Musical Myths and Facts Volume II Part 6

"Mr. Gluck will, in my opinion, never pa.s.s for a clever man in musical composition. He has, firstly, not the least invention; secondly, a bad, miserable melody; and thirdly, no accent, no expression,--it is all alike. He is very different from Graun and Ha.s.se, but very similar to.... The introductory piece ought to be a kind of overture; but the good man does not like Imitations, and he is right, for they require labour. However, he is more fond of Transposition. This is not altogether objectionable; for, if a bar is often repeated, the hearer will all the more easily remember it; but Gluck appears to transpose the same idea from want of a new one. Finally, regarded in its entirety, the opera is very miserable. Now, this is in the new taste which has a great many adherents. However, I thank you for having sent it me. Through the faults of others one learns to know one's own. Be so kind as to procure for me the words of the whole opera; but, as regards the musical notation, I am not yet wise enough to find it beautiful."

If the letters of musicians to princes are often sadly devoid of sincerity, those of princes to musicians possess generally at least the negative merit of not containing intentional misrepresentations, since a prince has seldom a motive for disguising his likes and dislikes in music. Whether the estimable Kapellmeister Schulz had committed the indiscretion of suggesting to Princess Amalia that she was still capable of some improvement as a musical composer is uncertain, but appears probable, to judge from the following letter which she wrote to him after he had sent her the ma.n.u.script of his choruses to 'Athalia,' with the humble request for permission to dedicate them to her,--or, as he expressed himself, "to preface the work with the adorable name of so ill.u.s.trious a connoisseur."

The reply he received from her is here translated from the German as literally as possible.

"To the Kapellmeister Schulz in Rheimsberg.

I surmise, Mr. Schulz, that by an oversight you have sent me, instead of your own work, the musical bungling of a child, since I cannot discover in it the least scientific art; on the contrary, it is throughout faulty from beginning to end, in the expression, sentiment, and meaning of the language as well as in the rhythm.

The _motus contrarius_ has been entirely neglected; there is no proper harmony; no impressive melody; the interval of the Third is often entirely omitted; the key is never clearly indicated, so that one has to guess in what key the music is meant to move. There are no canonic imitations, not the least trace of counterpoint, but plenty of consecutive fifths and octaves! And this is to be called music! May heaven open the eyes of those who possess such a high conceit of themselves, and enlighten their understanding to make them comprehend that they are but bunglers and fumblers. I have heard it said that the work ought to praise the master; now-a-day everything is reversed and confused, the masters are the only ones who praise themselves, even if their works are offensive. Enough of this.

AMALIA.

Berlin, January 31st, 1785."

The amiable and respected Kapellmeister Schulz, in mentioning to an old friend the contents of this letter, merely added: "All this may be true; but why tell it me so rudely?"[24]

No doubt the most praiseworthy royal musicians are those who make it less their object to be accomplished players, composers, or theorists, than to discover and to a.s.sist really talented professional musicians, and thus to promote the advancement of the art. Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, who lost his life in the battle of Saalfeld in 1806, at the age of 34 years, may be noticed as a remarkable exception. He was a distinguished pianist; a fine composer,--perhaps the best of all the royal musicians whose compositions have been published or are otherwise known; and a true patron of the art,--which he showed by his cultivation of cla.s.sical music as well as by his kindness to Beethoven, Dussek, Spohr, and other eminent composers. This is the prince of whom it is told that Beethoven, on hearing him play, exclaimed with surprise: "Your Royal Highness does not play like a Prince; you play like a musician!"

As a true patron of music, who in this capacity has been more useful to the art than if he had composed operas and symphonies, must be mentioned Rudolph, Archduke of Austria, the pupil of Beethoven. The subjoined letter by him, translated from the German, speaks for itself:--

"Dear Beethoven,

I shall return to Vienna as early as Tuesday, August 5th, and I shall then remain in town for several days. I only wish that your health may permit you to come then to town. In the afternoon, from four to seven o'clock, I am generally at home.

My brother-in-law, Prince Anton, has written to me already that the King of Saxony expects your beautiful Ma.s.s.

Respecting D----r, I have spoken with our gracious Monarch, and likewise with Count Dietrichstein. I do not know whether this recommendation will be of use, as there is to be a compet.i.tion for the appointment in question, in which any one wishing to obtain it, has to prove his fitness. It would be a gratification to me if I could be useful to that clever man, whom I heard with pleasure playing the organ last Monday in Baden,--especially as I am convinced that you would not recommend an unworthy person.

I hope you have written down your Canon, and I pray you, in case it might be injurious to your health to come to town, not to exert yourself too soon out of attachment to me.

Your well-wishing

RUDOLPH.[25]

Vienna, July 31st, 1823."

No doubt, there have been in olden time kings who, as history records, possessed as much skill in music as their best bards or minstrels. If Alfred the Great could enter and explore the Danish camp under the disguise of a harper, his harp-playing must have been in the genuine professional manner of his time, otherwise it would have revealed to the Danish lovers of music that he was not what he pretended to be.

