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diff --git a/old/68522-0.txt b/old/68522-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 000601b..0000000 --- a/old/68522-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4194 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Life of Liszt, by Louis Nohl - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Life of Liszt - Biographies of musicians - -Author: Louis Nohl - -Translator: George P. Upton - -Release Date: July 14, 2022 [eBook #68522] - -Most recently updated: November 27, 2022 - -Language: English - -Produced by: D A Alexander, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was - produced from images made available by the HathiTrust - Digital Library.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF LISZT *** - - - - - -BIOGRAPHIES OF MUSICIANS. - - -I. - - LIFE OF MOZART, From the German of Dr. Louis Nohl. With Portrait. - Price $0.75. - -II. - - LIFE OF BEETHOVEN, From the German of Dr. Louis Nohl. With Portrait. - Price $0.75. - -III. - - LIFE OF HAYDN, From the German of Dr. Louis Nohl. With Portrait. - Price $0.75. - -IV. - - LIFE OF WAGNER, From the German of Dr. Louis Nohl. With Portrait. - Price $0.75. - -V. - - LIFE OF LISZT, From the German of Dr. Louis Nohl. With Portrait. - Price $0.75. - -A. C. McCLURG & CO., PUBLISHERS. - - - - -[Illustration: FRANZ LISZT.] - - - - - _BIOGRAPHIES OF MUSICIANS._ - - LIFE OF LISZT - - BY - LOUIS NOHL - - TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN - BY - GEORGE P. UPTON - - “_Sorrowful and great is the destiny of the artist._” - - SIXTH EDITION - - CHICAGO - A. C. McCLURG & COMPANY - 1902 - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1880. - - - - -TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. - - -This little work, which is rather an essay upon the personal and -musical characteristics of Liszt than a biography of him, as its title -indicates, hardly needs more than an informal introduction to the -public. It may safely be left to commend itself to readers upon its own -merits. Unlike most of his other biographies, Dr. Nohl seems to have -addressed himself to this with feelings of strong personal admiration -and affection for his hero. It appears to be the universal testimony of -those who have enjoyed Liszt’s acquaintance, not merely his friendship, -that he has inspired in them the strongest and most intimate feelings -of personal attachment to him by his own genial and generous nature. -If at times, therefore, the biographer appears to rhapsodize, it is -probably because his relations to Liszt make it difficult for him to -avoid idealizing him. If this be so, fortunately there is compensation -in the reflection that no other musician of the present day, in every -admirable quality of head and heart, so nearly approaches the ideal. - -In reproducing the selections from Miss Amy Fay’s “Music Study in -Germany,” which appear in the closing chapter of this volume, the -translator, so far as has been practicable, for the German version -does not follow the English very closely in its connection, or always -literally, has made use of the original text. He has also prepared an -appendix containing much interesting matter that serves to explain -and sometimes to illustrate the contents of the work. The list of -scholars of the great teacher to which Dr. Nohl also refers in the -closing chapter, and which were furnished to the biographer by Liszt -himself, will be found at the close of this appendix. It is of more -than ordinary interest as it contains indirectly the testimony of Liszt -himself as to the relative prominence of the vast number of pupils who -have studied with him. Surely such a life as his, so rich in success, -so bountiful in reward and triumph, so fruitful in results, its skill -and love attested to by eminent scholars in every country, refutes his -mournful remark to George Sand, in one case at least, “Sorrowful and -great is the destiny of the artist.” - - G. P. U. - Chicago, Feb. 1, 1884. - - - - -AUTHOR’S PREFACE. - - -In contrast with our practice in the previous biographies, let us, this -time, as the master has also done in his greatest oratorio, disclose -the life of the hero in his deeds, which display themselves before us -in regular succession. - -First of all appears his early youth with its incomprehensible -virtuosity. It is the actual strangling of the serpents in the cradle, -so utterly does this power defy every obstacle and difficulty in the -revelation of its art. Then appears a new germ of the ever fruitful -life of Nature, as specially manifested in the weird gypsy world. And -now the great man rises resplendent in the great artist, in strong -contrast with a kindred genius, we mean the great violinist, Paganini, -in whom, so different from Liszt himself, the essential principle -which lies at the very root of artistic creation, namely, the genius -of humanity, was not apparent. It proved its power in the recognition -of the one artist of equal rank whom he encountered and whom he -unceasingly helped to realize that grand consummation which we possess -to-day in Baireuth. - -Still further, there appears in its wonderful versatility his active -sympathy with all the momentous intellectual questions of the time and -of humanity. We recognize it with astonishment in his imposing series -of “Collected Writings” which rises up before us. Then follows the new -epoch in art-development, the creation of the Symphonic Poem, growing, -as it were, spontaneously out of his association with all that is -comprised in poetry and life. Then comes the crown of all, the latest -and grandest work he has accomplished, the renovation of church music. -We beseech the laymen at least to recognize the importance of this -great accomplishment. - -In a sketch of such a richly exuberant life it is essential that we -fail not to recognize the personality of this genius in his creations -as “Master.” How much of loving kindliness it manifests! It is not -like Ludwig Richter’s genial and gentle “Beemaster.” It is like Michel -Angelo’s majestic “Lord” to whom the newly created Eve meekly bows. -It is like Prometheus among his loved creations which his breath will -first inspire with life. And to what extent this reaches, the world -knows by the great number of his master-scholars whose eminent names -enframe the complete picture. - -Thus we wander here, as it were amid a new creation, and discover that -in the pure art of music our time is not inferior to any other; nay, -more, that it has added to the great possessions of the past many an -enduring and noble work. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - CHAPTER I. - - LES PRELUDES. - - Liszt’s Childish Characteristics--The Home at Raiding--The - Father and his musical Abilities--His Ambition for his - Son--Selections from his Diary--Young Liszt’s first - Appearances--Peculiarities of his Playing--The Gypsies--The - Influence of their Life and Music upon him--Paganini and - Bihary--Generosity of Counts Amadee and Szapary--His studies - with Czerny--Old artists’ astonished--Plays before - Beethoven--The great Master kisses the Boy--The Journey to - Paris--Cherubini’s Churlishness--Liszt’s immense - Success--Ovations and Triumphs--A great Favorite among the - Ladies--French and German tributes. 11-35 - - - CHAPTER II. - - DIVERTISSEMENTS HONGROIS. - - The Power of Music--Its Origin and Influence--Relations to - Nature--Bach, Mozart and Beethoven--Sources of their - Inspiration--Autobiographical Sketch--Liszt as a Lad--His - Voluntary Exile--Revival of the Home Feeling--His Love of - Nature--Religious Feeling--The Gypsies--A Famous Visit to - them--Picturesque Surroundings--Wild Dances--Talks with the - Old Men--The Gypsy Hags--An Impromptu Orchestra and Wonderful - Music--A Weird Night Scene--Salvator Rosa Effects--Grotesque - Cavalcade--The Concert at the Inn--A Demoniac Symphony--Wild - Revel in a Thunder Storm--Liszt’s Hungarian Music. 36-60 - - - CHAPTER III. - - CAPRICCIOSO. - - Untamable Animals and Men--An Interesting Test--Attempt to - refine a Gypsy--The Boy Josy--Bought from the Gypsies--His - Advent into Liszt’s Salon--Thalberg’s Astonishment--Adopted - by the Master--Attempts to Educate him--A Hopeless Task--Josy - becomes a Fop--His Insolence and Conceit--Liszt - despondent--Josy goes to the Conservatory--Worse - and Worse--Sent to the Black Forest--No Better--Liszt’s - Encounter with a traveling Band--Josy’s Brother intercedes - for his Return--Liszt consents--Great Joy--Josy settles at - Debrezin--Violinist in a Gypsy Band--Letter to Liszt--His - Love and Devotion. 61-75 - - - CHAPTER IV. - - IMPROMPTU. - - General Characteristics of Liszt--Earnestness of his Art--Its - genial Character--His Interest In Life--His Loving - Nature--Affection for his Parents--Remorse of a - Capellmeister--Richard Wagner’s Testimony--A Helping Hand - in time of Need--His Generosity to Wagner--Secures him a - Hearing--The Letter to Herr B.--Plans to bring out Wagner’s - Works in London--Wagner in Despair--Misunderstanding of - Liszt--A Personal Appeal and prompt Reply--A Success made in - Weimar--Urges Wagner to create a new Work--“The - Nibelungen”--Wagner’s Tribute at Baireuth. 76-90 - - - CHAPTER V. - - REFLEXIONS. - - Goethe’s Criticism on Winckelmann--The Poetical - Necessity--Winckelmann and the Plastic Art--Has Music a - Language?--Musicians and Musical Writers--Gluck’s - Writings--His War in Paris--A fierce Struggle with the - Theorists--Luther’s Indebtedness to Bach--Heinse and his - Writings--His Italian Visit--Reichardt, Rochlitz and - Schubart--Their literary Characteristics--A Criticism of - Marx--Liszt’s Contributions to Literature--His great - literary Ability--The Place of Artists--List of his - Works--Goethe and Beethoven--Bettina’s Phantasies--Liszt’s - Criticism of the “Swan Song”--Tribute from the “Gazette - Musicale”--Selections from his Writings. 91-112 - - - CHAPTER VI. - - HARMONIES POETIQUES. - - Liszt’s Tribute to Wagner--A new Form of Instrumental - Music--Liszt’s new Departure--The Symphonic Poem--Its - Essence and Characteristics--The Union of Poetry and - Music--Programme Music--How Liszt developed his new - Forms--Analysis of Individual Works--Liszt’s Tribute to - Beethoven--His Notice of “Egmont”--Beethoven as a - Pioneer--Fulfillment of Haydn’s Prophecy. 113-120 - - - CHAPTER VII. - - CONSOLATION. - - Liszt’s Great Resolve--Reply to a Scoffer--Religion and - Music--Religion at the Foundation of Culture--George - Sand’s Testimony--Relations of Religion and Music--Music - in the Catholic and Protestant Churches--Peculiarities of - the Musical Services--Influence of the Catholic Church on - Music--A Gradual Lowering of the Standard--Opera Music in - the Church--Liszt’s Ambition to Reform it--His early - Piety--Views on Church Music--The Religious Element in - his Compositions--The Hungarian Coronation Mass--The - Choral Mass--Departure to Rome--Takes Orders--Why he did - not remain--Germany his Field for Work. 121-135 - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - HARMONIES RELIGIEUSES. - - The Oratorio of “Christus”--Its Title--The Origin of - Oratorios--Their Relation to Opera--Gradual Changes in - Style--The Dramatic Element in them--Liszt’s Original - Treatment--A Wide Departure from Old Forms--Events - Pictured in Music--Groupings of Materials--What it did - for the Church--General Divisions of the Oratorio--The - Motto of “Christus”--The Christmas Music--Introduction - of the Stabat Mater--The Shepherds at the Manger--The - Kings’ March--The “Seligkeit”--Entrance to Jerusalem--The - Scene at Gethsemane--The Inflammatus--Skillful treatment - of Motifs. 136-148 - - - CHAPTER IX. - - PROMETHEUS. - - Liszt’s letter to George Sand--Happiness of the - Wanderer--Allusions to Wagner--The Artist as an - Exile--Sorrowful Character of his Lot--His Solitude--His - Creative Moments and Inspirations--No Sympathy between - the Artist and Society--Degradation of Art--Artisans, not - Artists--Letter to Adolph Pictet--Why he devoted himself - to the Piano--His love for it--Estimate of its - Capabilities--Miss Fay’s “Music Study in Germany”--A - Critical Notice--The Author’s first Meeting with - Liszt--Personal Description--Grace of his - Manner--Peculiarities of his Playing--His Home--Pleasant - Gatherings--Personal Incidents--Liszt and Tausig--The - Loss of “Faust”--Happily Recovered--The Final Tribute. 149-177 - - - APPENDIX. - - A LETTER FROM LISZT’S FATHER. 179 - LISZT’S ONE OPERA. 183 - BIHARY. 187 - THE HUNGARIAN GYPSY MUSIC. 189 - HEINE ON LISZT. 192 - A LETTER FROM BERLIOZ TO LISZT. 194 - HESSE’S CRITICISM OF LISZT. 196 - LIST OF LISZT’S PRINCIPAL SCHOLARS. 198 - - - - -THE LIFE OF LISZT. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -LES PRELUDES. - - Liszt’s Childish Characteristics--The Home at Raiding--The Father - and his Musical Abilities--His Ambition for his Son--Selections - from his Diary--Young Liszt’s First Appearances--Peculiarities of - his Playing--The Gypsies--The Influence of their Life and Music - upon him--Paganini and Bihary--Generosity of Counts Amadee and - Szapary--His Studies with Czerny--Old Artists Astonished--Plays - before Beethoven--The great Master kisses the Boy--The Journey to - Paris--Cherubini’s Churlishness--Liszt’s immense Success--Ovations - and Triumphs--A great Favorite among the Ladies--French and German - Tributes. - - -“Behold a young virtuoso, seemingly dropped from the clouds, who -arouses the greatest astonishment. The performances of this boy -border on the miraculous, and one is tempted to doubt their physical -possibility when he hears the young giant thunder forth Hummel’s -difficult compositions,” says a Vienna account of this boy, scarce -eleven years of age. Only a year afterward, we see Paris wild with -amazement over a phenomenon never beheld before. Like that of young -Mozart at Naples, the piano was turned round so that they could see -what they did not believe to be possible, thereby revealing the genial -and manly characteristics of the young artist, which afterward became -the delight of the world, like his playing. “His eyes gleam with -animation, mischievousness and joy. He is not led to the piano, he -rushes up to it. They applaud and he looks surprised. They applaud -afresh and he rubs his hands,” it is said, and then are pointed out the -national quality, the inspired fury, the unmistakable originality, and -at another time the proud, manly expression, which gained for him the -appellation of the “Hungarian Wonder-Child.” We shall further notice -the indications of these peculiarities, particularly as they are given -in a longer biographical notice, which, in its main features, seems to -have been taken from his own communication that appeared about the year -1830, in one of the first of Parisian musical journals, the “Revue et -Gazette Musicale,” which collapsed a few years ago. - -Franz Liszt was born October 22, 1811, at Raiding, near Oedenburg. -The comet year appeared to his parents a good omen of his future. The -father, belonging to a not very wealthy family of the old nobility, -was, in his prime, accountant at Eisenstadt with that Prince Nicholas -Esterhazy for whom Joseph Haydn was Capellmeister. As he enjoyed the -personal acquaintance of the honored master of the quartet, mostly at -card-playing, which he practiced as a recreation in the midst of his -always severe labor, he was brought into a sphere which was peculiarly -musical in its character, and which furnished his own nature with the -richest food, for father Liszt was on terms of personal friendship -also with that best scholar of Mozart’s, the distinguished pianist, -Hummel, born at Presburg in 1778, who officiated many years as the -Prince’s Capellmeister at Eisenstadt and Esterhaz. No one esteemed him -more highly as a pianist. His playing had made an indelible impression -upon him. He was also musical himself in a high degree, playing nearly -every instrument, particularly the piano and violoncello, and was only -restrained by the displeasure of his family relatives from perfecting -himself as a thorough musician. So much the more his dreams and hopes -of artistic power were transferred to his eldest son, whose rare talent -had manifested itself early. “Thy destiny is fixed. Thou wilt realize -that art ideal which fascinated my youth in vain. In thee will I grow -young again and transmit myself,” he often said to him. He was so -strongly impressed with all the signs of promise in the boy that he -devoted a diary to him in which he entered his notes “with the most -minute and solicitous punctiliousness of a tender father.” Here is a -leaf from the recollections of that childhood: - -“After his vaccination, a period commenced in which the boy had to -struggle alternately with nervous pains and fever, which more than once -imperiled his life. On one occasion, in his second or third year, we -thought him dead and ordered his coffin made. This disquieted state -continued until his sixth year. In that year he heard me playing Ries’ -concerto in C sharp minor. He leaned upon the piano and was all ears. -Towards evening he returned from the garden and sang the theme. We -made him repeat it but he did not know what he sang. That was the -first indication of his genius. He incessantly begged that he might -commence piano-playing. After three months’ instruction, the fever -returned and compelled us to discontinue it. His delight in instruction -did not take away his pleasure in playing with children of his own -age, although from this time forth he sought to live more for himself -alone. He was not regular in his practice but was always tractable -up to his ninth year. It was at this period that he played in public -for the first time in Oedenburg. He performed a concerto by Ries in E -major and extemporized. The fever attacked him just before he seated -himself at the piano and yet he was strengthened by the playing. He had -long manifested a desire to play in public and exhibited much ease and -courage.” - -We interrupt the narrative at this point to inquire what was the active -source of this inner consecration to art as well as of the passionate -impulse to exhibit it in public. Neither Ferdinand Ries, who merely -imitated the ornamentations of his great teacher, Beethoven, nor -Mozart’s pupil, Hummel, who succeeded Haydn at Esterhaz, nor the great -father of instrumental music himself even felt remotely that genius -for execution, the wonderful results of which were already filling the -youthful soul like a creative impulse and with a passionate longing -for expression urging him on to public performance. In a letter from -Paris to Schumann’s musical paper in 1834, it is said: “He often plays -tenderly and with gentle melancholy;” then again: “With overpowering -passion and with such fire and even fury, that it seems as if the piano -must give way beneath his fingers. It often creaks and rattles during -his playing. You see head, eyes, hands, the whole upper part of the -body moving impetuously in every direction.” On one occasion he fell -back from the piano exhausted. Whence this unprecedented devotion to -music? Whence, as one might say, this merging of his very identity in -his playing? - -There are a peculiar people, scattered from the Himalayas even to the -Ebro and the Scottish Highlands, possessing nothing, in this wide -world of God, but themselves and nature. Neither house nor hearth, -neither state nor social forms restrain them. They have no fixed -pursuit, no calling which makes a firmly settled existence, based -on duty and inclination. They have no manners, no church, no God. -And yet these people have lived for centuries, as we know, unchanged -in kind and number, yet nowhere settled. They are the gypsies, who -seemingly possess nothing which the earth offers men or which makes -life valuable. And still more, wherever they appear they are completely -ignored and even looked upon with utter contempt. Truly they have -nothing and are, as it were, a miserable fragment of the human race, -everlastingly forgotten by God. But they have one thing that vies -with our culture and art--their music. As they feel the complete -rapture of an existence in nature which is boundlessly free, free -from everything which hinders the slightest movement or inclination, -so in their habits, but particularly in their improvisations, they -express the God-given freedom of the inner sensibility in all its -emotions, from the proudest human consciousness to the inmost longing -of the soul for sympathetic communion. This music is to them as it -were their world and God, life and happiness, the sun and all that -world-movement with which we feel ourselves closely associated. In a -paper, worthy of notice, Liszt has sought to clear up the mystery of -the vitality remaining in these dissevered fragments of the old Indian -race, and explain the greater mystery how a people so destitute of -any social and intellectual basis of life, possess one art and one of -such originality, depth and power. We must follow him still further to -understand the wonderful effect of his own performances. - -“Recollections of the gypsies are associated with memories of my -childhood and some of its most vivid impressions,” the world-renowned -“Magician of the Hungarian Land,” writes in his fiftieth year: -“Afterwards I became a wandering virtuoso, as they are in our -fatherland. They have pitched their tents in all the countries of -Europe, and I have traversed the tangled maze of roads and paths over -which they have wandered in the course of time, my experiences some -years, in a certain sense, being very similar to their historical -destiny. Like them I was a stranger to the people of every country. -Like them I pursued my ideal in the continual revelations of art, if -not of nature.” In recalling these early recollections, he confesses -that few things impressed him so strongly as these gypsies soliciting -alms at the threshold of every palace and cottage for a few words -softly whispered in the ear, a few loudly played dance-melodies, or a -few songs, such as no minstrel sings, that throw lovers into rapture -without their knowing why. How often he himself has sought the solution -of this charm, which held all with unchallenged sway! As the weak pupil -of a strong master, his father, he had as yet had no other insight -into the world of phantasy than the architectural framework of notes -in their artificial arrangement together, and when we think of the -old-fashioned composers, like Hummel and Ries, we imagine that it -must have doubly fascinated him to exercise that charm, which these -calloused gypsy hands practiced before all eyes, when they drew the -bow across the sighing instrument or made the metal ring with powerful -defiance. - -We now see how these children of nature, with their most mysterious and -spontaneous power of sensibility, blossoming out in their art, absorbed -him and filled a soul incapable of jealousy with a natural envy of the -incredible effect they produced. His waking dreams had been filled -with these bronzed faces, prematurely old with the vicissitudes of -centuries and dissolute habits of every sort, their defiant smiles, -their dull, red eyes, in which laughs a sardonic unbelief and gleams -flash out which glisten but do not glow. Their dances always floated -through his visions with their languid, elastic, bounding and tempting -movements. By degrees the conviction was borne in upon him that “in -comparison with the continuously dull and sombre days imaged upon the -background of our civilized world, upon which only here and there some -moments beaming with joy or lurid with pain are conspicuous, these -beings had fashioned a defter texture of joy and sorrow, alternating -with love, song, wine and the dance, as they were excited and soothed -by these four elements of passion and voluptuousness.” - -Thus early his soul had discovered the supernatural, throned like a -sphynx in the inmost recesses of nature. He had felt that mysterious -creative power which shapes and maintains the world. He felt it -as belonging to his own inner nature and power, and his heart, in -the profound consciousness of this magical possession, must have -bounded more exultantly, since those other lofty human acquirements -of culture and art-work, which first invest the deep outreachings of -life with the nobility and loftiness of thought, were open to him -also. Henceforth his genius illuminated him, but the activity of this -genius, in other words, its creative power, he attributed to his always -profound recognition of the mysterious operations of the creative -power of nature. A Parisian description of his playing, and that of -the similarly “demonish” Paganini, about the year 1834, says: “Music -is to them the art which gives man the presentiment of his higher -existence, and leads him from the occurrences of ordinary life into -the Isis-temple, where nature speaks with him in sacred tones, unheard -before and yet intelligible.” - -Let us now observe how the success of his playing, which this boy -had already evidently achieved by his vigorous expression of his own -feelings, influenced his future fortunes. “The tones of his bewitching -violin fell upon my ear like drops of some fiery, volatile essence,” he -says of the gipsy virtuoso, Bihary, whom he heard in Vienna in 1822. -“Had my memory been of soft clay, and every one of his notes a diamond -nail, they could not have clung to it more tenaciously. Had my soul -been the ooze from which a river-god had returned to his bed, and every -tone of the artist a fructifying seed-corn, it could not have taken -deeper root in me.” - -His father took him at this time to Prince Esterhazy, in whose family -musical patronage was hereditary. “I believe that female influence -alone succeeds with him,” wrote the great Beethoven two years later, -when he proffered the “Missa Solemnis” to him, as he had to another -prince, for a subscription. He did not anticipate much kindly feeling -on his part towards himself. Of what use, then, for a mere young -beginner in art to expect anything? The Prince made him a gift of a -few hundred francs. That was little for the heir of Haydn’s patron. In -contrast with this, the boy met with a merited reception in the larger -and more cultivated city of Presburg. Six noblemen, among them Counts -Amadee and Szapary, settled upon him for six years an annuity of six -hundred gulden, which satisfied the father’s desire to give the boy a -fitting education. - -Soon afterward, in the year 1821, he resolved to give up his position -and settle in Vienna with his wife and child. He was met with the -anxious misgivings of his wife (born in Upper Austria), who