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diff --git a/old/68522-h/68522-h.htm b/old/68522-h/68522-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index f95bf24..0000000 --- a/old/68522-h/68522-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6166 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> -<head> - <meta charset="UTF-8" /> - <title> - Life of Liszt, by Louis Nohl—A Project Gutenberg eBook - </title> - <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover" /> - <style> /* <![CDATA[ */ - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2,h3 { - text-align: center; - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - - -hr.tiny {width: 10%; margin-left: 45%; margin-right: 45%;} -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } - - -div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} -h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} - -table { - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; -} - -.tdl {text-align: left; text-indent: -1em;} -.tdr {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} -.tdc {text-align: center;} - -.pagenum { - position: absolute; - left: 92%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; - font-style: normal; - font-weight: normal; - font-variant: normal; - text-indent: 0; -} - -.blockquot { - margin-left: 17.5%; - margin-right: 17.5%; -} - -.x-ebookmaker .blockquot { - margin-left: 7.5%; - margin-right: 7.5%; -} - -.bbox {border: 2px solid; padding: 1em;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold; text-align: center;} - -.hangingindent {text-indent: -1em; } - -.ph1 {text-align: center; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;} -.ph2 {text-align: center; font-size: xx-large; font-weight: bold;} - -div.titlepage {text-align: center; page-break-before: always; page-break-after: always;} -div.titlepage p {text-align: center; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 2em;} - - -.xlarge {font-size: 150%;} -.large {font-size: 125%;} - -.x-ebookmaker .hide {display: none; visibility: hidden;} - -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; - page-break-inside: avoid; - max-width: 100%; -} - - - -.footnote {margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} - -.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 75%; text-align: right;} - -.fnanchor { - vertical-align: super; - font-size: .8em; - text-decoration: - none; -} - - -.poetry-container {text-align: center;} -.poetry {display: inline-block; text-align: left;} - -@media print { .poetry {display: block;} } -.x-ebookmaker .poetry {display: block;} - - -.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; - color: black; - font-size:smaller; - margin-left: 17.5%; - margin-right: 17.5%; - padding: 1em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - font-family:sans-serif, serif; } - - /* ]]> */ </style> -</head> -<body> -<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Life of Liszt, by Louis Nohl</p> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. 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. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Life of Liszt</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>Biographies of musicians</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Louis Nohl</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Translator: George P. Upton</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: July 14, 2022 [eBook #68522]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:13m0'>Most recently updated: November 27, 2022</p> - -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>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.)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF LISZT ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter hide"><img src="images/coversmall.jpg" width="450" alt="" /></div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="bbox"> -<p class="ph1"><span class="smcap">Biographies of Musicians.</span></p> - - -<p class="center">I.</p> - - - -<p>LIFE OF MOZART, From the German of -Dr. Louis Nohl. With Portrait. Price -$0.75.</p> - - - -<p class="center">II.</p> - - - -<p>LIFE OF BEETHOVEN, From the German -of Dr. Louis Nohl. With Portrait. -Price $0.75.</p> - - - -<p class="center">III.</p> - - - -<p>LIFE OF HAYDN, From the German of -Dr. Louis Nohl. With Portrait. Price -$0.75.</p> - - - -<p class="center">IV.</p> - - - -<p>LIFE OF WAGNER, From the German of -Dr. Louis Nohl. With Portrait. Price -$0.75.</p> - - - -<p class="center">V.</p> - - - -<p>LIFE OF LISZT, From the German of -Dr. Louis Nohl. With Portrait. Price -$0.75.</p> - -<hr class="tiny" /> - -<p class="center">A. C. McCLURG & CO., <span class="smcap">Publishers</span>.</p> -</div></div></div></div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_frontispiece.jpg" alt="Franz Liszt" /></div> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Franz Liszt.</span></p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<p><i>BIOGRAPHIES OF MUSICIANS.</i></p> - -<h1><span class="smcap">Life of Liszt</span></h1> - -<p>BY<br /> - -<span class="xlarge">LOUIS NOHL</span></p> - -<p>TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN<br /> - -BY<br /> - -<span class="large">GEORGE P. UPTON</span></p> - -<p>“<i>Sorrowful and great is the destiny of the artist.</i>”</p> - - -<p>SIXTH EDITION</p> - -<p><span class="large">CHICAGO<br /> -A. C. McCLURG & COMPANY</span><br /> -1902</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1880.</p> -</div> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span> -<h2 class="nobreak">TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>In reproducing the selections from Miss Amy -Fay’s “Music Study in Germany,” which appear<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p class="right">G. P. U.</p> - - - -<p>        Chicago, Feb. 1, 1884.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">AUTHOR’S PREFACE.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Still further, there appears in its wonderful versatility -his active sympathy with all the momentous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS.</h2> -</div> - - -<table> -<tr><th colspan="2">CHAPTER I.</th></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2">LES PRELUDES.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdl">Liszt’s Childish Characteristics—The Home at Raiding—The Father and<br /> -his musical Abilities—His Ambition for his Son—Selections from his<br /> -Diary—Young Liszt’s first Appearances—Peculiarities of his Playing—The<br /> -Gypsies—The Influence of their Life and Music upon him—Paganini<br /> -and Bihary—Generosity of Counts Amadee and Szapary—His<br /> -studies with Czerny—Old artists’ astonished—Plays before Beethoven—The<br /> -great Master kisses the Boy—The Journey to Paris—Cherubini’s<br /> -Churlishness—Liszt’s immense Success—Ovations and<br /> -Triumphs—A great Favorite among the Ladies—French and German<br /> -tributes.</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_11"> 11</a>-<a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th colspan="2">CHAPTER II.</th></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2">DIVERTISSEMENTS HONGROIS.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdl">The Power of Music—Its Origin and Influence—Relations to Nature—Bach,<br /> -Mozart and Beethoven—Sources of their Inspiration—Autobiographical<br /> -Sketch—Liszt as a Lad—His Voluntary Exile—Revival<br /> -of the Home Feeling—His Love of Nature—Religious Feeling—The<br /> -Gypsies—A Famous Visit to them—Picturesque Surroundings—Wild<br /> -Dances—Talks with the Old Men—The Gypsy Hags—An Impromptu<br /> -Orchestra and Wonderful Music—A Weird Night Scene—Salvator<br /> -Rosa Effects—Grotesque Cavalcade—The Concert at the Inn—A<br /> -Demoniac Symphony—Wild Revel in a Thunder Storm—Liszt’s<br /> -Hungarian Music.</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_36"> 36</a>-<a href="#Page_60">60</a></td></tr> - - - - - - -<tr><th colspan="2">CHAPTER III.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span></th></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2">CAPRICCIOSO.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdl">Untamable Animals and Men—An Interesting Test—Attempt to refine<br /> -a Gypsy—The Boy Josy—Bought from the Gypsies—His Advent into<br /> -Liszt’s Salon—Thalberg’s Astonishment—Adopted by the Master—Attempts<br /> -to Educate him—A Hopeless Task—Josy becomes a Fop—His<br /> -Insolence and Conceit—Liszt despondent—Josy goes to the Conservatory—Worse<br /> -and Worse—Sent to the Black Forest—No Better—Liszt’s<br /> -Encounter with a traveling Band—Josy’s Brother intercedes<br /> -for his Return—Liszt consents—Great Joy—Josy settles at Debrezin—Violinist in<br /> -a Gypsy Band—Letter to Liszt—His Love and Devotion.</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_61"> 61</a>-<a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr> - - -<tr><th colspan="2">CHAPTER IV.</th></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2">IMPROMPTU.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdl">General Characteristics of Liszt—Earnestness of his Art—Its genial<br /> -Character—His Interest In Life—His Loving Nature—Affection for<br /> -his Parents—Remorse of a Capellmeister—Richard Wagner’s Testimony—A<br /> -Helping Hand in time of Need—His Generosity to Wagner—Secures<br /> -him a Hearing—The Letter to Herr B.—Plans to bring out<br /> -Wagner’s Works in London—Wagner in Despair—Misunderstanding<br /> -of Liszt—A Personal Appeal and prompt Reply—A Success made in<br /> -Weimar—Urges Wagner to create a new Work—“The Nibelungen”—Wagner’s<br /> -Tribute at Baireuth.</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_76"> 76</a>-<a href="#Page_90">90</a></td></tr> - - -<tr><th colspan="2">CHAPTER V.</th></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2">REFLEXIONS.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdl">Goethe’s Criticism on Winckelmann—The Poetical Necessity—Winckelmann<br /> -and the Plastic Art—Has Music a Language?—Musicians and<br /> -Musical Writers—Gluck’s Writings—His War in Paris—A fierce<br /> -Struggle with the Theorists—Luther’s Indebtedness to Bach—Heinse<br /> -and his Writings—His Italian Visit—Reichardt, Rochlitz and Schubart—Their<br /> -literary Characteristics—A Criticism of Marx—Liszt’s<br /> -Contributions to Literature—His great literary Ability—The Place of<br /> -Artists—List of his Works—Goethe and Beethoven—Bettina’s<br /> -Phantasies—Liszt’s Criticism of the “Swan Song”—Tribute from<br /> -the “Gazette Musicale”—Selections from his Writings.</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_91"> 91</a>-<a href="#Page_112">112</a></td></tr> - - - - - - -<tr><th colspan="2">CHAPTER VI.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span></th></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2">HARMONIES POETIQUES.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdl">Liszt’s Tribute to Wagner—A new Form of Instrumental Music—Liszt’s<br /> -new Departure—The Symphonic Poem—Its Essence and Characteristics—The<br /> -Union of Poetry and Music—Programme Music—How<br /> -Liszt developed his new Forms—Analysis of Individual Works—Liszt’s<br /> -Tribute to Beethoven—His Notice of “Egmont”—Beethoven<br /> -as a Pioneer—Fulfillment of Haydn’s Prophecy.</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_113"> 113</a>-<a href="#Page_120">120</a></td></tr> - - -<tr><th colspan="2">CHAPTER VII.</th></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2">CONSOLATION.</td></tr> - - -<tr><td class="tdl">Liszt’s Great Resolve—Reply to a Scoffer—Religion and Music—Religion<br /> -at the Foundation of Culture—George Sand’s Testimony—Relations<br /> -of Religion and Music—Music in the Catholic and Protestant<br /> -Churches—Peculiarities of the Musical Services—Influence of the<br /> -Catholic Church on Music—A Gradual Lowering of the Standard—Opera<br /> -Music in the Church—Liszt’s Ambition to Reform it—His<br /> -early Piety—Views on Church Music—The Religious Element in<br /> -his Compositions—The Hungarian Coronation Mass—The Choral<br /> -Mass—Departure to Rome—Takes Orders—Why he did not remain—Germany<br /> -his Field for Work.