or to charitable objects. +Since the end of 1847, not a penny has come into his own pocket either +through piano-playing and conducting, or through teaching. All this, +which has yielded such rich capital and interest to others, has cost +only sacrifice of time and money to himself."]--ED. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + Kullak as a Teacher. The Four Great Virtuosi, Clara Schumann, + Rubinstein, Von Buelow, and Tausig. + + + BERLIN, _November 7, 1873_. + +I've been in a sort of mental apathy since I got back--the result, I +suppose, of so much artistic excitement all summer. Of course I am +practicing very hard, and I am taking private lessons of Kullak again. I +played him my Rubinstein concerto two weeks ago and told him I wanted to +play it in a concert. He says I need more power in it in many places, +and by practicing it every day I hope I shall at last work up to it, as +I've conquered the technical difficulties in it. There were two pages in +it I thought I never _could_ master. It is the same with all concertos. +They are fearfully difficult things to play, and far more difficult, _I_ +think, than solos are, because the effort is so sustained. They are to +me the most interesting things to listen to of all, and I can't imagine +how you can think that piano and orchestra are "not made to go +together." However, I never myself appreciated concertos until I came to +Germany. Kullak is the most awfully discouraging teacher that can be +imagined. When you play to him, it is like looking at your skin through +a magnifying glass. All your faults seem to start out and glare at you. +I don't think, though, that I ever fairly do myself justice when I play +to him, because he has a sort of benumbing effect on me, and I feel to +him something the way that Owen did to old Peter in Hawthorne's story of +"The Artist of the Beautiful." I can't help acknowledging the truth of +his observations even when I am wincing under them, and I yet feel at +the same time that he does not wholly get at the soul of the thing. +Kullak is _so_ pedantic! He _never_ overlooks a technical imperfection, +and he ties you down to the technique so that you never can give rein to +your imagination. He sits at the other piano, and just as you are +rushing off he will strike in himself and say, "Don't hurry, Fraeulein," +or something like that, and then you begin to think about holding back +your fingers and playing every note even, etc. Now I never expect to get +that perfection of technique that all these artists have who have been +training throughout their childhood while their hand was forming. +Kullak's own technique is magnificent, but now that I've graduated, as +it were, he ought to let me play my own way, and not expect me to play +as _he_ does, and then I could produce my own effects. That is just the +difference between him and Liszt. Liszt's grand principle is, to leave +you your freedom, and when you play to him, you feel like a Pegasus +caracoling about in the air. When you play to Kullak, you feel as if +your wings were suddenly clipped, and as if you were put into harness to +draw an express wagon! However, I don't think it would be well to go to +Liszt without having been through such a training first, for you want to +know what you are about when you study with _him_. You must have a good +solid _basis_ upon which to raise his airy super-structures. Kullak I +regard as the basis. + +You ask me in your letter to write you a comparison--a summing +up--between Clara Schumann, Buelow, Tausig and Rubinstein, but I don't +find it very easy to do, as they are all so different. Clara Schumann is +entirely a classic player. Beethoven's sonatas, and Bach, too, she plays +splendidly; but she doesn't seem to me to have any _finesse_, or much +poetry in her playing. There's nothing subtle in her conception. She has +a great deal of fire, and her whole style is grand, finished, perfectly +rounded off, solid and satisfactory--what the Germans call _gediegen_. +She is a _healthy_ artist to listen to, but there is nothing of the +analytic, no Balzac or Hawthorne about her. Beethoven's Variations in C +minor are, perhaps, the best performance I ever heard from her, and they +are immensely difficult, too; I thought she did them better than Buelow, +in spite of Buelow's being such a great Beethovenite. I think she repeats +the same pieces a good deal, possibly because she finds the modern +fashion of playing everything without notes very trying. I've even heard +that she cries over the necessity of doing it; and certainly it is a +foolish thing to make a point of, with so very great an artist as Clara +Schumann.--If people could _only_ be allowed to have their own +individuality! + +Buelow's playing is more many-sided, and is chiefly distinguished by its +great vigor; there is no end to his nervous energy, and the more he +plays, the more the interest increases. He is my favourite of the four. +But he plays Chopin just as well as he does Beethoven, and Schumann, +too. Altogether he is a superlative pianist, though by no means unerring +in his performance. I've heard him get dreadfully mixed up. I think he +trusts _too_ much to his memory, and that he does not prepare +sufficiently. He plays everything by heart, and such programmes! He +always hits the nail plump on the head, and such a grasp as he has! His +chords take firm hold of you. For instance, in the beginning of the two +last movements of the Moonlight Sonata, you should hear him run up that +arpeggio in the right hand so lightly and pianissimo, every note so +delicately articulated, and then _crash-smash_ on those two chords on +the top! And when he plays Bach's gavottes, gigues, etc., in the English +Suites, a laughing, roguish look comes over his face, and he puts the +most indescribable drollery and originality into them. You see that "he +sees the point" so well, and that makes _you_ see it, too. Yes, it is +good fun to hear Buelow do these things.--Perhaps the best summing up of +his peculiar greatness would be to say that he impresses you as using +the instrument only to express ideas. With him you forget all about the +piano, and are absorbed only in the thought or the passion of the piece. + +Rubinstein you've heard. Most people put him next to Liszt. Your finding +him cold surprised me, for if there is a thing he is celebrated here +for, it is the fire and passion of his playing, and for his imagination +and spontaneity. I think that Tausig, Buelow, and Clara Schumann, all +three, have it all cut and dried beforehand, how they are going to play +a piece, but Rubinstein creates at the instant. He plays without _plan_. +Probably the afternoon you heard him he did not feel in the mood, and +so was not at his best. As a composer he far outranks the other three. + +Tausig resembled Liszt more in that subtlety which Liszt has, and +consequently he was a better Chopin player than anybody else except +Liszt. I never shall forget his playing of Chopin's great Ballade in G +minor the very first time I heard him in concert. It is a divine +composition, and his rendering of it was not only all warmth and +fervour; it was also so wonderfully poetic that it fairly cast a spell +upon the audience, and a minute or two went by before they could begin +to applaud. It was like a dream of beauty suspended in the air before +you--floating there--and you didn't want to disturb it. Tausig had an +intense love for Chopin, and always wished he could have known him. I +think that he had more virtuosity, and yet more delicacy of feeling, +than either Rubinstein or Buelow. His finish, perfection, and above all +his touch, were above anything. But, except in Chopin, he was cold, at +least in the concert room. In the conservatory he seemed to be a very +passionate player; but, somehow, in public that was not the case. +Unfortunately, I had studied so little at that time, that I don't feel +as if I were competent to judge him. He was Liszt's favourite, and Liszt +said, "He will be the inheritor of my playing;" but I doubt if this +would have been, for the winter before Tausig died, Kullak remarked to +me that his playing became more and more "dry" every year, probably on +account of his morbid aversion to "Spectakel," as he called it; whereas +Liszt gives the reins to the emotions always. + +When I was in Weimar I heard a great deal about Tausig's _escapades_ +when he was studying there as a boy. They say he was awfully wild and +reckless at that time, and Liszt paid his debts over and over again. +Sometimes in aristocratic parties, when Liszt did not feel like playing +himself, he would tell Tausig to play, and perhaps Tausig would not feel +like it, either. He had the most enormous strength in his fingers, +though his hands were small, and he would go to the piano and pretend he +was going to play, and strike the first chords with such a crash that +three or four strings would snap almost immediately, and then, of +course, the piano was used up for the evening! + +Tausig's father once procured him a splendid grand piano from Leipsic, +and shortly after, Tausig whittled off the corners of all the keys, so +as to make them more difficult to strike, and his father had to pay a +large sum to have them repaired. Another time he was presented with a +set of chess-men, and the next day some one on visiting him observed the +pieces all lying about the floor. "Why, Tausig, what has happened to +your chess-men?" "Oh, I wanted to see if they were easily broken, so I +knocked up the board." He seemed to be possessed with a spirit of +destruction. Gottschal told me that one time when Tausig was "hard up" +for money, he sold the score of Liszt's Faust for five thalers to a +servant, along with a great pile of his own notes. The servant disposed +of them to some waste-paper man, and Gottschal, accidentally hearing of +it, went to the man and purchased them. Then he went to Liszt to tell +him that he had the score. As it happened the publisher had written for +it that very day and Liszt was turning the house upside down, looking +for it everywhere. + +At that time he was living in an immense house on a hill here, that they +call the Altenburg. Liszt occupied the first floor, a princely friend +the second, and the top story was one grand ball-room in which were +generally nine grand pianos standing. They used to give the most +magnificent entertainments, and Liszt spent thirty thousand thalers a +year. He lived like a prince in those days--very different from his +present simplicity. Well, he was in an awful state of mind because his +score was nowhere to be found. "A whole year's labor lost!" he cried, +and he was in such a rage, that when Gottschal asked him for the third +time what he was looking for, he turned and stamped his foot at him and +said, "You confounded fellow, can't you leave me in peace, and not +torment me with your stupid questions?" Gottschal knew perfectly well +what was wanting, but he wished to have a little fun out of the matter. +At last he took pity on Liszt, and said, "Herr Doctor, _I_ know what +you've lost. It is the score to your Faust." "Oh," said Liszt, changing +his tone immediately, "do you know anything of it?" "Of course I do," +said Gottschal, and proceeded to unfold Master Tausig's performance, and +how he had rescued the precious music. Liszt was transported with joy +that it was found, and called up-stairs, "Carolina, Carolina, we're +saved! Gottschal has rescued us;" and then Gottschal said that Liszt +embraced him in his transport, and could not say or do enough to make up +for his having been so rude to him. Well, you would have supposed that +it was now all up with Master Tausig; but not at all. A few days +afterward was Tausig's birthday, and Carolina took Gottschal aside, and +begged him to drop the subject of the note stealing, for Liszt doted so +on his Carl that he wished to forget it. Sure enough, Liszt kissed Carl +and congratulated him on his birthday, and consoled himself with his +same old observation, "You'll either turn out a great blockhead, my +little Carl, or a great master." + +Tausig had a great ambition to be a composer, and in his early youth he +published a number of compositions. Later on he became intensely +critical of his own work, and finally bought up all the copies he could +lay hands on and burnt them! This is entirely characteristic of his +sense of perfection, which was extreme, and may serve as an example to +young composers who are ambitious of saying something in music, when +very often they have nothing to say! Indeed, I am often amazed at the +temerity with which men will rush into print, quite oblivious of the +fact that it requires enormous talent to produce even a short piece of +music that is worth anything. Only a genius can do it. + +Tausig, in my opinion, _did_ possess exceptional genius in composition, +though he left but few works behind him to attest it. Prominent among +these are his unique arrangements of three of Strauss's Waltzes. He had +a passion for philosophy, and was deeply read in Kant and Hegel. These +"arrangements" betray his metaphysical and tentative turn, and could +only have been the product of the highest mental force and culture. +Calling the waltz itself the warp of the composition, then through its +simple threads we find darting backwards and forwards a subtle, +complicated and tragic mind, an exquisitely refined and delicate +sentiment, and a piquante, aerial fancy, until finally is wrought a +brilliant and bewildering transcription--transfiguration rather--of +endless fascination and tantalizing beauty, which no one but a virtuoso +can play and no one but a connoisseur can comprehend. In a peculiar +manner his music leaves a _stamp_ upon the heart, and to those who can +appreciate it, Tausig, as a composer, is a deep and irreparable +loss.--If he had not original ideas of his own, he certainly possessed +the power of putting an entirely new face on those of others. + + + + +WITH DEPPE. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + Gives up Kullak for Deppe. Deppe's Method in Touch and in + Scale-Playing. Fraeulein Steiniger. Pedal Study. + + + BERLIN, _December 11, 1873_. + +Since I last wrote you I have taken a very important step, which is +_this_: After taking three or four lessons of Kullak I HAVE GIVEN HIM +UP! and am now studying under a new master. His name is Herr +Capelmeister Deppe. I suppose you will all think me crazed, but I think +I know what I am about. He seems to me a very remarkable man, and is to +me the most satisfactory teacher I've had yet. Of course I don't count +in the unapproachable Liszt when I say that, for Liszt is no +"_professeur du piano_," as he himself used scornfully to remark. + +I made Herr Deppe's acquaintance quite by chance, at a musical party +given for Anna Mehlig by an American gentleman living here. I had often +heard of him, and was very anxious to know him, but somehow had never +compassed it. He is a conductor, to begin with, and I have often seen +him conduct orchestral concerts. In fact, that was what he first came to +Berlin for, a few years ago--to conduct Stern's orchestral concerts +during the latter's absence in Italy. Deppe is an accomplished +conductor, and I have never heard Beethoven's second Overture to Leonora +sound as I have under his baton. + +But it was Sherwood who first called my attention to him as a teacher. +He rushed into my room one day, and said, "Oh, I've just heard the most +beautiful playing that ever I heard in my life!" I asked him who it was +that had taken him so by storm, and he said it was a young English girl +named Fannie Warburg, and that she was a pupil of Deppe's. "Well, what +is it about her that is so remarkable," said I. "Oh, _everything_!