expression to the gnawing anguish which rends the soul,
and which it thereby mitigates and softens : it lends a tear
to the stupefaction of grief; it drops mollifying healing
balsam into every wounded heart. Whoever has expe-
rienced this effect himself, or witnessed it in others, will
admit with me that for this fairest service rendered by the
art we cannot sufficiently thank and revere it."
How sad and suggestive are these lines, penned by a
royal musician !
Blind people delight in descriptive music depicting
scenes which painters might use as subjects for pictures.
By the help of a lively imagination, the ear to some extent
serves also the purpose of the eye. Thus may be explained
the preference given by the Crown Prince to certain com-
positions which are by no means of the highest class.
Speaking of Bellini's opera * Norma,' he remarks : " In
the Introduction there is a most ingenious representation
of a country. Commencing with low tones, it unfolds
itself in sombre harmony, and faithfully reproduces the
same impression that the darkness of the thick wood
makes upon the wanderer. Single, sliding, and abrupt
notes seem to denote lighter spots in the dark wood, and
thus the first decoration of the opera, the grove of sacrifice,
is appropriately represented. The reader will certainly be
still more struck by the appositeness of this musical picture,
when I assure him that I know a blind person who, when
he first heard this introduction, immediately guessed that it
was intended to represent a scene in a wood."
Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony is, as might be expected,
an especial favourite with him, and he gives a detailed
description of its several movements, prefaced by the
exclamation : " How clearly are the daily occurrences and
the individual scenes of rural life presented to the hearer!"
Neither is it surprising that Haydn's ' Creation,' with its
many descriptive passages, should forcibly and very
agreeably appeal to his imagination. In commenting upon
certain beauties in this oratorio, which he especially admires,
he remarks : " Above all, how strikingly has the composer
50 ROYAL MUSICIANS.
represented with all the powers of music the moment called
forth by the creative words ' Let there be light !' and there
was light. At these words the orchestra discharges itself
in a truly electric manner, so as absolutely to dazzle you.
The hearer feels perfectly the impression which the real
occurrence of this adorable miracle of Almighty power would
make upon him ; and in this delineation by tones is exhibited
to the sense of mortal man the only possible representation
of that sublime wonder in the most striking and convincing
manner."
It not unfrequently happens to a musical composer that
when a new idea occurs to him while he is extemporizing,
it appears to him at the first moment more beautiful than
he finds it to be on reconsideration. The Prince, who
enjoyed extemporizing on the pianoforte, kept in his service
a pianist, whose business it was to write down his
inventions, which he played repeatedly to the pianist to
enable him to sketch at once as faithfully as possible the
chief ideas and modulations. These sketches the pianist,
who was a talented musician, had to take home, in order
to work them out carefully according to the rules of
musical composition. Having accomplished his task, he
attended at the palace with the manuscript ; and now it
was his turn to play the new piece to his royal master. But,
however anxious he had been to preserve intact the original
ideas, he generally learnt to his concern that the music
possessed no longer those beauties which had been dictated
to him.
Royal musicians who have studied Thorough Bass are
sometimes formidable critics. At any rate, it would appear
so from some musical criticisms of Frederick II., and of his
sister the Princess Amalia. Frederick II. (Frederick the
Great) King of Prussia (born 1712, died 1786) was a com-
poser as well as a virtuoso on the flute. He regularly prac-
tised his instrument daily. In earlier life it was his habit to
play the scales every morning as soon as he had risen from
his bed ; and he often performed in the evening five con-
certos on the flute, which his royal orchestra had to accom-
pany. In composing he wrote down only the melody, and
ROYAL MUSICIANS. 51
he indicated with it in words how the bass and the other
parts should be contrived : for instance, " Here the bass
shall be in Quavers ;" " Here the violins shall play alone,"
etc. These directions he gave to his Kapellmeister Agricola,
who then completed the score.
The musical pursuits of Frederick II. are interesting,
but are too well known to be here circumstantially recorded.
