THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 MUSIC 
 LIBRARY
 
 * 
 
 1*t 
 
 V
 
 MUSIC AND MANNERS. 
 
 VOL. I. 

 
 MUSIC AND MANNERS 
 
 personal IRemintecences anfc Sketches 
 of Character 
 
 BY 
 
 W. BEATTY-KINGSTON 
 
 COMMANDER OF THE IMPERIAL ORDER OF THB MEDJIDIEH AND OF THE ROYAL ORDERS 
 
 OF THE REDEEMER, STAR OF ROVMANIA, CROWN OF ROUMANIA AND TAKOVA 
 
 OF 6ERVIA ; KNIGHT OF THE IMPERIAL ORDER OF FRANCIS JOSEPH 
 
 AND OF THE I.R. AUSTRIAN ORDER OF MERIT OF THE 
 
 FIRST CLASS WITH THE CROWN, ETC., ETC. 
 
 AUTHOR OF " WILLIAM I., GERMAN EMPEROR," " THE BATTLE OF BERLIN," 
 
 F.TC. 
 
 IX Tll'O VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 MUSIC 
 
 LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 
 
 LIMITED 
 
 1887
 
 Musld 
 Library 
 
 \ 
 
 TO 
 
 HENRY IRVING, 
 
 A LOVER OF MUSIC AND MODEL OF MANNERS, 
 
 is Bcfcicatcto 
 
 WITH SINCERE AFFECTION 
 BY HIS OLD FRIEND 
 
 THE AUTHOR.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IN this book arc reproduced some of the records of 
 my experiences " in foreign parts," gathered during a 
 period of absence from England extending over little less 
 than a quarter of a century, A considerable portion of 
 the term of my voluntary exile was spent in the service 
 of a great English journal -The Daily Telegraph the 
 proprietors of which entrusted me with many a mission 
 to Courts and Camps. In the chronicles of my journal- 
 istic career a few of which have contributed material 
 to these pages Politics and War have played more 
 conspicuous parts than Music and Manners. But those 
 somewhat formidable topics have been rigorously ex- 
 cluded from a collection of personal reminiscences and 
 word-sketches written with a desire to amuse, rather 
 than to instruct, those who may honour me by reading 
 them. 
 
 The child of musical parents, who taught me to sing 
 before I could speak, and to play before I could spell, 
 I have continually been brought into contact with 
 musicians and music-lovers ever since the days of my 
 parly boyhood, and count amongst my dearest friends 
 of the past and present several of the most distin-
 
 Y11L PREFACE. 
 
 guished votaries of the Divine Art. These facts must 
 serve as my excuse for such cursory mention of myself, 
 in connection with eminent musical composers and 
 executants, as occurs here and there in the course of 
 these volumes, for the manifold shortcomings and 
 demerits of which I humbly crave my readers' 
 indulgence. 
 
 W. BEATTY-KINGSTON. 
 
 January, 1887.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 VIENNESE REMINISCENCES. HECTOR BERLIOZ. THE OLD OPERA 
 HOUSE AND CONSERVATOIRE. PEPI HELLMESBERGER. 
 PUPILS OF THE HOCHSCHULE. SlGHT-READING. JoHANN 
 HERBECK. THE BEETHOVEN CULT. OPERATIC DISABILITIES. 
 WAGNERIAN PRODUCTIONS. VIENNESE CRITICS. COMPOSERS : 
 BRAHMS, LISZT, RUBINSTEIN, GOLDMARK 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MUSICAL REMINISCENCES OP BERLIN. GERMAN INTONATION. THE 
 LUCCA-MALLINGER CONTROVERSY. ALBERT NIEMANN. THE 
 ROYAL OPERA HOUSE. PRUSSIAN VENTILATION OF THEATRES. 
 THE GENERAL- INTENDANT 47 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF PESTH. ROBERT VOLKMANN. A FESTIVAL OF 
 
 FOOLS 90 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF ROME. THE GESL ORGANS. MIDNIGHT MASSES. 
 
 OPERA AND BALLET IN ROME. RAMACIOTTI . . . 101 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ROUMANIAN LAYS AND DANCES. THE DACIAN MINSTRELS. 
 
 PLUM-PUDDING SET TO Music. SERVIAN REMINISCENCES . 112 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 INDIAN Music. ORIENTAL VERSIONS OF THE BRITISH NATIONAL 
 
 ANTHEM 147
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PAOR 
 
 JAPANESE Music 163 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PIANOFORTE PLAYING 190 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 ADELINA PATTI AT HOME 243 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Music IN THEATRES AND AL FRESCO 272 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 WAGNERIANA. STRAUSSIANA 288 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 MUSICAL AUDIENCES IN AUSTRIA, GERMANY, ITALY, AND OTHER 
 CONTINENTAL COUNTRIES. ENGLISH FREQUENTERS OF CON- 
 CERT ROOMS, OPERA-HOUSES, AND OTHER PLACES OF MUSICAL 
 ENTERTAINMENT 324
 
 
 MUSIC AND MANNERS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 VIEXXESE REMINISCENCES. HECTOR BERLIOZ. THE OLD 
 
 OPERA HOUSE AND CONSERVATOIRE. PEPI HELLMES- 
 BERGER. PUPILS OF THE HOCHSCHULE. SIGHT-READ- 
 ING. JOHANN HERBECK. THE BEETHOVEN CULT. 
 
 OPERATIC DISABILITIES. WAGNERIAN PRODUCTIONS. 
 
 VIEXXESE CRITICS. COMPOSERS ! BRAHMS, LISZT, RU- 
 
 BINSTEIN, GOLDMARK. 
 
 WHEN, some twenty-two years ago, I first made the 
 acquaintance of Vienna an acquaintance that rapidly 
 ripened, on my part at least, into warm and lasting 
 friendship the Kaiserstadt was, as it still is, unques- 
 tionably the most musical of Continental capitals. It 
 possessed the best operatic and symphonic orchestras, 
 Conservatoire, choral union and established stringed 
 quartet in Europe. One of its regimental bands that 
 of the Koenig von Wuertemberg Regiment had attained 
 such extraordinary proficiency with strings, as well as 
 with brass and wood, that its performances alternated 
 with those of the inimitable Johann Strauss at the Volks- 
 garten on terms of all but absolute equality, as far as 
 popular favour was concerned. Then it was that the 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 HECTOR BERLIOZ. 
 
 Vienna Musical Union (Musik-Verein), with its mighty 
 orchestra of two hundred and fifty first-class instrument- 
 alists, had just attained its maximum of effectiveness 
 under Hans Eichter's gifted predecessor, Johann von 
 Herbeck. Until it became my privilege to attend the 
 Concerts of the Musik-Verein, I had never even dreamed 
 of such an executant corporation or conceived such per- 
 formances to be possible. All the leading artists all 
 the recognised " soloists " of Vienna served in its ranks. 
 Joseph Hellmesberger led the first, Hofmann the second 
 violins ; Dobyhal, the tenors ; Eoever, the violoncelli. 
 Men of this calibre did not disdain to drudge through 
 unknown numbers of rehearsals, even at the sacrifice of 
 lucrative private teaching, in order to enable their less 
 celebrated fellow-artists to achieve a perfect comprehen- 
 sion of the composer's meaning as interpreted by the 
 conductor. 
 
 I well remember the enthusiasm to which HECTOR 
 BERLIOZ gave expression apropos of what he termed the 
 "splendid self-abnegation " displayed with respect to the 
 rehearsals of his Damnation de Faust by the executant 
 members of the Musik-Verein, who, day after day and 
 evening after evening, at the coldest time of the year, in 
 Vienna the week before Christrnastide sate "repeat- 
 ing" his numbers for four and five hours at a stretch. 
 Berlioz, upon whom the impossibility of getting his 
 works adequately rehearsed had weighed heavily in 
 London and Paris, was deeply impressed by the untiring 
 assiduity of the Viennese artists ; and the final result of 
 all this sedulous, reverent and loving preparation, which 
 came off on a never-to-be-forgotten Sunday morning in
 
 THK OLD OPERA HOUSE. 3 
 
 the Imperial Eedouten-Saal (18th December, 1866 j, 
 fairly took him by surprise. In his excitement after the 
 performance he was unusually profuse of quaint defini- 
 tions, "It is not an orchestra, my friend," he exclaimed 
 to me ; " it is an instrument an instrument polyphonic, 
 automatic, and yet inspired." Later on, at the banquet 
 given in his honour by the leading authors, artists, and 
 dilettanti of the Austrian capital, he broke out more than 
 once in fervid praise of the Musik-Verein's unrivalled 
 orchestra. To Herbeck, who "having no French" 
 could not understand a word that the deeply-moved 
 maestro said to him, he ejaculated, " What players ! 
 What a leader ! What musical and poetical intelligence ! 
 What noble self-effacement ! How do you manage it, 
 then, to animate two hundred bodies with one soul, and 
 that soul, illustre maitre-de-chapelle, not yours, but 
 
 mine 
 
 f 
 
 Vienna, when the greatest of French composers visited 
 it, was physically in a state of transition, and the 
 accommodation provided for its musical public left much 
 to be desired in the way of space, comfort, and even 
 cleanliness. The magnificent new Opera House was not 
 built indeed, its foundations were just about being laid 
 and the pestiferous old Kaernthner-Thor Theatre was 
 still the only home of the lyric drama within the pre- 
 cincts of the Kaiserstadt. It was an ugly, dirty, ill- 
 ventilated den, stiflingly hot, and provided by an. in- 
 genious Court architect with the most distractingly 
 intricate system of entrances and exits at that time in 
 existence. To get into the house at your leisure was dif- 
 ficult ; to issue from it in a hurry impossible. As in the 
 
 B 2
 
 THE OLD CONSERVATOIRE. 
 
 case of its neighbour, the Burg, the space between the 
 outer shell and auditorium of the Kaernthner-Thor was 
 honeycombed by winding passages, crooked corridors, 
 and tortuous staircases. None of these ever seemed to 
 lead to any part of the building whither one wished to 
 go; least of all to the street. The atmosphere inside 
 the house was permanently sickly. It mattered not at 
 what time of the day or night one visited the theatre 
 during a morning rehearsal, with its dim religious light, 
 or a gala performance, making a heavy call upon the 
 gas resources of the establishment the old, musty, 
 mephitic smell was there, conveying to at least one of 
 the senses the impression that the quantum of interior 
 air originally allotted to the Kaernthner-Thor Theatre 
 by its architect had been carefully poisoned early in the 
 century and never changed since. As a matter of fact, 
 the orchestra was situated exactly above a peculiarly 
 baneful drain, one consequence of which thoughtful 
 arrangement was that, after a heavy rainfall or, indeed, 
 any sudden freak of the weather the two front rows of 
 the stalls were simply untenable by any person provided 
 with a nose of average receptivity and susceptibility. 
 On such occasions the mind's eye, informed by a lively 
 imagination, could see billions of typhoid germs hover- 
 ing round the members of the " Imperial Eoyal Court 
 Opera Orchestra," as they sate playing in the long 
 boarded well through every crack and fissure of which 
 sewer-gas was assiduously working its upward way. 
 
 Little less objectionable from a sanitary point of view, 
 and still more ignominious, ugly and inconvenient than 
 the Kaernthner-Thor, was the old Viennese Conservatoire
 
 THE OLD CONSERVATOIRE. O 
 
 in the Tuchlauben. Considered in connection with 
 musical education and training not to mention classical 
 Concerts and chamber performances of the highest cha- 
 racter that remarkable building could only be justly 
 described as a paragon of unfitness. Two flights of a 
 corkscrew staircase, barely five feet in width, led from a 
 dirty stone vestibule on the ground-floor to a squalid, 
 frowsy concert-room of a dull, nondescript colour, badly 
 lighted, malodorous and forlorn of ventilation the sort 
 of room that fourth-rate provincial mechanics' institutes 
 are wont to place at the disposal of lecturers who com- 
 bine amusement with instruction, as in the case of the 
 orrery. There was a hideous dark gallery running round 
 three sides of this grisly apartment, close up against the 
 ceiling, which chiefly affected the Conservatoire pupils, 
 who would stew there, slowly and uncomplainingly, on 
 " public nights," with an heroic endurance that I have 
 admired and wondered at scores of times. Not that the 
 lot of the audience in the body of the room, or on the 
 platform itself, was strikingly preferable to that of the 
 perspiring alumni aloft, for the heat was nearly as intense 
 below as above, and the seats small cane-bottomed 
 chairs, mechanically fixed in rows like beads upon a 
 string were adjusted so close to one another as to be 
 far more suitable for the accommodation of cherubim 
 than of human beings. In a word, all the arrangements 
 of that very abominable old Conservatoire were triumphs 
 of stupidity and discomfort. 
 
 And yet, some of the finest performances to which it 
 has been my good fortune to listen in the course of 
 musical expirionn-s extending over well nigh forty years,
 
 PEPI HELLMESBERGER. 
 
 took place in the sordid and unsavoury den from which 
 so many admirable artists have emerged, at different 
 times during the present century, to reinforce the leading 
 orchestras of Europe. It was in that subfusk chamber, 
 with the thermometer steadfastly registering the Beaumur 
 equivalent of 115 Fahrenheit, that I first heard Anton 
 Eubinstein play the Posthumous Sonata, and lent an 
 enraptured ear to the strains of such Liedersaenger as 
 Helene Magnus and Gustav Walter. There I became 
 acquainted, musically and personally, with Epstein and 
 Brassin, Caroline Bettelheim and Augusta Kolar, 
 Adolphe Brodsky and Dragomir Krancevich ; with Josef 
 Hellmesberger the elder, then as now the tutelary genius 
 of the Conservatoire, and his gifted son Pepi, who fiddled 
 articulately before he could speak plainly, and filled the 
 post of orchestral conductor in an opera house ere he 
 had completed his twenty-third year. He was a lad, 
 rising eleven, when he electrified the musical public of 
 Vienna by playing, at one of his father's inimitable 
 Concerts given at the Conservatoire before the most 
 critical audience in Europe, the first violin part of Spohr's 
 octett, and in such sort as to elicit a triple recall. Head- 
 ing and execution were alike faultless. On another 
 scarcely less interesting occasion, a few weeks later, at a 
 Carnavalesque Liedertafel of the Viennese Choral Society, 
 
 1 heard him lead Mozart's comic sextett (stringed quar- 
 tett and two horns) with admirable humour, archness, 
 and petulance. The composition is a charming musical 
 jest from beginning to end, and like many another subtle 
 and fanciful joke, is easily spoilt by dull interpreters. I 
 do not hope to hear it ever rendered again as it was
 
 FEFI HELLMESBERGER. / 
 
 given on the loth February, 1867, in the Diana Saal, 
 by five of the most eminent soloists then living (includ- 
 ing Kapellmeister Hellmesberger himself, who literally 
 played il second fiddle" to his talented child), under the 
 leading of handsome little Pepi,- arrayed for the nonce in 
 silken smalls and stockings, knee buckles, bag-wig and 
 powder, sword, chapeau-lras, and lace frills at breast and 
 wrist. He was, indeed, a pretty sight ; and the ladies 
 who witnessed his performance at the Fasching Lieder- 
 tafel were unanimous in declaring him u zum Fressen " 
 " a croquer " ; in plain English, nice enough to be 
 quite fit to cat. 
 
 It was this same Pepi Hellmesberger who occupied 
 the position of chef cforchestre at the Eing Theatre for 
 some months before its destruction by fire. He was 
 actually in the house, and on the point of taking his 
 place at the conductor's desk, when the curtain, bellying 
 out into the house like a half-furled wind-blown sail, 
 discovered the stage to be ablaze, and let loose a torrent 
 of roaring flame over the orchestra. Had the overture 
 commenced when that awful incident took place, in all 
 probability the instrumentalists and their youthful leader 
 would have perished, or at the very least suffered 
 severe injuries. Fortunately, they were still in the 
 "musicians' foyer" under the stage, and thus enabled to 
 effect their escape into the street through the principal 
 stage-door without difficulty. 
 
 The last time I saw Pepi the younger was in the 
 winter of 1876-77, shortly after the suppression of the 
 Servian Eebellion. A few months previously, having 
 entered upon his twentieth year, he became liable for
 
 8 PEPI HELLHESBERGER. 
 
 military service, and received an official' notification 
 requiring him to present himself at the proper quarter 
 for medical examination, as a preliminary to being 
 drafted into an infantry regiment. To a violin- soloist, 
 no announcement could well have been more terrible 
 than this. Were such an one compelled to fulfil three 
 years' service in the ranks, his fingers and wrists could 
 not fail to lose, in delicacy of touch and flexibility, more 
 than, in all probability, they would ever thereafter be 
 able to regain by the most sedulous practice. The mere 
 thought of such a calamity all but drove poor Pepi dis- 
 tracted, and inspired his father with courage to seek 
 audience of the Emperor (to whose Court he had for 
 many years been attached in a musical capacity), for the 
 purpose of begging off Hellmesberger junior from a 
 career so peculiarly unsuitable to him. The Emperor 
 heard all that his faithful old servant had to say upon 
 the subject, and then replied, " I regret, dear Hellmes- 
 berger, my inability to grant your request. My only 
 son has to do his duty to his country as a soldier ; so 
 must yours. It seems a pity to interfere with the 
 physical training of a great artist ; but I cannot consent 
 to draw invidious distinctions between one career and 
 another. All I can do for your boy is to get him drafted 
 into a regimental band instead of into the ranks. There 
 he will have to learn to play some instrument other than 
 that of which he is already master ; but this will not 
 give him much trouble, and he will doubtless find time 
 to keep up his practice of the violin. But he must wear 
 the coat, submit to discipline, and pay his proper tribute 
 of man-service to the national defences."
 