--execution, +expression, style, touch--all are _perfect_! I never heard anything to +equal her, and I feel as if I never wanted to touch the piano again." + +This was such strong language for Sherwood, who is generally very +critical and anything but enthusiastic, that my interest was immediately +excited. He went on to tell me that Deppe had been training this young +English girl, now only eighteen years of age, with the greatest care, +for six years, and that he had such an interest in her that he did not +confine himself to giving her lessons only, but set himself to form her +whole musical taste by taking her to the best concerts and to hear the +great operas, calling her attention to every peculiarity of structure in +a composition, and giving her all sorts of hints which only a man of +profound musical culture _could_ give. Sherwood said, moreover, that in +summer he made her go to Pyrmont, which is a watering place near +Hanover, where he goes himself every year, and that there he heard her +play _every day_ Mozart's concertos and all sorts of things. I thought +to myself at the time that the man who would take so much trouble for a +pupil as that, would have been just the one for me, for it was easy to +see that Deppe was teaching more for the love of Art than for love of +money--a rare thing in these materialistic days! Afterward, you know, +Miss B. spoke to me about him in Weimar, and I wrote you what she said. + +Well, as I was saying, I went to this musical party given to Anna +Mehlig, where there were a number of musicians and critics. I was +listening to Mehlig play, when suddenly Sherwood, who was also present, +stole up to me and said, "Come into the next room and be introduced to +Deppe." At these magic words I started, and immediately did as I was +bid. I found Deppe in one corner looking about him in an absent sort of +way. He was a man of medium height, with a great big brain, keen blue +eyes and delicate little mouth, and he had a most cheery and sunny +expression. He shook hands, and then we sat down and got into a most +animated conversation--all about music. I told him how interested I was +by all I had heard of him--how I had returned to Kullak for a last +trial--how tired I was of his eternal pedagogism, and how I should like +to study with _him_. + +He asked me what my chief difficulty was, whereupon I answered "the +technique, of course." He smiled, and said "that was the smallest +difficulty, and that anybody could master execution if they knew how to +attack it, unless there was some want of proper development of the +hand." I said I had studied very hard, but that I hadn't mastered it, +and that there was always some hard place in every piece which I +couldn't get the better of. He said he was sure he could remedy the +deficiency, and that if I would show him my hand without a glove, he +could tell directly what I was capable of. I wouldn't pull it off, +however, because I was afraid he might find some radical defect or +weakness in it, but I was so charmed with the way he made light of the +technique, and with the absolute certainty he seemed to have that I +could overcome it, that I promised him that I would go and play to him +the following Wednesday. + +Accordingly on the following Wednesday I presented myself. I had +expected to stay about half an hour, but I ended by staying _three solid +hours_, and we talked as fast as we could all the while, too! So you may +imagine we had a good deal to say. He lives in two little rooms on the +Koeniggraetzer Strasse, only four doors from the W.'s, where I boarded for +so long. Now if I had only known I was close to such a teacher! We must +often have passed each other in the street, and where _was_ my good +angel that he did not touch my arm and say, "There's the man for +you?"--Frightful to think how near one may be to one's best happiness, +or even salvation, and not know it! + +Deppe's front room was pretty much filled up with a grand piano, which, +as well as the chairs and most other articles of furniture, was covered +with music. I glanced over the pieces a little, and there was nearly +every set of Etudes under the sun, it seemed to me, as well as concertos +and pieces by all the great composers, fingered and marked with pencil +in the most minute way. It was enough simply to turn the leaves, to see +what a study he must have made of everything he gave his scholars. His +inner room had double doors to it to prevent the sound from penetrating. +I rapped at the outside one, and presently I heard a great turning and +rattling of keys, and then they opened, and Deppe was before me. He put +out his hand in the most cordial and friendly way, and greeted me with +the most winning smile in the world. I took off my things and began to +play to him. He listened quietly, and without interrupting me. When I +had finished he told me that my difficulties were principally mechanical +ones--that I had conception and style, but that my execution was uneven +and hurried, my wrist stiff, the third and fourth fingers[F] very weak, +the tone not full and round enough, that I did not know how to use the +pedal, and finally, that I was too nervous and flurried. + +"If possible, you must get over this agitation," said he. "_Hoeren Sie +Sich spielen_ (Listen to your own playing). You have talent enough to +get over all your difficulties if you will be patient, and do just as I +tell you." "I will do anything," I said. "Very good. But I warn you that +you will have to give up all playing for the present except what I give +you to study, and _those_ things you must play very slowly." + +This was a pleasant prospect, as I was just preparing to give a concert +in Berlin, under Kullak's auspices, and had already got my programme +half learned! But I had "invoked the demon," and I felt bound to give +the required pledge.--So here I am, after four years abroad with the +"greatest masters," going back to first principles, and beginning with +five-finger exercises! I had never been given any particular rule for +holding my hand, further than the general one of curving the fingers and +lifting them very high. Deppe objects to this extreme lifting of the +fingers. He says it makes a _knick_ in the muscle, and you get all the +strength simply from the finger, whereas, when you lift the finger +moderately high, the muscle from the whole arm comes to bear upon it. +The tone, too, is entirely different. Lifting the finger so very high, +and striking with force, stiffens the wrist, and produces a slight jar +in the hand which cuts off the singing quality of the tone, like closing +the mouth suddenly in singing. It produces the effect of a blow upon the +key, and the tone is more a sharp, quick tone; whereas, by letting the +finger just fall--it is fuller, less loud, but more penetrating. I +suppose the hammer falls back more slowly from the string, and that +makes the tone _sing_ longer. + +Don't you remember my saying that Liszt had such an extraordinary way of +playing a melody? That it did not seem to be so loud and cut-out as most +artists make it, and yet it was so penetrating? Well, dear, _there_ was +the secret of it! "_Spielen Sie mit dem Gewicht_ (Play with weight)," +Deppe will say. "Don't strike, but let the fingers _fall_. At first the +tone will be nearly inaudible, but with practice it will gain every day +in power."--After Deppe had directed my attention to it, I remembered +that I had never seen Liszt lift up his fingers so fearfully high as the +other schools, and especially the Stuttgardt one, make such a point of +doing.[G] That is where Mehlig misses it, and is what makes her playing +so sharp and cornered at times. When you lift the fingers so high you +cannot bind the tones so perfectly together. There is always a break. +Deppe makes me listen to every tone, and carry it over to the next one, +and not let any one finger get an undue prominence over the other--a +thing that is immensely difficult to do--so I have given up all pieces +for the present, and just devote myself to playing these little +exercises right. + +Deppe not only insists upon the fingers being as curved as possible, so +that you play exactly on the tips of them, but he turns the hand very +much out, so as to make the knuckles of the third and fourth fingers +higher than those of the first and second, and as he does _not_ permit +you to throw out the elbow in doing this, the _turn must be made from +the wrist_. The _thumb_ must also be slightly curved, and quite free +from the hand. Many persons impede their execution by not keeping the +thumb independent enough of the rest of the hand. The moment it +contracts, the hand is enfeebled. The object of turning the hand outward +is to favour the third and fourth fingers, and give them a higher fall +when they are lifted. This strengthens them very much. It also looks +much prettier when the outer edge of the hand is high, and one of +Deppe's grand mottoes is, "When it _looks_ pretty then it is right." + +After Deppe had put me through five-finger exercises on the foregoing +principles, and taught me to lift each finger and let it fall with a +perfectly loose wrist, (a most deceitful point, by the way, for it took +me a long while to distinguish when I was stiffening the wrist +involuntarily and when I wasn't,) he proceeded to the scale. He always +begins with the one in E major as the most useful to practice. His +principle in playing the scale is _not_ to turn the thumb under! but to +turn a little on each finger end, pressing it firmly down on the key, +and screwing it round, as it were, on a pivot, till the next finger is +brought over its own key. In this way he prepares for the thumb, which +is kept free from the hand and slightly curved.--He told me to play the +scale of E major slowly with the right hand, which I did. He curved his +hand round mine, and told me as long as I played right, his hand would +not interfere with mine. I played up one octave, and then I wished to go +on by placing my first finger on F sharp. To do that I naturally turned +my hand outward, so as to make the step from my thumb on E to F sharp +with the first, but it came bang up against Deppe's hand like a sort of +blockade. "Go on," said Deppe. "I can't, when you keep your hand right +in the way," said I. "My hand isn't in the way," said he, "but _your_ +hand is out of position." + +So I started again. This time I reflected, and when I got my third +finger on D sharp, I kept my hand slanting from left to right, but I +prepared for the turning under of the thumb, and for getting my first +finger on F sharp, by turning my wrist sharply out. That brought my +thumb down on the note and prepared me instantly for the next step. In +fact, my wrist carried my finger right on to the sharp without any +change in the position of the hand, thus giving the most perfect legato +in the world, and I continued the whole scale in the same manner. Just +try it once, and you'll see how ingenious it is--only one must be +careful not to throw out the elbow in turning out the wrist. As in the +ascending scale one has to turn the thumb under twice in every octave, +Deppe's way of playing avoids twice throwing the hand out of position as +one does by the old way of playing straight along, and the smoothness +and rapidity of the scale must be much greater. The direction of the +hand in running passages is always a little oblique. + +Don't you remember my telling you that Liszt has an inconceivable +lightness, swiftness and smoothness of execution? When Deppe was +explaining this to me, I suddenly remembered that when he was playing +scales or passages, his fingers seemed to lie across the keys in a +slanting sort of way, and to execute these rapid passages almost without +any perceptible motion. Well, dear, _there_ it was again! As Liszt is a +great experimentalist, he probably does all these things by instinct, +and without reasoning it out, but that is why nobodys else's playing +sounds like his. Some of his scholars had most dazzling techniques, and +I used to rack my brains to find out how it was, that no matter how +perfectly anybody else played, the minute Liszt sat down and played the +same thing, the previous playing seemed rough in comparison. I'm sure +Deppe is the only master in the world who has thought that out; though, +as he says himself, it is the egg of Columbus--"when you know it!" + +Deppe always begins the scale in the middle of the piano, and plays up +three octaves with the right, and down three octaves with the left hand. +He says that all the difficulty is in going up, and that coming back is +perfectly easy, as all you have to do is to let the fingers run! He +always makes me play each hand separately at first, and very slowly, and +then both hands together in contrary direction, gradually quickening the +tempo. After that in thirds, sixths, octaves, etc. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _December 25, 1873_. + +As you may imagine, this is anything but a "Merry Christmas" for me, for +I am simply the most completely _bouleversee_ mortal in this world! Here +I was a month ago preparing to give a concert of my own. Then I have the +good or bad luck to make Herr Deppe's acquaintance, and to find out how +I "ought" to have been studying for the last four years. I give up +Kullak and my concert plan, thinking I'll study with Deppe and come out +under his auspices. After two lessons with him, comes your letter with +the news of this awful national panic in it.--_Could_ anything be worse +for a person who has really _conscientiously_ tried to attain her +object? I'm like the professor who gave some lectures to prove a certain +theory, and when he got to the fourteenth, he decided it was false, and +devoted the remaining ones to pulling it all down! + +However, after practicing the scale on Deppe's principles, I find that +they open the road to an ease, rapidity, sureness and elegance of +execution which, with my stiff hand, I've not been able to see even in +the dim distance before! One of his grand hobbies is _tone_, and he +never lets me play a note without listening to it in the closest manner, +and making it sound what he calls "_bewuesst_ (conscious)."