Suffice it to mention his singular behaviour on the occasion
of the performance of Graun's ' Te Deum,' after the
termination of the Seven Years' War, in 1763. The
orchestra and singers who had assembled in the royal
palace at Charlottenburg punctually at the time at which
they had been ordered to appear, found to their surprise that
there was no audience assembling. After having waited for
about half an hour in suspense, wondering whether the per-
formance of the ' Te Deum ' was to take place, or whether
they had been summoned by inadvertence, they observed a
side door being opened at the end of the hall opposite to
them, through which the King entered quite alone, without
any attendance. He sat down on a chair in a corner, and
made a sign to them to commence. At some of the full
choruses, when all the voices united, he held his hands
before his eyes to hide his tears. Several of the musicians
who saw him became so much affected that the tears rolled
down their cheeks while they played. At the end of the
performance the King thanked them by a slight inclination
of his head, and retired through the side door through which
he had entered.
This noble royal musician was, however, so prepossessed
by the compositions of Graun, that hardly any composer,
but such as wrote in Graun's style, had a chance of
finding favour with him. Kirnberger, the celebrated
theorist, in vain endeavoured to insinuate himself with the
King by submitting to " His Majesty's approval " a new
treatise of his on Thorough Bass. The treatise was soon
returned to him with the following letter :
" His Royal Majesty of Prussia, etc., our most gracious
Lord, cannot persuade himself that the announced work of
the Princely Chamber- musician Kirnberger, in Berlin,
52 ROYAL MUSICIANS.
contains anything new, or particularly useful for the art of
music, or for musical composition, considering that
Thorough Bass was already brought to a certain perfection
many years ago. This is, therefore, not to be withheld from
the said Kirnberger, in reply to his solicitation of the day
before yesterday.
FRIEDERICH.
Potsdam, February 25th, 1781."
The Princess Amalia, a pupil of Kirnberger, was a great
upholder of the rules of Thorough Bass, and a sharp critic.
As Gluck did not care much about many of those dry rules,
it is perhaps not surprising that the Princess Amalia did
not care much about Gluck. What she thought of him
she has expressed forcibly enough in the following extract
from a letter to Kirnberger, who had sent her the opera
' Iphigenia in Tauris :'
" Mr. Gluck will, in my opinion, never pass 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 Hasse, 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 Trans-
position. 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
ROYAL MUSICIANS. 53
intentional misrepresentations, since a prince has seldom
a motive for disguising his likes and dislikes in music.
Whether the estimable Kapellmeister Schulz had com-
mitted 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 manuscript 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 illustrious 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 lan-
guage 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 counter-
point, 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 3ist, 1785."
54 ROYAL MUSICIANS.
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 ?" *
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
assist 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 com-
poser, 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 classical 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 Aus-
tria, 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
Mass.
* 'Tonkiinstler-Lexicon Berlin's, von C. Freiherrn von Ledebur;'
Berlin, 1861 ; p. 6.
ROYAL MUSICIANS. 55
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 competition 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. *
Vienna, July 3ist, 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 dis-
turbance, and perseverance, conditions which are seldom
at the command of royal personages. The middle classes
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.
XXX. v. 8), he speaks rather as a musician, or poet. A
king requires riches as necessarily as a musician requires
talent.
* ' Biographic von Ludwig van Beethoven, verfasst von A. Schind-
ler ; ' Munster, 1845 ; p. 141.
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 constitute 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 assert 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 pre-
scribed to him, and under similar circumstances, 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 AND PRACTICAL MEN. 57
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 un-
practical 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 sud-
denly 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 classical 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 accumulate 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
58 COMPOSERS AND PRACTICAL MEN.
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 ,,
Sextett, 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 5
Quintett, ditto - - 60
Quartett, ditto 7
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
COMPOSERS AND PRACTICAL MEN.
59
Fantasia for Pianoforte - 30 ducats.
Rondo for Pianoforte - - 15 ,,
Variations for Pianoforte with accom-
paniment - 10 - 20 ,,
Variations for Pianoforte alone - 10-20 ,,
Six Fugues for Pianoforte alone - 30-40 ,,
Pieces, such as Divertimenti, Airs,
Preludes, Potpourris, Bagatelles,
Adagios, Andantes, Toccatas, Caprices,
etc., for Pianoforte alone, each - 10-15
VOCAL Music.
Grand Mass - -
Smaller Mass - ....
Grand Oratorio - -
Smaller Oratorio -
Graduale - -._.