 PEPI HELLMESBERGER. 9 
 
 As may well be imagined, Francis- Joseph's kindly 
 and considerate concession was gratefully accepted by 
 the Hellmesbergers, father and son ; and thus it came 
 to pass that "handsome Pepi" was buttoned up to the 
 throat in a blue and grey uniform, with one white star 
 on his collar, when he came to call upon me at the 
 Hotel Imperial soon after my arrival from Belgrade in 
 the Kaiserstadt, just ten years ago. He had found his 
 duties with his regiment, even under the modified con- 
 ditions granted to him at the Emperor's instance, ex- 
 tremely irksome for a time, but seemed tolerably recon- 
 ciled to them, and not a little proud of having earned a 
 good-conduct badge. There was, of course, a humorous 
 side to the ordeal through which he had to pass ; viz., 
 that he, indisputably the first Austrian violinist of his 
 generation, should have had the fife assigned to him as 
 his instrument in the band. On joining, he had been 
 " sent up " to the bandmaster for interrogation as to his 
 executant capacities. "What can you do, young man?" 
 inquired that potent personage. " I can play the violin, 
 bratsch, and 'cello, Herr Kapellmeister." " That is 
 well very well for a civilian, but quite useless to us, 
 here in the regiment. Let me see. We are short of 
 fifers. You will learn to play the fife ! " And learn 
 to play the fife Pepi did, with a rapidity that somewhat 
 astonished his instructors. 
 
 Moreover, during his term of service he picked up a 
 suflicieiit acquaintance with reeds, brasses, &c., to prove 
 of infinite utility to. him in his subsequent career. No 
 sooner had he obtained his discharge somewhat prema- 
 turely, through the intercession of an exalted personage
 
 10 CONSERVATOIRE PUPILS. 
 
 than he was appointed chef d? orchestra in a popular 
 Viennese operetta theatre, brought out a comic opera of 
 his own composition, married a wife and took up a bril- 
 liant position in the most select musical circle of the 
 Kaiserstadt. 
 
 The latter days of the dirty old Conservatoire were 
 also those of my residence in Vienna, where I contracted 
 a close friendship with Hellmesberger the elder, at that 
 time orchestral instructor at the Hochschule, leader of 
 the Court band and chef tfattaque at the Opera House, 
 besides filling a score or so of honorary offices in con- 
 nection with the teaching and practice of the divine art. 
 Quite the keenest and most enthusiastic musician I have 
 ever known, Joseph Hellmesberger was almost extrava- 
 gantly proud of his native city's achievements in the 
 way of advancing and refining musical culture, and cor- 
 respondingly eager that every intelligent foreigner visit- 
 ing Vienna with a letter of introduction to himself 
 should be enabled to appreciate, by personal observation, 
 the actual working of the educational and training sys- 
 tems which had been fraught with such splendid results 
 to the two great institutions the Conservatorium and 
 Musik- Verein of which he and every other Austrian mu- 
 sician, whether virtuoso or dilettante, was so justly proud. 
 It was at his particular request that I took to " drop- 
 ping in" upon the afternoon orchestral "practices" of 
 the Conservatoire pupils, which took place twice or thrice 
 a week under his personal direction. No musician could 
 fail to be deeply interested by these exercises, in which 
 the foremost rank was assigned to sight-reading. As the 
 Conservatoire library is a very mine of old concerted
 
 SIGHT-READING. 11 
 
 works, piles of "parts" were never lacking wherewith 
 to test the students' capacities for playing "vom Blatte; " 
 nor did the Council of Management fail to provide the 
 orchestral department with good store of novelties. At 
 every "practice" a fresh score was rendered, somehow 
 or other for the most part, with astounding verve and 
 intelligence and the pupils always appeared eager to 
 tackle anything and everything, no matter how cranky 
 or complicated, that their well-loved master might please 
 to chasten them with. On one or two occasions, when I 
 happened to be present at the " Uebungen," Hellmes- 
 berger's greedy alumni even "asked for more," like 
 Oliver Twist, after undergoing what I considered a 
 surfeit of sight-reading. 
 
 One afternoon, during the early summer of 1868 a 
 few days after the first production at Munich of the 
 " Meistersinger von Nuernberg" I chanced to call in 
 at the gloomy old practice-room in the Tuchlauben, just 
 as the students were settling down at their desks, with 
 faces, as it struck me upon glancing round the semi- 
 circle, a thought graver than usual. Hellmesberger was 
 already enthroned ; but as soon as he caught sight of me 
 he jumped up, evidently in a great state of excitement, 
 grasped both my hands, and exclaimed "How fortunate 
 that thou shouldst have visited us to-day ! Now I will 
 show thee what these children can do. The full score of 
 the ' Meistersinger ' has just reached us, and I am now 
 going to take them a prima vista through the overture." 
 So saying, he gave the accustomed three quick, smart 
 raps, and a breathless silence succeeded the clamour of 
 tuning and chatter that had hitherto prevailed. To a
 
 12 THE " MEISTERSINGER " OVERTURE. 
 
 music-lover, the coup cfceil offered by the students was a 
 deeply interesting one. About seventy of both sexes 
 were present, ranging between the ages of twelve and 
 twenty, and exhibiting every facial type and variety of 
 complexion known in the many-peopled, polyglot empire. 
 Almost all the girl-pupils wore their hair in long, thick 
 plaits, by the hues of which their respective nationalities 
 could be pretty accurately determined, from the Teutonic 
 pale flaxen and Slav hay-colour to the Magyar glossy 
 brown and Eoumanian blue-black. Oriental physiogno- 
 mies abounded, a natural consequence of Vienna's geo- 
 graphical position upon the threshold of the East. 
 Brighter faces than those of the dark- eyed, sallow- 
 skinned Huns and Dacians boys and girls alike I 
 have seldom seen, even in Sicily or Andalusia. The 
 majority of the petticoated pupils was to be found in the 
 ranks of the players upon strings ; but the most promis- 
 ing of the French-hornists was a buxom Polish damsel 
 of about fourteen, whose name I regret to have forgotten, 
 whilst another handsome girl dispensed " linked sweet- 
 ness, long drawn out " from the trombone, and two or 
 three more, pink and white, golden-locked Austrians 
 proper, had devoted themselves with conspicuous success 
 to vanquish the difficulties of the serpent, still a favourite 
 instrument in country churches and small provincial bands 
 throughout the Hapsburg realm. 
 
 To say that I was surprised at the general correctness, 
 vigour, and fire with which this heterogeneous gathering 
 of lads and lasses interpreted one of the most laborious 
 and intricate orchestral compositions in existence, is to 
 describe very inadequately the sensations I experienced
 
 JOHAXX HERBECK. 13 
 
 upon listening to the " Meistersinger " Overture, played 
 at sight by the students of the Vienna Conservatorium. 
 That the rendering was somewhat coarse and rough, shaky 
 as to time here and there, and lacking in light and shade 
 throughout, I do not contest. But not a single break- 
 down occurred, nor was the orchestra pulled up once by 
 its conductor; whose face was radiant with pride and 
 pleasure when he laid down his baton at the conclusion 
 of the Vor spiel. All he said was "Kinder, es war gar 
 nicht so schlecht ! " (Children, it was really not so bad) ; 
 upon which the " children " set up a cheering and clap- 
 ping of hands that obviously afforded their gifted in- 
 structor the liveliest gratification. 
 
 JOHAXX HERBECK, at the time of my first fore-gather- 
 ing with him, during the autumn of 1866, was the 
 director of the concerts annually given by the "Society 
 of the Friends of Music " entertainments usually spoken 
 of amongst musicians as the " Gesellschafts-Conzerte," 
 and enjoying a well-deserved European renown. He also 
 filled the office one of great dignity as well as respon- 
 sibility of Master of the Court Band, or Kapelle^ as the 
 German idiom hath it, and was in great public favour as 
 a composer. His income, from a Viennese professional 
 point of view, was a comfortable one his wife and chil- 
 dren all he could desire his position in the "craft" second 
 to none. He was a man of many friends, the critics 
 were kind to his works, and his own passionate love of 
 music was a continual feast to him. All these agreeable 
 conditions of his being, added together, should have 
 made up a sum -total of human happiness, and very pro- 
 bably would have done so but for one draw-back. In
 
 14 JOHAXX HERBECK. 
 
 common with ninety-nine hundredths of the Emperor- 
 King's subjects, Herbeck was absolutely, though not 
 irretrievably, unborn ; and the consciousness of this un- 
 toward irregularity in his genetic arrangements preyed 
 upon him incessantly, souring his pleasure in the joys of 
 his art, the admiration of his fellow-musicians, and the 
 ovations frequently offered to him by the great Yienuese 
 public. 
 
 My lamented friend was the son of small tradesfolk in 
 one of the pretty hamlets with which the suburbs of the 
 Kaiserstadt are fringed. He received a rudimentary 
 education at the village-school, and, revealing a taste for 
 music at an early age, was put into the church-choir. 
 The organist happened to be a skilled musician, and 
 under his guidance little Hans, whose aptitude for study 
 in the one direction that interested him was a source of 
 endless astonishment and gratification to his instructor, 
 learnt notation in all its branches, thorough-bass, sing- 
 ing, the violin and one or two wind-instruments, includ- 
 ing the serpent, at that time an indispensable item in 
 the harmonious sum-total of provincial Kapellen through- 
 out the Austrian Duchies. Young Herbeck also became 
 an excellent organist ; in short, his musical acquirements 
 were so various and remarkable that their repute reached 
 the ears of one or two professors and critics of the Resi- 
 denz, and eventually led to his reception in the fostering 
 bosom of the Conservatorium. A scholarship, agree- 
 ably supplemented by a modest stipend wealth to the 
 frugally-reared village chorister was presented to him, 
 and thenceforth his career, one of extraordinary utility 
 as well as brilliancy, was identified with that epoch of
 
 JOHANX HERBECK. 15 
 
 Viennese musical history which commenced, shortly 
 before Emperor Ferdinand's abdication, with a strong 
 reaction from the romantic to the classical school, and as 
 vigorously reverted, about eight years ago, to sound- 
 paintiiig in tone-colour, fancy versus form, imaginative- 
 ness as against rule in a word, to the hyper-romanticism 
 of Eichard Wagner and his acolytes. Herbeck, as soon 
 as he had secured a firm grasp of the conductor's baton, 
 did much to revive the cultus of Beethoven, which had 
 somewhat languished in Vienna during the second 
 quarter of the century, and assiduously kept the works 
 of Bach before public notice. His interest in and appre- 
 ciation of Schubert and Schumann were eager and keen ; 
 but he loved the older gods better than the newer, and 
 failed to recognise true divinity in the newest of all. 
 Had Johann Herbeck lived to the age of Cleopatra's 
 Needle, he would never have become a Wagnerian. 
 
 Shortly after I became intimate with him he was 
 then in the zenith of his musical might and professional 
 prestige I discovered that he was a victim to chronic 
 dissatisfaction with the chief condition of his being. He 
 bitterly repined at not having been born, and inces- 
 santly yearned for some Imperial conferment that might 
 remedy Dame Nature's cruel omission in this particular 
 respect. The Emperor, who liked his simple-hearted 
 Kapellmeister and sincerely admired his talents, had 
 already bestowed upon him the Knight's Cross of an 
 Order founded by himself upon acceding to the throne, 
 and bearing his own name, Franz Josef. But this deco- 
 ration, not being one of those which impart nobility to 
 its recipient and his descendants, was a source of dis-
 
 16 JOHANX HERBECK. 
 
 tress rather than of pleasure to Herbeck, who had mor- 
 bidly persuaded himself that, in endowing him with so 
 barren a distinction, its august donor had slighted rather 
 than honoured him. His state of mind npon this fanci- 
 ful grievance was a perfect illustration of the adage 
 " Man never is, but always to be, blest;" it almost 
 amounted to monomania. I must say that the ireful 
 spasms soon subsided for Herbeck was naturally one of 
 the sweetest-tempered, most placable of men ; but when 
 the despondent fit was on him, nothing but music had 
 power to dispel it. If, upon any pretext an appeal to 
 his amazing memory about some quaint morsel of church 
 music by an obscure eighteenth-century composer was a 
 bait he never failed to take he could be lured to the 
 piano, as his fingers toyed with its keys, searching for 
 " lost chords," or all-but-forgotten motivi, the clouds of 
 melancholy would lift from his pale expressive coun- 
 tenance, his brows would unbend, and gradually his eyes 
 would brighten until they positively glittered. It was 
 at such moments that a trick he had of tossing back his 
 hair which, like nine German Kapellmeister of ten, he 
 wore preposterously long and full became prominently 
 noticeable. "With apparently no greater effort than that 
 involved in the involuntary movement alluded to, he 
 would recall Masses, Graduali, every variety of concerted 
 chamber music, old operas by nobodies long since con- 
 signed to the limbo of oblivion, but in which, during his 
 indefatigable musical burro wings, he had at one time or 
 another detected some precious gem of melody or har- 
 monious contrivance ; mouldy P.F. sonatas in exploded 
 styles, the names of whose writers were as utterly un-
 
 JOHAXN HERBECK. IT 
 
 known to me as the titles of the Egyptian monarchs, let 
 us say of the forty-ninth dynasty. With the three excep- 
 tions of Hans Richter, Dr. Hans von Buelow, and Joseph 
 Hellmesberger the elder, I have never known any " pro- 
 fessional" gifted with so exhaustive a musical memory as 
 that of Johann Herbeck. Dr. Schelle and Count Laurencin 
 two eminent Viennese critics, of whom I shall have more 
 to say anon used to " cram " titles of obsolete compo- 
 sitions out of musical lexicons and cyclopaedias, and stroll 
 up to the Kapellmeister's rooms in the Graben it was 
 strolling "up" with a vengeance, for the apartment was 
 on the fifth floor of an exasperatingly lofty house on 
 certain afternoons he invariably spent at home. In ten 
 cases of twelve, his friends found him sitting at the 
 piano, composing or arranging for the orchestra, a cigar 
 smouldering on the instrument within his reach. Some- 
 how or other conversation at Herbeck's was always 
 interspersed with musical illustrations. One or other of 
 the conspirators would adroitly lead up to the name and 
 musical period of the particular fossil they had disin- 
 terred for the occasion ; let us call him Gurgelreisser, 
 temp, early eighteenth century. "He was perhaps a 
 little formal and crabbed," Schelle would remark, who 
 had only committed his name and list of works to 
 memory that very morning, and certainly had never 
 heard a note of his music; "but there was good solid 
 stun in one or two of his concerted things. How about 
 that divertissement, for instance, written for two shawms, 
 two rebecks, sackbut and psaltery ? I forget how it 
 goes. Of course you know it, Herbeck." "You mean 
 Opus 56, the one in E minor," would be the reply; 
 
 VOL. L/1 / C
 
 18 JOHANN HERBECK. 
 
 " now I must say I find that uncommonly laboured and 
 stiff, even for dear old Grurgelreisser, who has written 
 matters far more genial, as you shall hear for yourselves. 
 The divertissement opens thus largo, forty-eight bars, 
 introductory and then allegro vivace, the melody of 
 which seems to me not very sympathetic." Whilst 
 talking like this, in breaks, he would play through one 
 motivo after another, exemplifying the methods of treat- 
 ment, until he had more or less succinctly eviscerated 
 the entire work. Then, jerking his hair backwards and 
 taking a pull at his cigar, he would continue, " What I 
 consider to be a favourable specimen of Gurgelreisser's 
 best manner is that Sonata of his, Opus 87, you know, 
 for Tuba Mirabilis with harp accompaniments. Listen I" 
 And off he would go into copious extracts from another 
 long work, with which he probably possessed an unique 
 acquaintance. So single-minded was he, that he never 
 suspected the traps that* were laid for him on these 
 occasions. Had he done so, nothing would have been 
 easier for him than to turn the tables on his guileful 
 friends by improvising ad libitum in the style of the 
 school to which the composer belonged whose work they 
 had asked him to play ; for his marvellous familiarity 
 with all the successive phases of tonality enabled him to 
 perform the most remarkable imitative feats. I remem- 
 ber, on one occasion, when an old musical crony carried 
 the joke so far as to invent the name of a composer and 
 beg Herbeck to play a few bars of a specified work by 
 this creature of imagination, the Kapellmeister turned 
 upon him quite indignantly, exclaiming, "Du mochtest 
 mich zum Besten haben ; es gibt keinen Componisten
 
 JOHANN HKRHEC-K. 19 
 
 dieses Namens ! " (You are trying to take a rise out of 
 me ; there is no composer of that name !) It was the 
 only time I ever saw him exhibit anything like annoy- 
 ance at the extravagant tax his friends delighted in 
 levying upon his memory ; nor was I ever present when 
 he was nonplussed by demands of this nature. To me, 
 tho universality of his acquaintance with musical compo- 
 sitions was an inexhaustible source of wonder and envy. 
 K"o matter to what period or school they belonged no 
 matter what might be the nationality of their author, he 
 knew them all. In the course of an afternoon's musical 
 chit-chat, with P.F. oblligato, I have heard him play 
 through madrigals by Battishill and Wilbye, songs by 
 Purcell and Arne, (/iff ties and passepieds by Eameau and 
 Couperin, fugues by Albrechtsberger, Scarlatti and the 
 younger Bachs, selections from Verdi's least-known 
 operas, Credos and Glorias by provincial Austrian, Ger- 
 man, and Italian organists who might have been nameless 
 for all the musical world knows of their productions 
 all these, besides bits and scraps of many others, as it 
 were en passant, merely to illustrate some topic or sug- 
 gestion of the causerie going on round his huge sonorous 
 Boesendorfer. There was but one man in Vienna oddly 
 enough, his dearest friend and heartiest admirer, Pepi 
 Hellmesberger who could cap him, play what he would ; 
 and nothing could be more interesting or amusing than 
 to get these two great musical chiefs together in a mood 
 to compare their classical and operatic reminiscences and 
 test one another's memories anent such pleasing triviali- 
 ties as Volkslieder, Laendler and Waelzer by the innu- 
 merable melodists, unknown to fame, with w'hom the 
 
 c 2
 
 20 JOHANN VON HERBECK. 
 
 Duchies of Austria proper have abounded for the last 
 sixty or seventy years. 
 