--No more +mechanical "straying of the hands over the keys (as the novelists always +say of their heroines) thinking of all sorts of things the while," but +instead, a close pinning down of the whole attention to hear whether one +finger predominates over the other, and to note the effect produced. I +was perfectly amazed to see how many little ugly habits I had to correct +of which I had not been the least aware. It seems as though my ears had +been opened for the first time! Such concentration is very exhausting, +and after two or three hours' practice I feel as if I should drop off +the chair. + +I forgot to say before, that Deppe enjoins sitting very low--that +is--not higher than a common chair. He says one may have "the soul of an +angel," and yet if you sit high, the tone will not sound poetic. +Moreover, in a low seat the fingers have to work a great deal more, +because you can't assist them by bringing the weight of your arm to +bear. "Your elbow must be _lead_ and your wrist a _feather_." Of course +the seat must be modified to suit the person. I prefer a low seat +myself, and have even had my piano-chair cut off two inches. + +Before definitely deciding to give up Kullak and come to _him_, Deppe +insisted that I should hear one of his scholars play. Fannie Warburg is +in England on a visit, so I could not hear _her_, but he has another +young lady pupil of whom he is very proud, named Fraeulein Steiniger. +This young lady had been originally a pupil of Kullak's, and I had heard +her play once in his conservatory. She was a girl of a good deal of +talent, but not a genius. Deppe said that when she came to him she had +all my defects, only worse. She has been studying with him in the most +tremendous manner for fifteen months, and he wanted me to see what he +had made of her in that time. She was going to play in a concert in +Luebeck, and he was to rehearse her pieces with her on Saturday for the +last time. He begged me to come then, and accordingly I went. + +I was very much struck by her playing, which was remarkable, not so much +for sentiment or poetry, of which she had little, but for the _mastery_ +she had over the instrument, and for the perfection with which she did +everything. There was a clarity and limpidity about her trills and runs +which surprised and delighted. Her left hand was as able as the right, +and had a way of taking up a variation like nothing at all and running +along with it through the most complicated passages, which almost made +you laugh with pleasure! There was a wonderful vitality, elasticity and +_snap_ to her chords which impressed me very much, and a unity of effect +about her whole performance of any composition which I don't remember to +have heard from the pupils of other masters. The position of the hand +was exquisite, and all difficulties seemed to melt away like snow or to +be surmounted with the greatest ease. I saw at a glance that Deppe is a +magnificent teacher, and I believe that he has originated a school of +his own. + +Fraeulein Steiniger played a charming Quintette by Hummel, a beautiful +Suite by Raff, a Prelude and Fugue by Bach, and two Studies, and all, as +it seemed to me, exactly as they _ought_ to be played. After she had +finished, we had a long talk about Kullak. She said she staid with him +year after year, doing her very best, and never arriving at anything. At +last, as he did nothing for her, she resolved to strike out for herself, +and went to Deppe, who was at that time conducting Stern's orchestral +concerts, and asked him if he would not allow her to play in one of +them. Deppe received her with his characteristic kindness and +cordiality, but told her that before he could promise he must first hear +her in private, and he set a time for the purpose. + +She had prepared Beethoven's great E flat Concerto, which everybody +plays here. It is as difficult for Deppe to listen to that concerto as +it is for Liszt to hear Chopin's B flat minor Scherzo. "We poor +conductors!" he will exclaim, "will the artists _always_ keep bringing +us Beethoven's E flat Concerto? Why not, for once, the B flat, or a +Mozart concerto? _Then_ we should say '_Ja, mit Vergnuegen_ (Yes, with +pleasure).' _Aber Jeder will grossartig spielen heutzutage_ (But +everybody wants to play on a grand scale now-a-days). The mighty rushing +torrent is the fashion, but who can do the wimpling, dimpling streamlet? +Nobody has any fingers for the _kleine Passagen_ (little fine +passages). Sie _haben_, Alle, _keine Finger_ (_None_ of them have any +fingers)." He then winds up by saying _he_ is the only man in Germany +who knows how to give them "fingers." "_Ich weiss worauf es ankommt_ +(_I_ know what it depends on)!" + +Nevertheless, he listened patiently for the thousandth time to the E +flat concerto, as Steiniger played it. He then quietly called her +attention to the fact that _she_ had "no fingers," and she was in +perfect despair. He saw that she was energetic and willing to work, and +he at once took her in hand and began to drill her. She withdrew +entirely from society and devoted herself to practicing, following his +directions implicitly. She is now a beautiful artist, and he chalks out +every step of her career. I don't doubt she will play in the Gewandhaus +in Leipsic eventually, which is the height of every artist's ambition, +and stamps you as "finished." Then you are recognized all over the +world. Deppe does not mean to let her play here till she has first +played in many little places and succeeded. As he said to me the other +day, "When you wish to spring over tall mountains, you must first jump +over little mounds (_kleine Graben_.)" He counsels me to take a lesson +of this young lady every day for a time, so as to get over the technical +part quickly. + +As for Deppe's young protegee, Fannie Warburg, whom he has formed +completely, everybody says that she is wonderful. Fraeulein Steiniger +says that when you hear her play you feel almost as if it were something +holy, it is so perfect and so extraordinarily spiritual. She is only +eighteen. Deppe showed me the list of compositions that she has already +played in concerts elsewhere, and I was astonished at the variety and +compass of it. Every great composer was represented. + +Among other refinements of his teaching, Deppe asked me if I had ever +made any pedal studies. I said "No--nobody had ever said anything to me +about the pedal particularly, except to avoid the use of it in runs, and +I supposed it was a matter of taste." He picked out that simple little +study of Cramer in D major in the first book--you know it well--and +asked me to play it. I had played that study to Tausig, and he found no +fault with my use of the pedal; so I sat down thinking I could do it +right. But I soon found I was mistaken, and that Deppe had very +different ideas on the subject. He sat down and played it phrase by +phrase, pausing between each measure, to let it "sing." I soon saw that +it is possible to get as great a virtuosity with the pedal as with +anything else, and that one must make as careful a study of it. You +remember I wrote to you that one secret of Liszt's effects was his use +of the pedal,[H] and how he has a way of disembodying a piece from the +piano and seeming to make it float in the air? He makes a spiritual form +of it so perfectly visible to your inward eye, that it seems as if you +could almost hear it breathe! Deppe seems to have almost the same idea, +though he has never heard Liszt play. "The Pedal," said he, "is the +_lungs_ of the piano." He played a few bars of a sonata, and in his +whole method of binding the notes together and managing the pedal, I +recognized Liszt. The thing floated!--Unless Deppe wishes the chord to +be very brilliant, he takes the pedal _after_ the chord instead of +simultaneously with it. This gives it a very ideal sound.--You may not +believe it, but it is _true_, that though Deppe is no pianist himself, +and has the funniest little red paws in the world, that don't look as if +they could do anything, he's got that same touch and quality of tone +that Liszt has--that indescribable _something_ that, when he plays a few +chords, merely, makes the tears rush to your eyes. It is too heavenly +for anything. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + Chord-Playing. Deppe no "Mere Pedagogue." Sherwood. Mozart's + Concertos. Practicing Slowly. The Opera Ball. + + + BERLIN, _January 2, 1874_. + +When I had got the principle of the scale pretty well into my head, what +should Deppe rummage out but Czerny's "_Schule der Gelaeufigkeit_ (School +of Velocity)," which I hadn't looked at since the days of my childhood +and fondly flattered myself I had done with forever. (We none of us know +what stands before us!) After having studied Cramer, Gradus and Chopin, +you may imagine it was rather a come down to have to take to the School +of Velocity again! And to study it _very_ slowly and with one hand +only!! That was adding insult to injury. Deppe knows what he is about, +though. He began picking out passages here and there all through the +book, and making me play them, stretching from the thumb and turning on +the fingers as often as possible. After I have mastered the passages I +am to learn a whole study, first with each hand alone, and then with +both together! + +Deppe next proceeded to teach me how to strike chords. I had to learn to +raise my hands high over the key-board, and let them fall without any +resistance on the chord, and _then sink with the wrist_, and take up the +hand exactly over the notes, keeping the hand extended. There is quite +a little knack in letting the hand fall so, but when you have once got +it, the chord sounds much richer and fuller.--And so on, _ad infinitum_. +Deppe had thought out the best way of doing _everything_ on the +piano--the scale, the chord, the trill, octaves, broken octaves, broken +thirds, broken sixths, arpeggios, chromatics, accent, rhythm--all! He +says that the principle of the scale and of the chord are directly +opposite. "In playing the scale you must gather your hand into a +nut-shell, as it were, and play on the finger tips. In taking the chord, +on the contrary, you must spread the hands as if you were going to ask a +blessing." This is particularly the case with a wide interval. He told +me if I ever heard Rubinstein play again to observe how he strikes his +chords. "Nothing cramped about _him_! He spreads his hands as if he were +going to take in the universe, and takes them up with the greatest +freedom and _abandon_!" Deppe has the greatest admiration for +Rubinstein's _tone_, which he says is unequaled, but he places Tausig +above him as an artist. He said Tausig used to come to his room and play +to him, and he took off Tausig's little half bow and way of seating +himself at the piano and beginning at once, without prelude or wasting +of words, very funnily! He would scarcely take time to say "_Guten +Abend_ (Good Evening)." Deppe thinks Tausig played some things +matchlessly, but that in others he was dry and soulless. Clara Schumann, +he says, is the most "musical" of all the great artists--and you +remember how immensely struck I was with Natalie Janotha, who is her +pupil, and plays just like her. + +From my telling you so much about technicalities, you must not think +Deppe only a pedagogue. He is in reality the soul of music, and all +these things are only "means to an end." As he says himself, "I always +hear the music the people _don't_ play." No pianist ever entirely suited +him, and this it was that set him to examining the instrument in order +to see what was the matter with it. He made friends with the great +virtuosi, and studied their ways of playing, and the result of all his +observation is that "Piano playing is the only thing where there is +something to be done." He declares that there is so much musical talent +going to waste in the world that it is "lying all about the streets," +and he has a most ingenious way of accounting for the fact that there +are so many great pianists in spite of their not knowing _his_ +method:--"Gifted people," he says, "play by the grace of God; but +_everybody_ could master the technique on _my_ system!!" + +To show you that it is not alone my judgment of Deppe--four of Kullak's +best pupils, including Sherwood! left him for Deppe, after I did. They +got so uneasy from what I told them, that they went to see Deppe, and as +soon as they heard Fraeulein Steiniger play, they had to admit that she +had got hold of some secrets of which they knew nothing. Sherwood, you +know, is a positive genius, yet he is beginning all over again, too. In +short, we are all unanimous, while Deppe, on his side, is much gratified +at having some American pupils.--He flatters himself that we will +introduce all his cherished ideas into our "new and progressive +country." + +Ah, if I had only studied with Deppe before I went to Weimar! When I was +there I didn't play half as often to Liszt as I might have done, kind +and encouraging as he always was to me, for I always felt I wasn't +_worthy_ to be _his_ pupil! But if I had known Deppe four years ago, +what might I not have been now? After I took my first lesson of Deppe +this thought made me perfectly wretched. I felt so dreadfully that I +cried and cried. When I woke up in the morning I began to cry again. I +was so afflicted that at last my landlady, who is very kind and +sympathetic, asked me what ailed me. I told her I felt so dreadfully to +think I had met the person I ought to have met four years ago, at the +last minute, so.--"On the contrary, you ought to rejoice that you have +met him _at all_," said she. "Many persons go through life without ever +meeting the person they wish to, or they don't know him when they +do."--Sensible woman, Frau von H.!--After that I stopped fretting, and +tried to believe that there _is_ "a divinity that shapes our ends, +rough-hew them how we may." + + * * * + + BERLIN, _February 12, 1874_. + +I am now taking three lessons a week from Fraeulein Steiniger and one +lesson of Deppe himself, and he says I am almost through the technical +preparation, though I still practice only with one hand, and _very_ +slowly all the time. Fraeulein Steiniger says that she also practiced +slowly all the time for six months, as I am now doing. In fact, she +completely forgot how to play _fast_, and one day when Deppe finally +said to her in the lesson, "Now play fast for once," she could not do +it, and had to learn it all over again. Of course she very soon got her +hand in again, and now she has the most beautiful execution, and can +play _anything_ perfectly. + +Deppe wants me to play a Mozart concerto for two pianos with Fraeulein +Steiniger, the first thing I play in public. Did you know that Mozart +wrote _twenty_ concertos for the piano, and that nine of them are +masterpieces? Yet nobody plays them. Why? Because they are too hard, +Deppe says, and Lebert, the head of the Stuttgardt conservatory, told me +the same thing at Weimar. I remember that the musical critic of the +_Atlantic Monthly_ remarked that "we should regard Mozart's passages and +cadenzas as child's play now-a-days." _Child's play_, indeed! That +critic, whoever it is, "had better go to school again," as C. always +says! + +Deppe is remarkable in Mozart, and has studied him more than anybody +else, I fancy. Indeed, to turn over his concertos, and see how he has +_fingered_ them alone, is enough to make you dizzy. He is always saying, +"You must hear Fannie Warburg play a Mozart concerto. _She_ can do it!" +and, indeed, I am most anxious to hear her. + +It is ludicrous to hear Deppe talk about the artists that everybody else +thinks so great. Having been a director of an orchestra for years, he +has constantly directed their concerts, and he weighs them in a +relentless balance! The other day he gave me Mendelssohn's Concerto in +G minor, and just at the end of the first movement is a fearful +break-neck passage for both hands. "There!" cried Deppe, "that's a good +healthy place. _Nehmen Sie_ DAS _fuer Ihr taegliches Gebet_ (Take _that_ +for your daily prayer). When you can play it eight times in succession +without missing a note, I'll be satisfied. That is one of the places +that when the pianists come to, they get their foot hard on to the pedal +and hold on to it--_Herr Gott!