</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_121"> 121</a>-<a href="#Page_135">135</a></td></tr> - - -<tr><th colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII.</th></tr> - - -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2">HARMONIES RELIGIEUSES.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdl">The Oratorio of “Christus”—Its Title—The Origin of Oratorios—Their<br /> -Relation to Opera—Gradual Changes in Style—The Dramatic Element<br /> -in them—Liszt’s Original Treatment—A Wide Departure from<br /> -Old Forms—Events Pictured in Music—Groupings of Materials—What<br /> -it did for the Church—General Divisions of the Oratorio—The<br /> -Motto of “Christus”—The Christmas Music—Introduction of the<br /> -Stabat Mater—The Shepherds at the Manger—The Kings’ March—The<br /> -“Seligkeit”—Entrance to Jerusalem—The Scene at Gethsemane—The<br /> -Inflammatus—Skillful treatment of Motifs.</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_136"> 136</a>-<a href="#Page_148">148</a></td></tr> - - - - - -<tr><th colspan="2">CHAPTER IX.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span></th></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2">PROMETHEUS.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdl">Liszt’s letter to George Sand—Happiness of the Wanderer—Allusions to<br /> -Wagner—The Artist as an Exile—Sorrowful Character of his Lot—His<br /> -Solitude—His Creative Moments and Inspirations—No Sympathy<br /> -between the Artist and Society—Degradation of Art—Artisans, not<br /> -Artists—Letter to Adolph Pictet—Why he devoted himself to the<br /> -Piano—His love for it—Estimate of its Capabilities—Miss Fay’s “Music<br /> -Study in Germany”—A Critical Notice—The Author’s first Meeting<br /> -with Liszt—Personal Description—Grace of his Manner—Peculiarities<br /> -of his Playing—His Home—Pleasant Gatherings—Personal<br /> -Incidents—Liszt and Tausig—The Loss of “Faust”—Happily Recovered—The<br /> -Final Tribute.</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_149"> 149</a>-<a href="#Page_177">177</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th colspan="2">APPENDIX.</th></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A Letter from Liszt’s Father.</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_179"> 179</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Liszt’s one Opera.</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_183"> 183</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Bihary.</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_187"> 187</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Hungarian Gypsy Music.</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_189"> 189</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Heine on Liszt.</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_192"> 192</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A Letter from Berlioz to Liszt.</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_194"> 194</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Hesse’s Criticism of Liszt.</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_196"> 196</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">List of Liszt’s Principal Scholars.</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_198"> 198</a></td></tr> -</table> - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span> - -<p class="ph2">THE LIFE OF LISZT.</p> - -<hr class="tiny" /> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER I.<br /> - - -<small>LES PRELUDES.</small></h2> -</div> - - -<div class="blockquot"> -<div class="hangingindent"> - -<p>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.</p> -</div></div> - - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Behold</span> 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>Franz Liszt was born October 22, 1811, at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span> -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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span> -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:</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span> -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?</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span> -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.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span> -the father’s desire to give the boy a fitting education.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span> -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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span> -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 <i>personnel</i> 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—“<i>Est -deus in nobis.</i>” Verily a god directed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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?</p> - -<p>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.”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER II.<br /> - - -<small>DIVERTISSEMENTS HONGROIS.</small></h2> -</div> -<div class="blockquot"> -<div class="hangingindent"> - -<p>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.</p> -</div></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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?</p> - -<p>Whence comes, we repeat, this incomprehensible<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span> -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?</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span> -genius whose cosmopolitan art, as well as his -rare international culture, seemed to render -any distinctive national life unnecessary.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>Young Liszt, “Ferencz,”<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>Liszt, unquestionably the greatest son which -this Hungary has yet produced, has paid a -tribute to that race, the gypsies, apparently the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>One part of this volume, his visit to the -gypsies, confirms in every particular what we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span> -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.