 Poor Herbeck ! most accomplished of musicians ; 
 greatest of modern orchestral conductors not even ex- 
 cepting leonine Hans Eichter and most amiable, sweet- 
 tempered, tender-hearted of men ! The predominant 
 yearning of his perturbed soul was realised a year or 
 two after I transferred my household gods from Vienna 
 to Berlin ; but he did not live long to enjoy the proud 
 consciousness of having been born. Either on his fiftieth 
 birthday, or on the occasion of his jubilee as a Court 
 musician, I forget which, Herbeck was sent for by the 
 Emperor, from whose presence, after a brief but thrilling 
 audience, he came out " von Herbeck " not only he, 
 but the heirs of his body, lawfully begotten, for ever- 
 more. Francis Joseph I. had bestowed upon him the 
 Third Class of the Order of the Iron Crown, which deco- 
 ration carries with it the hereditary title of " Bitter," or 
 Knight, and the predicate " von," significant of inborn 
 nobility. I only saw the Bitter von Herbeck once after 
 his elevation to heritable knightly rank, and found him 
 looking thinner and sadder than ever ; but his fall- 
 ing-off in flesh and spirits was, then, alas ! due to the 
 malady that shortly afterwards carried him off. But for 
 his physical sufferings, as he mournfully told me, he 
 would have been a genuinely happy man ; for he had 
 obtained his heart's desire, an Imperial homage to the 
 musical art such as Papa Haydn himself, Mozart, and 
 Schubert, all three Austrian-born geniuses, had never 
 elicited from the House of Hapsburg. I spent one long, 
 never-to-be-forgotten evening with him in his mansion
 
 JOHANX VOX HERBECIC. 21 
 
 near the sky, talking over old times and friends, playing 
 with him four-handed arrangements of his later con- 
 certed works, which I had not heard rendered by the 
 orchestra, and listening to all-but-impossible feats on the 
 pianoforte by Epstein and Joseffy, whom he had invited 
 to meet me. It was a late seance ; supper the chief 
 plat of which, I remember, was roe- venison and cran- 
 berry-jam lasted unusually long, and the post-cceual 
 palaver (as usual, with P.F. illustrations) still longer. 
 About two we took our leave, and little Joseffy, an in- 
 veterate converter of night into day, dragged me off to 
 an extra ante-meridianal cafe, where he insisted upon 
 playing me a match at billiards (Kegelspiel) for two 
 bumpers of hot egg-punch ! I never again saw Von 
 Herbeck. Xot long after that memorable evening at 
 once a joyous and mournful souvenir he died somewhat 
 unexpectedly, and was followed to the grave by the elite 
 of Viennese musical and artistic society. I need scarcely 
 say that an Austrian Kapellmeister, although primus 
 inter pares not being a composer of comic operas like 
 Johann Strauss, Franz von Suppe and Rudolf Genee, or 
 an impresario in the concert-line, gifted with sufficient 
 enterprise and pluck to seek fortune abroad like Hans 
 Eichter was predestined to leave little but an honoured 
 name and revered memory behind him. Herbeck's 
 earnings, even when he was securely lodged upon the 
 topmost branch of the professional tree in the most 
 musical of European capitals, never exceeded eight thou- 
 sand florins about .as many hundred pounds a year ; 
 and upon far less than that, from a Viennese point 
 of view, magnificent income nearly double a major-
 
 22 .TOHAXN VON HERBECK. 
 
 general's pay he brought up his sons to liberal profes- 
 sions, received his " friends of tried adoption " with 
 generous and tasteful hospitality, and was ever ready to 
 empty his slenderly furnished purse when a brother- 
 musician in trouble appealed to him for aid. He was, I 
 rejoice to remember, happy in his wife a clever woman, 
 excellent manager, and most sympathetic companion 
 and in his children, every one of whom turned out well, 
 so unlike the offspring of his leading musical contempo- 
 raries in the Kaiserstadt. Two years before his death 
 he enjoyed the supreme satisfaction of seeing them firmly 
 and comfortably established in honourable positions, 
 affording good prospect of life-long competence, if not 
 wealth. Oddly enough, not one of them adopted the 
 musical profession as a means of bread-earning ; nor did 
 their gifted father urge them to follow in his footsteps, 
 although, in his secret soul, he deemed his own the 
 noblest of all earthly callings, and could never be 
 brought to understand how a man with a good ear, cor- 
 rect feeling for time, and a genuine fondness for "con- 
 cord of sweet sounds," could possibly become an engi- 
 neer, barrister, surgeon, or journalist whilst there was 
 such a thing as a cheap riddle to be bought or a second- 
 hand piano to be hired, wherewith to study, practise, 
 and serve the " Divine Art." His convictions in this 
 respect may have been eccentric ; but he lived up to 
 them to the very last moment of his life. Es muss auch 
 solche Kiiuze geben ! a fact upon which all true musicians 
 have reason to congratulate themselves. 
 
 During my three years' residence in the Kaiserstadt 
 (1866-9), a strong and steadfast spirit of conservatism
 
 THE BEETHOVEX CULT. 23 
 
 imparted quite a classical flavour to Viennese musical 
 criticism, which it then pervaded, and, to no inconsider- 
 able extent, still pervades. Without accusing the musical 
 public of Vienna still less the able critics who at that time 
 formed and guided that public's opinions and judgments 
 of reactionary tendencies, I may be permitted to recall 
 the fact that the amateurs and dilettanti of the Eesidenz, 
 seventeen or eighteen years ago, had not long enjoyed an 
 intimate acquaintance with Beethoven's later stringed 
 quartets and P.F. sonatas, to the former of which chef- 
 d'ceuvres they had been introduced by Josef Hellmes- 
 berger, the elder, at a " Quatuor Cyklus," towards the 
 end of the fifties, since which time he and his accomplished 
 fellow-executants had played the mighty and monumental 
 130, 132, 135, over and over again, season after season, 
 until his subscribers began to know something about 
 them, and suspicious doubt had been transformed into 
 rapturous conviction. With respect to the last four or 
 five gigantic sonatas, Epstein and Von Buelow had, by 
 persistently performing them in private houses, as well as 
 in concert-rooms, familiarised the best Vienna audiences 
 with them, and secured to them that precious but limited 
 popularity among experts, which they have scarcely even 
 yet attained in this country. It was, indeed, but a little 
 while before the Seven Days' War, which so effectually 
 roused Austria from her intellectual and artistic as well 
 as her financial and commercial lethargy, that the Kaiser- 
 stadt critics and musical public d' "elite had made up their 
 minds that Beethoven's "higher developments" con- 
 stituted the Ultima Thule of the divine art the utmost 
 attainable in the way of invention, science, and treatment.
 
 24 WAGNER AND VIENNA. 
 
 In a word, musical Vienna was Beethovenesque. Schu- 
 bert had his partisans, and there was a Schumann faction, 
 pushing, eager, and dictatorial ; but Brahms had made 
 no mark to speak of, and the believers in Wagner formed 
 so small a minority in musical circles that, but for the 
 greater noisiness of their utterances and wildness of their 
 appearance, their existence as a party would hardly have 
 obtained any recognition by the "craft." Wagner 
 surprising as the fact may seem, viewed by the light of 
 recent demonstrations indulged in by Vienna apropos of 
 the great composer's death was decidedly at a discount 
 in the Austrian capital even as lately as fifteen years ago. 
 How slightly even his most intelligible works I mean, 
 of course, intelligible to the million had taken hold of 
 the most instinctively and instructedly musical public in 
 Europe may be gathered from the fact that Tannhaeuser, 
 from its first production on the 19th November, 1859, at 
 the Kaernthner-Thor to the closing of that opera house in 
 April, 1869 during, therefore, a period of ten years all 
 but a few months was only given forty-four times, 
 recording an average of less than five performances per 
 annum ; whilst Lohengrin, brought out more than a year 
 (19th August, 1858) before Tannhaeuser, was played 
 sixty-nine times, or a fraction over six times per annum, 
 during the eleven years intervening between that date 
 and the " last night " at the Old House. In 1861 and 
 1866 it was only performed once a year in 1867, not at 
 all! During that year, the " Ferien " or summer vaca- 
 tion having lasted exactly five weeks, three hundred and 
 thirty operatic performances took place at the Kaernthner- 
 Thor ; but the Imperial Inteudant, as he himself told me
 
 OPERATIC DISABILITIES. 25 
 
 towards the end of the autumn, could not spare one 
 evening "for an opera which had hitherto entailed a 
 dead loss of from five to eight hundred florins upon the 
 management every time it had been given." 
 
 Vienna certainly did not take so readily to the music 
 of the future as did Berlin. Tannhaeuser, for instance? 
 had become a piece de resistance at the Northern Athens 
 when it was still u caviare to the general " in the Kaiser- 
 stadt. The latter, it is true, was alike forlorn in 1867 of 
 an " heroic tenor " or an "heroic soprano." Gustav Walter 
 could sing anything that had ever been written for a 
 lyric tenor voice ; but he lacked the volume of tone, and 
 if I may say so, harshness of quality required to give due 
 effect to the declamatory parts assigned by "Wagner to 
 his heroes. Labatt, again (das schielende Vieh, or " the 
 squinting beast," was the agreeable sobriquet bestowed 
 by the Viennese public upon this artist, in virtue of a 
 forbidding glass eye he was in the habit of wearing), had 
 all the productive force and metallic bray needed for the 
 adequate vocal rendering of the Tannhaeuser and Lohen- 
 grin title-roles ; but, poor fellow, he had no ear he has 
 not got one yet, although he is still retained upon the 
 staff of the Hofoper, as Herr Joel used to be upon that 
 of Evans', " in consideration of his long and valuable ser- 
 vices" and sang Wagner's difficult music so outra- 
 geously out of tune, besides being a person of singularly 
 unprepossessing appearance and utterly devoid of drama- 
 tic instinct or intelligence, that the management did not 
 dare to put him up as the Fleshly Minstrel or the Fairy 
 Knight. Frau D'ustmann was in many respects an 
 admirable artist; but she laboured under two disabilities,
 
 26 " TANNHAEUSER " AT BERLIN. 
 
 as far as the parts of Elizabeth and Elsa were concerned 
 her dimensions and her weight. Turning the scale at 
 fifteen stone, and being physically characterised by an 
 exuberance of curve almost disproving the axiom that 
 " there cannot be too much of a good thing," she was 
 disqualified from representing a Thuringian Princess in 
 a decline, prematurely wasted to a shadow by hopeless 
 love, or a young virgin Countess of Brabant " under a 
 cloud" for sorcery and fratricide; though I have seen 
 her play Agatha in tightly-fitting white muslin, and 
 observed with secret relish that a conspicuously stalwart 
 huntsman had been told off by the stage manager for the 
 onerous duty of catching her when it became incumbent 
 upon her to swoon, in the last act. Fraeulein Ehnn, 
 again, who was sufficiently slight and fragile in appear- 
 ance nineteen years ago to impersonate the most ethereal 
 or anemic heroines with an outward seeming of realism 
 leaving nothing to be desired, had not at that time 
 come to the front with sufficient prominence to justify 
 the " Direction " in casting her for such " heavy " parts 
 as those of Wagner's "leading ladies;" and Fraeulein 
 Materna was nightly displaying an uncommonly hand- 
 some pair of legs to admiring audiences at the Carl, 
 where she was engaged at 160 florins a month to play 
 Beinr 'ollen, " with a song," in comic operetta. 
 
 Berlin, on the other hand, in the year of grace 1867, 
 was able to put Tannhaeuser on the boards of the Hofoper 
 with a cast that has never been beaten since that time, 
 though it was equalled in all-round excellence at Drury 
 Lane in 1881, and at the Stadttheater, Hamburg, during 
 the same year. Of Albert Niemann as Tannhaeuser,
 
 WAGNERIAN PRODUCTIONS. 27 
 
 Betz as Wolfram, the Yoggenhuber as Elizabeth and the 
 vounger Grossi as Venus, it might have been surmised 
 
 / / O 
 
 with equal vraiseniblance so admirable was their vocal 
 and dramatic impersonation of those characters either 
 that the parts in question had been expressly written for 
 them by the great Saxon composer, or that they had 
 been specially and providentially created for the exclu- 
 sive purpose of filling those very roles in an absolutely 
 irreproachable manner. It may well have been that 
 Berlin's good fortune in possessing these essentially 
 Wagnerian artists accounted in no inconsiderable degree 
 for the greater measure of public favour accorded to 
 Wagner's earlier operas in the Prussian than in the 
 Austrian capital, where they cannot with truth be said 
 to have struck root until long after they had taken to 
 flourish exceedingly on the left bank of the Spree. Par 
 parent he se I may observe that, with respect to his later 
 works, Vienna more than atoned for her former laches, 
 and went far ahead of Berlin I am referring, of course, 
 to the respective Court opera houses of those mighty 
 musical cities, subventioned to the tune of thirty thou- 
 sand pounds a year each by their Imperial proprietors 
 by producing Walkuere just six years ago, and the rest 
 of the Xibelungen Quadrilateral within the ensuing 
 twenty-three months ; whereas the first of German 
 theatres has not yet, unless I am much mistaken, 
 offered its subscribers a complete performance of the 
 Vorspiel und Trilogie. Tastes change as well as times. 
 The Me ister singer von Nuernberg, denounced at the 
 time of its production in Munich (21st June, 1868) by 
 the first of Viennese, if not of European critics, with
 
 28 VIENNESE CRITICS. 
 
 such profuse opprobrium and scathing irony, that the 
 musical public of the Kaiserstadt made up its mind to 
 live and die without becoming cognisant of so abominable 
 a work, has been performed nearly a hundred times to 
 crowded houses in the new Hofoper, and Walkuere nearly 
 as many. 
 
 If, beyond its own intrinsic merits, any collateral 
 proof were required to establish the true greatness of 
 Eichard Wagner's music, such proof might be found in 
 the circumstances that his most " advanced " operas, 
 within the past decade, have stormed a theatrical citadel 
 that of Vienna defended by all the champion manu- 
 facturers of public opinion on matters musical, and have 
 established themselves solidly on the repertoire of the 
 Hofoper ; not, let me add, as sops to a powerful faction, 
 but as ZugstuecJce that is, pieces that infallibly "draw" 
 the general public. And they do draw to some purpose. 
 The last time I foregathered with my lamented friend, 
 Franz Dingelstedt, he informed me that the receipts of 
 the institution over which he so ably presided, had been 
 over twelve thousand pounds, daring one season of ten 
 months and a half, from " Wagner-nights." But through- 
 out my sojourn in the Kaiserstadt, a " Wagner-night" at 
 the Kaernthner-Thor was not only a rarity, but a "func- 
 tion " to be avoided by the habitue's of the opera house, 
 inasmuch as everybody who was anybody knew that the 
 management only put it on the bills pour acquit de 
 conscience. 
 
 Leaving professional and amateur musicians out of the 
 question for the moment, the principal and most for- 
 midable foes in Vienna to Wagner and his compositions
 
 EDWARD HANSLICK. 29 
 
 were the three leading Austrian musical critics of that 
 day, Dr. Hanslick, Dr. Schelle, and Count Laurencin. 
 No man was ever endowed by nature with a brighter 
 musical intelligence, or a more punctilious conscience 
 than Edward Hanslick. His taste and judgment are, in 
 the opinion of many excellent musicians, little short of 
 infallible ; no inducement upon earth, I feel sure, would 
 move him to write a line at variance with his convictions. 
 And yet, when I first made this eminent writer's 
 acquaintance (for I should mention that, as a stylist, he 
 holds a rank second to none amongst German contem- 
 porary authors), Wagner's music was as intolerable to 
 him as a red rag to a bull or a puddle to a domestic cat. 
 He could find no virtue in the man or his works. 
 Possibly there was little enough discoverable in the 
 former, from a social or conventional point of view. But 
 Dr. Hanslick, no little to my surprise, was to all ap- 
 pearances irremediably insensible to the surpassing 
 beauties, and even technical excellences, of the latter. 
 Nothing, from a literary point of view, could be more 
 enjoyable than the eloquent invectives elicited from him 
 by Wagner's innovations ; nor has there probably ever 
 been written, before or since, so brilliant or truly 
 " slashing " a musical criticism as that contributed by 
 him, to the Neue Freie Presse immediately after the 
 premiere of the Meistersinger. It was, indeed, such a 
 splendid piece of work that I sent it in translation to the 
 Daily Telegraph, four columns of which journal were 
 devoted to its reproduction in " minion " type, with the 
 result, I have no doubt, that innumerable untravelled 
 music-loving Britons contracted a life-long prejudice
 
 30 INFINITE MELODY. 
 
 against the noblest, most genial, and most melodious of 
 Wagner's lyric dramas. Some of the definitions with 
 which this remarkable critical analysis sparkled were 
 exquisitely felicitous that, for instance, of " infinite 
 melody;" "the recognised resolving of every convenient 
 form into a shapeless, sensually intoxicating tinkle the 
 substitution of vague, incongruous melodising for inde- 
 pendent, shapely-limbed melodies." Wagner's method 
 of utilising " infinite melody" is also powerfully, if 
 inimically, described. " A small motivo is struck up. 
 Before it has had time to grow into a proper melody, or 
 theme, it is bent, broken, set higher or lower by means 
 of continual modulation and inharmonious shoving about ; 
 then carried on a little bit, then chopped up into pieces 
 and cut short again, then repeated or imitated, now by 
 this, now by that instrument. Anxiously shunning 
 every resolving cadence, this toneless and muscleless 
 figure flows forth into the Immeasurable, ever renewing 
 itself out of itself .... The melody is not entrusted to 
 the voices, but to the orchestra ; where, being l infinite,' 
 it is wound out as though it were passing through a 
 spinning-jenny. This melody-weaving orchestral accom- 
 paniment constitutes, in reality, Wagner's coherent and 
 substantial sound-picture, the voice being compelled to 
 accommodate itself to the accompaniment by also weav- 
 ing phrases into it, half declaimed, half sung. This 
 method of composition is diametrically opposed to that 
 hitherto employed by every master. Heretofore, the 
 melody for the voice was the first thing conceived by 
 the sound-poet the positive thing, to which the accom- 
 paniment (however free or complex in treatment), was
 
 SCHELLE. 31 
 
 made subordinate. As a rule, one could divine the 
 accompaniment, or an accompaniment, to the given 
 melody for the voice ; and the accompaniment thus, in 
 some sort, became one's own unsubstantial property. 
 Under the Wagner * method ' the voice-part is not only 
 something incomplete, but is, in fact, nothing at all ; the 
 accompaniment is everything is an independent sym- 
 phonial creation is an orchestral fantasia with ad libitum 
 vocal accompaniments." 
 