could not -bear to see her darling exposed to the vicissitudes of an artistic -career, and who tremblingly asked what would become of them, if, at -the expiration of the time, their hopes were disappointed. “What God -wills,” cried the boy of nine, who had listened to the conversation -with a quiet timidity. The objections and solicitude of the mother were -dispelled, all the more readily, as she was of a deeply and genuinely -religious nature. - -It was estimated that six hundred francs was a fair price for their -household effects. On their arrival in Vienna the father selected the -distinguished and unassuming Carl Czerny for the boy’s teacher, for -Czerny had been Beethoven’s pupil a short time and played nearly all -his compositions by heart. It was only the wonderful endowment of the -boy that induced the overburdened teacher to accept him, and when he -had finished playing to him he won his complete affection, as he did -Beethoven’s. How could a boy of such a fiery musical spirit, who had -enjoyed such a free and overflowing life in this art of his youth, -play the dry, pedantic Clementi, which Czerny at first selected as -the pedagogical groundwork? “If he visited a music store he never -found a piece difficult enough to suit him,” says our informant. -Once a publisher showed him the B minor concerto of Hummel. The boy -turned over the leaves and intimated that it was nothing, and that -he could play it at sight, making the assertion in the presence of -the first piano-players of the city. The gentleman, astonished at the -self-confidence of the boy, took him at his word and led him into the -hall where there was a piano. He performed the concerto with equal -skill and ease. It was the same composition which he played before -Beethoven a year afterwards. Nothing could now restrain him from -giving himself entirely to the public. “There is no greater pleasure -for me than to practice and display my art,” Beethoven also wrote in -his earlier years, and should not a genius who had acquired to his own -thorough satisfaction the utmost freedom and highest success by such -characteristic performances in public, seek its own free course, the -open sea of the great public? “I still remember to have seen and heard -this virtuoso whose manly, beautiful _personnel_ displayed all the -characteristics of his race,” writes Liszt at the time he first heard -Bihary in Vienna. “I can still recall the absolute fascination which -he exercised when with an absorbed and at the same time melancholy -listlessness, in striking contrast with the apparent buoyancy of his -temperament and the flashing glances which, as it were, fathomed the -souls of his hearers, he took his violin in his hands and for hours, -forgetful that time was also flying, unloosed cascades of tones -which streamed on in their wild plunges, anon rippling away as over -velvety moss.” On the 18th of December of the same year, 1822, the -“Young Hercules” in that concert when he “thundered out” the Hummel -composition, so united and as it were kneaded into one whole, the -andante of Beethoven’s A major symphony with an aria of Rossini’s, who -was at that time idolized in Vienna, that the relator excitedly cries -out--“_Est deus in nobis._” Verily a god directed the creative and -executive power of this little one, with his open brow, his haughty -nose, and his countenance lit up by his large, deep eyes, which seemed -set in the streaming hair, appearing as it were, like emanations of his -power. All this it was that may have urged our serious Beethoven, who -could so unerringly distinguish between the true and the false, the -great and the little, to go up to the boy at the close of that concert -of April 13, 1823, embrace and kiss him. - -It was a difficult matter to get the old master out to such a concert. -His ill health, deafness and many other troubles had kept him from -the public many years. He was moreover restrained by his aversion -to prodigies, who were all the rage at that time, and by his fixed -displeasure with Czerny, some of whose works were certainly noble, and -yet they had not kept him from the faults of a frivolous virtuosity. -At last the persuasion of his friends, his own good-heartedness and -interest in art prevailed, as they wrote to him the boy and himself -were in the same situation which he and Mozart had occupied in their -youth. “The presence of the renowned composer, far from intimidating -the boy, increased his imaginative power,” says the account. It also -expressly mentions that Beethoven encouraged him, but in that reserved -manner which was characteristic of him in his last years, and which was -ascribed either to his personal circumstances or to his great sorrow -about his deafness. Beethoven’s life is to-day fully revealed to us -in the firm assurance of his spiritual condition in these last years, -when the Ninth Symphony begins with its “Ode to Joy.” It may be found -set forth in its historical connection in the book: “Beethoven, Liszt, -Wagner.” Thus the young Liszt started upon his way in the great world, -consecrated by the kiss of the freest poetical spirit in his art. - -The next move was to Paris, which at that time, indeed, was the most -important place in the world for artistic, and above all musical -productivity. Besides, as the opportunity for full musical development -was wanting in Vienna, since Beethoven himself was no longer active -in such matters, it seemed best to apply to the Paris Conservatory, -at that time under the world-renowned Cherubini. “The boy was pleased -with the excellent receipts,” says our last concert report, and their -means for the journey were soon increased in Munich, where he succeeded -in rivaling the very eminent Moscheles, and heard himself called “the -second Mozart.” It was the same also at Stuttgart. Then they went to -Paris. - -“The two strangers made application to Cherubini, with letters of -recommendation from Prince Metternich,” says a Parisian sketch. He met -them with the reply: “A foreigner can not enter the Conservatory!” The -Director forgot that he himself was an Italian. The disappointed father -fell into despair. Had he then risked his very existence on the hope of -the complete artistic development of his son? - -Meanwhile his hope for the success and artistic perfection of the boy -was at last gratified. The public and the friends of the noble art -itself supplied the place of a narrow-minded and envious clique and -became father and godfather alike to this true “wonder-child” of the -nineteenth century, of whom one account aptly says: “We believe that no -other contemporary has created so profusely or reflected so faithfully -his varied acquirements as he.” They were next summoned to the Palais -Royal. It was on New Year’s, 1824. The boy charmed every one. The Duke -of Orleans, afterwards King Louis Philippe, in his delight bade him ask -for any gift he liked. “This harlequin,” cried the boy, and pointed to -a beautiful automaton hanging on the wall. - -This incident, as in the case of Mozart, illustrates the utter -unselfishness of the real artist, who continually gave and desired -nothing for himself. These frank, manly traits, like the incomparable -genius of the boy, who was no longer a boy, powerfully affected -every one within his circle. The biography of his youth tells us his -sensibility was as perceptible as it was attractive to every one. - -A year passed, and the young Liszt became in the mean time, so to -speak, the plaything of all the ladies of Paris. Everywhere he was -caressed and fondled. His roguish tricks and pranks, his whims and -caprices were all observed and told over and over. Every one was -delighted. Scarcely thirteen years of age, he had awakened love, -aroused envy, kindled enmity. All were attracted to him and were -completely infatuated with him. - -This sudden conquest of the leading society of the Europe of that -day, which was noted in the public prints, may be found more amply -detailed in the volume, “Beethoven, Liszt, Wagner.” Heaven must have -remarkably endowed that extraordinary child, who at the age of twelve -was without a rival, and that too in an art in which he accomplished -and understood what no mortal could boast to have produced of himself. -The “genius for performance,” whose sources we have sought to locate, -without, however, the skill to disclose their lowest depths, since they -lie in that combination of the freest and most individual power, as -applied to universal individuality and to the artistic, which we call -“genius”--this unsurpassed skill of performance was so irresistibly -overwhelming at that time, for example upon an actor like Talma, that -one evening in the Italian theatre, while they rushed around the boy -from all the boxes, he threw his arms about him and embraced him so -closely, that the poor little fellow had great difficulty in releasing -himself so that he could see his enthusiastic friends. It was developed -to its ultimate perfection by the continuous and hearty recognition -of his gifts by a great and sympathetic public in France and England. -His face more and more assumed the likeness of an Apollo, with the -types of the two royal animals, the lion and the eagle, as we observe -in an excellent picture of him in his youth. In his playing he also -resembled that Pythian deity, who in the glowing embrace of the proud -Muse disclosed her hidden secret and threw the world into rapturous -amazement. - -It was Paganini who had the first and most decisive influence upon the -unapproachable playing of the young artist. It was the language of -unfathomable nature, the same which he had heard among the gypsies, -but translated into the higher language of genius, without which the -superhuman, which is so mysteriously throned in our deeper natures, -would remain unexpressed. It was in the year 1831 that this hero of -violinists appeared in Paris, and carried everything before him with -his concerts. The most inconceivable difficulties were overcome in -his consummate achievements and seemed to be the essential methods of -expressing particular emotions, like those of the deepest sorrow or the -most extravagant humor. Liszt, at that time in his nineteenth year, -was touched to his inmost soul by this playing. “He became convinced,” -says a contemporary musical writer, “it was only through new and -unusual means that a large audience could be roused into unexampled -enthusiasm, and that the same methods could be applied to the piano, -which had been used with the violin. He determined to become the -Paganini of the piano. That he became even greater, we now know. We -close these preludes of his life with some little known accounts of -these first reproductive periods.” - -In that excellent Parisian musical journal, to which Liszt himself -contributed many years, the following appeared in 1834, when he was in -his twenty-second year: “His playing is his language, his soul. It is -the very poetical essence of all the impressions he has felt, of all -that have captivated him. These impressions, which in all likelihood he -could not render in language, and express in clear and precise ideas, -he reproduced in their full meaning, with an accurate skill, a natural -power, an energy of feeling and a charming grace, which have never been -equaled. At one time his art is passive, an instrument, an echo; it -expresses and interprets. At another it is active again; it speaks. It -is the organ which he uses for the development of his ideas. Hence it -is that Liszt’s playing is not a mechanical, material exercise, but -much more than this, in the genuine sense a composition, a successful -creation of art.” - -The details of his performances are then noted, as for instance, that -in the Weber “Concert-Stueck” he drowned a tutti of the orchestra -with his piano and its thunder overpowered the hundred voices of its -instruments and the thousand-fold bravas which rang through the hall -at that instant. “How is it that we feel a sudden and irresistible -pressure in the breast and a stoppage of the breath as soon as Liszt -sits down to the piano to play the simplest thing, a capriccio, a -waltz, an etude of Cramer, Chopin or Moscheles,” wonderingly asks -this admirer. Then he refers to his playing of Beethoven’s music. -“Beethoven is a divinity to Liszt, before whom he bows his head. -He regards him as a savior whose advent in the world through the -freedom of poetical thought has been signalized by his annihilation of -superannuated practices. You must hear him while he plays one of those -melodious poems which are distinguished by the commonly accepted name -of sonata. You must see his eyes when he raises them as if to receive -an inspiration from above, and when again he lowers them sadly to the -earth. You must see him, hear him, and--be silent. For here you feel -only too well how feeble is any expression of admiration.” - -About the same time appeared a very considerate German account in -Robert Schumann’s musical paper. “In Paris they did not have much -faith in the young artist’s talent for composing or originating ideas, -but on the other hand credited him with divining the thoughts of the -great masters by his perceptions and study. So far as his playing was -concerned, they could only use the expression, ‘marvelous.’ He plays -with unrivaled facility and purity, elegantly, tenderly and with fire. -He carries the listener along with him and often makes him fear that he -will not hold out. It is related that at the close of one day, after -a too continuous and lavish display of his vigor and power, he was -exhausted by weariness. He triumphs over all, only he can not conquer -his nerves, which I fear, will conquer him,” says our countryman in -conclusion. “In a word, you behold an immensely nervous man who plays -the piano immensely.” - -The world knows to-day, by hundreds and hundreds of his victorious -achievements, that by the “ideality of his personal presence” as well -as by the fascinating and magical beauty of his playing, he has marched -through the world like another Alexander the Great, and that it yielded -not merely to the purest enjoyment of human nature but to the highest -possible proofs of truth and beauty--brother and sister to each other -as it were, yet in our inmost being they are one. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -DIVERTISSEMENTS HONGROIS. - - The Power of Music--Its Origin and Influence--Relation - to Nature--Bach, Mozart and Beethoven--Sources of their - Inspiration--Autobiographical Sketch--Liszt as a Lad--His Voluntary - Exile--Revival of the Home Feeling--His Love of Nature--Religious - Feeling--The Gypsies--A Famous Visit to them--Picturesque - Surroundings--Wild Dances--Talks with the Old Men--The Gypsy - Hags--An Impromptu Orchestra and Wonderful Music--A Weird Night - Scene--Salvator Rosa Effects--Grotesque Cavalcade--The Concert at - the Inn--A Demoniac Symphony--Wild Revel in a Thunder Storm--Liszt’s - Hungarian Music. - - -The work of artistic genius will always remain an enigma to be silently -admired by us, like the incomprehensible and creative phenomena of -nature, of which it is, by its very essence, a part and a speaking -likeness. Transporting the whole nature and again rousing a secret awe -in the presence of its mysterious power, which like nature itself, -knows neither good nor evil, deliciously reveling in a flood of -light, as when the first morning of creation revealed the boundless -fullness of its form, and again filling one with fear and dread of the -overpowering immeasurability and the mysterious depths of the original -creative power--with such varied emotions this creative force of genius -fills us, especially in music, when it confronts us almost face to -face with the sense of that secret incomprehensible world-force which, -endlessly destroying, creates again and creates only to destroy. - -Whence comes the power to a single individual which subdues millions -of hearts, which for centuries has dictated the laws of thought and -feeling, which seems even to broaden the limits of creation, while it -produces pictures and images which were not pre-existent? Is it not the -same with the images of tragic poetry? Does it not, like the antique, -live an imperishable life by the side of and yet above humanity? Do not -these melodies of Mozart and Beethoven give us a new and different view -of our kind, and does not the mighty Leipsic cantor, Sebastian Bach, -construct a dome of mere tones which is a part of the plan and order -of the universe we call the cosmos, a tangible and perceptible mental -structure, as apparent as the everlasting abode of Deity? - -Whence comes, we repeat, this incomprehensible power, this knowledge -we are almost inclined to regard as something unprecedented and -impossible? Is it an accident of natural endowment, a mysterious inner -combination of powers, which have no connection with the customary -mental processes but expand and work in a time and place which we must -consciously recollect in order to comprehend the designated results of -its immeasurable creative power? - -The higher spiritual perceptions in their widest development must -spread out before the poetical genius ere he can collect the beams -which make a new sun-life for the world. Homer and Sophocles, like -Shakespeare and Goethe, in their overpowering creations, represent a -new world-period in the growth of humanity, and Beethoven well knew -what he said when in a letter to Bettina he called the great, that is, -the true poet, “the most precious treasure of a nation.” The highest -flights of the plastic perceptions, combined with the objective results -of technical skill through long generations, at last make possible -the appearance of a Phidias and a Raphael. Who has fully comprehended -that grand musical architect, Sebastian Bach, who looks down from the -true heights of humanity on a whole generation of spirits who lived -and thought in that other world, in which the very creation seemed -to repeat itself through mere ethereal tone-vibrations, nay more, a -creation was fashioned having nothing to do with the other world, and, -if one may credit the bold hypotheses of the philosophers, able to -exist without it. - -And Mozart! Can we fancy an existence in which the tenderest graces -of life bloom like roses and violets without a development of those -sources in the human breast in their endless breadth and ineffable -depth and reaching their full maturity, from which melody flows and in -which the eternal power of creation reveals itself like the reason in -idea and word? And then, Beethoven! Deeply concealed, world-pervading -and far-reaching influences must have preceded the supernatural power -of volition and inspiration, before such a phenomenon could appear and -like a new solar system enter the firmament which seems already opened -for him. Had we not these remote and world-old proofs of this highest -human inspiration preceding all culture--did we not know the deeds, -did we not possess the songs of our mighty ancestors which sing them, -were it not for these known and observed influences, a phenomenon like -Beethoven could not be comprehended. As he sprang from the old lower -Germany, there was revealed in him the undaunted hero-spirit of the -earlier ages, which in its struggle with foreign popular forms upheld -its independence and fitted it to help prepare a new and higher culture -for the world. - -Let us now observe the source and career of a still further fragment -of a similarly overwhelming artistic phenomenon which leads us nearer -to the source of its wonderful success, and by the recognition of the -intimate union of the mysteriously working forces of nature with the -understanding, enables us to clearly comprehend what needs to be made -clear to the senses when it is brought before them in the master’s -playing and creation. - -In the “Revue et Gazette Musicale,” of the year 1838, there is a letter -of his which gives us his impressions of his revisit to his Hungarian -home. We learn from it that Hungary had been and continued to be a -home to this genius whose cosmopolitan art, as well as his rare -international culture, seemed to render any distinctive national life -unnecessary. - -Nearly fifteen years ago, this letter says,--it dated in reality from -1821, and was thus more than seventeen--the father forsook his peaceful -abode to go out into the world with him, and exchange the simple -freedom of country life for the brilliant career of the artist. France -at once appeared to him the most fitting sphere for the development of -his genius, as he in his simple pride denominated his son’s musical -talent. He thoughtfully describes that important period from his -fifteenth to his twenty-fifth year, which he had passed in Paris, and -which for the time had caused him to forget his home, and to regard -France as his fatherland. People, things, events and places powerfully -affect his ideas. He says that a flood of radiance streams from his -heart. The absolute necessity of loving is so strong in his nature that -a little part of himself goes out to everything that is near him. He -is disquieted by the tumult of his own emotions. He does not actually -live; he merely strives for life. He is full of curiosity, longing -and restless desire. A continuous ebb and flow of contending emotions -surges through him. He exhausts himself in a labyrinth of confused -longings and passions. He can only regard with pity everything simple, -slight and natural. He oversteps all bounds, boldly searches after -difficulties and the good things which he might do, the feelings which -might be a blessing to him he considers scarcely of any value. In a -word he is mercilessly tortured with these thorns of youth. - -The soil of France, where he passed this time of feverish strife, of -wasted powers, of energetic but perverted life-vigor, received the -mortal remains of his father. There was his grave--the holy place of -his first sorrow. “How could I help regarding myself as the child of a -country in which I loved and suffered so much,” said he. - -And yet there is a still more sacred home than the one where we have -had our first personal experiences and appreciations. It is the place -of our birth, where our earliest feelings and emotions impressed -us. Speaking of this longing for home, he says: “On one occasion an -accident aroused the feeling which had only slumbered, while I thought -it lost.” One morning in Venice he read a description of the calamity -which an inundation had caused in the capital of his fatherland. “Their -misfortune affected me deeply and I was impelled by an irresistible -longing to help the unfortunate sufferers,” he says. “But how could I -help, I, who possessed neither the means, the money nor the influence -which power confers? ‘Well,’ thought I, ‘I will find no rest for the -heart, no sleep for the eyes until I have contributed my little mite -for the relief of so great a need. Heaven will bless the artist’s -penny as much as the millionaire’s gold.’” In such a mood, the real -import of the word, “Fatherland,” suddenly became clear to him. “My -memory reverted to the past. I looked into myself and discovered with -ineffable delight, pure and without blemish, all the treasures of -childhood’s recollections.” - -He then gives a description of Raiding, his birthplace, accompanied -with the warmest and heartiest praise of Hungary and its people. To -them, though of older stock, belong the gypsies, apparently the most -scattered and wasted of all people on earth, and yet a homogeneous -race which more than all others has its own peculiar gift and has -given it to the world as its contribution to the aggregate of human -culture--the gypsy music. - -Young Liszt, “Ferencz,”[A] like them, was also a musician in the -sense that nothing in the world could transcend in his estimation -such a soul-possession, while he, and perhaps he alone, could fully -realize that blessing which is the holiest thing to men and which is -born spontaneously in all its perfection and purity, of this art of -tone--Religion. Liszt knew this unfortunately-fortunate wandering -people. With their music they had first revealed to his soul that -deep supernal world, as we above characterized their music. Out of -the passionate stir of all the mental powers as well as of pleasure -in their impetuous rhythms had come to him the irrepressible longing -for a purer and higher mental expression which resounded in their -gypsy melodies like the soul-lament of the world. He had experienced -and realized that to him, as to the gypsies, music was an All, a -hold upon life itself scarcely weaker than the natural bonds of the -closest human intimacy or of the love of children and parents. He knew, -that to this miserable people, without home or place, without social -affiliations or culture, even without religion, this spontaneous art of -music was all that the world offers beyond mere nature and her gifts, -culture and customs. It was to them those higher thoughts and deeper -emotions of human life we call religion and God himself. - -As a boy he had realized the expiation which must be made for the -attainment of such a spiritual condition. He had heard these tones -rising from the lowest depths of a mysterious being and pervading -his earliest emotions with all the energy of a heart full of the -inexhaustible power of youth, and he had felt himself alternating -between rapture and sorrow, between tears and delight, between pride -and desire, the plaything of those uncomprehended and eternal powers -which nevertheless are the source and essence of life. For years he -had acquired and exercised in the great world that immense skill -which complete devotion to an external object secures. He was deeply -absorbed as well as passionately delighted, as his hands rested upon -the keys, as his spirit floated in tones, as his eyes were full of a -higher delight in the sight of a world transcending the senses, as his -breast heaved with the unaccustomed fullness of the impressions of such -feelings and of such a spectacle, and he fully shared the boundless and -enthusiastic impressions which his art, his magical playing exercised. -All this he had realized a hundred-fold. Why then should his heart -not beat when he saw the gypsies again and when he heard again those -tones which, so to speak, had summoned him to life? For his life was -and is yet only music, and these gypsy melodies are, as it were, the -soul of the country to which above all other countries of the world -they peculiarly belong. It was this country which first appreciated -this music, for Hungary or a Magyar festival without it, is no Hungary, -no festival. The gypsies