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span> -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.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span> -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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Their orchestra was soon ready in a neighboring -oak-grove. Barrels placed on end and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span> -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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span> -‘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.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span> -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, <i>con estro poetico</i>, but the circulating -morning’s wine and the liquor of the -day before infused them with fresh vigor and -soon led to a <i>rinforzado con rabbia</i>. 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.</p> - -<p>But what is all this in comparison with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span> -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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span> -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.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER III.<br /> - - -<small>CAPRICCIOSO.</small></h2> -</div> -<div class="blockquot"> -<div class="hangingindent"> -<p>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.</p> -</div></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">It</span> 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.”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span> -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 <i>our</i> 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span> -of all the spontaneous outgrowths of his art.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Liszt himself was surprised. He had not -thought for a long time of the wish he had -expressed, when in Hungary, of finding a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span> -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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span> -only in <i>his own</i> pleasures, <i>his own</i> violin and -<i>his own</i> music, and had no desire for anything -else.</p> - -<p>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 <i>playing</i>, 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span> -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.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span>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?”</p> - -<p>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 <i>Sonntagsblatt</i>, 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span> -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.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER IV.<br /> - - -<small>IMPROMPTU.</small></h2> -</div> -<div class="blockquot"> -<div class="hangingindent"> -<p>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.</p> -</div></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">Better</span> 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span> -dark ray”—what can be said of such a man -as Liszt in a general characterization?</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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!<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span> -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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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?</p> - -<p>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.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>Wagner, in his openly vehement style, -made no concealment of his feelings toward<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span> -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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span> -how I was treated by that extraordinary -man.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span> -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?</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span> -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.’”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span> -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 <i>genie si trepantique</i>, 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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.’”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span>Wagner created it. It was the “Nibelungen.”</p> - -<p>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?</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.”</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER V.<br /> - - -<small>REFLEXIONS.</small></h2> -</div> -<div class="blockquot"> -<div class="hangingindent"> -<p>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.</p> -</div></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">Goethe</span> 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span> -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.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>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.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span> -aspect of things preponderates, for how often -in the sweet voice of a soprano the sad “<i>Benedetto -il Coltello</i>” 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>This is in the highest degree characteristic of -Schubart, who was an actual poet. With him<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span> -overwhelming efficacy of which have had no -parallel.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span> -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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>The first of these is C. M. Von Weber,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span> -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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>He thus begins his communication to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span> -“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.