 Dr. Schelle, Hanslick's successor on the old Presse, 
 when Michel Etienne persuaded the leading Viennese 
 critic to enlist under the banner of the Neue Freie, was a 
 less impulsive and passionate writer than Hanslick. A 
 profoundly erudite musician and confirmed " classicist," 
 his enmity to Wagner as a composer was of a colder, but 
 no less deadly character than that of his illustrious con- 
 temporary. He was a man of delicate health, weak 
 digestion, infirm of body and of temper ; the calm, order, 
 and symmetry of the " old school " of music soothed his 
 nerves and refreshed his spirit, whilst the fervid agita- 
 tions and restless tentativeness of Wagner's compositions 
 vexed his soul, clashed with his convictions, and some- 
 times worried him to the verge of frenzy. To the end of 
 his days he died quite suddenly three years ago he 
 strove against tone-painting and its prophet with a stern, 
 implacable doggedness peculiarly his own. Eegarding 
 Wagner as the Mammon of unrighteousness, musically 
 considered, he fought him " wherever found," after the 
 manner recommended by Artemus Ward for invariable 
 adoption towards the Eed Man. Almost his last im- 
 portant critical effort was a series of masterly feuilletons
 
 32 COUNT LAUBEXCIX. 
 
 upon the Stage-Tone-Play Parsifal, and its rendering 
 at Bayreuth. These articles were written with undi- 
 minished power, but betrayed a consciousness in their 
 accomplished author that he was no longer combat- 
 ing on the winning side, as of yore, but vainly striving 
 to sweep back a resistless wave of hero-worship. During 
 my residence in Vienna I saw a great deal of Dr. Schelle, 
 who was a difficult man to know intimately, by reason of 
 his retiring habits and constitutional shyness, and learnt 
 to esteem him very highly, not only as an able musical 
 critic, but as a man of absolute truthfulness and sensitive 
 honour. To those for whom he entertained a liking he 
 was, moreover, a delightful companion, teeming with 
 information and anecdote, rendered piquant by the 
 flavour of his own dry, caustic humour. 
 
 Count Laurencin, a quaint and memorable figure in 
 Viennese musical circles for more than a quarter of a 
 century, whose verbal comments upon compositions and 
 performances were the terror of " the profession," and 
 who wrote his criticisms with a pen dipped, figuratively 
 speaking, in gall and sulphuric acid, was another in- 
 veterate, irreconcilable anti-Wagnerian. This bitter but 
 eminently knowledgable little gentleman may still be 
 alive, although he was pretty old when I last sat beside 
 him during a quartet rehearsal at Joseph Hellmesberger's 
 seventeen years ago. If he be, I doubt not that the 
 recent bereavement sustained by musical mankind left 
 him unmoved, save, perhaps, by a sour spasm of rejoic- 
 ing that he had nothing more to fear from Richard 
 Wagner's productiveness. The critical Count, a natural 
 son of the Emperor Ferdinand, but so indifferently pro-
 
 JOHAXXES BRAHMS. 33 
 
 vided for by his august father that he was fain to eke 
 out his slender means with the modest salary paid to 
 him for his contributions to a second-class Viennese 
 newspaper, was so diminutive of stature as almost to 
 belong to the dwarfish category, dark of complexion, 
 with glittering eyes, gleaming teeth, and an angry 
 expression of countenance that by no means belied his 
 disposition. When listening to, or discussing Wagner's 
 music, he was apt to foam slightly at the mouth, and to 
 grind his teeth in a highly alarming manner. Under 
 the influence of Mozart, or even of Papa Haydn, the 
 ferocity of his look would something abate ; but, under 
 the most soothing circumstances, he was only, as it were, 
 "lying by for a chance to bite." Musicians are pro- 
 verbially irritable folk, but Count Laurencin was the 
 most choleric of his tribe I ever met and Eichard 
 Wagner was his " favourite foe." 
 
 Amongst the composers well known to fame, whose 
 personal acquaintance I made during my residence in 
 the Kaiserstadt, were Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt, 
 Anton Rubinstein, Karl Goldmark, and Robert Fuchs. 
 My first meeting with the author of the German Requiem 
 took place in the bosom of a singularly unmusical 
 family, endowed by nature, however, with an infinite 
 capacity for hero-worship. Every member of this house- 
 hold, from its head, the erudite, grizzled " Herr Doctor " 
 a veritable mine of scholarship and science, but barely 
 able to distinguish " Gott erhalte unsern Kaiser " from 
 " Ach, meine Hebe Augustine" down to its youngest 
 cadette, a merry, flaxen-haired girl of sixteen, to whom 
 melody and rhythm were inexhaustible sources of per- 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 JOHANNES BRAHMS. 
 
 plexity, except in so far as they served to facilitate and 
 even promote the recreation of dancing, regarded Herr 
 Brahms with undisguised admiration, and paid him that 
 sort of reverent homage which lay-folk of a devotional 
 turn, however ignorant of the religious mysteries em- 
 bodied, so to speak, in an exalted ecclesiastical func- 
 tionary, are apt to offer up to a high priest or arch- 
 bishop. One and all, however, my friends the "W- s 
 were most excellent, worthy, and hospitable people, 
 counting amongst the habitues of their dinner-table 
 many of Vienna's artistic and literary celebrities, and 
 possessing the inestimable social talent of keeping their 
 guests in good humour and well entertained. Their 
 circle, at the time the privilege of frequenting it was 
 accorded to me, included Etienne and Friedlaender, the 
 co-proprietors of the Neue Freie Presse, Vienna's leading 
 journal for the past twenty years Uhl, Wachenhusen, 
 Spitzer and Speidel, feuilletonists of the first water 
 Gustav Walter and Caroline Bettelheim, stars of the 
 Imperial Opera House, Professor Joachim and his gifted 
 wife, then the first Liedersaengerin of the day, and other 
 shining lights of music, the drama, and the plastic arts, 
 too numerous to recapitulate in this place. Of this 
 intellectually and artistically luminous circle, Johannes 
 Brahms, whenever he joined it, became at once the 
 central point and chief personage partly in virtue of 
 the prestige earned for him by his indisputable genius, 
 and partly by reason of his own innate masterfulness of 
 disposition, which enabled him, in eleven cases out of 
 twelve, to take and keep the lead in society, no matter of 
 what class. An imperious man, restrained from self-
 
 JOHANXES BRAHMS. GO 
 
 assertion by no reluctance to wound his neighbours' 
 sensibilities, if he be endowed with real talent, and have 
 done things universally acknowledged to be great, finds 
 little difficulty in establishing himself as a social despot 
 amongst people of average brains and courage. Having 
 a rough side to his tongue, and being quite unscrupulous 
 with respect to his use of it, his domineering is frequently 
 submitted to by those who are his equals in intelligence 
 and his superiors in breeding, but either too timid or too 
 indolent to resist his assumption of superiority. Such an 
 one, when I first met him some eighteen years ago, was 
 Johannes Brahms loud, dictatorial, a little too obviously 
 penetrated with a sense of his surpassing greatness, 
 violently intolerant of opinions differing from his own, 
 curiously blunt of speech and "burschikos" a German 
 adjective comprehensively descriptive of the roughness 
 characterising University manners throughout the 
 Fatherland but none the less a jovial spirit, strongly 
 addicted to the pleasures of the table, and taking keen 
 delight in highly-salted "after-dinner" stories, of which 
 he was an ever-ready narrator, at once boisterous and 
 unctuous. As long as he was allowed to have his own 
 way, without let or hindrance, whether in an oracular 
 or anecdotical mood, he was an exceedingly amusing 
 companion, being extremely well read, clear-headed, and 
 humorous. But he could not stand competition ; a 
 shared social throne had no charms for him, and other 
 people's brilliancy "put him out." "When by any 
 extraordinary accident he found himself relegated to the 
 position of "the other lion" who "thought the first a 
 bore," his irritation too often betrayed him into actual 
 
 D 2
 
 36 BRAHMS AND JOACHIM. 
 
 rudeness towards people for whom he had the highest 
 
 regard. At one of the W s' select musical parties I 
 
 remember an instance of how badly he could behave, 
 even to such a man as Joseph Joachim a prince of 
 executant art and his intimate personal Mend. Joachim 
 had very amiably volunteered to play, and there hap- 
 pened to be no violin music handy except one set of the 
 Beethoven P.P. and Yiolin Sonatas (that dedicated to 
 Salieri), which was brought by our hostess to the great 
 virtuoso with the request that he would ask Brahms 
 she had not the courage to do so to take the pianoforte 
 part. Turning towards Brahms, Joachim smilingly 
 asked, "Dear master, will you vouchsafe to play this 
 with me for the amusement of our friends here ? " " I 
 am not an accompanist," growled Brahms, and abruptly 
 turning his back upon Joachim, strode angrily off into 
 another room. The Hungarian violinist merely shrugged 
 his shoulders, and looked around for a volunteer pianist. 
 I may perhaps be pardoned for mentioning en passant 
 that I had the good fortune to be accepted as Brahms' 
 substitute, much to my gratification. Nobody except 
 myself seemed the least surprised at the latter's pettish 
 outburst and sortie. To a look of inquiry I was unable 
 to suppress, Joachim replied, " It is his way when he is 
 vexed ; he means nothing by it ; " and this view of the 
 incident was evidently the one adopted by all present. 
 
 To FRANZ LISZT, the greatest pianist the world has 
 ever known, I was presented by Herbeck, when the potent 
 Abbe* visited Vienna upon the occasion of the production 
 by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde of his Legend of 
 St. Elisabeth, a truly gruesome work. In introducing
 
 LISZT. 07 
 
 me, the Viennese Kapellmeister said "This, strange to 
 say, is an Englishman who loves and understands music," 
 and I shall never forget the kindly, compassionate smile 
 that relaxed the somewhat severe expression of Liszt's 
 strongly-marked features as he listened to from his 
 settled point of view so improbable a statement. It 
 was a smile that seemed to say, " Very likely you believe 
 so, you poor good Herbeck, because you are the kindest 
 fellow alive, and the most easily taken in ; but I know 
 better ! " To me personally he was, then and afterwards, 
 uniformly gracious, never, however, conversing with me 
 about music, of which I have no doubt he held that my 
 nationality debarred me from knowing anything whatso- 
 ever. But I was more than once admitted to the price- 
 less privilege of hearing him play in private during his 
 sojourn in Vienna and subsequently in Rome, where his 
 countryman and most intimate friend, Archbishop (after- 
 wards Cardinal) Haynald himself an excellent pianist 
 afforded me several opportunities of " sitting rever- 
 ently at the Great Man's feet " when His Reverence I 
 mean the Canonico, not the Prelate was seated at the 
 piano. 
 
 One evening during the (Ecumenical winter, at a 
 
 musical soiree given by the Princess , Liszt's 
 
 Symphonic Poem " Tasso," arranged for two pianos, 
 happened to be lying on one of the magnificent instru- 
 ments that stood side by side head and tail in the 
 Princess's music-room, where some sixty or seventy 
 personages of Roman society were assembled, amongst 
 them the Canon of Albano. Whilst chatting with his 
 hostess, Liszt picked up the "Tasso" arrangement by
 
 38 LISZT. 
 
 chance, asked her whether she had heard it, and on 
 receiving a reply in the negative, said that he would 
 gladly make it known to her, if she could find any one 
 amongst her guests to play it with him. There were 
 several Italian pianists, virtuosi and amateurs, present, 
 but none of them would venture to attempt so difficult a 
 work at sight, especially in conjunction with its com- 
 poser, of whom one and all evidently stood in awe. 
 Archbishop Kaynald (he had not then received the red 
 hat), whose rooms were next to mine at the Albergo di 
 Roma, and who had placed his excellent grand piano at 
 my disposal immediately upon his arrival in the Eternal 
 City, came up to me and said, " Hoeren Sie mal, mein 
 Lieber ! you have played a good many hard pieces 
 (schwere Stuecke) at sight with me during the past six 
 weeks. Are you afraid of Liszt ? He wants somebody 
 to take the second piano with him, and try his ' Tasso.' 
 I should like to do it myself, but am afraid of the 
 fatigue. What do you say ? Will you make the attempt? 
 The thing is difficult enough more than enough." I 
 thought of Liszt's dubitative smile, when Herbeck had 
 introduced me to him as an Englishman who " knew 
 music," and at once replied, " Will your Grandeur vouch 
 for me ? I am not afraid of the great man, for the truly 
 strong are generally merciful ; and if I break down, not 
 being a professional pianist, I shall manage to survive 
 the disgrace of failure." Haynald took me by the arm 
 and led me up to the illustrious compatriot, saying, 
 " Franz, thou knowest this young man. He can read 
 music well ; he has done so with me again and again. 
 He is ambitious to play with thee, and has the audacity
 
 LISZT. 39 
 
 to essay thy * Tasso ' ! Wilt thou try him on my recom- 
 mendation?" "Certainly I will," replied Liszt; and, 
 after addressing a few kindly, reassuring words to me, 
 forthwith took his seat at one piano, motioning me to the 
 other. I felt as I suppose men feel when they have 
 been told off for a forlorn hope and are awaiting the 
 signal to advance. However, I contrived somehow to 
 follow the Canon's superb leading, and not to put him 
 out; the " fearsome foursome" went off without a hitch, 
 and when it was over Liszt held out his hand to me, 
 smiled benignly, and said only three words, " Herbeck 
 avait raison." On the llth of April, 1886, when my 
 London home was honoured by his presence, he reminded 
 me of our u quatre-mains " in Rome, more than sixteen 
 years ago, and told me that he had written to Cardinal 
 Haynald the same day, telling his Eminence that he 
 (Liszt) was going to lunch with the English amateur 
 who used to play pianoforte duets with the Archbishop 
 of Kalocza during Eome's last winter under the Papal 
 regime. I mention this fact as an instance of the clear- 
 ness and tenacity of his memory at the age of seventy - 
 five, only three months before his death. On the same 
 occasion he alluded to several musical ana of that 
 memorable winter, incidents which I had completely 
 forgotten, and especially recalled to my remembrance 
 the excellent playing of a Polish pupil of his, then a 
 stripling of twenty, now a prosperous P.F. teacher, and 
 the father of half-a-dozen children ; also of his (Liszt's) 
 having played one evening at poor Harry Arnim's to 
 Prince Frederick of Hohenzollern, the King of Rou- 
 numia's younger brother, upon whom Liszt's inimitable
 
 40 LISZT. 
 
 extemporising produced no visible impression whatever. 
 "And no wonder," added the great virtuoso^ "for all 
 the Hohenzollerns I have ever known cared nothing for 
 music, which old Prince Albrecht once told me he 
 regarded as 'an expensive noise.' That was the man 
 who once said about his own son, Albrecht the younger, 
 now Eegent of Brunswick, ' He cannot be a true 
 Prussian Prince, for he does, not admire women, never 
 gets drunk, and even plays the organ ! ' (spielt sogar die 
 
 I cannot bring these notes to a conclusion without 
 reminding readers that the dead composer to whom they 
 refer was one of the most disinterested, generous and 
 charitable men who ever lived. At least one-half of his 
 enormous earnings, which may be reckoned by hundreds 
 of thousands of pounds, has been given away to the 
 poor, the suffering and the unfortunate; to encourage 
 struggling talent and commemorate surpassing genius ; 
 to further the culture of art, spread its doctrines far and 
 wide, and promote its intelligent worship in every civi- 
 lised European country. To Franz Liszt, in common 
 with the late Ludwig von Wittelsbach, belongs the 
 honour of having extricated Richard Wagner from a 
 slough of despond and dilated his heart with joyful 
 hope when it was all but broken by despair. When 
 Liszt did Wagner the greatest service one composer 
 could do another he knew full well that the disappointed, 
 soured Saxon musician disliked and distrusted him ; 
 but that knowledge did not deter him from carrying out 
 his magnanimous purpose. For this alone mankind was 
 his debtor and for how many more noble deeds ? For
 
 LISZT. 41 
 
 scores which have reached public cognisance, and hun- 
 dreds of which he never breathed a word, even to his 
 most intimate friends. What life had to give was his 
 love, friendship, popularity, dignities, distinctions and 
 ample means, which last he held in trust for the deserv- 
 ing poor. Franz Liszt's was a beautiful career, teeming 
 with light, sweetness, and beneficence. 
 