Offertorium - -
Te Deum Laudamus -
Requiem ...
Vocal pieces with Orchestral accompaniment
An Opera Seria -
Six large Songs with Pianoforte accom-
paniment ...
Six smaller Songs, ditto - -
A Ballad
130
100
300
200
20
20
50
120
2O
300
20
12
15
It must be borne in mind that these terms were offered to
Beethoven at the period of his life when he had already
published his first eight symphonies and almost all his
famous pianoforte sonatas, and other works, up to Op. 109,
and when he therefore was in the zenith of his reputation
in the eyes of the daily increasing number of lovers of music
who were able to understand his genius. In fact, he after-
wards received higher prices ; for instance, the publisher
Schott, in Mayence, paid him, in 1825, f r t^ e second Mass
* 'Biographic von Ludwigvan Beethoven, verfasst von A. Schindler;'
Miinster, 1845 ; p. 246.
60 COMPOSERS AND PRACTICAL MEN.
(D major) 1000 florins ; for the ninth Symphony, 600 florins ;
for the Quartett Op. 127, fifty ducats ; and for the Quartett
Op. 131, eighty ducats. He was still better remunerated,
on a certain occasion, by the publisher Diabelli, in Vienna,
who having composed a Waltz for the pianoforte, wished
Beethoven to write six or seven variations upon it, for which
he offered to give him eighty ducats. Well, Beethoven
sat down to compose seven variations. But, the longer he
wrote, the more new ideas occurred to him, and the seven
variations soon increased to ten, then to twenty, then to
twenty-five. When Diabelli learnt that Beethoven had
written twenty-five variations and was still continuing
to add to their number, he became rather alarmed lest the
work should grow too voluminous for practical use. How-
ever, he did not succeed in stopping the composer until
after the thirty-third variation. The entire set was published
by Diabelli in 1823, under the title ' 33 Veranderungen iiber
einen Walzer von A. Diabelli, von Ludwig van Beethoven,
Op. 120.'
What must one think of Beethoven's knowledge of money
matters when in a letter to a friend, in which he laments
his reduced circumstances, he asks for advice how he can
obtain " money for a bank-note ;" while all he has to do is to
cut off from his bond a coupon, and to have it cashed by
the nearest money-changer. * Beethoven, owing to his
unpractical habits, required much money, although he lived
but frugally. For instance, it happened that he had to pay
rent for three or four residences at a time, because he had
neglected to give warning at the old residence when he
hired a new one. Fortunately for him, some of his admirers
among men of position and wealth interested themselves
about his personal comfort. In an honourable and delicate
way they ensured him an annual income in addition to the
gains accruing to him by the sale of his works. The result
was that he actually left some money at his death. He died
(to, use an English expression) worth one thousand pounds.
* ' Biographische Notizen iiber L. van Beethoven, von Wegeler
und Ries;' Coblenz, 1838; p. 34.
COMPOSERS AND PRACTICAL MEN. 6l
If the correspondence of some of our most celebrated
composers with their publishers were made known, we
should probably find therein unvarnished statements which
would surprise us, inasmuch as they would reveal disappoint-
ments which it is now difficult to reconcile with the celebrity
of those composers. The obstacles which some of our
classical composers have encountered in getting their
works printed are very remarkable. J. S. Bach himself
engraved on copper-plates his esteemed work ' The Art of
Fugue ;' only thirty copies were struck off, as sufficient to
supply the demand ; and, after the death of the old master,
his exceedingly practical son, Emanuel, offered the plates
for sale at the value of the copper plates. * It is painful
to reflect that some composers who lived in straitened
circumstances obtained little or nothing for certain of
their works which have enriched their publishers. Franz
Schubert had to struggle for his daily bread. When
the 'Erl-King' was sung by his friend Vogl for the
first time in public, at a concert in Vienna in the year
1821, it produced sensation, while other compositions by
Schubert which were performed on the same occasion, met
with a cool reception. Schubert published the ' Erl-King '
at his own expense, with the assistance of some friends.
But, as his needy circumstances soon compelled him to sell
the copyright of this song, which was then but little known,
his gain was very small, even if compared with the profits
which some arrangers have derived from transcribing the
song for the pianoforte. Although the conditions which