and their music are like another and ideal -fatherland in that of Hungary, the most sadly longing as well as the -most deliriously passionate expression of its national existence. - -Liszt, unquestionably the greatest son which this Hungary has yet -produced, has paid a tribute to that race, the gypsies, apparently the -weakest of all earth’s people, which with conscientious fidelity tells -the story of what they really are and what he himself owes to them. The -description of his Hungarian fatherland, of his beloved countrymen, and -then of the manner of life and ideas of those restless wanderers, their -mysterious origin and still more mysterious endurance as a people, the -mystery of their moral duration, if one may so call it, in all their -outward change and constant privation, the atmosphere of poetry, or -of the actual world-spirit, as one might say, which surrounds them, -as it does all the simple products of nature--all this one must read -in the volume, “The Gypsies and their Music in Hungary.” For tender -love, delicate observation, faithful portraiture, deep intellectual -perception, ethical criticism and genuine poetico-ideal clearness, one -can find no parallel to the manner in which he has described for us -this apparently God and world-forsaken people, maintaining their right -to exist. It is a beautiful heart and soul-tribute which the great -artist has paid them. - -One part of this volume, his visit to the gypsies, confirms in every -particular what we have said above of the influence of their art upon -him, and of the divine, free inspiration and untrammeled genius of -music as the direct outcome of the primitive force of the world itself. -We shall let our volume tell the story. It is a variegated picture, -and as Salvator Rosa among the robbers is once said to have studied -the absolute unrestraint and individuality of their natural life, and -the consequent incomparable variety of character and characteristics -of landscape, figures, groups, costumes, colors and forms, so we shall -find in this highly colored picture at least one of the numerous germs -and shoots which, in Liszt, developed into such a strong and vigorous -tree. From these genuine children of nature he acquired at least the -one indispensable element of all art-creation, a complete freedom and -absolute consecration of the entire nature to it. - -Liszt relates that on his first return to Hungary, in the summer of -1838, he wished to refresh his youthful recollections with some of -their liveliest impressions, and to see again these gypsy bands in the -woods and fields, in the picturesque promiscuity of their marches and -halting-places, with all the contrast of the union of ages, passions -and varying moods, free from any conventional gloss or mask, rather -than in the stifled city streets, whose dust they gladly shake off, -preferring to wound their feet with the thorns and stubble of the -heath than with the rough pavements. “I visited them in their outdoor -kingdom, slept with them under the open heavens, played with the -children, made presents to the maidens, gossiped with their rulers -and chiefs, listened at concerts given to gratuitous audiences, by a -hearth-fire whose place chance determined.” Salvator Rosa among the -robbers! Thereupon follows a description which strikingly contrasts -the extreme naturalness of these wandering hordes with the splendor of -cities, particularly of the world-ruling Paris, and with the education -and polish of the child of the salon, who was nevertheless an artist, -and who could say of himself: “Afterwards I became myself a wandering -virtuoso in my fatherland, like them. I was, like them, a stranger to -the people. Like them, I pursued my ideal in a complete devotion to art -if not to nature.” - -Stretched out upon the close, crisp fleeces of their lamb skin mantles, -out of which they prepare a couch of honor resting upon freshly plucked -and fragrant flowers, before it a row of lofty ash trees, whose -wide-spread branches seemed to support the blue sky, stretched out like -a broad pavilion and ornamented with curtains of vapory clouds, at his -feet a mossy turf, sprinkled with the brightest meadow-flowers, like -those tapestries of the Mexican Caciques, he spent hours listening to -one of the best of the gypsy orchestras, whose playing was animated by -the beauty of the summer day and the abundance of its favorite drink, -and accompanied with indescribable ardor the dances of their women, -who shook their tamborines with gentle cries and fascinating gestures. -During the intervals of rest, so he says, he heard the creaking of the -poorly greased axles of their wagons, which had been removed to one -side to leave more room for the dancers and the huzzas of the boys -in their own jargon, which the musicians politely translated into -“Elyen Liszt Ferencz” or “hurrah for Franz Liszt.” Then came shouts -of delight at sight of a meal, composed of meat and honey, a noisy -cracking of nuts by white-toothed children, and bright laughter, mad -leaps, somersaults and a wild whirl and bustle--a genuine lyric of -untamed nature and caprice. Actual battles were fought over favorite -delicacies, such as some sacks of peas, around which tattered Megaras -with disheveled hair, bleared eyes, toothless jaws, hands trembling -like aspen leaves, danced incredible sarabands for these gifts which -promised to satisfy their greediness. The men to whom he had given -beautiful horses, laughingly showed their dazzling teeth and cracked -their finger-joints like castanets, threw their caps high in air, -strutted about like peacocks and then commenced the fiery rhythms -of their dances with a vigor which soon became a frenzy and at last -reached that delirious whirl which forms the culminating point of the -ecstacy of the dervish dances. Truly a tempting bit for the brush of -a genuine Netherlander, but can any one paint their music as well? -We shall see, but we will first continue the narrative which leads -us to the very verge of this singular, unrestrained and apparently -purposeless nomadic existence. - -He conversed for a long time with the old men of the tribe and besought -them to tell him some of their experiences from their own recalling. -Their memory, however, did not extend beyond the limits of the living -generation and he was obliged to help them in recalling the course of -events so that they could keep them in regular order. Once they have -secured the thread of a story, so this close observer informs us, they -experience extraordinary pleasure and seem to regain, in all their -original freshness, feelings which have been long concealed under later -impressions. The less frequently this occurs, however, the greater is -the delight with which they again sound the strains of the old time -and with growing enthusiasm, often with a bizarre kind of poetry, and -with imagery tinted with a constantly increasing oriental glow, they -describe the scenes which they have drawn from their recollections. - -The description itself was only the expression of momentary and -accidental passion, not of a well considered purpose or regularly -developed plan, hence these impetuous, unrestrained, unsubdued -impulses make dissimulation unnecessary. The originality of the -occurrence consists chiefly in the more or less energetic or fanciful -passion of the hero who accompanies it with impromptu accessories. -The remarkable simplicity of these natural relations prevents that -sequence of events, that change of circumstances, that development -of the emotions like germinating seeds, which in their maturity are -turning points in our destiny. Too quick, prompt and self-willed for -patience or perseverance, they as quickly seize what they desire; they -take swift revenge for any assault; sometimes, like a wounded animal, -they bear away the shaft that has pierced them and to conceal their -wounds forsake their tribe. Our narrator further mentions that they -observe a haughty and timid silence, a feeling of manly shame, as -it were, about their own feelings, and speaking of their companions -they only allude to the dead or the faithless, and a word, a nod of -the head or a gesture suffices for all they have to say. Thus Liszt -could obtain only individual adventures in love-intrigues, strife and -crafty tricks, and in these the most important thing, namely, the part -played by the principal himself and the controlling passion at work, -were persistently and regularly concealed, and yet in spite of all the -craftiness which the necessity of procuring alms has taught them they -manifest a very poetical sense in picturing the scenes of which they -were witnesses, so much so indeed, that the little narratives “can be -strung upon the same thread, like pearls of the same color.” - -The picture becomes gayer and more animated when he returns to his -friends the second time. It was on those same plains of the Oedenburg -county where he was born. He had not forgotten his old hosts and they -still thought well of him also, for when he left the plain old church, -after the mass, where he had prayed so fervently as a child, in which -all his neighbors had loudly sung in honor of this same boy, who, the -good dames of the village prophesied, would come back in “a carriage -of glass,” that is, in a glistening equipage, a great crowd of gypsies -swarmed about him and received him with every manifestation of joy and -delight, prepared to do him honor. - -Their orchestra was soon ready in a neighboring oak-grove. Barrels -placed on end and covered with boards formed a table and around it -“Roman couches” were made of stacks of hay, one of them a genuine -throne of thyme, butterfly-shaped flowers, flax blooms in elegant -half-mourning, anemones in white tunics, wild mallows, cornflowers, -irises, and golden bells, a “flowery mound fit to offer to Titania.” -Nightshades, with their broad, shield-shaped leaves spread a colossal -fan about the rural festival. And then follows a description of nature, -the counterpart of which may be found in music: “Bees, attracted by -the fragrance of the fresh hay, forsook their hives in the neighboring -tree-trunks by swarms. Crickets chirped in the rye and wheat fields. -Hornets and wasps buzzed their contralto. The dragon-flies came in -flights with a whirr like the rustling of taffeta robes. The quails -and larks sang. The frightened sparrows called out. The little emerald -frogs croaked among the rushes of the brook and a whole swarm of -shelterless insects flew about us with the most confused sounds. What -polyphony! What ethereal music! What smorzandos on organ points! All -this must have floated before Berlioz when he composed the ‘Dance of -the Sylphs.’” But, say we, such a picture of the surprisingly varied -activity of creative nature must have filled the daring and at all -times active fancy of the same artist who quickly makes the living -human heart, with all its foolish pride and restless longings, realize -“the pain and pangs of almighty nature,” as he terms it, with an effect -as wonderfully vivid as only a Salvator Rosa or a Ruysdael could paint -it. Farther on we have a genuine Inferno in mere word-pictures. - -“Night came before they were weary. To light up the darkness a dozen -pitch torches blazed in a circle. The flames arose like cylinders of -glowing iron, for not a breath stirred the atmosphere laden with heat -and the fragrance of invisible aromatic herbs that had been mowed down -in the morning. To our half-closed dreamy eyes the torches appeared -like columns supporting the dark canopy of the heavens. The smoke -wavered in the air, now concealing and anon revealing the golden stars. -The darkness was like a solid wall around a fantastic wood palace, -while the gnarled tree-trunks with their curiously twisted branches -stood out like statuary. The children leaped about like gnomes and -stripped the bushes. The scene constantly grew more strange and -fantastic. The women appeared like specters when they suddenly emerged -from some dark corner with eyes gleaming like coals and with magical -beckoning hands to tell us our ‘good fortune.’ That evening the phrase -was not a meaningless one.” As a happy close, one of those humorous -scenes occurred which are never wanting among the children of simple -nature. - -“On the next morning, the men would not hear of an immediate -separation, and gave us their company as protectors, some on horseback, -some running on foot, to the nearest village. The closeness of the day -before was followed by a rain storm but they refreshed themselves with -parting drinks and glowed with delight, rejoicing in the fitful rushes -of the rain. In their turned lamb’s skins they looked like bears on -raging steeds, for they spurred their horses so furiously that they -leaped about like carps. The abandon of these people, could scarcely -be kept within bounds any longer. They reached a tavern not far off, -and here this extraordinary carnival came to an end with a morning -serenade under a huge shed, and pretending that it did not rain, the -symphony began with an animated flourish, _con estro poetico_, but the -circulating morning’s wine and the liquor of the day before infused -them with fresh vigor and soon led to a _rinforzado con rabbia_. The -thunder growled in the distance like a continuous bass. The high beams -and the half-fallen walls of the shed gave back such an echo that every -sound struck upon the ear with redoubled power. Passionate passages and -feats of virtuosity followed each other and were confusedly mixed. This -musical morning roar was rent into tatters of tones, and in the stormy -finale it seemed as if all the sounds were piled upon each other like -a mountain ridge. One could hardly tell whether the old building had -not tumbled in, so deafening was the instrumentation of this concert, -which certainly would not have received a favorable verdict from any -conservatory, and which I myself must declare was somewhat daring.” -With this spirited description, this vigorous picture of life closes. - -But what is all this in comparison with the effect when the artist -takes his own pencil and depicts these scenes in music, the spirit -of which re-echoes them all. When Salvator Rosa dashes off his -passionately excited scenes from nature, his bold conceptions of bandit -characteristics, and other weird pictures of outdoor life and its -accessories, as if they were living figures passing before us, we can -not help realizing that he must have actually lived among the robbers. -The artist has given us his own account of this unpolluted nature and -her children. Our musical picture-gallery has been remarkably enriched -with his “Hungarian Rhapsodies,” in which he has successfully painted -in tones all that life which he has sketched in words and thus has -preserved it to the world of art. The “Hungarian Fantasy,” for piano -and orchestra, and the stately symphonic poem, “Hungaria,” give us a -memorial picture of this animated Hungarian life, so full of strange -power and extreme contrasts, with which also, in this regard, the -nature-world of the gypsies was fully identified. It was important to -give a definite description of it, for it seems in this connection -above all else necessary to furnish the details and essentials of a -music, which, in contrast with our European musical creations in their -accepted forms, is a world in itself, in harmony, rhythm, melody and -instrumentation, and one which we recognize as wonderfully fanciful and -rich in color and yet full of the germs of life. Did we not possess -the inimitable magic of that web of nature in Shakespeare’s “Midsummer -Night’s Dream,” we should declare that in the artistic presentation of -the wonderful poetry of absolute nature, these works of Liszt, based -upon the gypsy music, were the most poetical of all. At all events, by -the side of these picturesque, genre pictures, they suffer but little -in power, delicacy and reality, and we may call them studies made -directly from nature. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -CAPRICCIOSO. - - Untamable Animals and Men--An Interesting Test--Attempt to Refine a - Gypsy--The Boy Josy--Bought from the Gypsies--His Advent in Liszt’s - Salon--Thalberg’s Astonishment--Adopted by the Master--Attempts to - Educate him--A Hopeless Task--Josy becomes a Fop--His Insolence and - Conceit--Liszt Despondent--Josy goes to the Conservatory--Worse and - Worse--Sent to the Black Forest--No better--Liszt’s Encounter with - a Traveling Band--Josy’s Brother Intercedes for his Return--Liszt - Consents--Great Joy--Josy Settles at Debrezin--Violinist in a Gypsy - Band--Letter to Liszt--His Love and Devotion. - - -It is well known that there are animals who are never tamable for any -length of time and it is none the less interesting to know that an -untamableness of nature just as absolute is a human characteristic, -and belongs to beings of our own kind, who inconsistently throw -away all the benefactions and blessings of a fixed existence and -culture, content to secure the inexhaustible bounty of nature and -enjoy the simplest form of human existence. It is that people “which -draws water from every stream of earth and eats bread from all its -furrows.” Liszt, who had found the way to them by his earnest desire -to witness their actual life, has given us an illustration of this -feature of their untamableness and contempt for all our blessings of -culture, which, when closely considered, leads us to reflect upon the -real nature of _our_ culture. In parts it is very amusing and again -it is almost pathetically humorous, revealing to us the nature of -human existence in all its varying moods. We may observe this from -a psychological standpoint and thus save ourselves the necessity of -character-description. - -Would not continual kindness of treatment at last overcome this innate -wantonness of the gypsy nature? Might not one by carefully fostering -their music, that exotic plant, that special gift of theirs, so -brilliant in its first radiance, develop it to a fuller growth in the -atmosphere of civilization and improve its beauty? These were the -questions which for a long time had impressed themselves upon the manly -feelings and the kindly spirit of the great artist, as well as upon his -deep concern for and earnest sympathy with all true and genuine things -and with the immortal nature of all the spontaneous outgrowths of his -art. - -It was in Paris, about the beginning of 1840, and at a time also -when Liszt’s attention was not much given to the gypsies, that one -morning his dear friend, Count Sandor Teleky, came in, accompanied by -a twelve-year-old lad, in a hussar jacket and broad laced trowsers, -with dark brown complexion, wildly waving hair, a bold look, and a -demeanor as haughty as if he were about to challenge all the kings of -the world. He had a violin in his hands. “See,” said the Count, as he -pushed the lad toward him by the shoulders, “I bring you a present.” -Great was the astonishment of all the guests at a scene so strange for -Frenchmen to witness. Among these guests was that great artist, who -was at that time, notwithstanding Liszt’s abilities, called in Paris, -“the greatest,” until one who had closely watched the rivalry between -them settled it in a word: “Thalberg is the first but Liszt is the -only one.” It was Thalberg who could not refrain from asking what he -intended to do with this gift. - -Liszt himself was surprised. He had not thought for a long time of the -wish he had expressed, when in Hungary, of finding a young gypsy with -a talent for the violin which he might further develop, but he guessed -as soon as he looked upon this slim, nervous and evidently quarrelsome -little being that his desire for a young “Cygan” and countryman -had been gratified. In fact, the Count on leaving Hungary had left -instructions on his estates, since they had sought in vain while he -was there, that in the event of finding such a young man he should be -sent direct to Paris. The impetuous youngster, whom he now introduced -to Liszt, had been discovered a short time before on his possessions, -and had been purchased and forwarded to him as a token of friendly -affection. - -Liszt kept the boy continually near him and naturally took keen -pleasure in watching the development of his emotions and humors amid -his new surroundings. Insolence was the strongest characteristic of -his nature, and it displayed itself in the most diverse ways, by a -thousand naive and childish frivolities. To steal out of greediness, to -continually hug the women, to break every object whose mechanism he did -not understand, were very inconvenient but natural faults which might -have corrected themselves. It was not easy, however, to deal with -them as they continually broke out in new directions. In these circles -which included acute psychological observers, like Balzac and George -Sand, “Josy” soon became a little lion and his private concerts kept -his purse well filled. The money which came in so abundantly he flung -away recklessly and with all the prodigality of a magnate. The first -object of his attention was the adorning of his own little person. His -coquetry was beyond belief and even went so far as affected vanity. -He must always have plenty of beautiful little canes, breast-pins and -watch-chains by him, and of various kinds. His cravats and vests could -not be too showy in colors and no hair-dresser was too good to curl his -locks. To become an Adonis was the great problem of his existence, but -in his attempt to solve it, one pang gnawed at his heart and poisoned -his peace. In contrast with those about him, his complexion was so -brown and yellow! He thought that by the active application of soap -and oil, such as he had seen employed with great success in acquiring -that enviable possession, a beautiful color, he could overcome his -misfortunes, and he continually provided himself with them. He visited -the best shops and bought everything he thought would answer for that -purpose, always throwing down five franc pieces, for he was much too -fine a gentleman to take any change. - -It soon became impossible to do anything with him. In all the friendly -circles of his adopted father, he swelled about, a full flown dandy. -On the eve of taking his journey to Spain, Liszt gave him over to -the violin professor of the Paris Conservatory. He promised to give -the utmost attention to his astonishing musical talent, while the -superintendent of a school, in which meanwhile the boy was placed, -undertook to cultivate him mentally and morally. All accounts from -him, however, more and more confirmed Liszt’s doubts of the success of -these educational schemes. In music it was specially useless to try and -keep him within any practical bounds. He had the utmost contempt for -everything that he did not know, and without directly asserting it, in -his own estimation he was convinced of his superiority to everything -about him. Like a genuine “savage” he was interested only in _his own_ -pleasures, _his own_ violin and _his own_ music, and had no desire for -anything else. - -When Count Teleky brought him in, in his Hungarian gypsy costume, he -had still his own violin. Upon this little wooden shell, poorly glued -together, covered with strings which seemed better adapted for hanging -oneself than for _playing_, he played even then the liveliest dances -with remarkable aplomb and unsurpassed vigor. His perceptions never -failed him and he played very willingly. He could perform for hours -partly by ear and partly improvising and was very reluctant to make use -of the melodies which he had heard among his associates. For the most -part they were dull and insipid to him, but he was very partial to the -melodies which he had heard Liszt play many times, and he would often -regale his own audience with them, ornamenting them, however, in such -a droll fashion that they never failed to set every one in a cheerful -mood. As soon, however, as he was obliged to undertake actual study, he -became refractory and would have nothing to do with it. No one could -convince him that his own methods were not finer than any they could -teach him and he lived in the fullest conviction that he was the victim -of barbarous coercion whenever his teacher in the least complained that -he was unwilling to be instructed by him. - -As might have been expected, Liszt soon heard that Josy grew larger but -did not change otherwise; that he made no progress, and that nothing -could be done with him. With his personal weakness for these singular -people, he looked upon the zig-zag letters of the boy which showed the -type of oriental exaggeration, as a proof of his industry. He sent word -to him to meet him in Strasburg. When he first arrived he did not think -of the boy, but when he stepped from his carriage he suddenly felt -a violent hand-shake and was almost suffocated in the embraces of a -strange young man. It took some time before he could recognize in this -elegant young gentleman, clad in Parisian fashion, his little untamed, -harum-scarum gypsy of the moors. Only the curved nose, the Asiatic eyes -and the dark skin, in spite of all the French cosmetics and soaps, -were the same. The self-conceit also was left, for when Liszt suddenly -exclaimed: “Why, Josy, you look like a young gentleman,” not in the -least disconcerted and with the mien of an hidalgo, he replied, “Yes, -because I am one.” In his new costume he also preserved his lofty -style and grandeur of demeanor, and after that it was difficult for -the “father” to believe that the inflexible gypsy nature could be -restrained within the limits of civilization and keep a designated -course. Still he would not allow his convictions to defeat his hopes -so soon. He thought that perhaps woods and fields would have a better -influence upon the boy than the great city and he consigned him to an -excellent musician in Germany, on the edge of the Black Forest. This -retreat, which withdrew him from the atmosphere of the great city and -the danger of continual fresh corruption, interfering with the growth -of what little virtuous aptitude he had by nature, Liszt hoped would -lead yet to the amelioration of the wild creature. - -Not long after he was in Vienna and heard of a new gypsy band. He -went one evening to the “Zeiferl,” where they played, to see whether -it was worth the trouble to make their acquaintance. Not one of the -company expected to find a face they knew in the band and for that -reason they were surprised at the commotion which Liszt’s entrance -occasioned. A slim young fellow rushed out of the troupe, fell at his -feet and embraced his knees with the most passionate