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span> -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!</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER VI.<br /> - - -<small>HARMONIES POETIQUES.</small></h2> -</div> -<div class="blockquot"> -<div class="hangingindent"> -<p>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.</p> -</div></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">After</span> 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!</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span> -Liszt once said of Wagner, and to whom does -it apply with more force than to himself?</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“Liszt grasped this manifold material with -the strength of his imagination, and introduced<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span> -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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>Liszt describes himself when he thus characterizes -the present epoch of music: “Going<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span> -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 <i>had</i> happened in it.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER VII.<br /> - - -<small>CONSOLATION.</small></h2> -</div> -<div class="blockquot"> -<div class="hangingindent"> -<p>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.</p> -</div></div> - - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Is</span> 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span> -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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span> -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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span> -sense as a wonder or a mere accident. It rests -upon the very foundation of his life and it -works accordingly.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span> -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.’”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span> -activity the man and the artist are one. -Securely settled and grounded inwardly he -can outwardly rule like a king and as lavishly -bestow.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER VIII.<br /> - - -<small>HARMONIES RELIGIEUSES.</small></h2> -</div> -<div class="blockquot"> -<div class="hangingindent"> -<p>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.</p> -</div></div> - - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Christus</span>, Oratorio, with texts from the -Holy Scriptures and the Catholic Liturgy,” is -the title of Liszt’s greatest church work, finished -in 1866.</p> - -<p>“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,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span> -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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span> -and the workings of the church, according -to the Vulgate and the Catholic liturgy.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>The series is laid out, not only in three distinct -divisions, but also in separate numbers. -There is deep and bold thoughtfulness in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>The work is divided into three principal -sections: I. The Christmas oratorio. II. After<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span> -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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span> -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, <i>lento misterioso</i>, a six -part <i>a capella</i> 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span> -upon the senses by their mere sound -and rhythm, so that the music itself appeals to -deeply seated longings. Both scenes are the -<i>al fresco</i> style of modern orchestral music and -are very broadly treated.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Very powerful in character is the “Founding<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span> -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.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER IX.<br /> - - -<small>PROMETHEUS.</small></h2> -</div> -<div class="blockquot"> -<div class="hangingindent"> -<p>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.</p> -</div></div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">On</span> the 30th of April, 1837, Liszt writes to -George Sand:</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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?</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“It is a fact that thorough musical culture is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span> -flaming revelation of minute details as well as -of the whole.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span> -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.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span> -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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“One day this week, when we were with -Liszt, he was in such high spirits that it was -as if he had suddenly become twenty years -younger. A student from the 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span> -the surface, so they gleam out at you, one by -one, like stars.</p> - -<p>“The more I see and hear Liszt the more -I am lost in amazement. I can neither eat -nor sleep on those days that I go to him. 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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“‘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-<i>vo</i>,’ and then he played -again, struck the other chord, and said again, -‘Bra-<i>vo</i>,’ and positively, it was as if the piano -had softly applauded! That is the way he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span> -plays everything. It seems as if the piano -were speaking with a human tongue.