 To those who have not been so fortunate as to hear Liszt 
 perform I may observe that his playing always was in 
 every way extraordinary, and in several respects uniquely 
 so. Not only had he vanquished every technical difficulty 
 contrived by composers for the pianoforte up to his time, 
 but had invented hundreds of new ones, some of which 
 nobody but himself has as yet succeeded in overcoming. 
 To him, even the most intricate and laborious of these 
 latter were obviously mere child's play, costing him 
 absolutely no perceptible effort. It was that is, to any 
 conscientious pianist thitherto inclined to " fancy him- 
 self" as a performer at once inimitable joy and bottom- 
 less despair to hear Liszt extemporise when strongly 
 moved by some more than unusually sympathetic theme 
 or happy fancy. After listening, awe-stricken and 
 breathless, to one of those unequalled musical utterances, 
 marvels alike of invention and execution, the revulsion 
 of feeling experienced by a pianist of the class above 
 alluded to was little short of crushing, suggesting grim 
 vows of never again laying finger on key, of advertising 
 one's favourite " grand " for sale at an unprecedented 
 sacrifice, and of foregoing throughout life all musical 
 enjoyments save that derivable from a Liszt improvisation. 
 Perhaps the most wonderful feature of his playing was
 
 42 LISZT. 
 
 his touch, or rather, plurality of touches pianists will 
 understand what I mean one as light as a falling snow- 
 flake or the flutter of a butterfly's wing, another as rich 
 as Genoa velvet of triple pile, a third as clinging as a 
 young lover's first kiss, a fourth as hard and bright as 
 the blow of a diamond -headed hammer. He could make 
 the instrument, to others a machine of readily exhaustible 
 tone-resources, do anything sing, talk, laugh, weep, and 
 mimic orchestral effects without number. There never 
 was and probably never will be another such genius, of 
 the executant order, as the slender, romantic-looking 
 Magyar Siegfried Wagner's grandfather who was once 
 the most general and successful admirer of the fair sex 
 in Europe, the object of an adoration that frequently led 
 him into strange and even tragical adventures, and ex- 
 pressed itself, on the part of his fair votaries, over and 
 over again, in extravagances of action no less comical 
 than repulsive. The infatuated maid of honour at the 
 court of Saxe- Weimar, whose peculiar personal flavour 
 of stale tobacco mystified all her Mends and fellow- 
 courtiers until an accident one day revealed the astound- 
 ing fact that she permanently wore in her bosom, as a 
 sacred relic of her musical idol, an old cigar-stump that 
 Liszt had thrown away in the street under her very eyes 
 she had reverently picked up the unsavoury morsel, 
 enshrined it in a costly locket enriched with the monogram 
 "F. L." in brilliants, and suspended it round her virgin 
 neck, whence it steadfastly gave forth the sickly reek 
 that so long perplexed the Grand Ducal Household 
 that fascinated Fraeulein, I repeat, was not the only 
 damsel of high degree, by many a score, whose head had
 
 RUBINSTEIN . 43 
 
 been completely turned by the inimitable improvisator e. 
 I have seen the proudest beauties of the Austrian aris- 
 tocracy crouching round him on the bare boards of a 
 concert-room platform, in attitudes with which the love- 
 sick maidens of Patience have made the British public 
 familiar, and positively gloating upon his expressive and 
 animated countenance. I have seen stately Eoman prin- 
 cesses seize his hand and rapturously kiss it a plusieut 6- 
 reprises, despite his manifest efforts to disengage it from 
 their clutches. Never was an artist so petted by " the 
 sex ; " but successive generations of fair enthusiasts 
 strove in vain to spoil him. He always held his own 
 with them and the only mistiess to whom he was 
 immovably constant is the Divine Art of Music, with 
 which he kept up the tenderest of liaisons for more than 
 half-a-century. 
 
 ANTON RUBINSTEIN I first met at Hellmesberger's 
 " mansion near the sky " in the Tuchlauben, where the 
 quartet rehearsals of Vienna's " primo violino assoluto " 
 used to come off on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. 
 Having been jocularly recommended to him by our host 
 as " ein geschickter Umblaetterer," I was permitted to 
 " turn over " for him whilst he played the P.F. part of his 
 B flat trio perhaps the most strikingly Mendelssohnian 
 of all his instrumental works and more than once 
 nearly got into trouble because I could not keep my eyes 
 from wandering to his wonder-working hands from the 
 pages upon which my attention should have been riveted. 
 The hands themselves, I must admit, were by no means 
 " things of beauty," though eminently capable of impart- 
 ing "joy for ever" to those who can appreciate really
 
 44 RUBINSTEIN. 
 
 magnificent P.F. playing. It appeared to me, I remem- 
 ber well, little short of a miracle that Eubinstein should 
 be able to achieve such intricate and delicate feats of 
 execution and touch with fingers so short compared 
 to those of other great cotemporary pianists and so 
 bluntly tipped ; but I soon got used to the marvels of 
 his presto pianissimo , though how he contrives to combine 
 a maximum of velocity with a minimum of pressure is 
 still a puzzle to me whenever I hear him play. After 
 Liszt, he is unquestionably the finest pianist and most 
 ardent musical enthusiast I have ever known. Like the 
 great Hungarian, he is heard to the greatest advantage 
 in private, surrounded by a small number of unquestion- 
 able musicians and unfettered by any social restrictions. 
 He abhors evening dress, and the enforced abstinence 
 from smoking of a fashionable salon is utterly intolerable 
 to him. If his quick eye detect a " profane " in the 
 room, or if his portly cigarette be not smouldering in a 
 corner of his mouth or on the piano convenient to his 
 hand, he does not, cannot play his best. How many 
 highly-polished instruments he has irretrievably ruined 
 by allowing his cigarettes to burn long corrugated 
 grooves in their surface whilst he has been wrestling 
 with extemporised difficulties of his own imagining, I will 
 not venture even to surmise. At such times, however 
 when the rosewood is slowly calcining and emitting a 
 pungent scent that, as I have more than once noticed, 
 exercises a painfully depressing influence upon the spirits 
 of the suffering pianoforte's owner Eubinstein plays 
 with a passionate vigour, intensity of feeling, and subtlety 
 of interpretation that are peculiarly his own. He is, 
 indeed, altogether a creature of impulse short-tern-
 
 GOLDMARK. 45 
 
 pered, distractingly crotchety, and totally reckless, when 
 annoyed, with respect to anything he may say or do. 
 But to his friends, whose name is legion, he is the kindest, 
 most genial, and generous fellow living, and the money 
 he earns so deftly with his fingers has always hitherto 
 run through them like water. He has made four or five 
 fortunes and spent them ; urgent need of ready cash has 
 too often prompted him to turn out crude and slovenly 
 "pot-boilers " instead of the ripe and ornate work that 
 no composer of the present day can produce in a condi- 
 tion of more perfect finish than he can. 
 
 Karl Goldmark, whose acquaintance I also made through 
 Joseph Hellmesberger during the winter of 1866-7 
 when the Kapellmeister was preparing the first " Gold- 
 mark'sches Streich-Quatuor " for production in the course 
 of that season's Cyklus was at that time a meek little 
 man of thirty-four, but already slightly bent and griz- 
 zled, timid and retiring in manner, of apologetic address, 
 shabby appearance and humble bearing. Before Hellmes- 
 berger took him up and made his works known to the 
 musical public of the Austrian capital, Goldmark had 
 undergone many trials and disappointments, as well as 
 no little actual privation. Although his chamber-music 
 and songs made a decided hit shortly after I came to 
 know him, it was not until nine years later and then 
 only through his steadfast friend's influence with the 
 Intendant of the Imperial theatres that his grand opera, 
 Die Koeniyin von Saba, a work teaming with gorgeous 
 Oriental colour, was brought out at the Hofoper. Gold- 
 mark's was one of those gentle natures that are intensely 
 grateful for the least encouragement. A word or two of 
 judicious praise anent any work of his composition would
 
 46 GOLDMARK. 
 
 at any moment dispel the settled sadness of his expres- 
 sion, and cause his dark features to brighten with lively 
 pleasure. I have often watched him during rehearsals 
 of his quartets and quintets, sitting quite quiet in a 
 corner and not venturing to make a suggestion when 
 anything went wrong, though his eyes would flash 
 joyously enough when the performers happened to hit 
 off the exact manner in which he wished his meaning 
 interpreted. A less talkative person, for a musical com- 
 poser, it would be difficult to discover. Even when he 
 was amongst his professional brethren, who were for the 
 most part extremely kind to him, he would nervously 
 shrink from mixing in conversation and open his lips to 
 no one but his cigar for hours at a stretch. If abruptly 
 addressed, he was wont to cast a deprecatory glance at 
 his interlocutor, as though he would mildly exclaim, 
 "Don't strike me, pray; but you may if you will!" 
 That being " the sort of man he was," it is not surprising 
 that I failed to become very intimate with Karl Gold- 
 mark, although I heartily admired some of his composi- 
 tions, and was, for a long time, ready at any moment to 
 develop a strong personal liking for him. But it is 
 easier to shake hands with a sensitive plant and elicit a 
 warm responsive grip from that invariably retiring vege- 
 table, than to gain the friendship of a man afflicted with 
 unconquerable diffidence ; so, after several futile attempts 
 to break down Goldmark's barriers of reserve by which 
 I am afraid I made him exceedingly uncomfortable I 
 resolved to confine my attention to his music, which, for 
 the most part, is well worth studying and highly satis- 
 factory to the cultivated musician's ear.
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 MUSICAL REMINISCENCES OF BERLIN. GERMAN INTONA- 
 TION. THE LUCCA- MALLINGER CONTROVERSY. ALBERT 
 
 NIEMANN. THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE. PRUSSIAN VENTI- 
 LATION OF THEATRES. THE GENERAL-INTENDANT. 
 
 WHEN I first made its acquaintance, nearly twenty years 
 ago, Berlin was not the capital of the German Empire, 
 but of the kingdom of Prussia. It numbered barely half 
 as many inhabitants as it boasts at the present day ; and, 
 musically considered, only ranked as the second, if not 
 as the third city in the Fatherland. With respect to all 
 institutions and performances connected with the divine 
 art, Vienna was considerably ahead of Berlin, whilst 
 Leipzig ran it hard for precedence, and Munich followed 
 it close at heel. The "modern Athens" a sobriquet 
 bestowed upon Berlin, half in jest, half in earnest, by 
 the most literary and artistic of all the Hohenzollern 
 kings, Frederick William IV. was at that time forlorn 
 of a High School of Music, whilst the noble Conserva- 
 toires of Vienna and Leipzig were flourishing exceed- 
 ingly and turning out dozens of accomplished 'artists 
 yearly ; its " Symphonie-Conzerte," organized and con- 
 ducted by antique pedants, could not bear comparison 
 with the admirable " Gesellschafts-Conzerte," given
 
 48 BERLIN V. VIENNA. 
 
 every Sunday throughout the season by the " Friends of 
 Music" at the Imperial Eedouten-Saal in the Kaiser- 
 stadt, or with the orchestral feasts served up weekly, 
 under the direction of Karl Keinecke, in the ancient 
 armoury of the good old Saxon city of Leipzig. In the 
 matter of opera houses, Berlin and Vienna were about on 
 a par up to the year 1868; the theatre on the Opern- 
 platz, and that situate at the Kaernthner-Thor, as far as 
 heat, lack of ventilation and evil smells were concerned, 
 presented but minute and unimportant differences ; 
 Vienna had the better orchestra, Berlin the better 
 singers; and both houses, being the property of mo- 
 narchs who respectively subventioned them to the tune 
 of some .30,000 a year and who, moreover, happened 
 to be fervent admirers of the Terpsichorean art devoted 
 their energies quite as vigorously (if not more so) to the 
 production of magnificent ballets as to the attainment of 
 excellence in operatic performances. As far as the 
 respective leading characteristics of musical taste in 
 Berlin and Vienna are concerned leaving Leipzig out 
 of the question, as a neutral territory in which no parti- 
 cular school predominated, but all things beautiful, old 
 or new, classical or romantic, were equally welcome and 
 cherished Berlin exhibited a predilection for the music 
 of intellect ; Vienna for that of feeling. The Wagner 
 Cultus was solidly established in Berlin several years 
 before it took firm root in Vienna. Perhaps I may go 
 so far as to say that the Berlinese inclined to seek 
 instruction in music, whilst the Viennese, only sought 
 for pleasure ; and that the public of the Prussian capital, 
 in its attitude towards art and artists, was the more
 
 PRUSSIAN AND AUSTRIAN MUSICALITY. 49 
 
 critical, that of the Kaiserstadt being by far the more 
 sympathetic. It is in such nuances as these that the 
 intrinsic differences existing between Northern and 
 Southern temperaments, even in people of identical race, 
 find expression. Prussian severity and Austrian indul- 
 gence are as plainly perceptible to the dispassionate 
 foreign observer in connection with musical performances 
 and compositions as in relation to military and civil 
 administration, social observances and popular habits. 
 In his amusements as well as in his occupations there is 
 always present to the typical Prussian's mind the desire 
 to improve himself that is, to derive some personal 
 advantage from whatsoever pursuit he may be engaged 
 in for the time being ; whereas the average Austrian is 
 naturally disposed to take his work as easily as may be 
 compatible with circumstances, and his recreation for 
 recreation's sake, unalloyed by any moral consideration 
 or interested arriere-pensee. The Prussian public, in its 
 musical and dramatic appreciations especially, lacks 
 sympathy for works exclusively belonging to the senti- 
 mental category, and excelling in expression rather than 
 in form ; whilst that of Yienna is somewhat supersensi- 
 tively en rapport with sound-exponences of feeling, 
 played, sung, or spoken. With respect to the capacity 
 for judgment that is the offspring of study and cultiva- 
 tion, there is little to choose between them. They are 
 both eminently musical, in that sense of the word which 
 has of late years come to be so thoroughly understood in 
 London and is still utterly uncomprehended in Paris. 
 Berlin has the sounder judgment Yienna the finer ear. 
 Oddly enough, both publics are tolerant in vocal per- 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 GERMAN INTONATION. 
 
 formances, of faulty intonation to an extent that, times 
 without number, has caused me infinite surprise. Wag- 
 ner, whose acquaintance with his countrymen's charac- 
 teristics and qualities was at once profound and exhaus- 
 tive, has accounted satisfactorily for this apparent 
 anomaly in one of his luminous letters to Arrigo Boito, 
 e.g., " from a physiological point of view, by the fact 
 that the Germans lack the true methodical voice-gift " 
 that is to say, the gift of producing the voice in such a 
 manner as to ensure correctness of intonation. To this 
 shortcoming he ascribes " the mighty influence that, for 
 a century past, Germany has exercised upon the perfec- 
 tation ( Vervollkomnung) of music ; for the creative force 
 of a people exerts itself in the direction in which Nature 
 has been a niggard of her gifts to it, rather than in that 
 indicating lavish liberality on her part." Judging by 
 the seeming indifference of Berlin and Vienna audiences 
 to singing out of tune, one can only infer that this 
 national insensibility of ear is the corollary of the other 
 national shortcoming alluded to by Wagner. 
 
 In the latter part of the year 1866, when I first became 
 closely intimate with the musical life of Berlin, there 
 were not three prime donne assolute in all North Germany 
 whose intonation was irreproachably pure, and whose 
 vocalisation was not more or less clumsy and laboured ; 
 nor was there a single primo tenore capable of adequately 
 rendering a part profusely ornamented with fioriture: 
 let us say that of Don Ottavio, Almaviva or Otello. 
 Pauline Lucca reigned in the Berlin Opera-house with 
 undivided sway at that time ; her subsequent rival, 
 Mathilde Mallinger, was still " leading lady" at Munich,
 
 VOICE PRODUCTION. 51 
 
 and the feud between these two eminent songstresses 
 which ultimately drove Frau von Khaden to break her 
 life-long engagement at the Prussian Hofoper and incur 
 a very heavy pecuniary penalty was undreamt of by 
 either. The sprightly Viennese was then at the zenith 
 of her professional career. The splendid quality of her 
 voice was unimpaired, her production of it unimpeach- 
 able, her intonation all but faultless. But how was she 
 supported on the first operatic stage of the new-born 
 North German Confederation ? It would be difficult to 
 do justice to the turpitude, musically considered, of her 
 lyrical colleagues, save by indulging in far stronger 
 language than could possibly be approved of by my 
 readers. The object of the modern German school of 
 singing as attained and exemplified by the personnel 
 of the Berlin opera company seventeen years ago was 
 manifestly to develop power at the expense of quality. 
 It appeared to take no account whatever of flexibility, 
 mezza-voce production, and tone-colour. Consequently, 
 at the time I am referring to, all the tenors at the 
 Hofoper roared, and all the soprani (except Pauline Lucca) 
 squealed. The one class of singers was as reckless aa 
 the other with regard to the summum bonum of all vocali- 
 sation namely, an unflinching fidelity to the middle of 
 the note and yet they were tolerated nay, vociferously 
 applauded by audiences especially pluming themselves 
 upon the possession, if not the monopoly, of high musical 
 culture and keen critical acumen. 
 