gestures. At the -same instant he was surrounded by the whole troupe, who without further -ado, overwhelmed him by kissing his hand and expressions of gratitude, -of which he did not understand a syllable. After much trouble he -discovered that the one who had thrown himself at his feet with such an -enthusiastic “Elyen Liszt,” was an older brother of Josy’s. He had been -inquiring among Liszt’s friends and related, boasting and sobbing at -the same time, all that had been done for the benefit of the poor sold -boy, which did not prevent him, however, from timidly intimating how -glad they would be to see him and have him again. - -The news from his teacher was not satisfactory, so all hope must be -given up of making a rational artist out of this gypsy musician. Liszt -could no longer force an organization which was at utter variance with -the temperament of our society and culture. Will any one contend -that the European world has anything better to offer to such a branch -dissevered from its stem, than the joys of nature, to which our culture -had perhaps gradually made him wholly insensible? So he allowed this -“son of the wilderness” to come to Vienna in order that he might -again join his companions, if he so wished. His rapture at seeing -them was boundless. They feared he would go mad, but the elasticity -of such nerves knows no limits. Although in his foolish moments he -had wished for another complexion he now was conscious that he could -no longer disown his race. No sooner were they reunited than the band -disappeared from the city with the purpose of showing the lost child to -his father again. From the very first moment, Josy had shown himself -more intolerable than ever, and with many passionate expressions of -gratitude begged to be allowed to return at once and forever to his -people. So they parted, after his friends had filled his purse with a -little contribution which the haughty little fellow squandered upon a -colossal banquet given to his brethren in spite of all protestations -and the farewell supper besides, which had been provided for him. - -Did he ever see him again, this most perverse of all his countless -scholars, on the edge of the wood, with his violin, smoking, playing or -only dreaming, as Lenau has pictured “the three gypsies?” - -Some years later, in 1857, Liszt’s volume made its appearance. A German -translation of it by P. Cornelius appeared in Pesth, in 1861. It -contained a letter from Debrezin, in Hungary, signed: “Sarai Josef, or -the Gypsy Josy in the principal orchestra of Boka Karoly.” A notice of -the volume had appeared in the Debrezin _Sonntagsblatt_, and so Josy -writes the following which shows that culture had had some influence -upon him: “Since I have become the father of a family and acquired a -restful spirit and clear understanding, I reflect with sadness that -in my youth I might have had the good fortune, under Your Highness’ -protection and patronage, of an introduction to the great world and of -artistic cultivation, but for my incorrigible perversity and aversion -to all that was noble, elevated and artistic. But it was impossible, -and you are richly rewarded by my own and my brother’s request, since -a worthless gypsy fellow, whom it was impossible to develop into an -artist, is sent home again. In a word, I realize that I have buried my -future, but it could not have been otherwise. But as you openly desire, -at the close of your narrative, to hear something of me, I take this -opportunity to humbly inform you that here in Debrezin, my home, I am -serving as an ordinary gypsy in the orchestra, among my companions, and -am a favorite with the public since I still play the violin tolerably -well.” - -He had also married a gypsy of the same place, and the year before had -a son, who was christened with Liszt’s most precious name of Franz. -He says: “I am so bold as to select Your Highness as godfather. We -prolonged the christening with a lively entertainment, pledging the -godfather in a far away foreign land with high swinging cups.” He added -that the most precious recollections of him were impressed upon his -heart and that a portrait of “His Highness,” which he once took away -from Paris with him, should be preserved in his humble abode as long as -he lived and should be consigned to his posterity as a sacred relic. - -“Poverty often hangs the soul with rags and leaves it bare of -everything that graces and warms,” says Goethe, but in this case we -see that where nature has no other needs than those which can be -satisfied without trouble, the saying is not true and the appreciation -of a benefit conferred is, so to speak, a higher moral attribute, a -culture in itself. If a want of gratitude be the first sign of liberty -and self-dependence, then this “ordinary gypsy,” Sarai Josy, might -quietly say: “We barbarians are still better men.” Gratitude was the -distinction of his person as that haughtiness which has clung to them -through centuries of misery and privation in all countries of the -world is the distinction of his race. Could culture have given such -a distinction to this Josy? We doubt it and offer as an illustration -the beautiful saying of our great Fichte, in the address to the German -people, that delight in the good is rooted in man. In fact we have -observed it in this Josy. The loss of all the beautiful gifts of -culture did not give him a moment’s concern. That he had “buried his -future” was to him simply a thing that could not have been avoided, -but the spirit of goodness and love which alone can add happiness and -blessing to culture, once experienced by him, was never forgotten. -As long as he lived and even after he was gone, the picture of his -benefactor would be preserved as a “holy relic.” This one incident -reveals to us the real character of our master, who in this respect -inherited the traits of Mozart. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -IMPROMPTU. - - General Characteristics of Liszt--Earnestness of his Art--Its Genial - Character--His Interest in Life--His Loving Nature--Affection for - his Parents--Remorse of a Capellmeister--Richard Wagner’s - Testimony--A Helping Hand in time of Need--His Generosity to - Wagner--Secures him a Hearing--The Letter to Herr B.--Plans to - Bring out Wagner’s Works in London--Wagner in - Despair--Misunderstanding of Liszt--A Personal Appeal and Prompt - Reply--A Success made in Weimar--Urges Wagner to create a New - Work--“The Nibelungen”--Wagner’s Tribute at Baireuth. - - -Better known personally than most of his contemporaries, not so much -by the principles of his artistic movement as by his own personality, -for fifty years all over Europe, admired and courted on account of the -wonderful miracle of his genius, a hundred-fold more on account of -his manners and individuality studied partly for the laudable purpose -of discovering the secret of his overwhelming mastery, partly to -detect the failings of human weakness, the shadow in so much light, -“the dark ray”--what can be said of such a man as Liszt in a general -characterization? - -And yet, however well known he may be, in reality, we, his -contemporaries, can know little of such a man, for the reason that we -are now in a position to define the limits of his artistic power. How -long is it since we shrugged our shoulders at the so-called earnest -manner of Mozart when we spoke of him as a man? That he was a genius -no one doubted, but with it was immediately associated the idea of -a light-minded person who was only too glad to drink champagne, or -of a child who did not know how to deal with life, still less with -money, and consequently differed from ordinary people. And yet how his -letters, already in their second edition, have revealed him to us! -That this divinely inspired artist, even in his youthful years, was so -imbued with the seriousness of his art, will surprise that person who -only recognizes the grace of his melodies apart from any idea of human -toil and does not know that they are results achieved by the hardest -labor. That life was so thoroughly beautiful to him, especially in the -pure and manly features of piety and friendship, was due to a lovely -union of the beauty and purity of feeling which alone can disclose to -us the soulfulness of his music. This could only be predicated of one, -who, like Mozart, had actually taken into his soul the very essence of -art. It is manifest in the great variety of his creations as well as in -his correspondence, and particularly in the latter, as in his various -biographies it is only disclosed piecemeal. - -And yet that quality of his music which is showered down upon our -spirits like heavenly peace and blessing is a something which far -transcends the beautiful earnestness of a life measured by duty and -brings us to a close perception of the infinite, of those conditions -of life with which marvelous natural endowments and the highest -perfection of intellectual and artistic skill have little to do, and -in which we are forced to recognize the peculiar essence out of which -genius springs and creates. This deep heavenly joy of the spirit which -only seeks the good, and in such wise only as to maintain and cherish -it, how and when it can, not merely to conform his habit and life to -it--this genuine spirit of love which is the essence of industry, of -power, and of the highest and most productive qualities, this strongest -characteristic of Mozart’s nature is due to that spirit of human love -which was characteristic of his South-German home. It is as good a -product of his own peculiarly moral labor as his boundless knowledge -is the result of his industry as an artist. The loving earnestness of -a spirit which embraces all human things alone produces such creations -as Pamina and Sarastro. Every tone of his tells us this, be it in his -joyous songs, in the serene purpose of his life, or in the gracious -promptings of his heart. - -Is not Franz Liszt also a child of this Austria, and particularly so -as he still possessed this natural good-heartedness in all its inner -abundance, and had not yet eaten of the tree of knowledge that would -drive him from the Paradise of unconscious, beautiful harmony without -securing in return for it the peace of the conscious and wished-for -reconciliation? His strong attachment to his parents in his youth is -known to us. It is a marked characteristic of his life. The loss of -his father threatened his mental condition. Friendships! How many -letters have been made public which disclose his personal relations in -every stage of development from pleasant acquaintanceship to the most -self-sacrificing friendship of the heart, mostly with artists, that is, -colleagues, even with rivals, to whom he was almost without exception -superior and whom he made happy with his love. Yes, most happy! We once -heard a Hofcapellmeister, who had been induced by a prominent director -of an art institute, now deceased, to practice an imposition on our -master, which drove him away from Weimar, the scene of his activity, -declare with tears in his eyes: “How could I have acted so toward such -a man? I feel it was a crime against myself rather than against him.” -There was no delay between the expectation and the reception of Liszt’s -benefactions. Who, especially among artists, can say that when they -appealed to him he did not speedily help them? And who has not appealed -to him? It has been truthfully said that no sovereign lives who has -lavished his generosity upon his dominions as widely and continuously -as Liszt. Vienna experienced it as well as the city where he lived. The -Beethoven memorial will bear witness to it for posterity, as well as -the one erected in Bonn, in 1845, and the Schiller-Goethe memorial of -1849, at Weimar, which would not have been completed but for Liszt’s -generosity. - -One manifestation shows us the greatness and genuineness of the artist, -and its parallel can only be found in the relations of Goethe and -Schiller. What does Richard Wagner, the incomparable, who stands equal -in rank with Liszt in the world of art, say of the days when he had to -leave his fatherland as a fugitive, the victim of infamous persecution? - -It was in May, 1849. “On the day when every indication convinced me, -beyond all question, that my personal situation was endangered, I saw -Liszt directing a performance of my ‘Tannhauser,’ and was astonished -at recognizing my second self in his rendering. What I felt when I -invented this music, he felt when he conducted it. What I wanted to -say when I wrote it down, he said when he clothed it in tones,” writes -Wagner, speaking of his short stay in Weimar. One realizes in this -event the climax of his artistic sympathy. Wagner assures us that -with Liszt it sprang from that deepest fountain of life, his true -manly habit and goodness; from his sympathy with actual life and its -influences. He tells us how strange it was that he had in truth found -his “wonderful friend.” - -He had made Liszt’s acquaintance in Paris, about the year 1840, at -the very time when, after repeated disappointments, “disheartened and -disgusted,” he had renounced all hope of success and was in a constant -state of internal revolt against the artistic conditions which he found -there and which led him to a completely new career. “When we met, he -struck me as an utter contrast to my own being and circumstances,” -says he. “In this world, in which I had longed to appear and shine, -wherein the midst of my insignificant surroundings I had yearned for -the great, Liszt had grown up from his younger years to become the -general delight and wonder, at a time when I had become so disgusted -with it and with the coldness and lack of sympathy with which it -regarded me, that I could only realize its hollowness and emptiness -with all the bitterness of one repeatedly deceived.” Thus Liszt was -to him at that time “scarcely more than a suspicious phenomenon,” and -he had as yet no opportunity of acquainting the inspired virtuoso with -his own being and working. Thus the first contact of the two artists -was superficial, as might have been expected of a man like Liszt, -to whom every day brought its changeable impressions, while on his -own part, in his half desperate circumstances and condition, Wagner -had not sufficient calmness and fairness to seek for the natural and -simple causes of Liszt’s behavior toward him. He did not go to see him -again, and manifested his aversion by declining to make any closer -acquaintance with him. Liszt was to him as he says, “one of those -beings who are strange and hostile to one’s nature.” Unprecedented and -particularly impossible in a man like Liszt, it was only possible in -the case of a nature like Wagner’s, which had become hard and almost -repulsive through the force of circumstances. But we discover that the -situation cleared itself, and it reveals to us the actual nature of -Liszt himself, in all its greatness. - -Wagner, in his openly vehement style, made no concealment of his -feelings toward Liszt, and so it could not fail to happen that -one day he heard what Wagner thought about him. It was at the time -when “Rienzi” was attracting general attention at Dresden and Liszt -had already settled down at Weimar as Hofcapellmeister. Liszt was -astonished to find that he was so violently misunderstood by a man -with whom he was scarcely acquainted, and in 1851, Wagner writes in -his “Communications to my Friends” that when he looks back he is still -greatly moved at the solicitude and actual persistence which Liszt -displayed, and the trouble which he took to change the opinions which -he entertained toward him. He had not even known anything of his works. -He was urged on by the simple wish to remove this accidental want of -harmony between himself and another person, and perhaps also he felt -a delicate misgiving whether he himself might not have unconsciously -injured him. “He who knows,” continues Wagner, “all the disputatious -hardness of human life and the boundless selfishness in all our social -relations, and particularly in the relations of artists to each other, -must be more than astonished when he realizes how I was treated by -that extraordinary man.” - -But, he continues, notwithstanding all that had been done, he was yet -to experience the peculiar beauty of Liszt’s gracious and loving nature -in a stronger manifestation. He at last observed these approaches with -actual wonder, and had been inclined to give them still less credit, -now that Liszt’s circumstances had changed and he had come to be a -famous man and the Royal Saxon Hofcapellmeister. Now the actual basis, -the essence, so to speak, of Liszt’s manner of action and demeanor -shows itself for the first time. He had seen “Rienzi,” “and,” says -Wagner, “from every corner of the world, where, in the course of his -artistic career he had communicated with others, I received, now -through this person and now through that, evidences of the restless -ardor of Liszt and of the satisfaction he had experienced in hearing -my music.” This happened at the time when Wagner himself was more -and more losing ground with his dramatic creations. As Liszt had now -settled down quite permanently in Weimar, he made it a matter of prime -importance to establish a new and fixed abode for the creations of -this mistaken and proscribed artist. “Everywhere and always caring for -me, always quickly and decisively helping, when help was necessary, -with an open heart for my every wish, with a self-sacrificing love -for my very self, Liszt was something to me which I had never found -before and in a measure the fullness of which we only comprehend when -it actually embraces us to its full extent.” With this most beautiful -tribute, Wagner describes the circumstance which was so decisive for -him--and who can recall one more beautiful? - -In the following year, 1841, in contrast with his own and Wagner’s -self-sacrificing natures, Liszt had publicly accused Paganini, his -greatest rival, of being a “narrow egotist,” and referred to the -“artistic royalty” and even to “the divine service of devotion,” which -elevates genius to a priestly power--that reveals the very souls of men -to their God. He closes with the significant words: “May the artist of -the future with joyful heart renounce a frivolous, egotistical role, -which we hope has found its last brilliant representative in Paganini! -May he fix his goal in and not outside of himself and virtuosity be to -him a means, not an end! May he never forget that, although it is a -customary saying, ‘Noblesse oblige,’ it is a far more honorable saying, -‘Genie oblige.’” - -“It must be frankly conceded that Liszt has devoted himself with the -greatest enthusiasm to the laudable task of securing the appreciation -of new works which are unknown or misunderstood and old works which -have been forgotten, as well as of the latest works belonging to the -opposition school,” says a notice of him, written in 1876. “Thus we owe -to Liszt our nearer acquaintance with Berlioz, the introduction of many -unknown works of Franz Schubert, Richard Wagner, Robert Schumann, Raff, -Baerwald, Frank in Paris, and other masters, which secured their first -public performance through him.” - -There is still further evidence of this in the following letter which -has only recently come to light. It was written in the year 1849, -when Wagner had been compelled to be a fugitive, and was bargaining -for “Lohengrin,” and is addressed to one Herr B., in Paris, but -not Berlioz. “Dear B.,” it says, “Richard Wagner, Capellmeister of -Dresden, has been here since yesterday. He is a man of astonishing -genius, of a _genie si trepantique_, as befits this country, a new and -brilliant appearance in art. Recent events in Dresden have forced him -to a plan in the execution of which I am determined to help him with -all my power. Meanwhile I have had a long interview with him. Listen -to what we have planned and what must be realized from it. First, we -will create a success for some grand, heroic and fascinating music, -the score of which was finished a year ago. Perhaps it will be in -London. Chorley, for instance, can be of great service to him in this -undertaking. Then if Wagner comes, with his success in his pocket, to -Paris in the winter, the doors of the opera, at which he has always -been knocking, will open to him. It is unnecessary to trouble you with -any further explanations. You understand and must learn whether there -is at this moment an English theatre in London--for the Italian opera -would be of no service to our friend, and whether there is any prospect -that a great and beautiful work by a master-hand could make a success. -Reply as soon as possible. Later, that is, toward the end of the month, -Wagner will pass through Paris. You will see him, and he will speak -with you personally about the direction and extent of his plan, and -will be royally thankful for every favor. Write soon and help me as -ever. It is a noble purpose for the accomplishment of which all this -must be done.” - -Richard Wagner himself, in confirmation of what we have said, relates -the most beautiful thing of all. At the close of his brief Paris visit, -in 1849, when, sick, miserable and despairing, he sat brooding over -his situation, he happened to espy the score of his almost forgotten -“Lohengrin.” It suddenly struck him with a sense of pity, that the -music on this death-pale paper would never be heard: “I wrote two words -to Liszt and he replied that extensive preparations were being made -for the performance of the work. Whatever men and circumstances could -accomplish there (in Weimar,) should be done. Success rewarded him and -after this success he approached me and said: ‘See, thus far have we -come. Now create us a new work, that we may go still further.’” - -Wagner created it. It was the “Nibelungen.” - -And what occurred, when in the summer of 1876, this colossal work, the -glory of modern art as well as of modern culture, one might say of all -the culture of the world, for every nation was represented there, was -at last produced in an artistic manner worthy of it? - -“Here is one who first gave me faith in my work, when no one knew -anything of me,” said the artist, in the midst of a joyful company, at -the close of the first performance. “But for him perhaps you would not -have had a note from me to-day. It is my dear friend, Franz Liszt.” - -All this shows that what he did was only the fulfillment of duty. With -him, as with one of the greatest spirits of all the centuries, it was -his pride to be of service in his art. The proud words apply to him who -truly feels the greatness which he himself helps to create, beyond and -above all else in universal service, “genie oblige.” - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -REFLEXIONS. - - Goethe’s Criticism on Winckelmann--The Poetical - Necessity--Winckelmann and the Plastic Art--Has Music a - Language?