</p> - -<p>“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?’”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span> -Promised Land, and that without the consolation -of being Moses!</p> - -<p>“Liszt sometimes strikes wrong notes when -he plays, but it does not trouble him in the -least, on the contrary he rather enjoys it 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span> -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.’</p> - -<p>“Another day I heard him pass from one -piece into another by making the finale of the -first one play the part of prelude to the second. -So exquisitely were the two woven together -that you could hardly tell where the -one left off and the other began. Ah, me! -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.”</p> - -<p>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:</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span>“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,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span> -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.’”</p> - -<p>“O, thou amiable grand master Liszt!”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>In closing, we append, with the master’s -own approval, as the fac-simile in our own<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span> -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:</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span></p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak">APPENDIX.</h2> -</div> - -<h3>A LETTER FROM LISZT’S FATHER.</h3> - - -<p>The <i>Harmonicon</i>, an English musical -journal, of June, 1824, contains the following -interesting letter, addressed to its editor -by Liszt’s father:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Paris</span>, 1824.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>:—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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span> -at a very humble distance from him whom it -glories in placing at its head.</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>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 <i>aurea mediocritas</i> -so happily described by the Latin poet.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Accept my best acknowledgments, and believe -me, etc.,</p> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Adam Liszt</span>.</p> -</div> - -<p>Accompanying this letter is the following editorial -comment:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span> -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.”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span></p> - - -<h3>LISZT’S ONE OPERA.</h3> - -<p>A German correspondent of the <i>Harmonicon</i> -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:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“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. * * * *</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span>“The subject of the opera is taken from a tale of -Florian, entitled ‘<i>Don Sancho</i>,’ 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 (<i>Le Chateau d’ Amour</i>) which is seen in -the distance. On the way they are encountered by -Rostubalde—for such is the name of the odious<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span> -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 -‘<i>ever</i>,’ 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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span></p> - - -<h3>BIHARY.</h3> - -<p>A review of Liszt’s “Bohemiens” which -appeared in the London <i>Athenæum</i> of 1859 -gives the following interesting sketch of -Bihary, the gypsy virtuoso:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“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 <i>tenore</i> 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span> -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.”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span></p> - - -<h3>THE HUNGARIAN GYPSY MUSIC.</h3> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“The Hungarian gypsy merely <i>plays</i> 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 <i>Magyar nota</i> 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.</p> - -<p>“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 <i>Magyar ember</i> into<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span> -dance and play, and make him forget himself, he -must first, in the slow, sustained tones of a <i>Lassu</i> -(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 <i>Csardas</i>. This signifies both the dance -itself and the dance music; and as every Hungarian -dance is preceded by an introductory <i>Lassu</i>, -this also is included in the term. The <i>Lassu</i>, -soaring beyond the possibility of being represented -as a dance, is usually followed by a <i>Frisded</i>, or -Allegretto, of a quicker movement, but usually -kept also in the minor, yet shaped already to the -dance, but only for the <i>solo</i> dance of men. If the -<i>Magyar ember</i> allows himself to be drawn away -from his sombre mood into a dance, it is at first -only a <i>solo</i> 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span> -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 <i>Csardas</i> in the narrower -sense of the word, or by way of distinction, -<i>Friss</i> (i. e., Allegro, Presto). Already in the -<i>Lassu</i>, the dull brooding in which the soul of the -<i>Magyar ember</i> swims, is crossed by some occasional -gleams of enthusiasm; but in the <i>Frisded</i> -the dark clouds of sadness begin first to break -away, and the <i>Friss</i> 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.”—<i>Neue -Zeitschrift fuer Musik.</i></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span></p> - - -<h3>HEINE ON LISZT.</h3> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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 <i>see</i> 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span> -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.”</p> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Heinrich Heine.