 From 1866 to 1878 this besetting sin of German 
 operatic artists viz., singing out of tune characterised 
 the concert-room singer and drawing-room amateur, as 
 
 E2
 
 52 UNTUNEFUL TEUTONS. 
 
 well as the exponents of the lyric drama. I well 
 remember, at a concert I attended shortly after the con- 
 clusion of the Nikolsburg Peace Treaty it was given 
 by the pianist Joseffy, then a juvenile phenomenon, who 
 subsequently developed into one of the most accomplished 
 executants in Europe a select audience of Berlin dilet- 
 tanti enthusiastically recalled a good-looking songstress 
 for performing a lengthy and elaborate cavatina by 
 Rossini exactly an eighth of a tone below the key in 
 which it was accompanied by the concert-giver. As far 
 as amateurs were concerned, a German Fraeulein " of 
 society " who habitually sang in tune was as remarkable 
 a rarity I speak, of course, only of my own distressing 
 experiences in the salons of the Fatherland as a truly 
 melodious bull-frog. Fortunately "At Homes" with 
 " a little music " are not so common a form of entertain- 
 ment in Germany or anywhere else upon the Continent, 
 for that matter as they are in this beloved isle ; and 
 foreigners, however long they may reside in Berlin, 
 seldom acquire sufficient intimacy with native families, 
 to be subject to the peine forte et dure of young ladies' 
 vocal performances. But when I was a dweller in the 
 Modern Athens, it was possible for any alien with what 
 is conventionally termed " a good ear for music," to get 
 his teeth very punctually set on edge at the Hofoper or 
 the Sing- Akademie any night of the week throughout the 
 winter season ; nay, at the former institution all the year 
 round, barring an interval of a few weeks' " Grosse 
 Euhe" during the maximum vehemence of a Boreal 
 summer's furious heat. 
 
 It took me some time, and more suffering than I
 
 GERMAN SINGING. 53 
 
 should care to endure again, to realise the stern fact that 
 an Art Institute of the first class, liberally subventioned 
 by the Prussian Eoyal Exchequer, and so cordially sup- 
 ported by the Berlin public that, from a financial point 
 of view, it really had nothing to wish for, was unable to 
 secure the services of vocal artists capable of singing in 
 tune. As a musical Englishman, I had for many years 
 shared one of the most extensively circulated and rarely 
 challenged delusions formerly obtaining in my native 
 country, viz., that Northern Germany in general, and 
 Berlin in particular, were the head-quarters, so to speak, 
 of modern musical culture. In the days of my youth, 
 that assumption was one of the articles of faith of a creed 
 honestly and resolutely believed in by innumerable 
 British musicians and lovers of music who had never 
 lived in Germany. These worthy persons it is always 
 worthy persons who are indissolubly wedded to error 
 not unreasonably imagined that, because the Fatherland 
 had produced the greatest composers of the eighteenth 
 and nineteenth centuries, the present German school of 
 singing must be the best, the German ear the most finely 
 attuned, the German taste the most pure, and the Ger- 
 man vocal executants the most accomplished. Admitting 
 the correctness of these deductions, it would be fairly 
 logical to derive from them the further belief that all 
 these excellences should have attained fuller develop- 
 ment in the Prussian capital than anywhere else. But 
 after a few months' sojourn in Berlin, during which I 
 spent at least four evenings a week in listening to 
 operatic or concert-room performances, I was compelled 
 to recognise the fallacy of the theories I had taken for
 
 54 GERMAN OPERATIC MANAGERS. 
 
 granted during the unsophisticated period of my exist- 
 ence above alluded to ; and I eventually arrived at the 
 conclusion which I have not seen any reason to change 
 up to the present day that State theatres in Germany, 
 as far as the provision of efficient vocalists is concerned, 
 did not keep pace with the musical requirements of the 
 age. Their managers, cultivated and conscientious gen- 
 tlemen, who labour under the disadvantage of being 
 salaried Court officials, are not at liberty to obey their 
 inspirations in the matter of engagements. Their posi- 
 tion as functionaries of the State, highly paid, titled, 
 decorated, and enjoying all the social consideration 
 accorded in Germany to members of any Imperial or 
 Eoyal Household, necessarily renders them somewhat 
 more indifferent than is consistent with the interest of 
 the theatre-frequenting public to the purely artistic merit 
 of the performances given at the institutions under their 
 control. It also leaves them forlorn of any personal, 
 pecuniary object in securing the mere commercial success 
 of those institutions ; whilst the absence of competition 
 with these latter deprives Eoyal Intendants or Directors- 
 General of an important stimulus to exertion. More- 
 over, they may not pay the prices that English and 
 American impresarii eagerly offer for first-class talent. 
 Finally, they are confined to Germany for their choice of 
 artists, the German language although probably of all 
 European tongues the least suitable to the lyric drama 
 being insisted upon as a sine qua non by the august per- 
 sonages who "run" opera houses in the Fatherland. 
 Under these circumstances, it is obviously next to im- 
 possible that they should retain in the service of their
 
 THE BERLIN HOFOPER. 55 
 
 iiuprese any stars of the greater magnitudes, even of 
 German birth, supposing the said stars to be gifted with 
 the small modicum of intelligence required to suggest to 
 them the expediency of learning Italian or even Eng- 
 lish, nowadays inasmuch as from 1,200 to 1,500 a 
 year is the outside remuneration they are authorised to 
 offer to a prima donna assolutissima or leading tenor- 
 singer. They are, consequently, compelled to fall back 
 upon the front rank of mediocrities highly-instructed 
 and hard-working mediocrities, excellent musicians for 
 the most part, and frequently admirable actors, but to 
 whom, as a rule, is lacking the inestimable inborn gift 
 of singing in tune. 
 
 Of artists such as these with the shining exceptions 
 cf Pauline Lucca and Marianne Brandt the vocal execu- 
 tant staff of the Hofoper at Berlin was exclusively com- 
 posed when I first became an habitue of its suffocating 
 precincts. For some weeks I hardly ever attended a 
 performance without falling into an ecstacy of astonish- 
 ment at the moderation of the Berlin public's artistic 
 requirements and the unboundedness of its endurance. 
 To offences, as well of omission as of commission, which 
 would have elicited showers of petty vegetables from the 
 auditorium of a second-class Italian provincial theatre, 
 Berlin audiences constantly accorded their approval (on 
 the principle that " silence gives consent ") and not infre- 
 quently their plaudits. I repeatedly heard Herr Fricke 
 the leading basso prof and issimo of the Hofoper in 1867, 
 who, by the way, still occupies that distinguished position 
 sing his whole part through a fraction of a tone below 
 pitch. Every musical ear in the house must have suf-
 
 56 THE BERLIN HOFOPER. 
 
 fered a long agony under that torture ; but I could detect 
 no sign of disapprobation or murmur of remonstrance. 
 Herr Fricke was an accomplished musician and clever 
 actor, endowed by nature with a splendid voice ; a gifted 
 painter in water-colours, and a most amiable man of ex- 
 cellent private character to boot. Friends of his have 
 assured me that he has always been totally unconscious 
 of the defect in his physical organization which incapa- 
 citated him from singing in tune, or rendered his doing 
 so at rare intervals the strangest and most unforeseen of 
 accidents. He was and doubtless still is such a 
 worthy fellow and " quick study," had so wonderful a 
 memory, and exceptional a knowledge of stage " busi- 
 ness," was so indefatigable, conscientious, ready to oblige, 
 popular among his colleagues; in fact, so thorough a 
 gentleman and efficient an artist, except in the matter 
 of his constitutional inability to sing exactly in the keys 
 prescribed to him by operatic composers that, when I 
 knew him, he was regarded by the management of the 
 Hofoper as a main pillar and support of that establish- 
 ment. But all his positive and negative qualities, ad- 
 mirable as some of them were, could not have availed 
 to maintain him in his position as the typical Sarastro, 
 Falstaff, Commendatore, Marcel, Pogner, &c., &c., of the 
 Berlin Opera-house, but for the fact that the Berlin 
 public was content to put up with him. It did more ; 
 it liked him, and virtually endorsed his chronic discord- 
 ances. The professional critics treated him with undis- 
 guised tenderness; society dilettanti shrugged their 
 shoulders whenever I ventured to utter a mild protest 
 against his faulty intonation, and replied, "But he looks
 
 THE BEELIN HOFOPER. 57 
 
 so well on the stage ; lie is such an intelligent, trust- 
 worthy actor ; besides, where can we find a better than 
 he in Germany now-a-days ? " It was upon such grounds 
 as these that Berlin tolerated a singer who invariably 
 put every concerted machinery with which he had to do 
 out of gear, and whose soli cried aloud to Apollo for ven- 
 geance. Its admiration for Mathilde Mallinger, two or 
 three years later, was similarly founded. She was an 
 excellent actress, endowed with a voice of singularly un- 
 pleasant quality, and with an ear well nigh as defective 
 as that of Herr Fricke. And yet an important section 
 of the Berlin musical public pitted her against Pauline 
 Lucca, and carried their partisanship to such lengths that 
 they eventually succeeded in giving the latter artist 
 mortal offence with the result that she turned her back 
 upon the German capital in utter disgust ! 
 
 I have above pointed out one or two of the shortcom- 
 ings characterising the organization and performances of 
 the Berliner Hofoper at the time I first made its acquaint- 
 ance, some three months after the conclusion of the so- 
 called Seven Days' War. Those shortcomings, I have 
 good reason to believe, are as conspicuous now as they 
 were then ; for the Hofoper is conducted upon strictly 
 Conservative principles by an aristocratic ex-Guardsman, 
 to whom innovations are an abomination, and who is at 
 once as autocratic and thrifty as was the great Frederick 
 himself, when that many-sided monarch played and 
 played successfully the part of an operatic impresario. 
 Eight years ago, I was still a resident in the German 
 capital, where my abode had been fixed in the autumn 
 of 1871, as I then believed for the remainder of my mun-
 
 58 THE BERLIN HOFOPER. 
 
 dane existence ; and the drawbacks above alluded to 
 were at that time as apparent as they had been at any 
 period of the preceding decade. More so, indeed; for 
 the Hofoper had been bereaved of its one pearl of great 
 price in the prima donna line, and was on the point of 
 losing a gem of minor lustre but unquestionable value, 
 by which the said pearl had been more or less efficiently 
 replaced ever since the Lucca-Mallinger controversy had 
 resulted in Frau von Bhaden's indignant repudiation of 
 her Berlin engagements. Pauline was gone, having 
 vowed by all her gods she never would return ; Mathilde 
 was going, her voice having completely collapsed under 
 the strain of leading "Wagnerian soprano-parts, and had 
 solemnly announced her intention of exchanging " end- 
 less melody " for spoken dialogue. The prime donne still 
 on the permanent staff not one of them was indisput- 
 ably assoluta were Frau von Yoggenhuber-Krolop, the 
 wife of the comic baritone, a good declamatory singer 
 and clever dramatic actress, but by no means exception- 
 ally favoured by nature as to voice or person ; Fraeulein 
 Grossi, a singularly handsome woman, whose singing 
 never failed to remind me of an excited peacock's 
 screeching, and whose extraordinary good looks pro- 
 bably justified her, in her own opinion, for the com- 
 mission of sins uncounted, dramatic as well as vocal; 
 and Fraeulein Lilli Lehmann, a striking-looking young 
 lady with a harsh soprano, a faulty ear, and considerable 
 command of execution alike lacking in spontaneity and 
 finish ; but, in spite of all these disadvantages, the only 
 " Coloratur-Saengerin " of any moment at the disposal 
 of the Hofoper management. To have heard these three
 
 THE LUCCA-MALLINGER FEUD. 59 
 
 ladies simultaneously, sustaining important parts in one 
 and the same opera let us say, Don Juan may be 
 described as a quite unparalleled musical experience, 
 not to be forgotten, nor ever recalled to mind without a 
 shudder. Upon them, however, the Berlin Opera-house 
 has been for several years past dependent for the execu- 
 tion of all the leading soprano parts in its extensive 
 repertoire, lyrical as well as dramatic. In fact, as far as 
 prime donne are concerned, it has never rallied from the 
 loss of Pauline Lucca, for which it had to thank the 
 injudicious partisanship of Mathilde Mallinger's irre- 
 pressible admirers. 
 
 For many months before that crowning calamity befell 
 the management, a war of opera-going factions had 
 raged in the German capital. Musical Berlin was split 
 into two camps, the denizens of which burned with 
 mutual animosity. Those upon whose banner the name 
 of Lucca was inscribed were the more numerous and 
 socially influential. On the other hand, the Mallin- 
 gerites were the more energetic, persevering, unscrupu- 
 lous. Long and bitter was the contention between the 
 followings of these rival sirens, whose tempers caught 
 fire at the angry passions of their respective votaries, and 
 more than once brought them into vehement collision on 
 the stage in the presence of the public, when they both 
 happened to be singing in the same opera. They could 
 hardly be decently civil to one another, even when the 
 " business " of their parts required them to be tenderly 
 affectionate. In vain did the distracted Intendant, Herr 
 von Huelsen, strive to conciliate either of them, and to 
 keep on tolerably good terms with both. They were
 
 60 THE LUCCA-MALLINGER FEUD. 
 
 not to be talked over by him, nor even by the kind old 
 monarch, his master, who over and over again tried to 
 persuade them to conclude an armistice, personal and 
 factional, in their own interests as well as those of art. 
 If glances could have slain, they would both have died a 
 hundred deaths whenever they had to act together. I 
 used to watch the two irate little ladies with a mixture 
 of amusement and alarm, when they were " on " at the 
 same time. The disdainful looks they flashed at one 
 another were, from a spectator's point of view, irresistibly 
 funny, and yet suggested the apprehension of something 
 terribly imminent, in the way of voies de fait, to any one 
 acquainted with the reckless impulsiveness that was the 
 only characteristic, perhaps, they possessed in common. 
 One could never know, at such moments, what might 
 happen ; nor would the habitues of the stalls and side- 
 boxes have been greatly surprised if Cherubino and 
 Susanna had exchanged bites instead of kisses, or if 
 Dames Ford and Page had broken off their plot against 
 the Fat Knight's peace to indulge in an animated scratch- 
 ing and slapping bout. This uncertainty imparted an 
 anxious interest to all the performances in which Mes- 
 dames Lucca and Mallinger were simultaneously engaged, 
 as far as the audiences were concerned ; but it made the 
 manager's life a burden to him, and brought about 
 an altogether intolerable state of affairs behind the 
 scenes. 
 
 Meanwhile, "in front" and outside the theatre, the 
 " Pauline" and "Hathilde" factions chronically vilified 
 and not infrequently belaboured one another with infinite 
 spirit and persistency. The worshippers of Elsa (one
 
 THE LUCCA-MALLIXGER FEUD. 61 
 
 of Frau Mallinger's happiest impersonations) made it 
 their business to wait, hundreds strong, by the stage- 
 door in the Opernplatz until Zerlina in which character 
 Pauline Lucca was simply inimitable issued therefrom, 
 in order to hoot and pelt her. On one occasion some 
 cowardly cad threw a stone at her carriage just as she 
 had entered it, breaking one of the windows and inflict- 
 ing a slight cut upon her right cheek. Again, when the 
 Mallinger made her appearance on the stage, she would 
 be saluted with a storm of hisses and whistlings by a 
 packed house of Lucca enthusiasts, every man Jack of 
 whom was so fired by the conviction that his idol was the 
 most fascinating, soul-subduing songstress and actress 
 in creation that he found himself unable to tolerate the 
 presence of any other prima donna upon the Hofoper 
 boards. Once or twice notably, one dreadful evening 
 when the Mallinger was playing Susanna to her detested 
 rival's " farfallone amoroso " the performance came to 
 a dead stop, and the curtain had to be lowered in the 
 middle of the action of the piece, owing to the absolutely 
 riotous behaviour of the antagonistic factions. Some 
 minutes later on, when the disturbance having been 
 partially quelled by the energetic interference of the 
 police the curtain again rose, discovering Cherubino 
 and Susanna " as before," Frau von Rhaden consider- 
 ably astonished the audience by advancing rapidly to 
 the footlights, withering her persecutors by such a look 
 of indignant contempt as no one present had ever there- 
 tofore seen gleaming from her bright blue eyes, and 
 scornfully exclaiming, "You are very badly bred 
 people ! I am not accustomed to be insulted ; pray
 
 62 THE LUCCA-MALLIXGER FEUD. 
 
 understand this, once for all ! " with which she turned 
 her back on the house and quitted the stage ; nor could 
 she be induced to return to it that evening. Indeed, 
 but for the entreaties of an exalted personage, from 
 whom she had received countless proofs of esteem and 
 affection, that hot rebuke would have been her final 
 farewell to the Berlin public. She had formed the re- 
 solve to abandon, at once and for ever, the scene of her 
 greatest triumphs; but that resolve was modified, in 
 deference to the highest influence in the land, personally 
 brought to bear upon her that very night before she left 
 the theatre. However, the insolent ingratitude displayed 
 towards her by the Berlinese, whom she had served so 
 long and so faithfully, rankled in her wounded spirit, 
 and eventually instigated her to break her contract with 
 the Hofoper management thereby forfeiting her pension- 
 rights and incurring a heavy pecuniary penalty and to 
 shake the dust of Berlin from the soles of her feet. As 
 soon as it became known that she was really gone, both 
 factions were stricken with consternation, and the organs 
 of the Mallingerites were profuse in penitential utter- 
 ances, whilst the Luccaites ceased from troubling, and 
 the calm of discomfiture reigned throughout the audi- 
 torium of the Opera-house. Frau von Schimmelpfennig 
 (Hathilde Mallinger, about that time, espoused an im- 
 pecunious Prussian Junker rejoicing in that somewhat 
 remarkable patronymic) remained mistress of the field 
 sole and absolute " leading lady " of the Hofoper com- 
 pany but speedily wrecked her voice by too assiduous 
 devotion to Wagner's declamatory parts, and was com- 
 pelled, in her turn, to leave the stage from which her
 
 ALBERT N1EMANN. 3 
 
 admirers had driven a far greater cantatrice and dramatic 
 artist than she. 
 