_ how they hold on to it--and so _lie_ +themselves through." He said he never heard anyone do it right except +those to whom he had taught it. Steiniger played it for me the other day +and it so astonished my ears that I felt like saying, "_Herr Gott!_" +too. It was as if some one had snatched up a handful of hail and dashed +it all over me. Br-r-r-zip! how it did go!--Like a bundle of rockets +touched off one after the other. And yet this concerto is one of those +things that everybody thrums, and is one of the regular pieces you must +have in your repertoire. Deppe was quite shocked to find I had never +learned it. + +My lesson usually lasts three hours! Nothing Deppe hates like being +hurried over a lesson. He likes to have plenty of time to express all +his ideas and tell you a good many anecdotes in between! I usually take +my lessons from seven till ten in the evening. Then he puts on his coat +and saunters along with me on his way to his "Kneipe," or beer-garden, +for he is far too sociable to go to bed without having taken a friendly +glass of beer with some one. Every block or so he will stand stock still +and impress some musical point upon my mind, and will often harangue me +for five or ten minutes before moving on. It seems to be impossible to +him to walk and _talk_ at the same time! In this way you may imagine it +takes me a good while to get home. + +On Tuesday there is to be a grand ball at the opera house which the +Emperor and the whole court grace with their presence, and lead off the +first Polonaise. There are two of these grand public balls every winter. +The tickets are sold, and it is the sole occasion where the public can +have the felicity of gazing upon royalty in close proximity. I have +never been, though all my German friends have been dinning it into my +ears for the last four years that I ought to go and see it, for the +decorations are magnificent. This year there is to be but one, as the +Emperor is not very well, and I expect it will be as much as one's life +is worth to get in and get out again, such is the rush! + +The German officers waltz perfectly, and with great spirit and elegance. +Dancing is a part of their military training and they are obliged to +learn it. But they are not very comfortable partners, for one rubs one's +face against their epaulets unless they are just the right height, and +you've no rest for your left hand. They take only two turns round the +room and then stop a moment or two to fan you and rest--then they take +two more. The consequence is, one never gets fairly going before one has +to stop. At first I used to think the effect of so many people whirling +round in the same direction dizzying and monotonous. But when I became +accustomed to it, the continual reversing of the Americans who come to +Berlin struck me as angular, in contrast to the graceful German +circling. It is not "the thing" here for the girls to look flushed and +disordered--skirts torn, and hair out of crimp--as our belles do at the +end of an evening. They retire from the ball-room with their dresses in +faultless condition, so that going to parties in Germany must cost the +_pater familias_ considerably less than with us! The floor is never so +crowded with dancers at one time, and as they are going in the same +direction, they don't run into each other as our couples do. On the +other hand, they don't have such a "good time" out of it as do our +girls, with their long five and ten minute turns to those delicious +waltzes! Strange, that though Germany is the native home of the waltz, +and the Vienna waltzes surpass all others, the Schottisch or +Rhinelaender should be their favourite dance. They dance it very +gracefully and rythmically. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _March 1, 1874_. + +I went the other evening to the Opera ball I wrote you of in my last. +The whole opera house, stage and all, was floored over, and +magnificently decorated with evergreens, mirrors, fountains, and +flowers. The tickets are sold for some charitable purpose. Only nice +people can get in, because the whole thing is systematically arranged, +and nobody can give their tickets to anybody else. I got mine through +Mr. Bancroft, and I went with two other ladies and a gentleman. + +We went very early, so as to get a box to sit in, and _never_ shall I +forget the first effect of the ball-room! That immense polished floor +stretching out like one vast mirror or sheet of ice, the fountains +flashing at the sides, the walls wreathed with green, a big orchestra +sitting in the balcony at each end, and about a hundred pairs of +magnificently dressed ladies and gentlemen descending the stairs into +the rooms and promenading about. Light, diamonds, colour, everywhere. +Oh, it was perfectly fairy-like! The floor was built over the tops of +the chairs in the parquette, and the entrance was through the royal box, +which is just in the centre of the opera house, facing the stage. This +box is like a large recess, of course, and not like the ordinary boxes. +There was an entrance on each side, coming in from the corridor, and a +flight of broad steps, carpeted, had been improvised, which led from it +down to the floor. It looked perfectly dazzling to see the pairs come in +from both sides at once and descend the steps, and the ladies' dresses +were displayed to perfection. Such toilets I never saw. The women were +covered with lace, feathers, and diamonds. The simpler dresses were of +tarletane (mine included!) but as they were quite fresh they gave a very +dressy air. We had a splendid box, first rank, and the second from the +proscenium boxes on the left, in which sat the royal family. In the box +between us and the latter sat the wife of the French ambassador with the +Countess von Seidlewitz and her sister, and behind them was a formidable +array of magnificent-looking officers in full uniform, their breasts +flashing with stars and orders and silver chains. + +The Countess von Seidlewitz is a famous court beauty and is lady of +honour to the Princess Carl (sister of the Empress). She sat just next +to me, as only the partition of the box was between us, and she was the +most beautiful woman I saw--perfectly imperial, in fact--white and +magnificent as a lily. Her features were perfectly regular, and she had +a proudly-cut mouth, and such dazzling little teeth! Then, her arms, +neck, and shape were exquisite. She wore the severest kind of dress, and +one that only such beauty could have borne. It was a white silk, with an +immense train, of course, and without overskirt--simply caught up in a +great puff behind. The waist was made with a small basque, but very low, +and with very short sleeves. Round the neck was a white bugle fringe, +and there were two or three rows of this fringe in front, graduating to +the waist, smaller and smaller, and going round the basque. All the +front breadth of the skirt was laid in folds of satin, in groups of +three, and on the edge of every third row was the fringe again, +graduating wider and wider toward the bottom. In her hair she wore a +wreath of white verbenas or (snow-balls) and green leaves. Her sole +ornament was a magnificent diamond locket and ear-rings of some curious +design, the locket depending from a very fine gold chain, which +challenged all observers to notice the faultlessness of her neck. One +sly bit of coquetry was visible in two natural flowers, +lilies-of-the-valley, with their leaves, which she had stuck in her +corsage so that they should rest against her neck and show that they +were not whiter than her skin.--You see there were no folds anywhere, +as there was no overskirt, but the whole dress hung in long lines and +showed the contour of the figure. Nothing but these fringes (which +gleamed and waved with every motion) relieved it--not even a bit of +black velvet anywhere, for the lace round the neck was drawn through +with a white silk thread. There was another lady in the same box whose +dress was very beautiful, too, though she herself was not. It was a +green silk with green tulle overdress puffed, and with ears of silver +wheat scattered over it. The tunic was of silver crape, the bottom cut +in scallops and trimmed with silver wheat. A wisp of wheat was knotted +round her neck for a necklace, and a perfect sheaf of it in her hair. It +was an exquisite dress. + +At ten o'clock everybody had arrived--about two thousand people. The +orchestra struck up the Polonaise, and the court descended from the box +to make the tour of the floor (_i. e._, only the members of the royal +family with their ladies of honour). The Emperor was not very well, so +he remained in his box, but the Empress led off with the Duke of +Edinburgh, who happened to be here. She was dressed in lavender satin, +covered with the most superb white lace. Her hair was done in braids on +the top of her head, very high, and upon it was fastened a double +coronet of diamonds, stuck on in stars, etc., which flashed like so many +small suns. Round her neck depended from a black velvet band, strings of +diamonds of great size and magnificence. It really almost made you start +when your eye caught them unexpectedly! The Empress is a very +elegant-looking woman, and is every inch a queen. She moved with stately +step, bowing and bowing graciously from side to side to the crowd which +parted and bent before her, and was followed by the Crown Prince and +Princess, the Princess Carl, the Princess Friedrich Carl (a beauty) and +her daughters, and I don't know who all, with their ladies of honour. +When the Countess von Seidlewitz came along, with her fringes waving and +gleaming in front of her, she shone out from all the rest, and, in fact, +from the whole two thousand guests, like the planet Venus among the +other stars.--Stunning! + +The orchestra banged away its loudest, and it was quite exciting. The +three balconies were crowded with people, and all the boxes. The box of +the diplomatic corps was just opposite us, and our gay little Mrs. F. +sat in it dressed in white satin. Some of my friends came and stood +under my box and tried to get me to come down, but I would not, for I +knew I should lose my place if I did, and, indeed, I would not want to +dance there unless my dress were something superlative. You see, all the +swells sat in their boxes and gazed right down on the dancers, who had a +circular place roped off for them. De Rilvas, the Spanish minister, +looked so fine, however, with his broad blue ribbon across his breast +and his gold cross depending from his neck, that I should have liked +very well to have made the tour of the room with him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + A Set of Beethoven Variations. Fannie Warburg. Deppe's Inventions. + His Room. His Afternoon Coffee. Pyrmont. + + + BERLIN, _April 30, 1874_. + +I wish you were here now so that I could play you a set of little +variations by Beethoven called, "I've only got a little hut." They are +_bewitching_, and I think I can now play them so as to express (as Deppe +says) "that he had indeed nothing but his little hut, but was quite +happy in it." In the last variation he dances a waltz in his little hut! +I have learned a great deal from these tiny variations, taught in +Deppe's inimitable fashion. When I first took them to him I began +playing the second of the variations--which is rather plaintive and +seems to indicate that the proprietor of the little hut had a misgiving +that there _might_ be a better abode somewhere on the earth--with a +great deal of "expression," as I thought. I soon found out I was +overdoing it, however, and that it is not always so easy to define where +good expression stops and bad style begins. "Why do you make those notes +stick out so?" asked Deppe, as I was giving vent to my "soul-longings," +(as P. says). "Learn to paint in _grossen Flaechen_ (great surfaces)." +He made me play it again perfectly legato, and with no one note +"sticking out" more than another. I saw at once that he was right about +it, and that the effect was much better, while it took nothing from the +real sentiment of the piece. It was one of those cases where a simple +statement was all that was necessary. Anything more detracted from +rather than added to it. + +I have at last heard Fannie Warburg in a Mozart concerto, for she has +got back from England. How she did play it! To say that the passages +"pearled," would be saying nothing at all. Why, the piano just _warbled_ +them out like a nightingale! The last movement had the infectious gayety +that Mozart's things often have, with a magnificent cadenza by himself. +She rendered it so perfectly, and with such naive light-heartedness, +that none of us could resist it, and we all finally burst into a laugh! +There was a little orchestra accompanying, which Deppe had got together +and was directing. When she got to the cadenza, he laid down his baton, +and retired to lean against the door and enjoy it. She did it in the +most masterly manner, and O, it was _so_ difficult! I thought of the +Boston critic, who considered Mozart's compositions "child's play." They +_are_ child's play--that is, they are _nothing at all_ if they are not +faultlessly played, and every fault _shows_, which is the reason so few +attempt them. Your hand must be "in order," as Deppe says, to do it. + +Fannie Warburg is a sweet little eighteen-year-old maiden. A shy little +bud of a girl without any vanity or self-consciousness. She has a lovely +hand for the piano, and the way she uses it is perfectly exquisite. It +is small and plump, but strong, with firm little fingers. Every muscle +is developed, and indeed it could not be otherwise, after such a six +years' training. One of Deppe's rules is that when you raise the finger +the knuckle must not stick out. The finger must "sit firm +(_fest-sitzen_) in the joint." Fannie Warburg's fingers "_sitzen_" so +"_fest_" that when she plays she positively has a little row of dimples +where her knuckles ought to be. It looks too pretty for anything--just +like a baby's hand. She does not seem to have the slightest ambition, +however, and I doubt whether she will ever do anything with her music +after she leaves Deppe. Her mother was from Hamburg, and had taken +lessons of Deppe there when they were both quite young. She thought him +such a remarkable teacher that she declared her daughter should have no +other master. So when Fannie was twelve years old she brought her to +him, and he has been giving her lessons ever since--something like +Samuel's mother bringing him to the Temple, wasn't it?