To become an eminent musician, one requires, besides an extraordinary talent, much time, freedom from disturbance, and perseverance,--conditions which are seldom at the command of royal personages. The middle cla.s.ses are in this respect the most favoured,--as they are, in fact, in all intellectual pursuits. When King Solomon says: "Give me neither poverty nor riches," (Proverbs, Chap.

x.x.x. v. 8), he speaks rather as a musician, or poet. A king requires riches as necessarily as a musician requires talent.

[24] 'Tonkunstler-Lexicon Berlin's, von C. Freiherrn von Ledebur;'

Berlin, 1861; p. 6.

[25] 'Biographie von Ludwig van Beethoven, verfa.s.st von A. Schindler;'

Munster, 1845; p. 141.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

COMPOSERS AND PRACTICAL MEN.

It is sad to think how some of our distinguished musical composers have had to struggle with poverty, when with a proper attention to business matters they might easily have been men of independent means. True, to be what is called a practical man requires a talent very different from that required by an artist; and an inferior artist may be,--nay, often is a far more practical man than a superior artist. But a superior artist is not necessarily devoid of the qualifications which const.i.tute a clever man of business. To maintain that a highly gifted musical composer must needs be deficient in common sense as regards money transactions would be as unwarrantable as to a.s.sert that a musician who understands how to use the art as a milch-cow must necessarily be a bad musician. His love for the art, and his desire to achieve something great, not unfrequently animates the true artist to disregard, or even to sacrifice for its sake, his property, health, and other advantages which the practical man regards as the real happiness of life.

Whatever the composer produces less as a labour of love than for gain, by command, according to a plan prescribed to him, and under similar circ.u.mstances, is generally not the best he is capable of accomplishing.

An artist must be allowed to create unfettered the work with which he feels the greatest inclination to occupy himself. But, if he possesses no property, he may starve before his work is finished. There are some painful instances on record of starving musical composers, who, with their admirable talents, might have saved themselves and others much trouble, if only they had thought it worth their while to be a little more practical.

Composers generally receive their worst pay for their best works. Their best works are generally those which made them celebrated; and when they have become celebrated, they are often well paid for insignificant or mediocre productions.

Composers sometimes appear to be much more unpractical than they really are. This may, for instance, easily be the case with those who strike out a new path in the art, or who aim at a reform, the disirableness of which seems questionable to all but themselves. However, occasionally it happens that an innovation, which is at first unpopular, comes by some unexpected cause rather suddenly in vogue, or at least finds many advocates; and in this case the originator of the innovation, who was regarded as an unpractical man, may attain the reputation of being of a remarkably practical turn of mind. When Richard Wagner, about thirty years ago, as a poor and obscure musician in Paris, was arranging operatic melodies for the cornet-a-piston to save himself from starvation, his notions about the opera of the future appeared to those few musicians to whom he communicated them, as a dream which to realize would be as impossible as it would be undesirable. At the present day he has many estimable musicians among his ardent admirers; he is honoured by kings, leads the life of a prince, and probably there are but few persons who would deny that he deserves to be called a practical man.

Several of our cla.s.sical composers have shown that they could be shrewd men of business at periods when the pressure of want, or the desire for independence, urgently incited them to acquire property. Beethoven on one or two occasions formed the resolution of making it his special object to acc.u.mulate a sum of money, the possession of which would enable him to compose without regard to publishers and mercantile speculations. But the endeavour to carry out this resolution seems to have been generally of but short duration. In the year 1821, the music-seller Tobias Haslinger, in Vienna, compiled a tariff in which he enumerated the different kinds of compositions with the prices he was willing to pay for them, if Beethoven by signing the tariff would bind himself to give all his new compositions to Haslinger for publication.

This tariff is so interesting that it shall be inserted here, although Beethoven, who at first expected from it a golden future, was soon dissuaded by his friends from entering into any contract of the kind.

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.

Symphony for full Orchestra 60-80 ducats.

Overture for full Orchestra 20-30 "

Concerto for Violin with Orchestral accompaniment 50 "

Octett for different instruments 60 "

Septett, ditto 60 "

s.e.xtett, ditto 60 "

Quintett for 2 Violins, 2 Tenors, and Violoncello 50 "

Quartett for 2 Violins, 2 Tenors, and Violoncello 40 "

Trio for Violin, Tenor and Violoncello 40 "

FOR PIANOFORTE.

Concerto for Pianoforte with Orchestral accompaniment 60 "

Fantasia, ditto 30 "

Rondo, ditto 30 "

Variations, ditto 30 "

Octett for Pianoforte with accompaniment of other instruments 50 "

Septett, ditto 50 "

Quintett, ditto 60 "

Quartett, ditto 70 "

Trio for Pianoforte, Violin, and Violoncello 50 "

Duett for Pianoforte and Violin 40 "

Duett for Pianoforte and Violoncello 40 "

Duett for Pianoforte _a quatre mains_ 60 "

Grand Sonata for Pianoforte alone 40 "

Sonata for Pianoforte alone 30 "

Fantasia for Pianoforte 30 "

Rondo for Pianoforte 15 "

Variations for Pianoforte with accompaniment 10-20 "