 Looking back with my mind's eye to the scanty array 
 of tenors affected to the service of the State and the 
 delectation of the public in the Berlin Hofoper within the 
 past twenty years, I see one massive and comely form tower- 
 ing above a feeble herd of pigmies. Ever since I have 
 known that establishment, Albert Niemann has reigned 
 supreme upon its boards over vocalists of his own cate- 
 gory, of course. Once, I have been assured by hundreds 
 of more or less trustworthy persons, he possessed a mag- 
 nificent voice ; an organ of inimitable beauty and power ; 
 but not in my time. Ere I first heard him sing, he had 
 sacrificed that priceless gift of Nature to Wagner and 
 conviviality. I only know him, in his public capacity, 
 as the finest tragic and romantic actor living of those 
 connected with the lyric drama, as a man of extraordi- 
 nary, splendidjt?7^5^w<? and noble bearing, and as an excep- 
 tionally accomplished musician. In private life I have found 
 him an eager and skilful sportsman (like another famous 
 tenore robusto, Ernest Nicolini, he is enthusiastically 
 addicted to all kinds of fishing), a well read and highly 
 entertaining causeur, and the most jovial of boon com- 
 panions at table. But of his voice's glory, as it must 
 have been when it raised him, an unknown young stroll- 
 ing actor, with surprising suddenness to the uncontested 
 leadership of Germany's "heroic" tenors, I know 
 nothing. My first experience of his vocalisation was 
 acquired during his performance of the title-r61e in Tann- 
 liaeuser, towards the close of the 1866 autumn. It was 
 a painfully disappointing one. His voice, even then, was
 
 64 ALBERT NIEMANN. 
 
 nothing more than a splendid ruin. He had torn it to tat- 
 ters by persistent shoutings at the top of its upper register, 
 and undermined it by excessive worship at the shrines of 
 Bacchus and the Paphian goddess. Although his intona- 
 tion was generally correct, its rare departures from 
 central truthfulness being exclusively ascribable to fatigue 
 never to any shortcoming in his sense of tunefulness, 
 which has always been exquisitely keen his " produc- 
 tion " was characterised by a huskiness and scratchiness 
 infinitely distressing to listen to. In these respects it 
 has suffered but little change, either for the better or 
 the worse, since the occasion referred to. When he made 
 his London debut three years ago at Her Majesty's 
 Theatre in the declamatory part of Siegmund ( WaUcuere] 
 his delivery was not appreciably hoarser or harsher than 
 it had been sixteen years previously. Untravelled 
 metropolitan dilettanti, who had heard and read of Albert 
 Niemann as the first tenor singer of the Fatherland, 
 could hardly believe their ears whilst listening to his 
 husky declamation, with all the cracks, flaws, and rough- 
 ness to which his Berlin admirers have for so many 
 years past been accustomed that they have long ceased 
 to regard them as defects, and not infrequently speak of 
 them in respectful rather than critical terms as "JSTie- 
 mann's individual peculiarities of production." But the 
 musical and dramatic judges of this city were unanimous 
 in their recognition of his surpassing abilities as an in- 
 terpreter of the Wagnerian ideal, in which speciality, 
 despite his vocal shortcomings, he still knows but one 
 rival throughout the length and breadth of Germany 
 to wit, Hermann "Winkelmann. Although he is well
 
 ALBERT NIEMANX. 65 
 
 advanced in his fifty-sixth year the splendour of his 
 physique and the youthfulness of some of his attributes 
 for instance, the rich bright golden hue of his flowing 
 hair and luxuriant beard, the luminous limpidity of his 
 light blue eyes, the elasticity of his gait, and the up- 
 rightness of his lithe yet stalwart figure are altogether 
 unimpaired. He and the German Crown Prince, to my 
 mind, are absolute types of comely and vigorous Germau 
 manhood. Both these magnificent men have the true 
 heroic look and bearing. By a quaint coincidence, they 
 are identical in age, stature, and complexion. 
 
 Albert Niemann was born at Magdeburg in January, 
 1831. Like his brother-tenor and fellow-fisherman, 
 Nicolini, he is the son of an innkeeper, and was an 
 unmanageable boy, gifted with great physical strength 
 and exuberant natural spirits, recalcitrant at his studies, 
 and devoted to athletic sports. When he was seventeen 
 his father bound him to an engine-maker, although by 
 that time he had already made up his mind that his 
 vocation was that of the sock and buskin. A few months 
 later he suddenly vanished from his workshop, and pre- 
 sently turned up under a pseudonym at Dessau, as a 
 11 super," soon to be promoted to small speaking parts, 
 and subsequently to a leading post in the chorus of the 
 Hoftheater in that artistic little provincial capital. His 
 first serious instruction in the science of music and in 
 the art of vocalisation was imparted to him by the Ducal 
 Hof kapellmeister, Fritz Schneider, who, having "spotted" 
 his remarkable musical aptitude, taught him " the rudi- 
 ments," free, gratis, and for nothing, as the saying goes. 
 For a few years he led a jovial, wandering life, readily 
 
 VOL. i. F
 
 66 ALBERT NIEMANN. 
 
 obtaining short engagements (he would not accept long 
 ones) at the minor opera houses of North Germany, at 
 one of which it happened, when he was about four or 
 five and twenty, that Yon Huelsen, the General-Inten- 
 dant of the Royal Theatres in Prussia, heard him sing, 
 and shortly afterwards summoned him to Berlin, where 
 the means of further instruction and improvement were 
 generously placed at his disposal. The late King of 
 Hanover subsequently sent him to Paris to study under 
 the great Duprez, and on his return to Germany engaged 
 him at the Hanover Court Theatre, When the Guelphic 
 realm was annexed to Prussia in 1866, Niemann be- 
 came a permanent member of the Royal Operatic Com- 
 pany at Berlin, of which he has ever since remained the 
 one " fixed star " of the first magnitude that, in the 
 opinion of his worshippers, age cannot dim, nor custom 
 stale. He has had two beautiful and talented wives, the 
 actresses Seebach and Raab, from one of whom he was 
 divorced after (it is whispered) having projected her into 
 space through a first-floor window in a moment of tem- 
 per brought on by the breaking of a favourite Japanese 
 vase. Musicians, like poets, are a genus irritabile ; and 
 Berlin regarded this feat as an amiable eccentricity on 
 the part of its handsome favourite. 
 
 Having devoted a considerable portion of this chapter 
 to an exposition of the executive shortcomings and 
 blemishes that have characterised that important musical 
 institution, the Royal Opera-house at Berlin, ever since 
 it became intimately known to me some twenty years 
 ago I think it but fair to point out some of its more 
 salient merits and excellences before essaying to record
 
 THE BERLIN HOFOPER. 67 
 
 other souvenirs connected with music in the Prussian 
 capital. In many respects the Berliner Hofoper renders 
 invaluable services to art and its votaries on the one 
 hand, and to the German public on the other. Its 
 management is inspired and guided by two fine, whole- 
 some principles, which govern its routine work and 
 animate its enterprises absolute catholicity in art and 
 generous encouragement to native talent, or, to put the 
 case in more familiar imagery, Free Trade to composers 
 and Protection to executants. Unlike certain operatic 
 imprese in Paris and other great French cities, it uncom- 
 promisingly recognises the great fact that musical com- 
 positions are of no nationality, and acts upon that eternal 
 truth with unimpeachable consistency. Its patriotism, 
 which is vigorous, but not bigoted, asserts itself in the 
 employment of German artists, officials, and handicrafts- 
 men throughout all its departments, and in the use of 
 the German language for all its vocal performances. 
 Further than this, its spirit of nationalism never prompts 
 it to exercise monopoly. Within my remembrance the 
 Hofoper has produced a large number of works by 
 French composers, for instance, with no less care and 
 outlay than it has bestowed upon those of German 
 origin. Bizet's Carmen, and Delibes' Le Roi Va dit were 
 brought out upon its boards, magnificently mounted and 
 with its best cast, at a time when no Parisian manager 
 would have dared, for his life, to propose the production 
 of Wagner's Lohengrin , or Goetz's Der Widerspenstigen 
 Zaehmung. Angrily excited as was German popular 
 feeling against France and Frenchmen during the terri- 
 ble struggle of 1870-71, the chefs-d'ceuvres of Gounod,
 
 68 THE BERLIN HOFOPER. 
 
 Auber, Halevy and Mehul were not even temporarily 
 withdrawn from the repertoire of the Royal house, but 
 appeared on the bills in their due turn (according to 
 certain prescribed customs of the establishment) and 
 drew, so the General-Intendant subsequently informed 
 me, audiences quite as numerous and sympathetic as 
 those which attended performances of Die Zauberfloete or 
 Der Freischuetz. In no European opera house above 
 all, not in that so long and conservatively directed by 
 M. Halanzier have Eubinstein's operas been so splen- 
 didly put upon the stage, so favourably received and so 
 frequently given. I have even heard Michael Balfe's 
 Bohemian Girl, under the German title of Die Zigeunerin, 
 far better played and sung in the house on the Opern- 
 platz than it had thitherto (within my personal experi- 
 ence) been rendered in London in a word, as carefully 
 and intelligently as it has in later years been performed 
 by the Carl Rosa Opera Company. 
 
 Another admirable feature of the Berlin Opera-house 
 is its paternal solicitude for the material welfare and 
 mental tranquillity of the members of its staff, no matter 
 of what artistic rank or bureaucratic position. To every 
 person enlisting under its banner it offers a sure sub- 
 sistence for life, only forfeitable in case of misconduct or 
 voluntary retirement from the establishment on the part 
 of the individual engaged. This system of superannua- 
 tion pensions, although by no means organized upon an 
 extravagant scale, is found to work advantageously to 
 the institution. The prospect of securing a sufficiency, 
 if not a superfluity of means in old age, is a great attrac- 
 tion to respectable people to accept engagements at
 
 TITLES AND PENSIONS. 69 
 
 moderate salaries, and fulfil them conscientiously. It 
 proves also a stimulus to general good conduct, and the 
 most efficient of checks to the heat of temper and whim- 
 sicality that characterise so many musical and dramatic 
 artists. It enables the obscure carpenter or humble 
 dresser, as well as the renowned leading tenor or chef 
 d'orchestre, to consider himself as inamovibh as a judge 
 or a Government clerk, and to contemplate his future, 
 up to the very day of his death, with an equanimity 
 which is the offspring of a comfortable certitude that, 
 come what may, he is provided for in this world. It 
 facilitates discipline always a main object in every 
 Prussian institution, Eoyal or private and imparts a 
 hierarchical cachet to the relations between all classes of 
 the Hofoper's personnel, obviating a great deal of the 
 vehemence from above, and impertinence from below 
 that make themselves so unpleasantly manifest behind 
 the scenes of most German theatres. Many of the 
 assured positions connected with the Hofoper invest 
 their occupants with honorific titles, to which all Ger- 
 mans, and especially the Prussian variety of that race, 
 attach enormous value and importance ; and the effect 
 of this ingenious arrangement, based upon a solid foun- 
 dation of human vanity, and costing absolutely nothing 
 to its constructors, is to foster a high standard of beha- 
 viour in the persons glorified by it. The be-titled voca- 
 list, instrumentalist, box-keeper or check-taker, considers 
 it imperatively incumbent upon him to live up to his 
 predicate ; and the super, scene-shifter, or machinist, 
 looking far forward down the long vista of years, per- 
 ceives it to be faintly possible that he, too, may attain a
 
 70 FOSSILS OF THE BALLET. 
 
 post ready fitted with a prefix, and regulates his conduct 
 accordingly. As a matter of fact, all these privileges, 
 real or imaginary, extended to members of the Opera- 
 house staff in virtue of the Sovereign's proprietorship of 
 that theatre, contribute in no inconsiderable degree to 
 the aggregate of efficiency with which the enterprise is 
 carried on. Everybody on the establishment has a more 
 than weekly, monthly, or even yearly inducement to do 
 his or her duty to the very best of his or her ability, and 
 to bear him or herself irreproachably in private, as well 
 as public life. The concrete result of this state of things, 
 is that order and discipline, punctuality and decorum 
 prevail throughout every department of the Hofoper. 
 Considered as a piece of executive and administrative 
 mechanism, it functions with the unswerving exactitude 
 of a first-rate chronometer. 
 
 Perhaps the permanency of appointments to the 
 Opera-house staff does exercise a somewhat too fossilis- 
 ing influence ; for instance, upon the Terpsichorean de- 
 partment, and that of the singing supers. Sylphs of 
 sixty and grandmotherly fames are by no means un- 
 common apparitions in the course of the Hofoper ballets ; 
 the pension system also has a tendency to keep aged 
 demons and infirm sprites before the public until the 
 time of life at which they become qualified for the 
 advantages of retirement. If I remember aright, forty 
 years' continuously active service entitles the ballerina 
 to cease from capering, and the figurante to be at rest. 
 Long before these artists have, however, completed the 
 term in question, they have ceased to contribute, to an 
 appreciable extent, to keeping up any audience's illusions
 
 VENERABLE CHORTSTS. 71 
 
 with respect to the uniform juvenility of the corps de 
 ballet. Paint and padding work wonders, as every one 
 knows ; but when, as I have more than once observed 
 at German Court Theatres three generations of a 
 dancing family figure simultaneously upon the stage, 
 no spectator unendowed with extraordinary force and 
 elasticity of imagination can be reasonably expected to 
 accept the managerial implication that all the fays or 
 almees displayed behind the footlights have at least one 
 characteristic in common that of youth. On the other 
 hand it cannot be denied that veteran figurantes are 
 invaluable for the example of precision they set to their 
 daughters and grand-daughters in executing the more 
 complicated manoouvres of a ballet ensemble. They are 
 the ballet-master's most trustworthy aides-de-camp, and 
 take by far the greater part of his troubles off his hands, 
 not only by their ready understanding and exact fulfil- 
 ment of his directions, but by keeping their young 
 colleagues in order. Still, from the general public's 
 point of view, their venerable aspect is decidedly out of 
 keeping with the characters assigned to them, and a 
 lavish display of sexagenarian charms is the reverse of 
 exhilarating to the spirits. For obvious reasons the 
 ravages of extreme old age are less noticeable in the 
 personnel of the chorus than in that of the ballet ; but 
 any habitue of the Berlin Opera- house. can hardly have 
 failed to notice that its peasants, noblemen and bandits, 
 when verging upon senility, as is their wont by 
 reason of the pension-system, experience no inconsider- 
 able difficulty in keeping their voices up to concert- 
 pitch. Patriarchs cannot be justly reproached with
 
 72 WARDROBE AND ARMOURY. 
 
 singing out of tune ; but the management of a musical 
 institution has no right to persistently harass the ears of 
 its supporters with defective intonation. In weighing 
 the advantages to be derived by the audience from a 
 very old chorus-singer's ripe experience against the 
 disadvantages resulting from the decay of his physical 
 powers, the former will be found to kick the beam as far 
 as public opinion is concerned even in Berlin, where 
 regular opera -goers are surprisingly tolerant of short- 
 comings that would be vehemently resented by London 
 audiences. 
 
 With respect to its administration, stage -management, 
 and orchestral performances, the Hofoper of Berlin is on 
 a par with that of Vienna. I can offer it no more com- 
 prehensive tribute of praise and admiration. Its "plant," 
 in the way of costumes, appointments, and stage acces- 
 sories, is the most complete and valuable in existence, 
 and constitutes one of the most interesting sights to be 
 seen in the German capital, comprising, as it does, the 
 wherewithal to equip an entire company for over a 
 hundred operas and between thirty and forty ballets at, 
 so to speak, a moment's notice. The arrangement of 
 these accumulated treasures is simply admirable a 
 triumph of intelligent and painstaking organization. 
 That of the armoury, in particular, may fearlessly chal- 
 lenge competition by one and all of the celebrated 
 national collections of weapons and military trappings to 
 which Murray and Baedeker devote pages upon pages of 
 elaborate description. From the Grecian hero's spear 
 down to the Prussian Guardsman's Mauser rifle, every 
 variety of arm is displayed in this magnificent museum,
 
 DRAWBACKS OF THE HOFOPER. 73 
 
 the special pride and glory of His Excellency the Inten- 
 dant-General. Need I say that its contents are kept 
 spotless and burnished to a maximum of brilliancy, or 
 that the post of chief-armourer to the Eoyal Opera-house 
 is one of the most important, responsible, and dignified 
 in that establishment? The armoury, as well as the 
 garderobe and scene-repository, is located in the enormous 
 building occupying the greater portion of the vast 
 Opern-platz and containing a theatre as large as Drury 
 Lane, a concert-room but little smaller than St. James's 
 Hall, and all the departmental offices except that of the 
 chief manager, Herr Botho von Huelsen, whose bureaux 
 are situated in the Behren Strasse, hard by the seat of 
 his immediate dominion, and facing the back of the 
 Emperor's unpretending palace, Unter den Linden. The 
 Opera-house, in fact, is self-sufficing, a miniature impe- 
 rium in imperio, submitted to the rule of a knowledgable 
 and benevolent despotism, and comfortably accommodat* 
 ing its administration, bureaucracy, army, Court, &c. 
 as well as a magnificent library and collection of manu- 
 scripts under its own roof. The institution domiciled 
 within its walls very nearly realises the Prussian ideal, 
 i.e., a minimum of expenditure and maximum of effi- 
 ciency. I say very nearly, because the concrete result of 
 all the intelligence, conscientiousness, and economy 
 brought to bear upon the Hofoper by its management, 
 is too frequently a mediocre now and then even an 
 absolutely bad rendering of a good opera. That this 
 should be so appears at first sight scarcely less surpris- 
 ing than regrettable. The manager, and everybody 
 administratively connected with him, do their best, but
 
 74 CHEAP PRICES. 
 
 are hampered in their efforts by circumstances over 
 which they have no control. The orchestra, too, does 
 its best, which is practically unsurpassed by the achieve- 
 ments of any other Continental orchestra. Finally, the 
 vocal artists do their best which, unfortunately, is not 
 the best. "And why not?" will not unnaturally be 
 asked. 
 