--and indeed when +I go into Deppe's shabby little room I always feel as if I were in a +little Temple of Music! I like to see the furniture all bestrewn with +it, and Deppe himself seated at his table surrounded with piles of +manuscript, pen in hand, going over and arranging them, bringing order +out of chaos. Other orchestra leaders are always writing and begging him +to lend them his copies of Oratorios, etc. + +Deppe has all sorts of practical little ideas peculiar to himself. For +instance, he has invented a candlestick to stand on a grand piano. In +shape it is curved, like those things for candles attached to upright +pianos, but with a weighted foot to hold it firm. It is a capital +invention, for you put one each side of the music-rack, and then you can +turn it so as to throw the light on your music, just as you can turn +those on the upright pianos. It is on the same principle, only with the +addition of the foot. It is much more convenient than a lamp, because it +doesn't rattle, and you can throw the light on the page so much +better.--Then he always insists on our having our pieces bound +separately, in a cover of stout blue paper, such as copy books are bound +in. He entirely disapproves of binding music in books. "Who will lug a +great heavy book along?" he will ask, "and besides, they don't lie open +well." + +The other day Deppe told me he wanted me to come and hear Fraeulein +Steiniger take her lesson, as she had some interesting pieces to play. I +found her already there when I arrived. Deppe was in an uncommonly good +humour, and kept making little jokes. She played a string of things, and +finally ended off with Liszt's arrangement of the Spinning Song from +Wagner's Flying Dutchman. Deppe is dreadfully fussy about this piece, +and made some such subtle and telling points regarding the _conception_ +of the composition, that they were worthy of Liszt himself. I mean to +learn it, and when I come home I will play it to you as Deppe taught it +to Steiniger, and you will see how fascinating it is. I know you'll be +carried away with it. + +Toward the end of the lesson it was growing rather late, and time also +for Deppe's coffee, which beverage you know the Germans always drink +late in the afternoon, accompanied with cakes. He had just laid down his +violin, as he and Fraeulein Steiniger had played a sonata together, and +had seated himself at the piano to show her about some passage or other. +Deeply absorbed, he was haranguing her as hard as he could, when the +maid of all work suddenly entered with the coffee on a tray, and was +apparently about to set it down on the piano in close proximity to the +violin. "_Herr Gott, nicht auf die Violin!_ (Good gracious, not on the +violin!)" exclaimed Deppe, springing frantically up and rescuing the +beloved instrument. "Where then?" said the girl. "Oh, anywhere, only not +on the violin." She set it down on a chair and vanished. There were only +three chairs in the room, and the sofa was covered with music. Fraeulein +Steiniger occupied one chair, I the second, and the coffee the third. +Deppe glanced around in momentary bewilderment, and then sat himself +plump down on the floor, took his coffee, stretched out his legs, and +began stirring it imperturbably. "But Herr Deppe!" remonstrated +Steiniger. "Well," said he, with his light-hearted laugh, "what else can +I do when I have no chair?" There was no carpet on the floor, which was +an ordinary painted one, and he looked funny enough, sitting there, but +he enjoyed his coffee just as well!--After he had finished drinking it, +the shades of night were falling, and it occurred to him it would be +well to illuminate his apartment. He is the happy possessor of five +minute lamps and candlesticks, no two of which are the same height. The +lamps are two in number, and are about as big as the smallest sized +fluid lamp that we used in old times to go to bed by. The three +candlesticks are of china, and adorned with designs in decalcomania--probably +the handiwork of grateful pupils, for in Germany there is no present +like a "_Hand-Arbeit_ (something done by the hand of the giver)." It is +the correct thing to give a gentleman. When Fraeulein Steiniger and I +only are present, Deppe usually considers the two lamps sufficient. But +if others are there and he is going to have some music in the evening, +he will produce the three minute candlesticks, with an end of candle in +each, light them, and dispose them in various parts of the room. When, +however, as on great occasions, the five lamps and candlesticks are +supplemented by two _more_ candles on the piano in the curved +candlesticks of Deppe's own invention, the blaze of light is something +tremendous to our unaccustomed eyes! Nothing short of the Tuileries or +the "Weisser Saal" at the palace here could equal it! + + * * * + + BERLIN, _May 31, 1874_. + +This season with Deppe has been of such immense importance to me, that I +don't know _what_ sum of money I would take in exchange for it. By +practicing in his method the tone has an entirely different sound, being +round, soft and yet penetrating, while the execution of passages is +infinitely facilitated and perfected. In fact, it seems to me that in +time one could attain anything by it, but time it _will_ have. One has +to study for months very slowly and with very simple things, to get into +the way of playing so, and to be able to think about each finger as you +use it--to "_feel_ the note and make it conscious." Deppe won't let me +finish anything at present, so I can't tell how far along I am myself. +His principle is, never to learn a piece completely the first time you +attack it, but to master it three-quarters, and then let it lie as you +would fruit that you have put on a shelf to ripen;--afterward, take it +up again and finish it. The principle _may_ be a good one, but it +prevents my ever having anything to play for people, and consequently I +have ceased playing in company entirely. In fact, I find it impossible, +and I don't see how Sherwood manages it. _He_ has a whole repertoire, +and sits down and plays piece after piece deliciously. But then he is a +perfect genius, and will make a sensation when he comes out. He has that +natural repose and imperturbability that are everything to an artist, +but which, unfortunately, so few of us possess. His compositions, too, +are exquisite, and so poetical! Mrs. Wrisley,[I] of Boston, and Fraeulein +Estleben, of Sweden, who left Kullak when I did, are also gifted +creatures, whereas I think I am only a steady old poke-along, who +_won't_ give up! Sherwood, however, is head and shoulders above all of +us. + +[The following extract, taken from the report in the _Musical Review_ of +Mr. Sherwood's address before the Music Teachers' National Association +in Buffalo, in June, 1880, would seem to show that whether this +distinguished young virtuoso, now by far the leading American +concert-pianist, gained his ideas on the study of touch and tone from +Herr Deppe or not, he certainly endorses them in both his playing and +his teaching:--"It makes a great deal of difference whether a piano be +struck with a stick, with mechanical fingers, or with fingers that are +full of life and magnetism. I have examined Rubinstein's hand and arm, +and found that they are not only full of life and magnetism, but that +they are extremely elastic, and the fingers are so soft that the bones +are scarcely felt. Can practice produce these qualities? I believe so, +and I make it a point both with my pupils and myself to practice slow +motions. It is much easier to strike quickly than slowly, but practice +in the slow movement will develop both muscular and nervous power. And +the tone obtained by this motion is much better than that obtained by +striking. The mechanical practice in vogue at Leipsic and other European +conservatories often fails because the subject of aesthetics and tone +beauties are neglected." See pp. 288, 302-3, 334.]--ED. + +My lessons with Deppe are a genuine musical excitement to me, always. In +every one is something so new and unexpected--something that I never +dreamed of before--that I am lost in astonishment and admiration. The +weeks fly by like days before I know it. Deppe gives me the most +beautiful music, and never wastes time over things which will be of no +use to me afterward. Every piece has an _aim_, and is lovely, also, to +play to people. Now, in Tausig's and Kullak's conservatories I wasted +quantities of time over things which are beautiful enough, and do to +play to one's self, but which are not in the least effective to play to +other people either in the parlour or in the concert-room--as Bach's +Toccata in C, for example. Such things take a good while to learn, and +are of no practical advantage afterward. But Deppe has an organized +_plan_ in everything he does. + +In my study with Kullak when I had any special difficulties, he only +said, "Practice always, Fraeulein. _Time_ will do it for you some day. +Hold your hand any way that is easiest for you. You can do it in _this_ +way--or in _this_ way"--showing me different positions of the hand in +playing the troublesome passage--"or you can play it with the _back_ of +the hand if that will help you any!" But Deppe, instead of saying, "Oh, +you'll get this after years of practice," shows me how to conquer the +difficulty _now_. He takes a piece, and while he plays it with the most +wonderful _fineness_ of conception, he cold-bloodedly dissects the +mechanical elements of it, separates them, and tells you how to use your +hand so as to grasp them one after the other. In short, he makes the +technique and the conception _identical_, as of course they ought to be, +but I never had any other master who trained his pupils to attempt it. + +Deppe also hears me play, I think, in the true way, and as Liszt used to +do: that is, he never interrupts me in a piece, but lets me go through +it from beginning to end, and _then_ he picks out the places he has +noted, and corrects or suggests. These suggestions are always something +which are not simply for that piece alone, but which add to your whole +artistic experience--a _principle_, so to speak. So, without meaning any +disparagement to the splendid masters to whom I owe all my previous +musical culture, I cannot help feeling that I have at last got into the +hands not of a mere piano virtuoso, however great, but, rather, of a +profound musical _savant_--a man who has been a violinist, as well as a +director, and who, without being a player himself, has made such a study +of the piano, that probably all pianists except Liszt might learn +something from him. You may all think me "enthusiastic," or even _wild_, +as much as you like; but whether or not I ever conquer my own block of a +hand--which has every defect a hand _can_ have!--when I come home and +begin teaching you all on Deppe's method, you'll succumb to the genius +and beauty of it just as completely as I have. You will _then_ all admit +I was RIGHT! + +July 22.--I have finally made up my mind to go to Pyrmont when Deppe +does, and spend several weeks, keeping right on with my lessons, and +perhaps, giving a little concert there. I have always had a curiosity to +visit one of the German watering places, as I'm told they are extremely +pleasant. + + * * * + + PYRMONT, _August 1, 1874_. + +Here I am in Pyrmont, and there's no knowing where I shall turn up next! +Fraeulein Steiniger got here before me, but Deppe has not yet arrived +from Brussels, whither he has gone to be present at the yearly +exhibition of the Conservatoire there. He has been appointed one of the +judges on piano-playing. Pyrmont is a lovely little place. It is in a +valley surrounded by hills, heavily wooded, and has a beautiful park, as +all German towns have, no matter how small. The avenues of trees surpass +anything I ever saw. The soil has something peculiar about it, and is +particularly adapted to trees. They grow to an immense height, and their +stems look so strong, and their foliage is so tremendously luxuriant, +that it seems as if they were ready to burst for very life! + +Fraeulein Steiniger went with me to look up some rooms. Every family in +Pyrmont takes lodgers, so that it is not difficult to find good +accommodations. The women are renowned for being good housekeepers and +their rooms are charmingly fitted up, but the prices are very high, as +they live the whole year on what they make in summer. People come here +to drink the waters of the springs, and to take the baths, which are +said to be very invigorating. My rooms are near the principal "_Allee_" +or Avenue, leading from the Springs. About half way down is a platform +where the orchestra sit and play three times a day--at seven in the +morning (which is the hour before breakfast, when it is the thing to +take a glass or two of the water, and promenade a little), at four in +the afternoon, when everybody takes their coffee in the open air, and at +seven in the evening. As I don't drink the waters I do not rise early, +and am usually awakened by the strains of the orchestra. There is a +little piazza outside my window where I take my breakfast and supper. +For dinner I go to "table-d'hote" at a hotel near.--It is a great relief +to get out of Berlin and see something green once more. I find the +weather very cool, however, and one needs warm clothing here. + +There are the loveliest walks all about Pyrmont that you can imagine, +and beautiful wood-paths are cut along the sides of the hills. My +favourite one is round the cone of a small hill to the right of the +town. The path completely girdles it, and you can start and walk round +the hill, returning to the point you set out from. It is like a leafy +gallery, and before and behind you is always this curving vista. +Whenever I take the walk it reminds me of-- + + "Curved is the line of beauty, + Straight is the line of duty; + Follow the last and thou shalt see + The other ever following thee." + +It is the first time I ever succeeded in combining the carved and the +straight line at the same time--because, of course, it is my _duty_ to +take exercise! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + The Brussels Conservatoire. Steiniger. Excursion to Kleinberg. + Giving a Concert. Fraeulein Timm. + + + PYRMONT, _August 15, 1874_. + +Deppe has got back from Brussels, and, as you may imagine, he had much +to tell about his flight into the world, particularly as he had also +been to London. He had a delightful time with the professors of the +Brussels Conservatoire, who were all extremely polite to him, and he +heard some talented young pupils. There was one girl about seventeen, +whom he said he would give a good deal to have as _his_ pupil, so gifted +is she, though her playing did not suit him in many respects. He said he +could have made some severe criticisms, but he refrained--partly because +he felt the uselessness of it, partly because he says "it _is_ +extraordinary how amiable one gets when _young ladies_ are in question!" +He was very enthusiastic over the violin classes. "What a bow the +youngsters do draw!" he exclaimed. Dupont, the great piano teacher in +Brussels, must be a man of considerable "_esprit_," judging from the two +of his compositions that I am familiar with--the "Toccata" and the +"Staccato." I used to hear a good deal about him from his pupil Gurickx, +whom I met in Weimar. Certainly Gurickx played magnificently, and with a +_brio_ I have rarely heard equalled. He is like an electric battery. +Quite another school, however, from Deppe's--the severe, the chaste and +the classic! Extreme _purity of style_ is Deppe's characteristic, and +not the passionate or the emotional. For instance, he has scarcely given +me any Chopin, but keeps me among the classics, as he says on that side +my musical culture has been deficient. He says that Chopin has been "so +played to death that he ought to be put aside for twenty years!"--But if +Chopin were really sympathetic to him he could never say _that_! The +truth is, the modern "problematische Natur" has no charms for a +transparent and simple temperament like his. + +Steiniger has been playing most beautifully lately. She has given two +concerts of her own here, and has played at another. Then she rehearsed +with orchestra Mozart's B flat major concerto--the most difficult +concerto in the world, and oh, _so_ exquisite! Though I had long wished +to do so, I never had heard it before, and as I listened I felt as if I +never could leave Deppe until I could play _that_! I wish you could have +heard it. It is sown with difficulties--enough to make your hair stand +on end! Steiniger played it with an ease and perfection truly +astonishing. The notes seemed fairly to run out of her fingers for fun. +The last movement was Mozart all over, just as merry as a cricket!--I +doubt whether anybody can play this concerto adequately who has not +studied with Deppe. The beauty of his method is that the greatest +difficulties become play to you. + +I love to see Deppe direct the orchestra when Steiniger plays a concerto +of Mozart. His clear blue eyes dance in his head and look so sunny, and +he stands so light on his feet that it seems as if he would dance off +himself on the tips of his toes, with his baton in his hand! He is the +incarnation of Mozart, just as Liszt and Joachim are of Beethoven, and +Tausig was of Chopin. He has a marvellously delicate musical +organization, and an instinct how things ought to be played which +amounts to second sight. Fraeulein Steiniger said to him one day: "Herr +Deppe, I don't know why it is, but I can't make the opening bars of this +piece sound right. It doesn't produce the impression it ought." "I know +why," said Deppe. "It is because you don't strike the chord of G minor +before you begin,"--and so it was. When she struck the chord of G minor, +it was the right preparation, and brought you immediately into the mood +for what followed. It _fixed_ the key. + +Aside from music, Deppe, like all artists, has the most childlike +nature, and I think Mozart is so peculiarly sympathetic to him because +he has such a simple and sunny temperament himself. We made a beautiful +excursion the other day in carriages, through the hills, to a little +village far distant, where we drank coffee in the open air. Deppe, who +knows every foot of the ground about Pyrmont, which he has frequented +from his youth up, kept calling our attention to all the points of the +scenery over and over again with the greatest delight, quite forgetting +that he repeated the same thing fifty times. "That little village over +there is called Kleinberg. It has a school and a church, and the +pastor's name is Koehler," he would say to me first. Then he would +repeat it to every one in our carriage. Then he would stand up and call +it over to the carriage behind us. Then when he had got out he said it +to the assembled crowd, and as I walked on in advance with Fraeulein +Estleben, the last thing I heard floating over the hill-top was, "The +pastor's name is Koehler,"--so I knew he was still instructing some one +in the fact. "I wonder how often Deppe has repeated that?" I said to +Fraeulein Estleben. "At least fifty times," said she, laughing. "I'm +going back to him and ask him once more what the name of the pastor is." +So I went back, and said, "By the way, Herr Deppe, what did you say the +name of the pastor of that village is?" "_Koehler_," said dear old +Deppe, with great distinctness and with such simple good faith that I +felt reproached at having quizzed him, though the others could scarcely +keep their countenances, as they knew what I was after. + +I have been preparing for some time to give a concert of Chamber Music +in the salon of the hotel here, and expect it to take place a week from +to-day. My head feels quite _lame_ from so much practicing, the +consequence, I suppose, of so much listening. I am to play a Quintette, +Op. 87, in E major, by Hummel, for piano and strings, and a Beethoven +Sonata, Op. 12, in E flat, for violin and piano, and the other +instruments will play a Quartette by Haydn in between. It is a beautiful +little programme, I think--every piece perfect of its kind. If I succeed +in this concert as I hope, I shall probably listen to Deppe's implorings +and remain under his guidance another season. Deppe believes that one +_must_ go through successive steps of preparation before one is fitted +to attack the great concert works. I've found out (what he took good +care not to tell me in the beginning!) that his "course" is three +years!! and you can't hurry either him or his method. Your fingers have +got to grow into it.--I do not at all regret, with you, not having +hitherto played in concert; on the contrary, I think it providential +that I did not. You see, you and I started out with wholly impracticable +and ridiculous ideas. We thought that things could be done quickly. +Well, they _can't_ be done quickly and be worth anything. One must keep +an end in view for years and gradually work up to it. The length of time +spent in preparation has to be the same, whether you begin as a child +(which is the best, and indeed the only proper way), or whether you +begin after you have grown up. It is a ten years' labour, take it how +you will. + + * * * + + PYRMONT, _August 15, 1874_. + +My concert came off yesterday evening, and Deppe says it was a complete +success. I did not play any solos, after all, though I had prepared some +beautiful ones, for Deppe said the programme would be too long, and he +was not quite sure of my courage. "You'd be frightened, if you were a +_Herr Gott_!" said he; but, contrary to my usual habit, I wasn't +frightened in the least, and I think I did as well as such a shaky, +trembly concern as I, could have expected, particularly as my hands are +two little fiends who _won't_ play if they don't feel like it, do what I +will to make them!--My programme was _a la_ Joachim (!)--only three +pieces of Chamber Music:-- + + 1. Quintette, Op. 87, E major, Hummel. + 2. Quartette, G major, Haydn. + 3. Sonata for piano and violin, Op. 12, E flat. Beethoven. + +Deppe arranged the whole thing most practically. We had a large _salle_ +in the Hotel Bremen which was admirably proportioned, and a new grand +piano from Berlin. Deppe had only so many chairs placed as he had given +out invitations, and the consequence was that every chair was filled, +and there were no rows of empty seats. My "public" was very musical and +critical, and there were so many good judges there that I wonder I +wasn't nervous; but a sort of inspiration came to me at the moment. + +The musicians who accompanied me were exceedingly good ones for such a +place as Pyrmont, and my strictly _classic_ selections were received +with great favour by the audience! That quintette of Hummel's is a most +charming composition--so flowing and elegant--and one can display a good +deal of virtuosity in the last part of it. I played first and last, and +the quartette in between was performed by the stringed instruments +alone. After I had finished the quintette, Deppe, who was at the extreme +end of the hall, sent me word that I was "doing famously, and that he +was delighted," and this encouraged me so that my sonata went +beautifully, too. When it was over, ever so many people came up and +congratulated me, and Fraeulein Timm, Deppe's head teacher in Hamburg, +even complimented me on my "extraordinary facility of execution." I +couldn't help laughing at that, with my stubborn hand which never will +do anything, and which only the most intense study has schooled--but in +truth I was quite surprised myself at the plausible way in which it went +over all difficulties! Quite a number of Deppe's scholars were present, +all of them critics and several of them beautiful pianists. Two nice +American girls, sisters, from the West, came on from Berlin on purpose +for my concert. They helped me dress, and presented me with an exquisite +bouquet. One of them is taking lessons of Deppe, and the other has a +great talent for drawing, and has been two years studying in Berlin. She +says she has only made a "beginning" now, and that she wishes to study +"indefinitely" yet.--So it is in Art! I think her heads are excellent +already. + +After the concert was over, Deppe gave me a little champagne supper, +together with Fraeuleins Timm, Steiniger, and these two young ladies. +When he poured out the wine he said he was going to propose a toast to +two ladies; one of them, of course, was myself, "and the other," said +he, "is in America, namely, the friend of Fraeulein Fay, whom I judge to +be a woman of genius, so truly and rightly does she feel about art (I've +translated H's letters to him), and so nobly has she sympathized with +and stood by Fraeulein Fay.--To Mrs. A., whose acquaintance I long to +make!"--You may be sure I drank to _that_ toast with enthusiasm. Ah, it +was a pleasant evening, after so many years of fruitless toil! The fat +and jolly old landlord came himself to put me into the carriage and to +say that everybody in the audience had expressed their pleasure and +gratification at my performance. I rather regret now that I did not play +my solos, but perhaps it is just as well to leave them until another +time. I have "sprung over one little mound"--to use Deppe's simile--and +got an idea of the impetus that will be necessary to "carry me over the +mountain." + + * * * + + PYRMONT, _September 4, 1874_. + +After the unwonted exaltation of the success of my little concert, I +have been suffering a corresponding reaction, partly because Fraeulein +Timm, Deppe's Hamburg assistant, with whom I am now studying, began her +instructions, as teachers always do, by chucking me into a deeper slough +of despond than usual. Consequently, I haven't been very bright, though +I am gradually coming up to the surface again, for I'm pretty hard to +drown! + +Fraeulein Timm belongs to the single sisterhood, but is one of the fresh +and placid kind, and as neat as wax. She's got a great big brain and a +remarkable gift for teaching, for which she has a _passion_. I quite +adore her when she gets on her spectacles, for then she looks the +personification of Sagacity! She has been associated with Deppe for +years in teaching, and "keeps all his sayings and ponders them in her +heart." Indeed, she knows his ideas almost better than he does himself, +and carries on the whole circle of pupils that he left in Hamburg when +he came to Berlin. Every now and then he runs down to see how they are +getting on, gives them all lessons, reviews what they have done, and +brings Fraeulein Timm all the new pieces he has discovered and fingered. +She also comes occasionally to Berlin to see him, takes a lesson every +day, fills herself with as many new ideas as possible, and then returns +to her post. Together, they form a very strong pair, and I think it a +capital illustration of your theory that men ought to associate women +with them in their work, and that "men should _create_, and women +_perfect_." + +Deppe makes Fraeulein Timm and Fraeulein Steiniger his partners and +associates in his ideas, and the consequence is they add all their +ingenuity to impart them to others. This spares him much of the tedious +technical work, and leaves him free for the higher spheres of art, as +they take the beginners and prepare them for him. _He_ has made _them_ +magnificent teachers, and they employ their gifts to further _him_. I +don't doubt that through them his method will be perpetuated, and even +if he should die it would not be lost to the world. On the other hand, +he has given them something to live for.--Curious that the +_practicalness_ of this association with women doesn't strike the +masculine mind oftener! + +So I am going down to Hamburg to study for a time with this Fraeulein +Timm, as I think she will develop my hand quicker than Deppe, even. +Deppe has always urged me to it, but I never would do it, as I did not +know her personally, and did not wish to leave him. Now that I have +tried her, however, I find he was right, as he _always_ is! At present +she is throwing her whole weight upon my wrist, which I hope will get +limber under it! She has an obstinacy and a perseverance in sticking at +you that drive you almost wild, but make you learn "lots" in the end. I +think my grand trouble all these years has been a stiff wrist and a +heavy arm. I have borne down too heavily on wrist and arm, whereas the +whole weight and power must be just in the tips of the fingers, and the +wrist and arm must be quite light and free, the hand turning upon the +wrist as if it were a pivot. + +Pyrmont is an exquisite little place, and I regret to leave it. At first +I almost perished with loneliness, but now that I have a few +acquaintances here I am enjoying it. It is a fashionable watering place, +but chiefly visited by ladies. There are about a hundred women to one +man! The first week I was here I lived at a Herr S.'s, but finding it +too expensive I looked up another lodging and am now living with a jolly +old maid. I like living with old maids. I think they are much neater +than married women, and they make you more comfortable. As the season is +now over, this one's house is quite empty, and it is exquisitely kept. I +took two rooms in the third story, small but very cozy, and with a +lovely view of the hills. + +We have just had the loveliest illumination I ever saw. It was one +Sunday evening--"Golden Sunday" they call it here, though why they +_should_ call it so, I know not. I accepted the information, however, +without inquiry into first causes, and went out in the evening to +promenade in the Allee with the rest. The Allee is not all on a level, +but descends gradually from the springs to a fountain which is at the +opposite end. Rows and rows of Japanese lanterns were festooned across +the trees. As you walked down the path, you saw the festoons one below +the other. The fountain was illuminated with gas jets behind the water. +You could not see the water till you got close up, and at a distance +only the rows of gas jets were apparent. As you neared it, however, the +watery veil seemed flung over them, like the foamy tulle over a bride. +It was very fascinating to look at, and I kept receding a few paces and +then returning. As I receded, the watery veil would disappear, and as I +approached it would again take form. It reminded me of some people's +characters, of which you see the bright points from the first, and think +you know them so well, but when you draw closer, even in the moments of +greatest intimacy, you always feel a veil between you and them--a thin, +impalpable something which you cannot annihilate, even though you may +see _through_ it. + +We walked up and down the Allee a long time listening to the orchestra, +which was playing. The magnificent great trees looked more beautiful +than ever, with their lower boughs lit up by the lanterns, and their +upper ones disappearing mysteriously into shadow. At last the tapers in +the lanterns burned out one after another, the avenue was wrapped in +gloom, and we finished this poetic evening in the usual prosaic manner +by returning home and going to bed! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + Music in Hamburg. Studying Chamber Music. Absence of Religion in + Germany. South Americans. Deppe once more. A Concert Debut. + Postscript. + + + HAMBURG, _February 1, 1875_. + +Hamburg is a lovely city, though I _am_ having such a dreadfully dreary +and stupid time here--partly because my boarding-place is so intensely +disagreeable, and partly because I made up my mind when I came to make +no acquaintances and to do nothing but study. I have stuck to my +resolution, though I'm not sure it is not a mistake, for there is a most +elegant and luxurious society in this ancestral town of ours.[J] + +Life is solid and material here, however, and music is at a low ebb. The +Philharmonic concerts are wretched, and nobody goes to even the few +piano concerts there are. That little Laura Kahrer, now Frau Rappoldi, +that I heard in Weimar at Liszt's, has been wanting to come here with +her husband, who is an eminent violinist, but she has not dared to do +it, because all the musicians tell her she would not make her expenses. +She played at the Philharmonic, too, but since then they won't have any +more piano playing at the Philharmonic. Nobody cares for it, unless +Buelow or Rubinstein or Clara Schumann are the performers. I thought Frau +Rappoldi played magnificently, but I was the only person who _did_ think +so. She made a dead failure here. Everybody was down on her. As to the +criticism, it was about like this: "Frau Rappoldi played quite prettily +and in a lady-like manner, but she had no tone, etc." Poor thing! The +next day when Schubert went to see her she wept bitterly, and well she +might. Schubert is one of the directors of the Philharmonic, and it was +through him she got the chance of playing. He, too, felt awfully cut up +at her want of success. "That is what one gets," said he to me, "by +recommending people. If they don't succeed, _you_ get all the blame for +it." He felt he had burnt his fingers! I think the whole secret of Frau +Rappoldi's want of success was that she did not _look_ pretty. She was +so dowdily dressed, and her hair looked like a Feejee Islander's. People +laughed at her before she began. Too true!--that "dress makes the +woman."[K] + +Deppe's darling Fannie Warburg gave a concert here last month, and she, +also, got a pretty poor criticism, and for the same reason, viz.: people +haven't the musical sense to appreciate her--at least in my opinion. The +action of her hands on the piano is grace itself, and the elasticity of +her wrist is wonderful. Her touch completely realizes Deppe's ideal of +"letting the notes fall from the finger-tips like drops of water," and +she executes better with the left hand, if that be possible, than with +the right! At any rate, there is _no_ difference. It is the most +heavenly enjoyment to hear her, and you feel as if you would like to +have her go on forever. And yet, I don't believe she will make a great +career. She has not fire enough to make the public appreciate the +immensity of her performance. No rush--no _abandon_! She has no +_presence_ either, but is a timid, meek, childlike little +maiden--docility itself, but a _made_ player, as it were, not a +spontaneous one. Such is life! To me, her playing is the purest +music--"_die reine Musik_"--and the bigger the hall the more that _tone_ +of hers rolls out and fills it! + + * * * + + HAMBURG, _March 1, 1875_. + +I wish I could write up Deppe's system for publication, but it is a very +difficult thing to give any adequate idea of. Fraeulein Timm tells me it +is only comparatively recently that he has perfected it himself to its +present point (though he has long had the conception of it), and that +accounts for its not being known. He was completely buried in Hamburg, +where there is no scope for art. I believe his ambition is to found a +School of this exquisitely pure and perfect and almost idealized +piano-playing, which may serve as a counterpoise to the warmer and more +sensuous prevailing one--_sculpture_ as contrasted with _painting_! + +I have been chiefly studying _Kammer-Musik_ (Chamber Music) this +winter--that is, trios, quartettes, etc. Fraeulein Timm is giving me such +a training as I never had before. She has the most astonishing talent +for teaching, and has reduced it to a science. I don't play anything up +to tempo under her--always slow, slow, _slow_. She really dissects every +tone, and shows me when and why it doesn't sound well. My whole +attention is now bent upon _tone_. Ah, M., _that's_ the thing in +playing!--To bring out the _soul_ there is in the key simply by touching +it, as the great masters do.--It is the pianist's highest art, though +amid the dazzle of piano pyrotechnics the public often forget it. + +I am just finishing Beethoven's third Trio, Op. 1. The last movement is +the loveliest thing! It makes me think of a wood in spring filled with +birds. One minute you hear a lot of gossiping little sparrows twittering +and chippering, and then comes some rare wild bird with a sort of +cadence, and then come others and whistle and call. It is bewitching, +and the most perfect imitation of nature imaginable; gay--_so_ gay! as +only Beethoven can be when he begins to play. Everything is on the wing. +It is, of course, exceedingly difficult, because, like all this pure, +classic music, to make any effect it has to be executed with the utmost +perfection. I am so infatuated with it that when I get through +practicing it, I feel as if I were tipsy! + +These Beethoven trios are a perfect mine in themselves. Each one seems +to be entirely different from all the rest. There are twelve in all, and +Deppe wants me to learn them all. Think what a piece of work! This +enormous amount of literature that you must have to form a +repertoire--the trios, quartettes, quintettes, concertos, etc., it is +that makes it so long before one is a finished artist. And then you must +consider the hours and hours that go to waste on _studies_, just to get +your hand into a condition to play these masterpieces. Oh, the +arduousness of it is incalculable! I often ask myself, "What demon has +tempted me here?" as I sit and drudge at the piano. I play all day, take +a walk with L. in the afternoon, and at night tumble into bed and sleep +like a log--that is, when my hardest of beds and shivering room will +_let_ me sleep. That is my life, day after day. I only see the people of +the house at meals. + +I am the only lady in this family. All the other boarders are very young +men, almost boys, who are here to learn German or commerce. There are +three South Americans, one Portugese, one Brazilian, one Russian and one +Frenchman. I hear Spanish and French all the while, but no English, and +with the German it is very confusing.--I feel very sorry for all these +young fellows, their lives are so bare and disagreeable, and so wholly +devoid of any influence that can make them better or happier. As for our +landlady, it would take a Balzac to do justice to such a combination. +She is a good housekeeper. The cooking is excellent, and my room (when +warm) is pleasant. Indeed, the Hamburg standard of housekeeping is much +higher than in Berlin. Things are _much_ daintier. But her power of +making you physically and mentally uncomfortable in other ways is +unsurpassed. Were it not that my stay is indefinite, and that I have +already moved once, I would not remain here. As it is, I prefer putting +up with it to the trouble and expense of changing; beside which, I have +found that when once you have left your own home-circle, you have to +bear, as a rule, with at least one intensely disagreeable person in +every house. + +My opinion of human nature has not risen since I came abroad, and I +think that this winter has quite cured me of my natural tendency to +skepticism.--I now realize too well what people's characters, both men +and women, may become without religion either in themselves or in those +about them. I suppose there _is_ religion in Germany, but _I_ have seen +very little of it, either in Protestants or Catholics, and the results I +consider simply dreadful! You see, there is _no_ adequate motive to +check the indulgence of _any_ impulse--I have come to the conclusion +that jealousy is the national vice of the Germans. Everybody is jealous +of everybody else, no matter how absurdly or causelessly. Old women are +jealous of young ones, and even sisters in the same family are jealous +of each other to a degree that I couldn't have believed, had I not seen +it. + + * * * + + HAMBURG, _Easter Sunday, 1875_. + +With regard to playing in concert, I find myself doubting whether on +general principles it is best to get one's whole musical training under +one master only, as Fannie Warburg, for instance, has done; for my +experience teaches me that though nearly all masters can give you +something, none can give you everything. If, with my present light, I +could begin my study over again, I should first stay three years with +Deppe, in order to endow the spirit of music that I hope is within me, +with the outward form and perfection of an artist. Next, I should study +a year with Kullak, to give my playing a brilliant _concert dress_, and +finally, I would spend two seasons with Liszt, in order to add the last +ineffable graces--(for never, _never_ should an artist complete a +musical course without going to LISZT, while he is on this earth!)--The +trouble is, however, that one master always feels hurt if you leave him +for another! No one can bear the imputation that he _can't_ "give you +everything." + +But in truth I am getting very impatient to be at home where I can study +by myself, and take as much time as I think necessary to work up my +pieces. Deppe and Fraeulein Timm are like Kullak in one thing. They never +will give me time enough, but hurry me on so from one thing to another, +that it is impossible for me to prepare a programme. So I have given up +my plan of a concert in Berlin this spring. They have one set of ideas +and I another, and I see I shall never be able to play in public until I +abandon masters and start out on my own course. Two people never think +exactly alike. Masters can put you on the road, but they can't make you +go. You must do that for yourself. As Dr. V. says, "If you want to do a +thing you have got to _keep_ doing it. You mustn't stop--certainly not!" +Concert-playing, like everything else, is _routine_, and has got to be +learned by little and little, and perhaps, with many half-failures. But +if the "great public" will only tolerate one as a pupil long enough, +eventually, one must succeed. At any rate, IT is probably the best and +the only "master" for me now! + +On Wednesday I return for a while to Berlin, to the American +boarding-house, No. 15 Tauben Strasse, whither you can all direct as +formerly. This winter has been rather a contrast to last. Then I lived +entirely among North Americans, whereas here I am almost exclusively +with South Americans. There are any number of these latter in Hamburg, +and you have no idea how fascinating many of them are--so handsome and +so bright. They all have a talent for music and dancing. Their music is +entirely of a light character, but they have _rhythm_ and grace in a +remarkable degree. When I hear them play I always think of George +Sands's description in her novel "_Malgre-tout_" of the artist Abel--the +hero of the book, and a great violinist. She says, "_Il racla un air sur +son violon avec entrain_."--That is just what these South Americans +do--"_racler!_" They all play the piano just as with us the negro plays +the fiddle, without instruction, apparently, and simply because "it is +their nature to." I saw at once where Gottschalk got his "Banjo" and +"Bananier," and the peculiar style of his compositions generally, and +since I've met so many South Americans I can readily imagine why he +spent so much of his time in South America. I long to go there myself. I +think it must be a fascinating place for an artist. + +One of the South Americans here at the house is a boy of fifteen, named +Juan di Livramento, or, I should say, Juan Moreiro Aranjo di Livramento! +(They all have about a dozen names in the grandiloquent style of the +Spaniards.) This boy is a curious youngster. He is tall and lithe, with +the most magnificent dark eyes I ever saw or conceived, thick silky +black hair, all in a tumble about his head, a delicate and very +expressive face, and a clear olive complexion--a perfect type of a +Spaniard. He seems born to dance the Bolero, like Belinda, in Mrs. +Edwards's novel. It is the prettiest thing to see him do it--and in fact +he does it on all occasions without any reference to propriety, being an +utterly lawless individual. He frequently gets up from the dinner-table, +throws his napkin over his shoulders, snaps his thumbs, and begins a +dance in the corner of the room, between the courses. It has got to be +such an every-day thing that nobody looks surprised or pays any +attention to him. We dine late, and as there are a good many boarders, +it takes some time always to change the plates. Juan, who is like so +much mercury, never can sit still during these intervals. When asked to +ring the bell for the servant, he will spring up like a shot, give it a +violent pull, and then take advantage of being up to dance in the +corner, or at least to cut a few antics, fling his leg over the back of +his chair, and come down astride of it. This is his usual mode of +resuming his seat. + +On the days when he doesn't dance, he keeps up a continual talking. He +will rattle on in Spanish till Herr S. gets desperate, and tries to +reduce him to order. It is a rule that German must be spoken at table, +but Juan thinks it sufficient if he applies the rule only so far as not +to speak Spanish, his native language. He goes to school where, of +course, he learns English and French, and he is always trying to get +off some remarks in these languages. He speaks all wrong, but that does +not cause him the least embarrassment.