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span></p> - - -<h3>A LETTER FROM BERLIOZ TO LISZT.</h3> - -<p>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:”</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“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 <i>Ave Maria</i>, or -Beethoven’s <i>Adelaide</i>, and every heart bounds to -meet him, every breath is hushed in agitated silence,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span> -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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span></p> - - -<h3>HESSE’S CRITICISM OF LISZT.</h3> - -<p>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 -<i>Zeitung</i>:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“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 -<span class="smcap">Franz Liszt</span>. 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 <i>no one</i> 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span> -his presence and admire his magical play. His repertoire -was multifarious; he played all masters.</p> - -<p>“We will not waste words about his gigantic -<i>technique</i>, 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 <i>La -ci darem</i>, 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.”</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span></p> - - -<h3>LISZT’S PRINCIPAL SCHOLARS.</h3> - -<table> - - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Hans Von Buelow</span>, Meiningen.</td><td><span class="smcap">Siegfried Langaard</span>, Denmark.</td></tr> -<tr><td><a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a><span class="smcap">Carl Tausig.</span></td><td><span class="smcap">Carl Pohlig.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><a id="FNanchor_2a" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a><span class="smcap">Franz Bendel.</span></td><td><span class="smcap">Arthur Friedheim.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Hans Von Bronsart</span>, Hanover.</td><td><span class="smcap">L. Marek</span>, Limberg.</td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Carl Klindworth</span>, Moscow.</td><td><span class="smcap">F. Reuss</span>, Baden-Baden.</td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Alexander Winterberger</span>, St. Petersburg.          </td><td><span class="smcap">Berthrand Roth</span>, Frankfort.</td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Julius Reubke.</span></td><td>—— <span class="smcap">Kollerman.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><a id="FNanchor_2b" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a><span class="smcap">Theodore Ratzenberger.</span></td><td><span class="smcap">Carl Stasny.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><a id="FNanchor_2c" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a><span class="smcap">Robert Pflughaupt.</span></td><td><span class="smcap">Joseph Wieniawsky.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Frederick Altschul.</span></td><td><span class="smcap">Ingeborg Stark-Bronsart.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><a id="FNanchor_2d" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a><span class="smcap">Nicholas Neilissoff.</span></td><td><span class="smcap">Sophie Menter-Popper.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Carl Baermann</span>, Munich.</td><td><a id="FNanchor_2e" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a><span class="smcap">Sophie Pflughaupt.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Dionys Pruckner</span>, Stuttgart.</td><td><a id="FNanchor_2f" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a><span class="smcap">Aline Hundt.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Ferdinand Schreiber.</span></td><td><span class="smcap">Pauline Fichtner-Erdmannsdoerfer.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Louis Rothfeld.</span></td><td><span class="smcap">Ahrenda Blume.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">J. Sipass</span>, Budapest.</td><td><span class="smcap">Anna Mehlig.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">George Leitert.</span></td><td><span class="smcap">Vera Timanoff</span>, Russia.</td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Julius Richter.</span></td><td><span class="smcap">Martha Remmert.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Louis Jungmann</span>, Weimar.</td><td><span class="smcap">Sara Magnus-Heinze.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">William Mason</span>, New York.</td><td><span class="smcap">Dora Peterson.</span></td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Max Pinner</span>, New York.</td><td><span class="smcap">Ilonka Ravacz</span>, Hungary.</td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Jules Zarembsky</span>, Brussels.</td><td><span class="smcap">Cecilia Gaul</span>, America.</td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">G. Sgambati</span>, Rome.</td><td><span class="smcap">Marie Breidenstein</span>, Erfurt.</td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Carlo Lippi</span>, Rome.</td><td><span class="smcap">Amy Fay</span>, America.</td></tr> -</table> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="ph1">FOOTNOTES:</p> -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[A]</a> Hungarian for “Franz.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[B]</a> Deceased.</p> - -</div> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="transnote"> -<p class="ph1">TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:</p> - - - - -<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.</p> - -<p>Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.</p> - -<p>Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.</p> - -<p>The cover image for this eBook was created by the transcriber and is entered into the public domain.</p> -</div></div> - - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF LISZT ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -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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