--Musicians and Musical Writers--Gluck’s Writings--His War - in Paris--A fierce Struggle with the Theorists--Luther’s - Indebtedness to Bach--Heinse and his Writings--His Italian - Visit--Reichardt, Rochlitz and Schubart--Their Literary - Characteristics--A criticism of Marx--Liszt’s Contributions to - Literature--His great Literary Ability--The Place of Artists--List - of his Works--Goethe and Beethoven--Bettina’s Phantasies--Jean - Paul--Schumann--Liszt’s Criticism of the “Swan Song”--Tribute from - the “Gazette Musicale”--Selections from his Writings. - - -Goethe writes in 1805, of Winckelmann, the author of the “History of -Modern Art”: “He sees ineffable works with the eye, he comprehends them -with the sense, yet he feels the unmistakable difficulty of describing -them in words and characters. The complete majesty, the idea whence -sprang the form, the feeling which aroused the sense of beauty in him, -he would communicate to the hearer or reader, and while he musters the -entire arsenal of his abilities, he realizes that it is demanded of him -to seize upon the strongest and worthiest he has at command. He must be -a poet, whether he realizes it or not.” - -Thus Winckelmann became the originator of the reflective style of -statement in our language, which had not previously existed, and what -Goethe himself learned from it is shown very clearly in the poetical -description of the Greek myths, like Leda and the Swan, in the second -part of “Faust.” - -Have we a similar language for the art of music, which reveals to us, -as it were, the nature, the soul-image of mankind as the plastic art -reveals its exterior? Have our language and literature acquired afresh -such far-reaching capabilities, such a fixed scope and self-enrichment -as the plastic art has, through Winckelmann? This question is all -the more worthy of attention since music, embodying the very essence -of things and not their appearance, reflecting the idea of the world -itself by its own hand and with its own power, is more essentially -poetical than the plastic art. We have in Liszt’s writings a -significant incentive to consider the question further. - -It is certainly taking a narrow and one-sided view of musical talent, -to assert, like Riehl, that he who writes about music as a musician can -not be a correct musician. On the contrary, the truest tone-poets among -musicians have written the best about music, and in part about their -own, and at the same time by their clear comprehension of the poetical -idea in tone-poems have intensified the poetical force of the language. - -The first who wrote with a definite purpose as an artist, about the -peculiar form and the poetico-dramatic development of his art--for -we do not refer here to the old and learned musical pundits, was -Gluck, and this is specially manifest in his writings about his own -works. Partly consisting of prefaces to scores, partly of letters to -newspapers, these writings were prompted by the necessities of art -itself. That is, the free poetical movement of the composer and his -sympathetic delineation of the salient circumstances and phases of life -were assailed, and they tried to confine him to established forms, to -fine melodies of a set style, to a fashion as it were. Then the German -drew his sword, for the quarrel had been restricted mainly to Paris -and Italy, and thrust it sharply into the confused mass of theoretical -ideas, which are most prized by people who know little or nothing of -music. Drastic in comparison, striking in characterization, mercilessly -ridiculing all lordly authority, upon the literary, or true throne, he -settles in defiance of the theoretical, every concrete, individual and -intellectual question. When one considers the peculiarly Italian or -French text, there is something of Bismarck’s style about it. How far -removed from the theorist or delving fancy-monger was this artist, who -was at the same time a man of facts, a practician! Although we notice -some extremely striking and poetical, though merely incidental images, -such as only the creative spirit would discover, there is little to -be found of the externals of music, that is of musical description, -so that these writings produced an admirable effect and furnished the -proof that musical problems might engage the attention of the highest -literary circles. For the language itself was of little account in this -controversy, not even the two foreign idioms, which Gluck, by the way, -handled with great ease. - -Another illustration forces itself upon us, as viewed from the -standpoint of Luther’s translation of the Bible, which unquestionably -belongs to the poetical literature of our fatherland, namely, that -music, poetically considered, lay at the basis of early German as a -language. Luther’s German sprang from the texts of Sebastian Bach, -the sublimity of which reached the highest point of all art and which -is as thoroughly German as the ordinary plain recitative is Italian. -Instrumental music was now closely allied to this language, and -as Gluck produced a poetical form upon the living basis of actual -language, which afterwards especially delighted Goethe and Schiller, as -it had Klopstock, and certainly must have had an influence upon their -poetry, so the later ones, by personal intercourse with Philip Emanuel -Bach in Hamburg, had the opportunity to perceive by actual observation, -that German instrumental music began to assume a peculiarly German -form. Mozart’s melodies, from the “Entfuehrung” to the “Zauberfloete,” -speedily proved that music in its “beloved German” was not inferior to -the highest beauties of the poetical classics. - -Their leading features were also closely connected. As Winckelmann -gained his talent for the representation of the plastic art through -the idea of language, from the antique, so the later ones had to go to -the immediate sources of music to find the necessary “inspiration,” -as Gluck denominated the creative faculty of our natures, for the -expression of their conceptions. Thus things were in a bad way. The -musicians did not understand writing and the writers knew little or -nothing about music. - -Let us trace in the history of events the most striking features of -both styles of writing. In a literary sense Heinse was the first to -treat of music. This Thuringian was musical in the fullest sense, -and since the poet as a writer can not know much in this direction -of his endowments, the Musical Lexicon is literally correct when it -particularly specifies Heinse’s talent and mentions Hildegarde of -Hohenthal as ever memorable to the musician. How the charms of the -Italian landscape and the fascinations of this land of music work upon -him and impart to his style the warmth and color of that very land -itself! Above all else the sentient, nay more, the material aspect of -things preponderates, for how often in the sweet voice of a soprano the -sad “_Benedetto il Coltello_” has fallen upon his ravished ear, and -“his soul felt as if carried away by a flood.” Here for the first time -the effect of our art is definitely connected with the very essence of -speech, and the current histories of literature have therefore taken -little notice of this circumstance, because our classic writers made it -so. The effect of these writings first appeared when it became known -through the great masters of poetry in music, Mozart and Beethoven, -even more clearly about the year 1830, when Heinrich Laube gave it new -expression and Jean Paul illustrated it with his lofty conceptions of -the tone-art. - -Now appear distinctive musical writers whose works belong both to the -domain of literature and music--Reichardt, Rochlitz and Schubart, -the latter by far the most prominent of the three. His “Ideas of the -Esthetics of Music” first appeared in 1806, after his death. The -“Spitz von Giebichenstein,” as Goethe called Reichardt, had a strong -intellectual basis and development. He understood Bach and Handel in -their colossal works and Gluck in his dramatic achievements. He had -not a correct idea of Mozart’s poetry and Beethoven’s powerful blows -almost overwhelmed his brain and heart. Yet what he has said about -the old classics is not without influence upon men like Rochlitz, in -Leipsic, and Marx, in Berlin, who have also comprehended yet more -clearly the free action of poetry in music. “There spoke spirit to -spirit,” says the latter of Reichardt’s analysis of the Handel songs. - -Frederick Rochlitz has done that work for Mozart, and Marx for -Beethoven, and in many circles of the reading public the first -knowledge and direct appreciation of this new world of music was -obtained from their writings. And yet the one always shows something -too much of authorship and but little of the free poetical flow, -while the other struggles and is too obscure in the expression of the -emotions which music awakens in him. He merely feels and does not grasp -the expression of it firmly and forcibly and thus neither of them are -far from the significance of an achievement like the narrative of -Winckelmann. - -This is in the highest degree characteristic of Schubart, who was an -actual poet. With him begins that genuine musical authorship which has -gradually become a possession of our literature. This brings us to the -solid array of writers who were equally at home in both provinces and -thus could embody music in language as they had acquired the talent for -expression from literature. It includes, and very prominently, too, -Franz Liszt and his numerous musical writings. - -Richard Wagner, as Heinrich Laube says, in that peculiarly able sketch -of his life, which appeared in the “Zeitung fuer die elegante Welt,” -in 1843, from an opera composer became a writer, by the “Parisian -stress.” An entirely different reason actuated Liszt. It was the -longing to secure for his art the name and master which it required. -“Errors and misunderstandings thwarted the desired success,” says -Wagner, speaking of that Weimar performance of “Tannhauser,” by Liszt, -in 1849. “What was to be done to meet the requirements necessary to a -good understanding on all sides? Liszt comprehended it quickly and did -it. He gave the public his own judgment and impression of the work in -a manner, the persuasive eloquence and overwhelming efficacy of which -have had no parallel.” - -There is a notice in the “Journal des Debats,” of 1849, which appeared -in Leipsic in 1851, together with a second under the title of -“Lohengrin et Tannhauser de Richard Wagner,” with which publication, -translated into German, at Cologne, in 1852, Liszt also makes his -appearance as a writer. - -And yet, not so; for when had he not expressed, pen in hand, the -extraordinary activity of his feelings and thoughts? Since 1836, -numerous outspoken and generous tributes of his had appeared, as -for instance that concerning the position of artists in the “Revue -et Gazette Musicale de Paris,” and it may be said not one of the -artists mentioned, Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Paganini, Berlioz, -Boieldieu, Meyerbeer, Thalberg, Auber, Schubert, Schumann, Field -and Mendelssohn, are left without description. These sketches an -delineations made such a great and immediate sensation that Lamartine, -who was so renowned at that time, declared he would consider it a crime -if Liszt did not exclusively devote himself to this branch of his -art. In addition to the writings, “De la Fondation-Goethe a Weimar” -(1849), “F. Chopin,” “The Gypsies and their Music in Hungary,” and -the numerous essays in the “Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik,” like the -more important ones about “The Flying Dutchman” (1854), and “Robert -Franz” (1855), Liszt’s literary works, like Wagner’s, form an imposing -array of volumes, which are not second in importance to those of any -other art-writer and contribute an essential addition to our general -literature. - -And how is it to-day with this musical authorship? The poet Schubart -in his “Esthetics of Music,” had only sounded the first notes of that -tone-language which, with the beginning of the opera was incorporated -with our art. The Italian language, which was its basis, had reached -the highest degree of perfection and the French of the Gluck operas -had scarcely increased the “speaking” which melody had acquired by -these idioms. All instrumental music speedily assumed this character -of personal language. It was as in the simple lyric, the personal -world-Ego that spoke in it. But when the German language reached the -height of its perfection and pervaded music, entirely new beauties -were revealed in our art. In one of his many notes of travel, written -at Vienna, in 1838, Liszt says that he has listened to the songs of -Franz Schubert with great pleasure and has been often moved to tears -by them, and he adds: “Schubert is the most poetical of all musicians -who have ever lived. The German language impresses the mind wonderfully -and the childlike purity and melancholy shading with which Schubert’s -music is permeated can only be fully understood by a German.” This -was true. The language of Goethe and Schiller had come to music and -bedewed it as with heavenly blessings. It returned a hundred-fold what -it had received in the old-time choral. We know the almost extravagant -reverence of Gluck for Klopstock’s Odes and particularly for the -“Hermannschlacht.” Mozart had written “The Violet” and the spirit of -its language pervaded the “Zauberfloete,” notwithstanding the rough -verses of the librettist destroyed all its beauty of shading. At -first Beethoven averred there was nothing loftier than Klopstock. He -preferred the soaring flights of fancy of this ideal, poetical soul, -but when he came to know Goethe it was all over. “He has finished -Klopstock for me,” he said. Goethe’s friend Bettina heard him declare: -“Goethe’s poems exercise a great power over me, not alone by the -subject-matter, but also by the rhythm. I should be induced and urged -on to composition by these verses, which are constructed upon a higher -plane, as if with spiritual help, and bear in themselves the secret of -harmony.” So said Beethoven, the purport of his judgment always being: -“a musician is also a poet.” In fact, through language, music has -completely associated itself with personal speech and what wonder is it -that it now, again enkindled with poetry, affected the world? From that -time on there have been masters of music who give us information about -it and although they are only instructors in the history and dogmas -of music, the professors of composition must state the essentially -artistic and poetical in words. In the perfection of language as -applied to the expression of musical things, these tone-masters have -been creatively constructive. - -The first of these is C. M. Von Weber, whose famous and almost -world-wide critique on the “Eroica” appeared in 1809. In spite of his -jealous misunderstanding, he shows a closer conception of Beethoven -and particularly of music than any of the purely literary critics of -that time and we know that afterwards the composer of “Der Freischuetz” -wrote much and very well and commenced to compose an artistic romance. -A year later, Bettina wrote that “soulful fantasy about music,” which -in Goethe’s “Correspondence with a Child,” made a powerful impression -upon musical authors and inspired their better natures. Rochlitz’s -“Musikzeitung,” from 1809 to 1812, contains Hoffmann’s analyses of the -Beethoven symphonies, which to-day would have secured him the title -of “Wagnerian.” He not only gave a wonderful flight and new character -to language but he even extended its limits, for he describes in the -“Kreisleriana,” with nothing but mere verbal expression, the mysteries -of the art, its subject-matter, the keys and their character. He -enhanced the possibilities of language, enriched its treasury of words -and gave it a new significance. He was enabled to do this as he was -both musician and author and in a different style from that Prussian -Capellmeister, Reichardt. He also declared that after he had once -spoken of music, thenceforth he could only discourse of it as a poet. -And yet there is in this still more of brilliancy than fire, more of -the extravagant and even fantastic than the striking power of poetry -and soaring fancy which Bettina’s simple poetical nature showed, the -manifestations of which gave Goethe such presages of the power of -musical genius. It was not merely the poetical nature, it was the -actual poet, as in Winckelmann’s revelation of the plastic art, that -was needed to hit the mark. - -Let us be brief. Jean Paul’s deeply musical, poetical nature fired -Robert Schumann with the might of his spirit and with the heavenly fire -of true poetical perception, and inspiration. For the first time in -Germany, in his “Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik,” he collected about him -the spirits who lived thoughtfully and contemplatively in their art. In -comparison with these poetical writers where are now those theorists, -Wendt, in whose writings Beethoven found thoughts full of wisdom, and -Thibaut with his “Parity of Music,” a little book certainly expressing -with fervor the beauty of music, which even to-day reveals to many a -spirit its better self? Added to these the expressions of Mozart, in -his letters about music, have come to light, and Beethoven reveals his -lofty regard for it in Bettina’s letters to Goethe. The writings of the -poet Heine about music are revived again and from France an earnest -spirit of art was wafted over to us in the literary productions of -that phenomenon, Hector Berlioz. We recognize in this that music is -not confined within the bounds of any language and we almost imagine -that its spirit and being must actually dwell in the general modern -idioms and thus impart to them the distinctive characteristics of the -old languages. For Liszt also--and now we come to our subject--wrote -in French and only in French, and yet we can say that he has enriched, -beautified and extended the German language, for he wrote our modern -speech from the inner spirit, because he wrote from the spirit of -music, which above all belongs to us. - -He thus begins his communication to the “Gazette Musicale” in 1838: -“Nearly fifteen years ago my father forsook his peaceful roof to go -with me into the world. He settled down in France, for he thought -that here was the fittest sphere for the development and perfection -of my genius, as he, in his simple pride, called my musical talents. -Thus early I forgot my home and learned to recognize France as my -fatherland.” He recompensed his new fatherland with his perfect use of -its language, which no native Frenchman to-day employs more correctly, -accurately or with better constructive ability than he, so that the -charge of “neologism and Germanism” which has been laid to him is based -for the most part only on a noticeable jealousy of his extraordinary -style. It is characterized by a vigor, power, delicacy and richness -which are at once surprising and fascinating. “A single glance of his -flashing eye” in the incorrect and beggarly translations of him that -have thus far appeared, tell us we have to do with a Siegfried. One -of his translators rightly asserts: “Liszt is as unprecedented and -unapproachable in his playing as he is unparalleled and original in his -style. They are his own possessions. In both we feel the same genial -inclinations, but even in the highest flights of his inspirations he -never mars their beauty. If one were to find any fault it would only -be with the exuberance of thought and the riotous luxuriance of his -fancy which is inexhaustible in pictures and blending of color. This is -only the natural result of the abundant richness of his surroundings. -When Englishmen and Germans in their statements about music, especially -where Beethoven is concerned, complain of the obscurity and mystery of -his meaning, it is because music in its real form is still ‘a book with -seven seals’ to them.” - -To specify his writings in detail would take too much space. It is -enough to state that Liszt was so familiar with the substance of all -the modern languages that he was enabled, by merely skimming over them, -to catch their general spirit and thus express the corresponding sense -and form of music, so that in reality, according to the historical -statement that we have given above, whenever these writings have -been translated into good German they have broadened and perfected -our language. One such translation appeared long since. It is the -volume, “Robert Franz.” The historical and technical are certainly the -weaker qualities of these writings, for they belong to science and -investigation, not to the art and the creative faculty as a special -province. And yet, in these respects, the last named volume is very -conspicuous. It contains an analysis of what we call the “Lied,” -which is more thorough in a historical and theoretical sense than any -that have ever been made. The entire volume is characterized by calm -consideration rather than by the flight of inspiration. - -To show how accurately and delicately Liszt could sketch a subject -which up to that time had not been treated, and how fruitful, -therefore, the statements are for the history of the art, we give a -brief illustration from his sketch of “Lohengrin,” with which, as a -further illustration of the style of all his writings, we close. He is -speaking of the melody with which the Knight of the Grail takes leave -of his marvelous guide, the swan: “Music had not, as yet, acquired -those types which the painter and poet have so often endeavored to -portray. It had not, as yet, expressed the purity of feeling and the -sacred sorrow which the angels and the beings above us, who are better -than we, feel, when they are exiled from heaven and sent into our abode -of trouble on errands of beneficence. We believe that music, in this -respect, need no longer envy the other arts, for we are convinced that -no one has yet expressed this feeling with such lofty and even heavenly -perfection.” - -We may say here, as Goethe said of Winckelmann’s prose: “He must be -a poet, whether he realizes it or not.” As this description of the -forms of plastic art has enriched our language for a century with -illustrations which are familiar to every one, so the description of -the creation of these new spiritual forms which music has produced, -will give a deeper soul and new wings to language. Liszt’s writings for -that reason have done a special work for the German language, for they -display the all-pervading spirit of modern culture, and thus help to -build up the essential and ultimate form of language. The introduction -to his pathetically enthusiastic essay on “The Place of the Artist,” -which forms the close of this chapter, shows us that Liszt was as -real as he was ideal when he took up his pen in 1835, impelled by his -literary activity. - -“Truly it were a beautiful and noble duty to establish the definite -place of musicians in our social life--to group together their -political, individual and religious ideas--to describe their sorrows, -their sufferings, their difficulties and their errors--to tear away -the coverings from their bleeding wounds, and to raise an energetic -protest against the pressing injustice and the shameless prejudice -which injures and torments them, and condescends to use them as -playthings--to examine their past, to disclose their future, to bring -all their titles of honor to light, to teach the public and the -thankless materialistic society of men and women whom we entertain -and who support us, whence we come, whither we go, the nature of our -mission, in a word, who we are--to teach them who those chosen ones -are who were ordained of God Himself to bear witness to the highest -feelings of humanity and cherish them with noble trust, these divinely -anointed ones who strike off the fetters which enshackle men, who have -stolen the holy fire from heaven, who invest life with its material and -thought with its form, and while they achieve for us the realization -of our ideals, draw us up with irresistible power to their spiritual -heights, to the heavenly revelations--who they are, these human -creators, these evangelists and priests of an irredeemable religion, -constantly increasing in mystery and incessantly penetrating every -heart--to preach and to prophesy all this, which of itself is so loudly -proclaimed, with still louder voice even to the deafest ears, certainly -were a beautiful and noble duty.” Who has more nobly fulfilled this -duty by the deeds and words of a life-time than he! - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -HARMONIES POETIQUES. - - Liszt’s Tribute to Wagner--A New Form of Instrumental - Music--Liszt’s new Departure--The Symphonic Poem--Its Essence and - Characteristics--The Union of Poetry and Music--Programme Music--How - Liszt Developed his new Forms--Analysis of Individual Works--Liszt’s - Tribute to Beethoven--His notice of “Egmont”--Beethoven as a - Pioneer--Fulfillment of Haydn’s Prophecy. - - -After the orchestral composition of Beethoven how many thought they -would be obliged to acknowledge that his great “Ninth” was also to be -the last symphony! - -“There rose a towering genius, a sparkling, flaming spirit, summoned -to wear a double crown of fire and gold. He boldly dreamed, as poets -dream, to fix his aim so high that if it could ever be attained by -art, it would certainly happen at a time when the public was no longer -made up of that vacillating, heterogeneous, unprogressive, ignorant -and conceited crowd, which in our time sits in judgment and dictates -decrees, which the boldest scarcely venture to question.” Thus Liszt -once said of Wagner, and to whom does it apply with more force than to -himself? - -Let us listen to an account of the new Siegfried-achievement which has -been famous for almost a quarter of a century. It is the flower of the -grand journalistic labor of a distinguished, theoretical musician of -the future, now dead, and only retouched and amplified in some places -to suit our more accurate estimate of things. It is in the “Neue -Zeitschrift fuer Musik,” of the year 1858, and thus reads: “Goethe has -already compared the progress of the physical sciences, as it appeared -to him, to a wanderer, who approaches the rising luminary, and when it -suddenly bursts upon him with blinding effulgence, is forced to turn -away, because he can not endure it. The achievements in the musical -world surpass this, for music pictures the grandest phenomena of modern -culture. - -“Just as every one must see the grand future which Richard Wagner -has assured to the musical drama, so Liszt, by the freshness of his -individuality has animated instrumental music, in that he has utilized -its form for his purposes. The perception of the programme, the union -of the known and unknown, these are what instrumental music have -acquired for our time and for the future. Originally, music alone was -sufficient, now we have the totality of culture. - -“In marked contrast with the earlier style is the Symphonic Poem, which -is extraordinarily striking in character. Such a title is the egg of -Columbus, and it expresses the thoroughly accurate knowledge of the -author. The poetical method was the only one left for progress, or the -combination of the instrumental work with a general texture of poetical -ideas, and thus complete mastery of the programme was achieved. We -see in Beethoven how one with perfect knowledge seizes upon the fresh -material of the intellectual life about him. It is (as Liszt’s favorite -scholar, Hans Von Buelow expresses it,) the lamentation of the eagle -whose flight is checked by the ardor of the sunbeams, the mournful roar -of the lion whom the impenetrable darkness has overtaken. A newer, -grander horizon looms up--a spiritual world full of poetry. - -“Liszt grasped this manifold material with the strength of his -imagination, and introduced it in the world of music. Having gradually -arrived at complete maturity he gave his attention to a great variety -of themes and taking them from the outer world he adapted them to -the inner. With Germans that feeling is uppermost and it arouses -the activity of the fancy. Reversing the process, the fancy seizes -the object and arouses activity of feeling. There are spirit-tones, -corresponding to the emotions of the soul, which form the substance of -the early music. One has the feeling that here humanity approaches the -highest questions, reflectively, not merely feeling them intuitively. -It is consequently a new form above the bounds of music and musical -knowledge, a spiritual form, yet coupled with a corresponding artistic -natural skill, a form of higher intelligence and grander structure as -time advanced and the relations of life were increased, for the most of -the earlier musicians only foreshadowed it. We recognize, at a glance, -the individuality of Liszt, and the requirements demanded by our times -as well as the absence of that continual obtruding exclusiveness, that -obstinate conservatism of the earlier times of music. At the very -foundation of this lies a strong and solid individuality. Only the -branches and twigs come in contact with the outer world, thus leaving -space for development and drawing nourishment from it, while the trunk -defies every storm. A brilliant, sentient basis, a grand and powerful -array of passion, a depth of expression and spiritual value, a great, -broad horizon, are the results. - -“In the single works we do not find the variety of tone, the exuberance -of emotion, nor the multitude of situations to be found in the works -of the earlier masters, but when we consider them as a whole, their -immense richness is disclosed. A great multitude of new ideas appear -as revealed in the music, taking the place of what had been already -settled and what was lost and gone. There was a joyous astonishment -when this new world arose and when one realized its richness and -diversity. There are the ‘Preludes,’ with their naivete and simple but -strong texture. With what sad and tender, yet grand emotions the poet -appears in ‘Tasso!’ A poetical glory illuminates ‘Orpheus.’ Antique -austerity, boldness and ruggedness are the predominating peculiarities -of ‘Prometheus.’ An enticing fascination carries us to the height -of the ideal in the ‘Berg Symphony.’ Brilliancy, festal revelry, -chivalrous elegance and knightliness are the traits which characterize -the ‘Festklaenge.’ German tenderness and intensity, German dignity -and intellectual power confront us in ‘Faust.’ The Adagio, called -‘Gretchen,’ fills our very souls with the sad ecstatic words of Faust: -‘Can it be that woman is so fair?’ A mystical meaning lies hidden -in ‘Dante,’ fantastic weirdness in the ‘Hungaria,’ the sublimity of -sorrow in the ‘Héroide funébre.’ Every work is a unit in itself, and as -different works represent different moods, they can be worked out with -greater sharpness and precision.” - -Thus originated that richness of inward variety, that full scale of -human possibilities manifested in the complete development and mastery -of situations, which we call Liszt’s “Symphonic Poems.” - -In closing, we may say, to quote from “The Meistersaenger”: “The -witnesses, I think, were well selected. Is your Hans Sachs on that -account disturbed?” The best literary test of the matter is contained -in Richard Wagner’s “Letters on Franz Liszt’s Symphonic Poems,” which -appeared in 1857. Liszt himself demonstrated his clear understanding of -the far-reaching progress he had made for his art in his analysis of -Beethoven’s “Egmont” music, in 1854. - -“In ‘Egmont’ we recognize one of the first illustrations of the modern -period. A great musician derives his inspiration directly from the -works of a great poet,” says he. “At this time Beethoven appears to us -as bold and rich in meaning as he was uncertain and wavering in his -first attempts. When he composed these fragments he began to open up -a new path for art. With mighty hand he felled the first tree in this -hitherto unknown forest. Even while he cleared away the first obstacles -and laid his hand to his work he entered upon the path himself. The -world regarded this first step without particular attention, but the -time came when art advanced upon this path and found it illuminated and -laid out by him.” - -Liszt describes himself when he thus characterizes the present epoch of -music: “Going back to antiquity and searching for material scarcely -anywhere do we fail to find a period of poetical life. Imagery and -color characterize the tone-work of the people of the Orient as well -as of the Occident. A full flooded magnetic stream unites poetry and -music, those two forms of human thought and feeling.” He above all -others has in reality done for music what was prophesied by Joseph -Haydn, the father of the symphony, who was the first to invest it -with a distinctively poetical character. At the close of his days he -declared that what was yet to happen in music would be far greater than -what _had_ happened in it. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -CONSOLATION. - - Liszt’s Great Resolve--Reply to a Scoffer--Religion and - Music--Religion at the Foundation of Culture--George Sand’s - Testimony--Relations of Religion and Music--Music in the Catholic - and Protestant Churches--Peculiarities of the Musical - Services--Influence of the Catholic Church on Music--A gradual - Lowering of the Standards--Opera Music in the Church--Liszt’s - Ambition to Reform it--His Early Piety--Views on Church Music--The - Religious Element in his Compositions--The Hungarian Coronation - Mass--The Choral Mass--Departure to Rome--Takes Orders--Why he did - not Remain--Germany his Field for Work. - - -“Is that then a life object?” was the reply of a Prussian -school-director on one occasion, when in answer to his question why -Liszt had specially taken orders, he was informed that in pursuance of -his life-mission it was indispensable for him to become a Capellmeister -of the Pope and Sistine chapel, in order to accomplish the reform -of Catholic church music. If we were also to make the reply to that -question, “Yes, perchance at this very time especially more important -than the elevation of education,” which would certainly turn the -school-man round and make him step aside, we should not encroach upon -the domain of politics, but strikingly characterize with this one -remark the sad indifference and ignorance of the entire, and for the -time the predominating multitude of our educated people, who make and -dominate our culture. - -How can one, himself outside of the confession, after a little -reflection, have any doubt that the only ties which bind and unite -the immense mass of the people, besides the desperate occasions of -overwhelming necessity, are the ideal conceptions which religion offers -in a very crude and yet powerful and forcible shape? On that account -the church remains, let her be what she may, so long as this is true, -the only source for the great multitude of men which approaches them -with such conceptions, and, while it elevates them above themselves -and the ordinary necessities, makes them believe in a human community -and in mutual duties. Where again is the substitute for such an -indispensable institution, so long as we have no other, which in a -common union unites the masses upon a sure foundation, and without -which cement they would be dashed to atoms. Even granting that state -and culture have reached high attainments, no one but a short-sighted -person will say that they have reached their utmost possibilities. It -was this very feeling which, following upon the mental intoxication -of former centuries, and the fearful ones that came after with their -outbreaking revolutions and wars, made all the stronger minds and -more earnest spirits turn to the existing assurance which we possess -in ideal things as permanent realities--Religion and the Church. -“Religion is the true cement of the social edifice. The more numerous -the stones and details, the stronger should be the cement that unites -them,” writes George Sand, in 1830, in the “Lettres d’un Voyageur.” -That the assaults of the Catholic church upon the State are as -discreditable as the insolent self-elevation of Protestant orthodoxy -over all intellectual work and culture, goes without saying. Now, as -ever, the church, still more the service, in both confessions, is the -sure foundation for all really educated people. Its loftiest purpose -can only be to improve the mind religiously and thus secure for it a -higher effectiveness. State and church must be regarded from the same -point of view as Alberich and Mime, who struggled for the ring upon -which depended the heritage and power of the world, while Siegfried -possessed it. And as it is rightly claimed on behalf of the Protestant -church that its purpose is to give to worship such a form and value -that it shall unite and satisfy, in itself, the noblest aspirations and -the essentially ideal wants of all mankind, so the Catholic church, as -far as a stranger may judge, fails not by earnest consideration and -inward endeavor, far removed from the clamor of the day and the warring -of dominating factions and parties in the church, to restore again -its world-conquering, because world-redeeming power, in that it seeks -to give that spirit to its worship in which is the real safety of our -time. And as it is not a matter of chance that art has been awakened by -this characteristic spirit of the later times, to which it has given a -new language, to give a fitting expression to the fullness and depth of -feeling, like the infinity of the spirit which springs from the spirit -itself, as it is not a matter of chance that music is pre-eminently -the daughter of the church and of its service, so from the oldest to -the most recent times, this daughter, who meanwhile has become so -unspeakably affluent and above all so independent, has been loudly -called upon to establish herself in the church and its service in all -the perfection and richness of her nature. - -If the great difficulty with the Protestant service lies in the fact -that it does not easily assimilate music, and, so to speak, make it a -part of divine worship, so that its employment makes religious service -partake of the nature of a sacred concert, thereby destroying religion -itself, if in this case also, peculiar but in no way insuperable -difficulties stand in the way of such a result, on the other hand in -the Catholic service, music is an indispensable part of it and in -the real sense its central part, for transubstantiation, besides the -elevation of the Host, which is only a symbol, is felt as a deep inward -reality in the music, which at that instant is poured forth at the -true Mass even in the most insignificant church like a sacred flood, -deeply refreshing the hearts which turn to it. We may say that but for -this recalling of the wandering heart to the harmony of the Eternal -and the All, but for this return of the individual to the everlasting -foundations of being, as they are revealed in transubstantiation, we -should not securely hold that art which in its very essence reveals the -fixity of the world, outwardly as well as inwardly. It should also be -said that the Catholic service, that is, its highest attainment, the -Mass, without its daughter, Music, which in an actual sense is in turn -its mother, or can at any time become so, could not reach its ultimate -possibilities and by its life prolong its own. - -There has been endless complaint that with the progress of its -dominion, which has immeasurably enhanced the outward pomp of the -church, and which has not scorned to make use of the dramatic for -its purposes, the music of its worship has become superficial and -theatrical. There is also a Jesuitic style in the music, and he who -perfects his artistic taste by the ever true and really classical, will -find good proofs in Beethoven’s greater Masses as well as in Mozart’s -“Requiem,” that since the seventeenth century the opera has invaded -the church, and that the peculiar fineries of the Saints’ statues of -that time denominated the fundamental character of its music. This is -true of Germany as well as of the Roman countries, and any one who has -been to Italy knows to his own satisfaction that the latest operatic -melodies can be heard to-day upon the organ, even in sublime St. -Peter’s at Rome. From Mozart to Mendelssohn, among musicians there is -the same complaint of this impropriety, and since Goethe, almost every -writer on Italy has spoken of this matter, which is a disgrace to the -church and a calamity to the religious elevation of the poor. - -Under these circumstances, how could a nature like that of Liszt’s -hesitate? As we have seen over and over again, the modern way -of regarding things had become, in fact, his second nature, an -irresistible and yet spontaneous motive power in all his thoughts and -actions. We have an additional test of this artist, which brings us to -the very source of his life, even to the very basis of life itself. -We have the facts for our information, and need not contemplate the -phenomenon of Liszt as a reformer of art in his church in any sense as -a wonder or a mere accident. It rests upon the very foundation of his -life and it works accordingly. - -“From youth up, Franz’s spirit was naturally inclined to devotion, -and his passionate feeling for art was blended with a piety which was -characterized by all the frankness of his age,” reads an entry in -the diary of his father, who died when the son was in his sixteenth -year. In 1857, Liszt himself speaks of the poor little church in his -Hungarian home, “in which, as a child, I had prayed with such ardent -devotion.” Even in his youth he thought that he was called to the -church, and it was only the earnest wish, at first, of his father, and -afterwards of his mother, an extremely kind-hearted Upper-Austrian, -that kept him in the path of art and its practice. The biographical -sketch in the “Gazette Musicale de Paris,” of 1834, to which we are -indebted for the first reliable accounts of Liszt, significantly says, -however: “His piety was rational and imparted a certain freedom to his -ideas and their execution. It did not exhibit the stiffness, roughness, -dogmatism or brutality of the canting devotee. It was sincere and was -the outcome of liberal reason from the Catholic standpoint.” Heine -says in one of his Paris letters, 1830, that he has a great talent for -speculation, and he dwells upon his “boundless thirst for light and the -deity, which bear evidence to the holiness and religion in his nature.” - -Enough has already been said to make further reference unnecessary, -but the biographical sketch goes on to state that he had undertaken to -compose religious music, and says in that connection: “The so-called -music of our time did not seem to him to correspond to a manly -conception of it, and thus the idea was forced upon him to create -religious music.” “We talk of the reformation of church music,” Liszt -writes in 1834. “Although this expression ordinarily implies only music -like that performed during the ceremonies of divine service, I use -it here in its most significant meaning. When the service expressed -and satisfied the confessions, the necessities and the sympathies of -the people, when men and women found an altar in the church where -they could bow the knee, a pulpit where they could draw near to the -divine, and it was a sight which refreshed their minds and uplifted -their hearts in holy rapture, then church music only needed to retire -to its own mysterious sphere and content itself with serving as an -accompaniment to the splendor of the Catholic liturgy. In these days, -when the altar shakes and totters; in these days, when the pulpit and -religious ceremonies serve for the sport of the mocker and doubter, -art must leave the inner temple and spreading out through the world -seek a place to exhibit its magnificent accomplishments. As in former -time--nay, even more than it did then--music must recognize the people -and God as the sources of its life. It must speed from one to the -other, ennobling, consoling and purifying man, blessing and glorifying -God.” - -Thus music was to him a service completely divine. More than one -witness of that day testifies to the strong impression which the -religious agitation of the time of Chateaubriand, Lamartine and the -Abbe Lamennais made upon him, which had been already foreshadowed in -his own fantasie, the “Berg symphony,” as well as the “Consolation.” -In the same year, 1834, appeared the “Pensée des Morts” a fragment of -the “Harmonies Poetiques et Religieuses” for piano, which he prefaced -with some words of Lamartine’s. It also seems to be one of his first -attempts to intimately associate poetry and music. This preface reads: -“There are contemplative souls which in their solitary meditations are -irresistibly elevated by the infinite ideas of religion. All their -thoughts are turned to inspiration and prayer, all their being is a -silent hymn to the divinity and the divine hope. In themselves and in -the surrounding creation they seek the steps that ascend to God, the -images and symbols with which to elevate themselves, with which to -raise themselves to Him. O, that I could offer such to them! There are -hearts broken by sorrow, crushed by the world, who fly to the world -of their thoughts and to the solitude of their own souls to weep, to -watch and to pray; O, that they might search for a muse as solitary -as themselves, find sympathy in her tones, and listening, many a time -declare: ‘We pray in thy language, we weep with thy tears, we are -uplifted by thy songs.’” - -As soon as Liszt, after his long, long wanderings, was in the right -mood to actually compose--for the French account rightly calls Liszt’s -work “no mechanical exercise but composition in the real sense, the -actual artistic creation”--when he had so arranged these creations of -his nature, for such we must call these reproductions, as to make sure -of artistic results, from the thoughts of his early years, in reality -out of a time almost a generation remote from us, sprang the larger -part of his religious and church compositions, which we now possess. - -The “lofty festival greetings” of the Hungarian Coronation Mass, the -Fest Mass for the consecration of the Graner Cathedral (Graner Mass) -which preceded that work of 1856, moving along with stately splendor, -prove that it was not a mere reflection of the outward show but that -it reached the very spirit of the occasion. Still grander was it, so -to speak, to offer the daily bread when, alas, so often a stone had -been tendered to the hungering multitude. The little Missa Choralis -(Choral Mass) is enough to show that he had attained to the desire of -his youth and that a truly religious music had been achieved for the -church service of our time. It was practically performed for the first -time in Vienna, in 1877, by the Cecilia Verein, at the court church. -There is nothing of the conventional mass form of the last century in -it, and although the arrangement for male voices is in the style of -Palestrina, it does not at all remind one of him. It is original, new -and modern throughout; in other words, it is in consonance with our own -actual feelings. It must have deeply impressed the soul of the layman -that this art not merely embellished and animated the service but that -he freshly elevated its living spirit, just as Palestrina preserved and -handed down to us the lofty religious spirit of the old church. - -Liszt was not satisfied with this. He desired his work to be of a -practical nature so that the music of the church should be purified, -renovated and improved. He resolved to leave Weimar at once, and in -1861 left for Rome. It was necessary for him to become a Capellmeister -of the Pope, in order to accomplish what he wished. In accordance -with ancient usage such an one must separate himself from the world -by taking the first orders. Palestrina was the last Capellmeister at -the Sistine who was not in orders. He was married and it was only the -impossibility of filling his place that kept him in his position. Thus -Liszt, who had always felt like a priest in his art, took orders and is -to-day an Abbe. - -And why did he not remain in Rome? “I was thwarted by the lack of -culture among the cardinals,” he says, speaking in a musical sense, -and besides most of the princes of the church are Italian. He felt it -was only in Germany that the heart of music could be regenerated. So -he came back to us in the North and devoted himself immediately to the -encouragement of schools of a better and more original style of church -music, such as those established in Regensburg, and Eichstaett and -to the Scuola Gregoriana in Rome, in 1881. May they accomplish their -purpose though it takes generations. They supply anew that elementary -sustenance of the spirit which nothing else can, and which grows more -pressing from decade to decade. We recognize anew that here as in every -instance of creative activity the man and the artist are one. Securely -settled and grounded inwardly he can outwardly rule like a king and as -lavishly bestow. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -HARMONIES RELIGIEUSES. - - The Oratorio of “Christus”--Its Title--The Origin of Oratorios--Their - Relations to Opera--Gradual Changes in Style--The Dramatic Element - in them--Liszt’s Original Treatment--A Wide Departure from old - Forms--Events Pictured in Music--Groupings of Materials--What - it did for the Church--General Divisions of the Oratorio--The - Motto of “Christus”--The Christmas Music--Introduction of the - Stabat Mater--The Shepherds at the Manger--The King’s March--The - “Seligkeit”--Entrance to Jerusalem--The Scene at Gethsemane--The - Inflammatus--Skilful treatment of Motifs. - - -“Christus, Oratorio, with texts from the Holy Scriptures and the -Catholic Liturgy,” is the title of Liszt’s greatest church work, -finished in 1866. - -“Oratorio” is derived from the oratory, or prayer-apartment, in which, -in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries upon sacred occasions in -Rome and at the “Azione Sagra” elsewhere, sacred plays were performed, -partly recited in costume in the so-called Collect style, and partly -sung. With the contemporary appearance of the opera, the oratorio, -through the influence of the Italian cantata, gradually assumed its -very form, and was only distinguished from it that it was not acted but -was merely sung, and had a well sustained harmony throughout. Thus with -a change of the recitative, aria, duets, terzets and chorus, Handel’s -oratorios as well as Haydn’s “Creation” are given to us. Mendelssohn -also does not essentially differ from them, but he has added to it the -chorale from the ordinary Protestant church music, while his recitative -in its increased proportion is operatic in style. From the scenic point -of view Liszt’s “Holy Elisabeth,” brought out in 1864, is very similar, -but even in this the “only one” has a high purpose and reveals the -loftiest mission. In these respects Liszt has treated the “Christus” in -a style different from all the other masters. He has not even adopted -the basis of the oratorio, or the arrangement of the materials in a -definite order dependent on the narrative and made conspicuous in its -salient points by the power of the music. On the contrary, the oratorio -gives no trace of its origin or its affiliation with the opera but is -simply a revelation of the sacred events. It is not for that reason a -mere narrative, but like Handel’s “Israel in Egypt” it describes events -by the grand colossal imagery such as music can display when allied -to religion. Not only is the recitative completely detached, and the -little that is told in narrative form restored to the Collect, which -the Catholic church employed for its old liturgy, but the aria as such -is confined to a single instance that could not be avoided, the lament -of Christ in Gethsemane. Wherever, indeed, solo or ensemble appear, -there is no trace of the personal nature of the dramatic. It is a calm -self-manifestation of the subject itself. - -In its entirety it consists of a series of choral scenes which connect -and embody the details of the subject. A grand colossal world-history -is revealed to us. At the outset the composer turned to Friedrich -Rueckert’s “Evangelic Harmony” and selected therefrom detached and -lofty numbers like the “Seeligpreisungen” and “Vater Unser,” which -appeared in 1850, and upon this groundwork, he grouped together with -an accurate perception of details that must ever serve as an artistic -model, the salient features of the life of religion and the workings -of the church, according to the Vulgate and the Catholic liturgy. - -In the ordinary sense also “Christus” is not an oratorio. The composer -indeed retained the name because it truly denominates a general style -of music. But it goes further than this. It is a very powerful and -clearly realistic expression of the actual spirit of the subject in -contradistinction to the operatic style. It is, in fact, a pure epic -poem, which an oratorio must be as distinguished from dramatic music, -besides being a calm and thoughtful principal features. We behold a -great world-moving event arising and passing before us. The particular -acts and salient phases come and go, like the heroes of the epic, -in quiet, simple grandeur. All the gloss of action is avoided. We -recognize that in this work we have an artistic invention and a model -which directs the world of music into a new course. This we may observe -in the arrangement of the subject. - -The series is laid out, not only in three distinct divisions, but -also in separate numbers. There is deep and bold thoughtfulness in -the church portions, which breaks with all traditions, and builds -up the subject in an original style. We believe, therefore, that the -general character of the work, as may be gathered from its array of -texts, indicates the abiding in an invisible church, which, by the -pure agencies of an art which it created itself for the expression of -its deepest mysteries, has acquired a beauty of imagery revealing the -holy faith it serves in all its purity and unity. At the very outset -we realize that we have to do with an artist who is thoroughly at home -in the faith in which he was brought up, who regards it with clear -perception, who lays his foundations and builds thereon with a steady -hand. This, in and by itself, is a new treatment of the subject. In -this respect the master inwardly sympathizes with the spirit of the -church, as Sebastian Bach did with his. The difference does not consist -so much in the creative powers of the artists as in the peculiar -character of the subjects. Let us now attempt to describe more closely -some of the details of the scenes. - -The work is divided into three principal sections: I. The Christmas -oratorio. II. After Epiphany. III. The Passion and Resurrection. -The nature of the work is declared in the motto, Paul’s words to the -Ephesians: “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all -things, which is the head, even Christ.” The instrumental introduction -built upon the theme, “Resound ye heavens above,” many times repeated -and closely bound together in musical unity, as its strong esthetic -character frees the mind from the manifold distractions of the world -and by a deeply impressive harmony prepares it for entrance into a -new and loftier sphere, which is revealed at the close by the soaring -tremolos of the violins, leads directly to a longer “Pastoral,” which, -the old theme disappearing, introduces the announcement of the angels -to the shepherds. At the commencement this is the simple Collect music, -replied to by the chorus, at first accompanied by the string quartette -and then by the full orchestra. The chorus of the heavenly hosts -shouts the “Gloria in Excelsis” with majestic breadth and in mighty -accords, until at the close the life of the simple shepherds is again -pictured, to whom for the first time the announcement of the long -expected salvation has come. The third scene is the old hymn, “Stabat -Mater speciosa,” the Holy Virgin at the cradle of her Son, _lento -misterioso_, a six part _a capella_ chorus, supported by the organ in -simple accords, and varied here and there by five or six voices in -solo. Poetically it is an almost ecstatic rapture of devotion, such as -the rude and violent Middle Ages developed. It is the mystery of the -mother-love, which gives us the first clue to the living self-devotion -of all time, and in which the world-forming power of all human actions -was first foreshadowed. As childlike simplicity and purity of heart -characterize the shepherd scenes, so innocence and fervent feeling are -the predominating traits of this. The full expression of this feeling -reaches its height in the “Inflammatus.” The scene