--On Sundays especially is Juan +perfectly irrepressible, for then Frau S. goes to dine and spend the +evening with her parents, and Herr S. is left to maintain order. He is +an indulgent old man, and very fond of Juan, so that the latter has not +the least fear of him, and I nearly die trying to keep my face straight +when they have one of their scenes. + +"You shall NOT speak Spanish at the table," said poor old S. the other +day, in a rage. Spanish is jargon to him, and Juan had been talking it +for some time at the top of his voice across Herr S., to his friend +Candido, who sat opposite. Juan knew very well that that meant he must +speak German, but instead of that he began in foreign languages, and +said to Herr S., in English, "Do you spoke Russish (Do you speak +Russian)?" + +Herr S., to whom English is as unintelligible as Spanish, naturally +making no reply to this brilliant remark, Juan continued--"'Spring is +Coming,' Poem by James K. Blake," and then he began to recite with much +gesticulation-- + + "Spring is coming, spring is coming, + Birds are singing, insects humming; + Flowers are peeping from their sleeping, + Streams escape from winter's keeping, etc." + +I won't pretend to say what the rest of it was, as his pronunciation was +utterly unintelligible. Herr S. rolled up his eyes and made no further +protest, for he found he only got "out of the frying-pan into the +fire," Juan having a historical anecdote called "The Dead Watch," which +he occasionally substitutes for the poem. + +After dinner he generally has an affectionate turn, and goes round the +table shaking hands with those still seated, or putting his arm around +their necks, and then he seems like some gentle wild animal which comes +and rubs its head up against you, and it is impossible to help loving +him. As soon, however, as T. or anybody thrums a waltz on the piano, he +instantly throws himself into the attitude to dance. He is so very light +on his feet that you don't hear him, and often I am surprised on looking +up, without thinking, to see Juan poised on one toe like a ballet +dancer, and his great eyes shining soft on me like two suns. It is most +peculiar. There are _no_ eyes like the Spanish eyes. Not only have they +so much _fire_, but when their owners are in a sentimental mood, they +can throw a languor and a sort of droop into them that is irresistible. +This is the way Juan does, and though he is too young to be sentimental, +he _looks_ as if he were. One minute he is all ablaze, and the next +perfectly melting.--The other day Frau S. took him to task for his +extreme animation.--"_Junge_," (German for "Boy"), "you mustn't scream +so all over the house. You really are a nuisance." Juan was offended at +this, and began to defend himself. "Why do you scold me," he said. "I'm +always in good humour. I never sulk or find fault with anything. _Ja, +immer vergnuegt_ (Yes, always in a good humour), and ready to amuse +everybody, and I never get angry." Frau S. admitted that was true, but +at the same time suggested it would be well for him to remember we were +not all deaf. Juan withdrew in dudgeon.--Well, I suppose you are tired +of hearing about him, but these South Americans are a type by +themselves, and I felt as if I must touch off one of them for the +benefit of the family. + + * * * + + BERLIN, _April 18, 1875_. + +Since my return I have been enjoying extremely what I suppose I must +consider my last lessons with Deppe. After studying with Fraeulein Timm I +know much better what he is driving at. The technique seems to be +unfolding to me like a ribbon. So all her _maulings_ were to some +purpose! Yesterday I played him a sonata of Beethoven's and he said, +"God grant that you may still be left to me some time longer! Now you +are really beginning to be my scholar."--And indeed, having studied his +technique so long with Fraeuleins Timm and Steiniger, it does seem hard +that I have to leave him! How I wish I could stay on indefinitely and +give myself up to his purely _musical_ side and get the benefit of all +his deep and beautiful ideas. There never _was_ such a teacher! If I +could only come up to his standard I should be perfectly happy. Lucky +girl--that Steiniger! Think of it! She has _nine_ concertos that she +could get up for concert any minute. That's the crushing kind of +repertoire he gives his pupils--so exhaustive and complete in every +department. He knows the whole piano literature, and is continually +fishing up some new or old pearl or other to surprise one with. + +I find Deppe is getting to be much more recognized in Berlin this year +than he was before. He has just been directing a new opera here which +has created quite a sensation, and he is continually engaged in some +great work. Fortunate that I found him out when I did! for he takes +fewer pupils than ever. He says he can't teach people who are not +sympathetic to him. The other day he presented a beautiful overture of +his own composition to the Duke of Mecklenburg, who accepted it in +person and sent Deppe an exquisite pin in token of recognition. When +simple little Deppe gets _that_ stuck in his scarf, he will be a +terrific swell! + +Now for a piece of news! I was paying my French teacher, Mademoiselle +D., a call one evening last week, and I played for her and for a friend +of hers who is very musical, and who gives lessons herself. She at once +said very decidedly that I "ought to be heard in concert." Her brother +is the director of the Philharmonic Society in a place called +Frankfurt-an-der-Oder--a little city not far from here. What should she +do but write to her brother about me, and what should _he_ do but +immediately write up for me to come down and play in a Philharmonic +concert there the first week in May. As I have been so anxious to play +in a concert before leaving Germany, and yet have seen no way to do it, +I am going, of course, and am most grateful to his sister for thinking +of it. But it is always the Unexpected that helps you out! + + * * * + + BERLIN, _May 13, 1875_. + +Well, dear, my little debut was a decided success, and I had one encore, +beside being heartily applauded after every piece. I went on to +Frankfurt on Monday morning, and when I got there Herr Oertling, the +Philharmonic Director, was at the station to meet me with a droschkie. +We drove to the Deutches Haus, an excellent hotel, where I was shown +into a large and comfortable room. Here I rested until dinner time, and +after dinner, about five o'clock, Herr Oertling came back. He took me to +the house of a musical friend of his who was to lend me his grand piano, +and there we tried our sonata. As soon as Oertling touched his violin I +saw that he was a superior artist, and that immediately inspired me. His +playing carried me right along, and I think I played well. At all +events, he seemed entirely satisfied, and said, "We could have played +that sonata without rehearsing it." After we finished the sonata, I +played for about an hour, all sorts of things. There were quite a number +of people present to judge of my powers. Herr W., the owner of the +piano, was a remarkable judge of music, and made some excellent +criticisms and suggestions. We stayed there to supper, but I went back +to the hotel early and went to bed about half-past nine, where I slept +like a log till eight the next morning. + +After breakfast Oertling came to take me to try the pianos of a +celebrated manufacturer of uprights. I played there three or four hours. +The maker's name was Gruss, and his pianos were the best uprights I had +ever seen; nearly as powerful as a grand, and with a superb tone and +action. On the wall was a testimonial from Henselt, framed. It seems +Henselt goes to Frankfurt every year to visit a Russian lady there, who +is the grandee of the place and a great patroness of artists. In the +afternoon, Oertling came for me to go and rehearse in the hall. +Everything went beautifully, and I returned to the hotel in good +spirits. By the time I was dressed for the concert, which was to begin +at seven, Oertling appeared again, in evening costume, and presented me +with a bouquet. We drove to the hall through a pouring rain. It was +crowded, notwithstanding, for he had had the assurance to print that the +concert was "to be brilliant through the performance of an American +Virtuosin, named Miss Amy Fay. This young lady has studied with the +greatest masters, and has had the most perfect success everywhere in her +concert tours!" Did you ever!--You can imagine how I felt on reading it +and seeing that I was expected to perform as if I had been on the stage +all my life! Oertling had arranged the programme judiciously. Our sonata +came _first_, so that I plunged right in and didn't have to wait and +tremble! Then came two pieces by the orchestra; next, my three solos in +a row, and a symphony of Haydn closed the programme. The sonata went off +very smoothly. In my first solo I occasionally missed a note, but my +second was without slip, and my third--Chopin's Study in Sixths--was +encored, though I took the tempo too fast. However, the Frau Excellency +von X. said she had frequently heard it from Henselt, but that I played +it "just as well as he did." That's absurd, of course, though not bad +considered as a _compliment_! They all said, "What a pity Henselt wasn't +here!" I said to myself, "What a blessing Henselt wasn't!"--though I +would give much to see him, as he is the greatest piano virtuoso in the +world after Liszt. + +After the concert Oertling and some of the musicians accompanied me to +the hotel, where I was obliged to sit at table and have my health drunk +in champagne till two o'clock in the morning! for you know when the +Germans once begin that sort of thing there's no end to it. They drank +to my health, and then they drank to my future performance in the first +Philharmonic next season, and then they drank to our frequent reunion, +etc., etc. When they had finished I had to respond. So I toasted the +Herr Director and I toasted the piano-maker, and I toasted the +orchestra, and what not. At last I was released and could go to my room. +The next morning I left for Berlin, which I reached in time for dinner, +and as soon as I appeared at table the boarders saluted me with a burst +of applause!--I found it a very pleasant _finale_. + +I translate for you the criticism from the _Frankfurter Zeitung und +Allgemeiner Anzeiger_ for May 11. Herr Oertling sent it to me yesterday: + +"The Philharmonic concert which took place last Friday evening, must be +considered as an excellent recommendation of the active members of that +association to the public. For not only did the playing of the pianist, +Fraeulein Amy Fay, give great pleasure to all those who love and +understand music, but there was also no fault to be found with the +interpretations of the orchestra. * * * With regard to the performance +of Fraeulein Fay, we were equally charmed by her clear and certain touch +and by her conception of the various solo pieces she played. The concert +opened with the Sonata in E flat major for violin and piano by +Beethoven. The whole effect of the work was a very sympathetic and +satisfactory one, and showed a thoughtful interpretation on the part of +the artist. The beauty of her conception was especially evident in the +Raff "Capriccio," and in Hiller's "Zur Guitarre," given as an encore +upon her recall by the audience, and we can but congratulate the teacher +of the young lady, Herr Ludwig Deppe, of Berlin, upon such a scholar." + + * * * + +[Two weeks after the concert, the relative to whom most of the foregoing +letters were written, joined the writer at Berlin, and the +correspondence came to an end. In the following September, after an +absence of six years, my sister returned home.--My sister hopes that no +American girl who reads this book will be influenced by it rashly to +attempt what she herself undertook, viz.: to be trained in Europe from +an amateur into an artist. Its pages have afforded glimpses, only, of +the trials and difficulties with which a girl may meet when studying art +alone in a foreign land, but they should not therefore be underrated. +Piano teaching has developed immensely in America since the date of the +first of the foregoing letters, and not only such celebrities as Dr. +William Mason, Mr. Wm. H. Sherwood, and Mrs. Rive King, but various +other brilliant or exquisite pianists in this country are as able to +train pupils for the technical demands of the concert-room as any +masters that are to be found abroad. American teachers best understand +the American temperament, and therefore are by far the best for American +pupils until they have got beyond the pupil stage.--Not manual skill, +but musical insight and conception, wider and deeper musical +comprehension, and "concert style" are what the young artist should now +go to seek in that marvellous and only real home of music--GERMANY.]--ED. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] This was written before the full development of the Thomas +Orchestra. The writer had heard it only in its infancy. + +[B] Christ is risen out of bonds and death. He promises joy and blessing +to all the world, which for this glorifies Him. + +[C] In Mr. Longfellow's Poems of Places is a translation of Gerok's poem +on the subject:-- + + "Over three hundred were counted that day + Riderless horses who joined in the fray, + Over three hundred saddles, O horrible sight! + Were emptied at once in that terrible fight." + +[D] This letter, which was published in _Dwight's Journal of Music_, is +the one alluded to on p. 193. + +[E] Liszt was born in 1811. + +[F] In German, the fourth and fifth fingers. + +[G] See p. 220. + +[H] See p. 294. + +[I] Now Mrs. Sherwood. + +[J] The writer's grandmother was the daughter of a leading Hamburg +merchant who fled with his family to America when Napoleon entered it. + +[K] Frau Rappoldi is now a celebrity. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Music-Study in Germany, by Amy Fay + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY *** + +***** This file should be named 37322.txt or 37322.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/3/2/37322/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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