closes with a deeply -inspired and loftily-soaring “Amen.” The fourth and fifth scenes are -purely instrumental in character. The “Pastoral Scene at the Manger,” -in which the Italian oboes are used with fine effect, and the march -of “The three holy Kings,” significant of the worldly splendor of the -church, impress themselves upon the senses by their mere sound and -rhythm, so that the music itself appeals to deeply seated longings. -Both scenes are the _al fresco_ style of modern orchestral music and -are very broadly treated. - -The second part is introduced with the “Seligkeit,” expressing the -return of the world to its general ethical consciousness, a baritone -song in melodious declamatory style, continuously answered by a six -part chorus, as if the acceptance of such a truth by the world should -become a fact. The groundwork here is the objective organ sound nor is -the congregation itself overlooked. The “Paternoster” is characterized -by a quiet, fervent utterance of prayer between the precentors and the -congregation to which the peculiarly majestic closing “Amen” forms a -pedestal of granite. Repose and dignity are the features of both these -phases of the fundamental tone. The music is not specially considered, -but one may imagine the images of the saints standing there and with -clear utterance declaring the truth which helps all. - -Very powerful in character is the “Founding of the Church,” noble in -its import, “Tu es Petrus,” and of tender softness the “Simon, son -of Jonas, lovest thou Me?” The perishable, sinful world in its every -form is here contrasted with an undoubting faith in an everlastingly -constant higher ideal, to give it this name. That it is the spirit of -the subject, not its mere perishable husk, is shown by the nature of -the melody which rises to the most powerful expression of the final -victory of this spirit of love. Now again the full orchestra joins -the double choir, for the world, the whole world is meant. The ninth -scene is a marvel. “The storms rage in contention”--not the storms -of the sea, but the storm of desires to which the weak of faith are -exposed. It is not the outward marvel or superstition, that is to be -strengthened, but the faith of human nature in itself and its higher -power and destiny. Hence the actual inner tranquillity, when after the -raging orchestral tumult, “a great stillness” succeeds Christ’s words, -which is ingeniously introduced with the motif of the “Seligkeit,” -because such inner purity alone bestows upon mankind effective power -over the savage forces of the world. - -The “Entrance into Jerusalem” is a graphic picture of animated human -life, a prelude to the entrance of religious truth into the great wide -world painted perceptively as Paul Veronese paints. In the “Benedictus” -for mezzo-soprano there is an expression of inward contentment and -happiness such as only the individual heart feels and utters. This -chorus is very similar to the finale of the first part but it carries -the glory and power of religion yet further into the realms of the -ideal. - -The third part has four scenes. In it we reach the powerful climax -of the whole. The spiritual events of the world’s history and the -sorrowful struggles of passion, which have given another aspect to -humanity, pass before our eyes. It is manifest here, as it is with -Sebastian Bach, that only these powerful choral scenes can give the -complete and exhaustive sense and the intrinsic importance of the -subject in the music in which this art is enabled to disclose alike -its cosmic as well as its spiritual being. The first of the scenes -is the walk to Gethsemane, where the most sorrowful of necessities -grows into open resolution, and it is only in consonance with this -condition of the soul that here and here alone solo singing proves -effective. This solo represents to us the all-grasping, superhuman -resolution of mankind. Its sympathy with this soul-suffering is shown -in the orchestral accompaniment. The Spaniard, Ribera, painted in these -deep, dark colors. The “Quod Tu” breathes in its deep content all the -blessing which this highest of all human sacrifices the world has ever -seen, can confer. - -A truly sublime reality is it then that the history of sorrow is -reflected in us as in a mirror. It is the deeply impressive Middle Age -sequence, “Stabat Mater Dolorosa,” which here relates the unprecedented -events afresh with its self-created old melody. The skill to construct -upon the basis of the countless inner moods and aspects, and out of -them a four-lined, rhythmical choral melody, and architectonic work -of such strength and fullness can not be found in any single church -work of our time. It has the dimensions of the “Last Judgment” in the -Sistine. It is not like Bach’s gigantic chorales, Gothic-polyphonic -in character, but it is written in pure harmonic-melodic style and in -its thematic treatment, like the style of the Renaissance art, only -freely develops the motif of the subject in the text, and is built up -symmetrically to an astonishing climax, reminding one of the colors and -striking characteristics of Rubens. - -This number alone would doubtless establish the permanence of the -work. It proves that the value of church composition is not confined -to either church style, that of Palestrina or Bach, but that the -most modern and progressive of the arts is enabled to clearly -express whatever is required of it, and that the increased methods -of expression of our day can furnish even yet entirely new means of -expressing a subject. As a conspicuous instance of this, the twice -recurring “Inflammatus,” with chorus, solo, quartette, orchestra and -organ is well nigh overpowering in its simple grandeur and impressive -strength, and all the more so as it only turns upon the tones of the -principal motif of the piece. - -In this most solemn of the world tragedies, the blissful old Easter -Song, “O Filii et Filiae,” sung by boys with harmonium, sounds -pathetic. At the close of the “Stabat Mater,” a succession of expanding -chords had already announced the salvation of the world, almost -unheard, as if from distant worlds, but here it sounds forth as if -the blessing were actually gained by the ransomed human heart. That -children possess it is a double proof of its certainty. Like a sunbeam -in a church this chorus penetrates the gloom of the Passion. - -The last scene consecrates the surety of this possession and expresses -with firm and massive power the final victory of christianity, -whereupon a short “Amen” upon the original connecting motif, “Rorati -Coeli,” closes the series. It is a cycle of scenes such as only the -victorious mastery of the subject by inward perception can give, and -such as only the artist can draw who dominates all the conditions of -art like a king and has directed his soul to the absolute truth and -power of the Eternal. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -PROMETHEUS. - - Liszt’s Letter to George Sand--Happiness of the Wanderer--Allusions - to Wagner--The Artist as an Exile--Sorrowful Character of his - lot--His Solitude--His Creative Moments and Inspirations--No - Sympathy Between the Artist and Society--Degradation of - Art--Artisans not Artists--Letter to Adolf Pictet--Why he Devoted - Himself to the Piano--His love for it--Estimate of its - Capabilities--Miss Fay’s “Music Study in Germany”--A Critical - Notice--The Author’s First Meeting with Liszt--Personal - Description--Grace of his Manner--Peculiarities of his Playing--His - Home--Pleasant Gatherings--Personal Incidents--Liszt and Tausig--The - Loss of “Faust”--Happily Recovered--The final Tribute. - - -On the 30th of April, 1837, Liszt writes to George Sand: - -“Happy, a hundred times happy, the wanderer! Happy he who does not have -to traverse the beaten paths and to walk in the old tracks! Restlessly -rushing on, he sees things only as they seem, and men only as they show -themselves. Happy he who gives up the warm, friendly hand before its -pressure grows icily chill; who does not wait for the day on which the -affectionate glances of the loved one change to blank indifference! In -fine, happy he who breaks with relations before he is broken by them! -Of the artist it is specially true that he only pitches his tent for -the hour and never settles down in any permanent place.” - -Thus declares the youthful storming Apollo and many a Marsyas he flayed -on these journeys of investigation, personal as well as social, over -all Europe; on many a Midas grew asses’ ears in sight of the world. -Read the “Letters of Travel of a Baccalaureate in Music.” There is -nothing more spiritedly humorous, more serene in its earnestness. - -Scarce ten years later, what was the experience of Richard Wagner, to -whom a second supplementing genius was even more indispensable than -the tenor Nourrit to Rossini, with “the masterwork which sprang from -the brain of the Olympian god,” and still appeals to the multitude to -combine art with art, the spirit with spirit, light with light? - -During his abode as an exile in Weimar, in May, 1849, he writes: -“Wonderful! through the love of this rarest of all friends, I gained -at a time when I was homeless, the real home for my art, long looked -for, always sought in the wrong places and never found. At the close -of my exile, my wandering about led me to a little place which was to -make a home for me.” This he did for him and for many another musician, -after his change in 1842, for he knew that the artist’s only home is -his art. - -“Is he not always a stranger among men,” he continues, in his letter to -George Sand. “Whatever he may do, wherever he may go, he always feels -himself an exile. To him it is as if he had known a purer heaven, a -warmer sun, a better existence. What can he do to escape this boundless -sorrow, this unvoiced pain? Singing, must the artist rush through -the world and in hurrying by scatter his thoughts without inquiring -on what soil they fall, whether calumnies stab them, whether laurels -mockingly cover them. Sorrowful and great is the destiny of the artist. -A sacred predestination affixes its seal upon him at birth. He does not -elect his calling but his calling elects him and incessantly urges him -forward. However unpropitious his relations, the hostility of family -and the world and the pressure of his mournful wretchedness may be, -however insuperable the obstacles may seem, his will stands firm and -remains unalterably turned to the pole. This pole to him is his art; it -is his devotion to the mysterious and the divine in man and nature. - -“The artist stands alone. The circumstances of his life force him -into society, and so his soul creates in the midst of inharmonious -influences an impenetrable solitude in which no voice of man is heard. -All the passions which agitate men--vanity, ambition, envy, jealousy, -even love itself, are outside the magic circle which incloses his inner -world. Withdrawing into this, as into a sanctuary, he contemplates and -worships that ideal which it is the object of his life to realize. Here -appear to him divine and incomprehensible forms, and colors such as his -eyes never beheld on the most beautiful flowers in the brightness of -spring. Here he listens to the harmony of the eternal, whose cadence -rules the worlds, and in which all the voices of creation join in a -marvelous celestial concert. Then an ardent fever seizes him. His -blood flows more quickly. A thousand consuming thoughts revolve in -his brain from which only the sacred labor of art can release it. He -feels as if he were the victim of an unutterable disease. An unknown -power urges him to reveal by words, colors or tones, the ideal which -dwells in him and fills him with a thirst of desire, with a torment -for possession, such as no man has ever experienced for an object -of actual passion. But when his work is ended and the whole world -applauds, he is not wholly satisfied. In his discontent he would -perhaps destroy it, did not some new phenomenon avert his glance from -his creations, to throw him anew into those heavenly, painful ecstacies -which make his life a constant struggle toward an unattainable goal, a -continual effort of all the powers of the spirit to raise itself to the -realization of that which he has conceived in those favored hours when -the eternal beauty disclosed itself without a cloud.” - -Again he describes, with more gloomy tints, the social reception of the -artist to-day, in our enlightened century, and the necessity which has -been laid upon him, the mighty and high-throned one, at all times, and -now more than ever, to associate with the meanest existence, provided -it truly longs for the marvels of art, to lavish upon them the water of -life. - -“The artist dwells these days outside of the social community,” he -writes, “for the poetical element, especially the religious agitation -of humanity, has disappeared from our modern public. What have they -who attempt to solve the problem of human happiness by granting a few -privileges, by an unlimited expansion of industry and of egoistic -well being--what have they to do with a poet or an artist? Why should -they trouble themselves with those who wander about, of no use to the -State-machinery of the world, to kindle sacred flames, noble feelings -and lofty inspirations, that by their achievements they may satisfy -the restless longing for the beautiful and the great which rests more -or less securely in the depths of every soul? Such beautiful times are -no more as when the blooming verdure of art spread itself and exhaled -its perfume over all Greece. Every citizen was then an artist, for -law-givers, warriors, philosophers, all were imbued with the idea of -moral, spiritual and physical beauty. The majestic astonished no one, -and great achievements were as common as those creations which at the -same time exhibited and prompted them. - -“The strong and mighty art of the Middle Ages which built cathedrals -and summoned the enraptured people to them with peal of bells and -the sound of the organ, became extinct when faith was animated anew. -There is to-day the inward interest which unites art and society, but -that which brought power and glory to those other deep agitations, is -destroyed. The social art has gone and has not yet returned. Whom do -we principally meet in these days? Sculptors? No, the manufacturers -of statues. Painters? No, the manufacturers of pictures. Musicians? -No, the manufacturers of music. Everywhere artisans, nowhere artists. -Hence, there can only be cruel pain to one who was born with the pride -and the wild freedom of a genuine child of art. He is surrounded by -a swarm of mechanical workers who obsequiously devote their services -to the caprices of the populace and the fancies of the uncultivated -wealthy, at whose nod they bow themselves down to the earth, as if -they could not get close enough to it. The artist must accept them as -his brothers and as the multitude confounds them together, must see -himself and them rated at the same value and regarded with the same -childish, stupid astonishment. It can not be said that these are the -complaints of vanity and self-conceit. No, no--they who stand so high -that no rivalry can reach them, they know this. The bitter tears which -our eyes have shed belong to the worship of the true god, whose temple -is defiled with idols for whose sake the silly people have forsaken the -worship of the living god and bowed the knee before these degrading -divinities of stone.” - -Thus speaks this proud and truly noble soul whose best efforts and -talents have been sacrificed to the silliness of idle caprice and to -the obstinate humors of shallow minds. He knows that the only remedy is -the old Grecian one, the personal contemplation of noble forms, of true -skill. - -“It is a fact that thorough musical culture is confined to a very -few,” he says. “The majority are ignorant of the first rudiments of -art and in the upper circles nothing is rarer than an earnest study of -our masters. They are content with hearing a few good works from time -to time, and without choice, amongst a mass of miserable stuff which -spoils the taste and accustoms the ear to wretched poverty. In contrast -with the poet who speaks all languages and besides only devotes himself -to mankind, and whose mind has been cultivated by classical study, the -musician reveals himself in a mysterious language, the comprehension -of which, if it does not presuppose particular study, shows at least -a long accustomed familiarity with it. Besides that, in contrast with -the painter and sculptor, he has the disadvantage that they are devoted -more to the expression of form, which is more universal than the inward -conception of nature and the feeling for the infinite which are the -essence of music.” - -How firmly also his knowledge was founded upon personal experience is -shown by the fact that like photography now-a-days, which represents -all and every phase of the treasures of the plastic arts, so the piano -for him could “gather the harvest, make use of the garnered treasures, -and invest with life again those which conduce to ideas of happiness.” - -In his twenty-fifth year, he writes to Adolf Pictet, asking why he -was surprised that he devoted himself exclusively to the piano. He -hardly realized that he had touched upon the most sensitive point of -his very existence. “You do not know,” he says, “that if I should give -up my piano, which speaks so much, it would be to me a day of gloom, -robbing me of the light which illuminated all my early life and has -grown to be inseparable from it. For, look you, my piano is to me what -his vessel is to the seaman, his horse is to the Arab--nay, even more, -till now it has been myself, my speech, my life. It is the repository -of all that stirred my nature in the passionate days of my youth. I -confided to it all my desires, my dreams, my joys and sorrows. Its -strings vibrated with my emotions and its flexible keys have obeyed my -every caprice. Would you have me abandon it and strive for the more -brilliant and sounding triumphs of the theater or orchestra? O, no! -Even admitting that I were competent for music of that kind, even then -my resolution would be firm not to abandon the study and development -of piano-playing, until I had accomplished whatever is practicable, -whatever it is possible to attain now-a-days.” - -In this he discloses those deep aspirations which now have a more -lively interest and higher significance for us, since we know that they -have not disappointed him. - -“Perhaps the mysterious influence which binds me to it so strongly, -prejudices me,” he writes, “but I consider the piano as of great -consequence. In my estimation it holds the first place in the hierarchy -of instruments. It is the most enjoyable and the most common of all. -Its importance and popularity are due to the harmonious power which -it almost exclusively possesses, in consequence of which it is also -capable of compressing the whole art of music in itself. In the compass -of its seven octaves it includes the entire scope of the orchestra -and the ten fingers suffice for the harmony which is produced by a -band of a hundred performers. By its agency it is possible to diffuse -works which, owing to the difficulty of collecting an orchestra, -would remain unknown to the great majority. Consequently it is to the -orchestral composition what the steel engraving is to painting, which -it repeats over and over, and though it lacks color yet it can exhibit -light and shade.” - -In order to reach the goal of an art which has been rightly designated -as the idea of the world and the soul of humanity, and to behold it -spreading over our age and extending to posterity, he settled down to -rest after his career as a virtuoso, and founded “Weimar.” It must -be in that Germany of which he wrote to his friend Berlioz, in 1838, -“the study of art is universally less superficial here, the feeling -is truer, the usages are better. The traditions of Mozart, Beethoven -and Weber are not lost. These three geniuses have taken deep root in -Germany.” Without this Weimar we should certainly have had no artistic -execution to-day which would be worthy of the modern or classic -productions. Indeed Munich and Baireuth themselves, how could they -have been possible without the master-scholars who by Liszt’s piano -instruction displayed in every form the expressive, soaring, flaming -revelation of minute details as well as of the whole. - -In bringing to a close the review of Liszt’s moral and artistic -influence, alike fruitful and far-reaching, we give first of all an -animated descriptive sketch by a pupil of this Weimar school and then -the list of master-scholars, whom Liszt has educated, and who have -continuously assisted in the realization of his ideal wishes and hopes. - -“Music Study in Germany,” says the “Allgemeine Deutsche Musikzeitung,” -of 1881, “is the name of a very comprehensive, elegant and spiritedly -written little American book. It is in the form of letters which the -American author, Miss Amy Fay, sent from Germany to her home, during -her studies with Tausig, Kullak and Deppe. She manifests not only great -musical and artistic intelligence in general, but also an unusual -knowledge of human nature. Miss Fay has a feeling for the finest -emotions of the soul. With genuine stereoscopic fidelity she points -out the grand characteristics and the little peculiarities of the -important personages with whom she has had the good fortune to come in -contact. Of the many beauties and charms contained in these letters, -those which relate to Liszt must naturally awaken the greatest, most -universal and lasting interest. We select from them a few brief -extracts, because we know that the feelings of reverence, love and -intense admiration, which the author cherishes for Liszt, are shared to -the full by thousands and thousands of hearts.” - -Miss Fay saw the master first at the theater in Weimar, with three -ladies, one of whom was very handsome. “He sat,” so she says, “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 man imaginable, tall and -slight, with deep set eyes, shaggy eyebrows and iron-gray hair. His -mouth turns up at the corners, which gives him, when he smiles, a most -crafty and Mephistophelean expression. His hands are very narrow, with -long and slender fingers, which 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 -manners I never saw. When he got up to leave his box, for instance, -after his adieus 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, insinuating, amiable, ironical, sarcastic, but always -the same captivating grace of manners. He is a perfect study. He is all -spirit, but half the time at least, I should say, a mocking spirit. All -Weimar adores him, and people say that women still go perfectly crazy -over him. When he goes out every one greets him as if he were a king. -Liszt looks as if he had been through everything, and has a face seamed -with experience. He wears a long Abbe’s coat, reaching nearly down to -his feet. He made me think of an old-time magician and I felt with a -touch of his wand he could transform us all.” - -The recommendations of the Countess von Schleinitz secured the author’s -introduction to Liszt. She continues: “To-morrow I shall present -myself, though I don’t know how the lion will act when I beard him -in his den. I brought the B minor sonata of Chopin and intended to -play only the first movement, for it is extremely difficult and it -cost me all the labor I could give to prepare that. But playing to -Liszt reminds me of trying to feed the elephant in the Zoological -Gardens 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 and that gave me a good excuse for stopping. -Liszt sat down and played the whole last three movements himself. 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 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 honor! At the same time he invited -me to a matinee he was going to give on Sunday for some countess of -distinction. * * * He played five times, the last three times duets -with Capellmeister Lassen, and 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? At home Liszt doesn’t -wear his long Abbe’s coat, but a short one in which he looks much more -artistic. It is so delicious in that room of his. It was furnished and -put in order for him by the Grand Duchess of Weimar herself. The walls -are pale gray with 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. 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 the gentlemen -can light their cigars. - -“There is a carpet on the floor, a rarity in Germany, and Liszt -generally walks about, and smokes, talks 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 can -not conceive, without hearing him, how poetic he is, or the thousand -nuances which he can throw into the simplest thing. 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 can not be treated as one. -He is a monarch, and when he extends his royal scepter you can sit -down and play to him. You never can ask him to play anything for you -no matter how much you are dying to hear it. You can not 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. - -“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 the 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?” - -A talented pupil of Henselt’s arrived and played for Liszt with great -success. Miss Fay says: “She played with the greatest aplomb, although -her touch had a certain roughness about it to my ear. But 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 emotions. He is a many-sided person and reflects -back the light in all colors, no matter how you look at him. His pupils -adore him, as in fact every one 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 Stuttgart Conservatory, played a Liszt concerto. His -name is V. Liszt kept up a little running fire of satire all the time -he was playing, but in a good-natured way. Everything that he says is -so striking. In one place where V. was playing the melody rather feebly -Liszt suddenly took his place at the piano, and said: ‘When I play, I -always play for the people in the gallery so that those persons who pay -only five groschen for their seats may also hear something.’ Then he -began and I wish you could have heard him. The sound didn’t seem 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 it -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. - -“How he can bear to hear us play, I can not imagine. 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 -pedals are the secrets of his playing, and then he seems to dive down -into the most hidden thoughts of the composer, and fetch them to the -surface, so 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. 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. - -“Liszt does such bewitching little things. The other day, for instance, -Fraulein 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, ‘now 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. - -“You can not 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?’” - -Once Miss Fay asked the master to tell her how he produced a certain -effect in one of his great passages. He smiled and then immediately -played the whole passage. “‘Oh! I’ve invented a great many things,’ -he said, 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--‘Then crash the trees.’ How ardently I wished he would play a -storm, but he did not. 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! - -“Liszt sometimes strikes wrong notes when he plays, but it does not -trouble him in the least, on the contrary he rather enjoys it when -he comes down squarely wrong, as it affords him an opportunity of -displaying his genius 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 forces 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 -flowing trebles. And then his Adagios! When you hear him in one of -those you feel that his playing has got to that point where it is -purified from all earthly dross and is an exhalation of the soul that -mounts straight to heaven.” - -This little book contains many more beautiful passages but we are -reluctantly forced to desist. One charming trait of Liszt is related, -however, which we can not pass over in closing. Miss Fay says: - -“Gottschal, organist in Weimar, 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. -Gottschal, hearing of it, went to the man and purchased them. Then he -went to Liszt and told 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. 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 have lost! It is the score to your -Faust.’ ‘O,’ 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 cried out: -‘We are 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 after was Tausig’s birth-day. Madame C. 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 birth-day and consoled -himself with his same old observation: ‘You’ll either turn out a great -blockhead, my little Carl, or a great master.’” - -“O, thou amiable grand master Liszt!” - -Thus closes our notice of this genial book. Since the “soulful -fantasies” of Bettina about Beethoven, nothing comparable with it from -a lady’s hand has appeared. - -In closing, we append, with the master’s own approval, as the -fac-simile in our own little work shows, a list of his principal -scholars. We preface it with a sentiment of the master, which shows how -much that remark of Beethoven’s to Bettina about music was to him--“The -elevated types of the moral sense also constitute its foundations,” or -truth and the will combined. It reads: - -“It belongs to the higher mission of art, not only to exhibit and -celebrate in song the heroic spirit but to inspire it. Hence the artist -should feel it, preserve it and diffuse it like a sacred flame.” - - - - -APPENDIX. - - -A LETTER FROM LISZT’S FATHER. - -The _Harmonicon_, an English musical journal, of June, 1824, contains -the following interesting letter, addressed to its editor by Liszt’s -father: - - PARIS, 1824. - - SIR:--The expressions which you frequently employed in speaking of - my son have been so flattering, that I can not but be sensible of - your kindness, and therefore take this opportunity of testifying - my gratitude. I must say, that I by no means anticipated the high - degree of success with which he was honored by the public of Paris, - and above all, was not prepared for the comparison, by no means - advantageous, which they were pleased to draw between the rising - talents of my son, and those of our great Mozart. I recognize in this - amiable exaggeration that spirit of French politeness, the boast of - which I have all my life been accustomed to hear, and my son will - think himself most happy, if hereafter he shall have the good fortune - to share some degree of celebrity with the masters of the German - school, though he must remain at a very humble distance from him - whom it glories in placing at its head. - - You must however allow me, Sir, to make a few observations upon the - following expression that occurred in one of your journals: “The - parents of young Liszt are poor, and he supports them by the product - of his talents.” - - Fortune, it is true, has not loaded me with her favors, yet I have - no reason to complain of her neglect. For the space of twenty-three - years I have been in the service of Prince Esterhazy, where I filled - the situation of steward of part of his sheep-farms. The immense - income of this prince, and the noble and generous manner in which he - acts toward those who have the good fortune to belong to any of his - establishments, have long since placed me in that _aurea mediocritas_ - so happily described by the Latin poet. - - Having observed in my only son, from a very early age, a decided - predilection for music, and having from my youth cultivated - the art as an amateur, I myself, for the space of three years, - superintended his first musical education with that constancy - and perseverance which form one of the characteristic traits of - our nation. I afterward placed him for eighteen months under the - instruction of Messrs. Salieri and Czerny, from the first of whom he - received lessons in harmony and counter-point, and from the second, - instruction on the piano-forte, and to both of whom he is indebted - for their kind care and attention. I am happy to be thus able - publicly to render them the homage of my grateful acknowledgments. - - I came to Paris with the permission of the prince, and by the advice - of my friends, in order to perfect my son’s talents, by affording - him an opportunity of hearing the numerous artists whom this capital - contains, and of cultivating the French language, of which he has - already some general idea; a language which justly lays claim to the - title of being that of Europe. At the same time, I have not neglected - to take advantage of the eagerness testified by the Parisians to - hear his performance, in order to indemnify myself for the expenses - necessarily attendant upon a long journey, and the removal of my - whole family. - - Accept my best acknowledgments, and believe me, etc., - - ADAM LISZT. - -Accompanying this letter is the following editorial comment: - - “The young Francis Liszt, with his father, arrived in London last - month, and has exhibited his talents to many people of rank, and to - some of the most distinguished professors of this metropolis, who all - agree in considering him as a performer that would be ranked very - high, even were he arrived at full manhood, and therefore a most - surprising instance of precocious talent at so early an age as twelve. - He executes the most difficult of the modern piano-forte music without - the smallest apparent effort, and plays at sight things that very few - masters would venture upon, until they had given to them a little - private study. But his extemporaneous performances are the most - remarkable. Upon any subject that is proposed to him he improvises - with the fancy and method of a deliberating composer, and with the - correctness of an experienced contrapuntist. His hand is not unusually - large, but is amazingly strong, and his touch has all the vigor of - maturity. He has reached the usual growth of boys of his age, and - possesses an open, intelligent and agreeable countenance, with a - frankness, but at the same time a propriety of manner, that indicates - a good temper and a correct understanding.” - - -LISZT’S ONE OPERA. - -A German correspondent of the _Harmonicon_ sent that paper the -following account of the performance of Liszt’s Opera, “Don Sancho,” on -Oct. 18, 1825, at the Academie Royale de Musique, Paris: - - “The extraordinary youth, the composer of this opera, has but just - entered his thirteenth year. He has been acknowledged by some of - the first connoisseurs of Germany and France to merit a place among - the principal pianists of Europe; nay, some have gone so far as to - say that he yields the palm to Hummel only, whose immense talent as - an improvisatore undoubtedly stands as yet alone and unrivaled. But - the youthful Liszt is also a composer and gifted with the talent of - improvisation in a high degree. Aware of this, and wishing early--we - trust not too soon--to develop his talents, the admirers of the - youthful compatriot of Mozart desired him to try his strength on a - wider field; they procured a poem adapted, as they supposed, to his - powers. He has for some time been diligently engaged upon it, and the - present is the result of his labors. * * * * - - “The subject of the opera is taken from a tale of Florian, entitled - ‘_Don Sancho_,’ one of the feeblest of all this author’s works. It - is a kind of allegory, in which Love appears in person, armed with - his bow and arrows. The little god is the lord and master of an - almost inaccessible castle, the gate of which can be entered only by - two and two at a time. The drawbridge is never let down, save to a - knight accompanied by his lady. Elvira, persecuted by one whom she - detests, and who is attempted to be forced upon her as a husband, - disguises herself as a knight, and finding a favorable moment for - escape, sallies forth alone from the castle of the King, her father. - In the midst of a forest she meets with Don Sancho, who, being in - quest of adventures, is desirous of entering into conversation with - the unknown. Piqued at being answered only in monosyllables, he finds - means to excite a quarrel. A combat ensues. Elvira, as every child - could have foreseen, is vanquished. She sinks to the earth and her - helmet falling off discovers the features of a beauteous female. The - victor is on his knees before his lovely foe; Elvira no longer merits - that title. She also is in love with Don Sancho at first sight. But - a fearful storm comes on, and they hasten to the Castle of Love (_Le - Chateau d’ Amour_) which is seen in the distance. On the way they - are encountered by Rostubalde--for such is the name of the odious - rival--who wishes to prevent their entrance into the castle. Don - Sancho rushes upon him but is wounded; Elvira avenges the wound of - her lover by the death of Rostubalde. At length the two lovers are - at the gates of the castle. The winged god appears upon one of the - towers. ‘Open to us,’ cries Elvira, ‘we are two faithful ones who - love, and will love forever.’ At this magic word ‘_ever_,’ the gates - fly open. Cupid with a single touch heals the wound of Don Sancho. - Elvira returns with him to the court of the good-natured King, her - father, who asks not a word of explanation relative to the absence - of his blooming daughter from her home, but hastens to unite the two - lovers. - - “In the outline here given of this dull and insipid pastoral, will, - with a very few exceptions, be found the general story of the opera - in question. The principal change is that of the person of Rostubalde - into an enchanter, of the name of Alidor; but even this resource, - such as it is, the authors have turned but to little account. In a - word, we consider our young artist as dragged to the earth by the - dead weight of this mass, which he has attempted in vain to leaven by - his genius. - - “But we must now speak of the music. The overture contains many happy - motives, and passages of great beauty and effect. If it fails in - being strongly characteristic, we should impute the fault in a great - measure to the subject. An overture should be the preface to the - work, but what must be the preface to a work without interest! Among - the airs, the most admired was that of the Magician, and above all, - two romances, one sung by Don Sancho and the other by the Page. Many - of the orchestral parts are treated with a vigor and intelligence - which would do honor to composers long disciplined in their art. - - “Upon a cool and dispassionate view of the whole composition, we - must remark, that the young Liszt ought to view this, his first - dramatic work, only in the light of an experiment on the extent of - his powers. Mozart was only twelve years of age when he composed his - ‘Finta Semplice’ for the theater of Vienna. The distance is immense - indeed between that essay and his ‘Don Giovanni’; but the question is - whether he would ever have created the latter wondrous opera, if his - first steps in the career of excellence had been inhumanly arrested.” - - -BIHARY. - -A review of Liszt’s “Bohemiens” which appeared in the London _Athenæum_ -of 1859 gives the following interesting sketch of Bihary, the gypsy -virtuoso: - - “Next we come to John Bihary, who seems to have been ‘the highest - expression’ of the gypsy virtuoso,--a brilliant player, courted at - all the courts and royally repaid for his playing:--a man as impudent - as an Italian _tenore_ of the worst class. Bihary lived in our own - time, for he gave a performance before Maria Louisa in 1814, and - there made himself so remarkable by his undisguised admiration of - one of the Imperial Princesses present, that his hostess found it - necessary to rebuke his audacious eyes. The violinist was called up - and was asked if he was a married man. His answer was ‘Yes;’ and that - his wife was with him in Vienna. On this he was bidden to present her - forthwith. Bihary’s wife was sent for on the spot. A striking looking - and still young woman, magnificently attired in the gypsy dress, was - brought. On receiving her, the Empress said to Bihary, that since - heaven had given him so beautiful and faithful a helpmate, he was - inexcusable in being so sensitive to the beauty of any princess, - recommended to him more propriety for the future, and after paying - marked compliments to Eve (Bihary’s wife), caused fifty ducats to be - given to her, and sent the pair home in one of the court carriages. - A second anecdote concerning Bihary is little less characteristic - of manners. About the year 1824 a carriage accident disabled him - for life. With true gypsy improvidence he had laid by nothing for a - rainy day, and could hardly toil through the least important part - in the band of which he had been the king. In this fallen estate it - chanced that he fell in at a tavern with some Hungarian noblemen, - who had known him in his days of court splendor and insolence. He - was prevailed on to play slowly one or two of the very easy pieces - of national music which he had yet power to master. His arm was soon - tired. On his stopping, one of his princely auditors bound it up in - bank-notes. Bihary died in 1827.” - - -THE HUNGARIAN GYPSY MUSIC. - - “The Hungarian gypsy merely _plays_ Hungarian; he sings little or - not at all; and what is his principal instrument, and at the same - time the principal instrument of the Hungarian popular music? It is - the dulcimer or cimbalo. This instrument, consisting of a triangular - wooden frame, with a bottom and sounding board, over which wires by - twos or threes are stretched upon bridges, which are struck with two - wooden hammers, covered on the upper part with cloth or leather, is - peculiarly fitted to infuse into the little gypsy orchestra that - palpitating, feverish, tremulous essence, by which the performance of - a _Magyar nota_ gains so much. With this are associated the string - quartet, together with the contra-basso and also quite willingly - the clarinet. On the contrary all other instruments, as oböes, - flutes, fagotti, horns, trumpets, etc., are entirely excluded from a - Hungarian gypsy orchestra. - - “What does the gypsy produce with these instruments? Is his music, - is the popular instrumental music any mere dance music? Essentially, - perhaps; but ere the dancing mood begins, ere joy and appetite for - pleasure hurry the _Magyar ember_ into dance and play, and make - him forget himself, he must first, in the slow, sustained tones of - a _Lassu_ (Adagio) in the minor, pour out his complainings, roll - away the sighs which hold his soul imprisoned in a melancholy gloom. - Not suddenly can his soul plunge into the fresh major tones of his - national dances; nay, he often clings to the dear minor mood after - his sadness is supposed to have given place to idle joy and pleasure. - The kind of music which we would here indicate is called in general - _Csardas_. This signifies both the dance itself and the dance music; - and as every Hungarian dance is preceded by an introductory _Lassu_, - this also is included in the term. The _Lassu_, soaring beyond the - possibility of being represented as a dance, is usually followed by - a _Frisded_, or Allegretto, of a quicker movement, but usually kept - also in the minor, yet shaped already to the dance, but only for - the _solo_ dance of men. If the _Magyar ember_ allows himself to be - drawn away from his sombre mood into a dance, it is at first only a - _solo_ dance; self-satisfied, he spins round in a circle and as yet - covets not an object for his love; only when the third part in this - psychological economy of the dance, with its quick, strong strokes, - has hurried him completely out of himself, does he begin to know no - moderation and no goal. His eye sparkles, his feet stamp, like those - of an untamed horse. To think, it is good that a man do not remain - alone, and to grasp at a maiden, are one act, and he begins with - her that wild, unbridled dance, which is called _Csardas_ in the - narrower sense of the word, or by way of distinction, _Friss_ (i. e., - Allegro, Presto). Already in the _Lassu_, the dull brooding in which - the soul of the _Magyar ember_ swims, is crossed by some occasional - gleams of enthusiasm; but in the _Frisded_ the dark clouds of sadness - begin first to break away, and the _Friss_ tears away entirely the - thin veil which yet lay on his soul and left him in a self-contented - solitude. Now no repose is longer to be thought of; from melancholy - it becomes impetuous passion; from pain unbounded pleasure; in short, - his Me, delivered from itself, riots and storms away until his feet - refuse their service.”--_Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik._ - - -HEINE ON LISZT. - - “That such a restless head, driven and perplexed by all the needs and - doctrines of his time, feeling the necessity of troubling himself - about all the necessities of humanity, and eagerly sticking his nose - into all the pots in which the good God brews the future, that Franz - Liszt can be no still piano-forte player for tranquil townsfolks - and good-natured nightcaps is self-evident. When he sits down at - the piano, and has stroked his hair back over his forehead several - times, and begins to improvise, he often storms away right madly - over the ivory keys, and there rings out a wilderness of heaven-high - thoughts, amid which, here and there, the sweetest flowers diffuse - their fragrance, so that one is at once troubled and beatified, but - troubled most. - - “I confess to you, much as I love Liszt, his music does not operate - agreeably upon my mind; the more so that I am a Sunday child and - also _see_ the specters which others only hear; since, as you - know, at every tone which the hand strikes upon the key-board the - corresponding tone-figure rises in my mind; in short, since music - becomes visible to my inward eye. My brain still reels at the - recollection of the concert in which I last heard Liszt play. It - was in a concert for the unfortunate Italians, in the hotel of - that beautiful, noble and suffering princess who so beautifully - represents her material and her spiritual fatherland, to wit, - Italy and Heaven. * * * * (You surely have seen her in Paris, that - ideal form which yet is but the prison in which the holiest angel - soul has been imprisoned. * * But this prison is so beautiful that - every one lingers before it as if enchanted, and gazes at it with - astonishment.) * * It was in a concert for the benefit of the unhappy - Italians when I last heard Liszt, last winter, play, I know not - what, but I could swear he varied upon themes from the Apocalypse. - At first I could not quite distinctly see them, the four mystical - beasts; I only heard their voices, especially the roaring of the lion - and the screaming of the eagle. The ox with the book in his hand I - saw clearly enough. Best of all he played the Valley of Jehosaphat. - There were lists as at a tournament, and for spectators, the risen - people, pale as the grave and trembling, crowded round the immense - space. First galloped Satan into the lists, in black harness, on a - milk-white steed. Slowly rode behind him, Death on his pale horse. At - last Christ appeared, in golden armor, on a black horse, and with His - holy lance He first thrust Satan to the ground, and then Death, and - the spectators shouted.” - - HEINRICH HEINE. - - -A LETTER FROM BERLIOZ TO LISZT. - -The following is an extract from a letter written by Berlioz to Liszt -in 1843, as it appears in the former’s “Musical Wandering through -Germany:” - - “Proudly you can exclaim, like Louis XIV, ‘I am the orchestra! I am - the chorus! At my grand piano I sing, dream, rejoice, and it excels - in its rapidity the nimblest bows. Like the orchestra, it has its - whispering flutes and pealing horns, and without any preparation - can, like that, breathe the evening breeze from its silvery clouds - of magic chords and tender melodies. It requires no scenes, no - decorations, no spacious stage; I need not weary myself with - tedious rehearsals; I want neither a hundred, nor fifty, nor twenty - assistants; I need not one, and can even do without music. A large - hall, a grand piano, and I am master of a whole audience. Applause - resounds through the room.’ When his memory awakens brilliant - fantasies under his fingers, shouts of enthusiasm welcome them. Then - he sings Schubert’s _Ave Maria_, or Beethoven’s _Adelaide_, and - every heart bounds to meet him, every breath is hushed in agitated - silence, in suppressed amazement. Then, high in air ascend the - thundering strife and glittering finale of these mighty fireworks - and the acclamations of the admiring public. Now, amid a shower - of wreaths and blossoms, the priest of harmony ascends his golden - tripod, beautiful maidens approach, to kiss with tears the hem of - his garment; to him belongs the sincere admiration of earnest minds, - as well as the involuntary homage of the envious; to him bend noble - forms, to him bow hearts who do not comprehend their own emotions. - - “And the next day, having poured forth the inexhaustible treasure of - his inspiration, he hastens away, leaving behind him a glittering - train of glory and enthusiasm. It is a dream! One of those golden - dreams which one has when he is named Liszt or Paganini.” - - -HESSE’S CRITICISM OF LISZT. - -Hesse, the famous German organist, after hearing Liszt play at Breslau, -in 1859, recalls his playing sixteen years previously in the same -place. He writes to the Breslauer _Zeitung_: - - “On the 9th of May, a grand concert was arranged in the Schiesswerder - Hall, by Herr Doctor Leopold Damrosch, in honor of, and with the - cooperation of, the Court-Capellmeister Herr Doctor FRANZ LISZT. - Liszt, the great, genial master of the piano-forte, who with his - achievements on this instrument alarmed the world, gave eleven - concerts here in Breslau in the year 1843, with ever increasing - success. He electrified his hearers by such playing as _no one_ had - shown before. Whoever thought to give himself up to his playing with - the calm and comfortable feeling that he would to the performances - of Hummel and other masters, was greatly mistaken. Liszt transferred - his moods to the piano. He screwed up the feelings of the hearer to - a pitch of feverish excitement, but he allowed them also to subside - occasionally. We were at that time so fortunate as to be daily - in his presence and admire his magical play. His repertoire was - multifarious; he played all masters. - - “We will not waste words about his gigantic _technique_, his art - of singing on the instrument, etc.; these are well-known things; - thousands have heard him. But we can not forbear alluding to one - composition; we mean his ‘Reminiscences from Don Juan,’ one of the - most genial of piano pieces. We lament for any one who has not heard - him play these reminiscences. The marble guest on horseback, the - insinuating Don Juan with his _La ci darem_, the struggling and at - last consenting Zerlina, the Champagne song, etc., all this did - Liszt pass before our minds in such a way that we forgot Liszt, - concert-hall and all; one awoke from the performance as from a - blissful dream. Four times we heard this piece by him, and always - with the same emotions.” - - -LISZT’S PRINCIPAL SCHOLARS. - - HANS VON BUELOW, Meiningen. - [B]CARL TAUSIG. - [B]FRANZ BENDEL. - HANS VON BRONSART, Hanover. - CARL KLINDWORTH, Moscow. - ALEXANDER WINTERBERGER, St. Petersburg. - JULIUS REUBKE. - [B]THEODORE RATZENBERGER. - [B]ROBERT PFLUGHAUPT. - FREDERICK ALTSCHUL. - [B]NICHOLAS NEILISSOFF. - CARL BAERMANN, Munich. - DIONYS PRUCKNER, Stuttgart. - FERDINAND SCHREIBER. - LOUIS ROTHFELD. - J. SIPASS, Budapest. - GEORGE LEITERT. - JULIUS RICHTER. - LOUIS JUNGMANN, Weimar. - WILLIAM MASON, New York. - MAX PINNER, New York. - JULES ZAREMBSKY, Brussels. - G. SGAMBATI, Rome. - CARLO LIPPI, Rome. - SIEGFRIED LANGAARD, Denmark. - CARL POHLIG. - ARTHUR FRIEDHEIM. - L. MAREK, Limberg. - F. REUSS, Baden-Baden. - BERTHRAND ROTH, Frankfort. - ---- KOLLERMAN. - CARL STASNY. - JOSEPH WIENIAWSKY. - INGEBORG STARK-BRONSART. - SOPHIE MENTER-POPPER. - [B]SOPHIE PFLUGHAUPT. - [B]ALINE HUNDT. - PAULINE FICHTNER-ERDMANNSDOERFER. - AHRENDA BLUME. - ANNA MEHLIG. - VERA TIMANOFF, Russia. - MARTHA REMMERT. - SARA MAGNUS-HEINZE. - DORA PETERSON. - ILONKA RAVACZ, Hungary. - CECILIA GAUL, America. - MARIE BREIDENSTEIN, Erfurt. - AMY FAY, America. - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[A] Hungarian for “Franz.” - -[B] Deceased. - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: - - - Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - - Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - - Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. - - Archaic or variant spelling has been retained. - - The cover image for this eBook was created by the transcriber and is - entered into the public domain. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF LISZT *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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