 The answer is that the German public will have its 
 amusements cheap. However full the salle of the 
 Hofoper may be and it is crowded at least five times 
 a week the prices paid for its places do not, and cannot 
 defray the expenses of an establishment carried on upon 
 so large a scale and offering so great a variety of enter- 
 tainments to its frequenters. Above all, they do not 
 permit the management, even with the assistance of the 
 Eoyal subsidy, to make it worth the while of first-class 
 vocalists to accept engagements of any but a " starring " 
 or transitory nature at the Berlin Opera-house. It is 
 the six shilling stalls, three shilling pit, and shilling 
 gallery, in a house holding barely two thousand people 
 when crammed to the ceiling, that compel the authorities 
 to fall back upon inexpensive songsters, who are for the 
 most part accomplished musicians, but who also, as a 
 rule, sing out of tune. 
 
 Looking back to a course of assiduous opera-going 
 and concert-attending in Berlin, extending over eight 
 consecutive years, were I called upon to record, with 
 meat -lozenge condensity, the characteristics of Berlinese 
 musical entertainments which have left the strongest 
 impressions upon my memory, I should do so thus : 
 1. Instrumental excellence ; 2. Vocal mediocrity ;
 
 HOFOPER CHARACTERISTICS. 75 
 
 3. Overpowering heat ; 4. Triumphs of anti-ventilation, 
 architectural and administrative; 5. The conceivable 
 maximum of public susceptibility to draughts. Terse- 
 ness, I know, is lacking to my definitions of the last two 
 impressions ; I confess my inability to propound them in 
 fewer words. The temperature prevailing within the 
 Hofoper and chief concert-rooms of the German capital 
 during performances was little short of maddeningly 
 high in my time the sort of heat in which a person of 
 lively imagination might be justified in expecting thermo- 
 meters to explode like well-warmed soda-water bottles, 
 scattering quicksilver spray around them in every direc- 
 tion. As for the respiratory arrangements at that time 
 obtaining in buildings dedicated to the service of musical 
 art, they may be not unfairly described as constituting 
 the practical negation of every ventilation theory that 
 has ever yet sprung from the human brain. Whether 
 the sensitiveness of the Berlin musical public to draughts 
 generated this state of things or was its offspring I shall 
 probably never know. This problem, like that of the 
 Greek sophist concerning the precedence of hen or egg, 
 is " one of those things no fellow can understand;" and 
 as its solution would probably not augment the aggre- 
 gate felicity of my readers to any considerable extent, I 
 will crave their permission to forbear its further con- 
 sideration in this place. For the fact that, during my 
 sojourn in Berlin, any irruption of fresh air into the 
 auditorium of the Hofoper or Sing-Akademie during a 
 performance was invariably regarded by the audience 
 for the time being with feelings of undisguised conster- 
 nation and resentment, I am ready to pledge my solemn
 
 76 A HARASSED MANAGER. 
 
 assurance. Many and frequently ludicrous have been 
 my personal experiences of this peculiarity in the Berlin 
 musical public. The following true story may serve to 
 illustrate that public's attitude towards ventilation, as 
 it has been steadfastly maintained (so, at least, say the 
 Hofoper traditions) from the days of Frederick the Great 
 down to the period of which I am writing. Moreover, 
 I am assured that it is unchanged at the present 
 moment. 
 
 Some eight or nine years ago, a series of unusually 
 bitter onslaughts, succeeding one another at brief in- 
 tervals throughout a whole winter season, was made 
 upon the " Intendantur " an impersonality comprising 
 in itself the management and administration of a theatre 
 of the Hofoper by the political, artistic, and comic press 
 of Berlin. Herr von Huelsen was arraigned upon all 
 sorts of charges innumerable sins, of omission as well 
 as of commission, were ascribed to him he was solemnly 
 caricatured and grimly ridiculed, in verse and prose, 
 with that cold and cutting ill-nature which is the typical 
 Prussian humourist's notion of fun. The Eoyal Court 
 Theatre Director was reproached for engaging inferior 
 artists, for reviving obscure works that nobody wanted 
 to hear, for failing to produce novelties of indisputable 
 merit, for perpetrating anachronisms in the setting and 
 mounting of pieces ; and, finally, for stewing the public 
 quite insufferably in the theatre submitted to his rule, 
 " all for want," as the National Zeitung was wont to 
 reiterate about once a week, " of a little, simple, elemen- 
 tary ventilation, such as the merest tyro in architecture 
 or ordinary mechanics could apply to the Hofoper within
 
 A DESPERATE RESOLVE. 77 
 
 a few hours, and at a nominal expense." Upon this lack 
 of ventilation which, by the way, was not at all peculiar 
 to the Hofoper Berlin journalism, heavy and light alike, 
 was down with remarkable force and pertinacity. The 
 auditorium of the Opera-house was portrayed as a 
 Roman calidarium ; its stalls occupied by nude per- 
 spirers, and its stage by emaciated ballet-dancers, worn 
 to mere shadows by a tropical temperature. Counterfeit 
 presentments of Herr von Huelsen in the characters of 
 a stoker, of a gardener in the act of "forcing" rows of 
 flowers arranged to represent a theatrical audience, of a 
 "hermetical sealer" (this was a very subtle specimen 
 of pictorial satire, calling for elaborate explanation in 
 the way of foot-notes), and of several other more or less 
 ludicrous personages, abounded in the weekly "Witz- 
 blaetter," causing that gentleman to writhe and his 
 friends to beam with smiles. 
 
 The much-exercised Intendant- General, having fumed 
 and fretted under journalistic castigation for several suc- 
 cessive weeks, made up his mind quite suddenly one 
 morning that, with the venerable Emperor's permission, 
 of obtaining which to any innovation involving real 
 increment of public comfort in a Royal establishment he 
 felt tolerably certain, he would at least quash for ever 
 one of the special Press indictments brought against him, 
 to wit, that he was an inveterate stewer and suffocator 
 of his fellow-subjects within the precincts of the huge 
 theatre on the Opern-platz. " Stifling no longer makes 
 them happy, it seems ; they would rather have their 
 pores shut than open ; they have developed a sudden 
 objection to carburetted hydrogen, and exhibit strange
 
 78 EXPERIMENTAL VENTILATION. 
 
 yearnings for oxygen and ozone." Thoughts like these, 
 I have reason to believe, fluttered through the great 
 man's brain as he sate brooding in his " three-pair 
 front " Behren Strasse 2, on the forenoon in question, and 
 prompted him to sally forth, cross the street to the pri- 
 vate entrance of the Palace, and ask for a special audience 
 of the Hofoper's exalted proprietor. What passed during 
 his interview with that truly great and good man I am 
 precluded from disclosing, partly by the dictates of dis- 
 cretion, and partly by the fact that I know nothing 
 whatever about it. The concrete result, however, of the 
 Kaiser's privy confabulation with his Intendant- General 
 was that the latter incontinently sent for one of the 
 Court Architects, and that a few days later mysterious 
 scaffoldings began to crop up here and there on the 
 exterior surface of the Opera-house, much to the per- 
 plexity of the Berlin "knowing ones," who well 
 assured that the Eoyal Theatre was in perfect repair, 
 within and without cudgelled their brains in vain to 
 divine what could possibly be the object of the opera- 
 tions in course of execution upon the outer shell of that 
 building. As far as the local press and the general 
 public were concerned, the secret was well kept ; but a 
 friendly chamberlain divulged it to me one evening at an 
 august tea-party, in a burst of confidence which, I am 
 happy to believe, was not altogether undeserved, inas- 
 much as I have kept his counsel upon the matter 
 rigorously from that day to this. 
 
 Herr von Huelsen had obtained the royal permission 
 to ventilate the auditorium of the Hofoper, and to ex- 
 pend the important sum of six thousand thalers (900)
 
 EXPERIMENTAL VEXTILA.TIOX. 79 
 
 in so doing, the money to be supplied from the Kcenig- 
 liche Schatulle, or Privy Purse. Neither His Majesty 
 nor the Intendant-General, as I was informed, looked 
 forward over-hopefully to the effect of scientific ventila- 
 tion upon the habitues of the Opera-house; but the 
 latter, for personal reasons, was eager, and the former 
 benevolently willing, to try the experiment, which 
 accordingly was carried out in the ad libitum but 
 thorough-going manner for which skilled German artisans 
 are so justly renowned. "Weeks elapsed, and by degrees 
 the mysterious scaffoldings disappeared one after another, 
 until at last the Hofoper's roof and sides reassumed 
 their normal aspect. Happening to call at the Inten- 
 dantur one afternoon about that time, I took occasion to 
 inquire how the new ventilating apparatus was getting 
 on. " Attend the performance of Lohengrin (Hohe- 
 Preisc) next Tuesday evening, geschaetzter Herr Eedak- 
 teur" was the reply, "and you will witness the debut of 
 our never-sufficiently-to-be-admired hygienic innovation. 
 The public as yet knows nothing of what we have done 
 in the interest of its health and comfort. We shall take 
 the audience quite by surprise; pleasantly, we hope. 
 Of one thing at least we are sure by anticipation 
 namely, that we shall leave no doubt upon the mind of 
 any one present as to the practical efficacy of the arrange- 
 ments now completed for the sufficient airing of His 
 Majesty's Opera-house. Enough for to-day, worthiest 
 sir ! I have no more to communicate." This hint 
 more, perhaps, in the manner of its delivery than in its 
 mere matter seemed to me fraught with promise of 
 entertainment. On the following Tuesday, accordingly,
 
 80 EXPERIMENTAL VENTILATION. 
 
 I was in my accustomed stall at seven precisely, just in 
 time to see my friend Carl Eckert take his place at the 
 conductor's desk and look over his acolytes with a cir- 
 cular and severely-inquiring glance before executing the 
 smart double rap that never failed to concentrate their 
 attention upon the tip of his ebony baton. 
 
 It was, I well remember, an exceptionally cold, raw 
 evening of that early so-called " spring " which, in 
 Berlin as well as in London, is almost invariably so 
 much more killing a time of year than the deepest depth 
 of winter proper. As was, and I believe still is, always 
 the case on a Wagner night, the house was crowded 
 throughout ; fashion in the side-boxes and dress-circle ; 
 science and dilettantism in the stalls, abundantly pro- 
 vided with spectacles and full scores ; various grades of 
 the musical bourgeoisie in the three tiers of upper boxes, 
 and a host of appreciative proletarians in the cheap and 
 capacious gallery. By the time the overture had come 
 to an end every place available to the general public 
 was occupied, and the temperature had risen to its cus- 
 tomary tropical degree of elevation. " If this," I found 
 myself thinking, " be the result of the new ventilation 
 system, the Emperor, save for the honour of the thing, 
 might just as well have saved his money." Had the 
 audience been exclusively composed of orchids they 
 could not have been more congenially accommodated in 
 the way of atmosphere. Henry the Fowler, however, 
 had scarcely taken his seat under the shade of the Jus- 
 tice Tree, the public having meanwhile settled down to 
 enjoy and perspire in compliance with hallowed Hofoper 
 traditions, when suddenly piercing jets of iced air in-
 
 EXPERIMENTAL VENTILATION. 81 
 
 vaded tlie house from every direction simultaneously. 
 The effect in the stalls was that of a lively breeze ; per- 
 sons located higher up in the house described their 
 experiences to me subsequently as varying between a 
 moderate gale and a circular wind-storm of no incon- 
 siderable violence. Looking round me at my immediate 
 neighbours, I observed that amazement sate upon their 
 brows. Obviously they failed to realise by what uncanny 
 enchantment their favourite musical sudarium had thus 
 malignantly been transformed into a Cavern of the Winds. 
 Presently surprise was succeeded by indignation. Scores 
 of men rose in their places, shouting " Es zieht ! es zieht ! " 
 which may be freely rendered in our vernacular by 
 "What a draught !" turning up their coat-collars and 
 putting on their hats. Still the ventilating apparatus 
 continued to function with undiminished efficiency, the 
 audience waxing angrier and angrier every second, and 
 utterly heedless of the performance steadily going on 
 upon the stage, until symptoms of a theatrical riot began 
 to make themselves unmistakably manifest, and the 
 more nervously-disposed of the spectators quitted the 
 house in considerable numbers. From his snug stage- 
 box on the ground tier the Intendant-General had calmly 
 watched the rising of the tempest from the time at 
 which, in obedience to his command, ventilation had 
 been let loose upon the Emperor's lieges in all its horrors. 
 When he deemed that the " psychological moment" had 
 arrived, he leaned back in his velvet fauteuil and spoke 
 some word of power to a subordinate. In less than a 
 minute the breezes subsided as suddenly as they had 
 arisen. The fiat of .^Eolus had gone forth ; Notus, 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 EXPERIMENTAL VENTILATION. 
 
 Eurus, Auster, and Zephyr ceased to inflate their cheeks, 
 and a dead calm settled down upon the interior of the 
 Opera-house, so lately resembling the " vexed Ber- 
 moothes " in more than one essential respect. " It is all 
 over! " ejaculated somebody in authority; " it will not 
 occur again ; the highly-honoured public is exhorted to 
 resume its seats ! " This the highly-honoured public did 
 with laudable promptitude ; and a quarter of an hour 
 later things were again as though ventilation were but 
 a vague theory a scientific dream instead of a terrible 
 reality, teeming, like Pandora's box, with all the ills 
 that flesh is heir to. 
 
 Thus swiftly and conclusively (as far as I know) ter- 
 minated the enterprising Intendant- General's experi- 
 ments in the direction of keeping the Berlin Opera- 
 house cool during performances, and supplying its fre- 
 quenters with atmospheric refreshment. The costly 
 apparatus with which he had endeavoured to effect that 
 purpose may still exist, just as it was set up at the 
 period above referred to, and even be available for use at 
 a moment's notice; but I do not believe that the 
 experience of which I was an amused witness during 
 the first act of Lohengrin, " when this old hat was new," 
 has ever been renewed ; nor is it likely unless the 
 Hygienic Exhibition should have suggested an entirely 
 " new departure " in this particular respect to the sons 
 of the Fatherland that theatrical ventilation will very 
 readily become a German national institution. 
 
 As my friend the General- Intendant of the Prussian 
 Eoyal Court Theatres is really a remarkable personage, 
 a few words about him may not come amiss in this place.
 
 THE INTENDANT-GEKERAL. 83 
 
 Botho von Huelsen, the scion of a warlike race and 
 urritre-petit-fils of one of Frederick the Great's favourite 
 generals, entered the military profession at the age of 
 seventeen as a Koyal Cadet, obtaining a commission in 
 the Guards a year later, and thus starting fairly on the 
 high road to Prussian honours, distinctions, and " good 
 things" in general. There is no Court post or State 
 office of a non-political character to which a Prussian 
 Guardsman may not aspire ; nor is there anything sur- 
 prising in the fact that a lieutenant in that corps d' } elite 
 should be selected by his Sovereign to occupy a position 
 giving him equal rank with the Grand Officers of the 
 Household, such as the Lord High Chamberlain, Master 
 of the Horse, Grand Seneschal, Master of the Cere- 
 monies, Grand Huntsman, Sewer and Carver, although 
 these officials, with one or two exceptions, are noblemen 
 of princely rank, occupying the posts in question by here- 
 ditary right. In a word, the Prussian path to social 
 greatness runs straight through any one of the mess- 
 rooms of the Guard Army Corps, and has led Botho von 
 Huelsen, a penniless younker, to the highest summits of 
 prestige, influence, and glory attainable by a patrician- 
 courtier in the Hohenzollern realm. 
 
 Young officers in the Prussian army are, as a rule, 
 apt to be smartly snubbed, and even sternly reprimanded, 
 if they display a chronic tendency to hang about the 
 cou lisscs of theatres and cultivate the "demoralising" 
 society of actors and actresses. Herr von Huelsen's 
 theatrical proclivities, however, although manifested 
 when he was still a member of the Cadet Corps and 
 consequently subjected to rigorous supervision as far as 
 
 G 2
 
 8-4 THE INTENDANT-GENERAL. 
 
 his private recreations and associates were concerned 
 not only failed to get him into scrapes, but proved the 
 foundation of his fortunes ; thus aptly exemplifying the 
 saying that " One man may steal a horse, whilst another 
 may not look over a gate." Soon after he joined the 
 Alexander regiment he earned a more than garrison 
 reputation as an amateur actor by playing "leading 
 lovers " in drawing-room comedy, and as a manager by 
 directing musical-dramatic entertainments given by the 
 officers of that renowned corps every winter in their 
 barracks. Before he came of age he had written several 
 farces and burlesques, three of which were performed, 
 by Eoyal permission, in the concert-room of the Berlin 
 Schauspielhaus before audiences consisting of the Court 
 and fine fleur of Prussian Society. These performances 
 brought Von Huelsen directly under the notice of Fre- 
 derick William IV., an enthusiastic patron of the drama, 
 who was so strongly impressed by the dramatic and 
 managerial abilities of the youthful Guardsman that, 
 during the representation of Mohr, Rekrut, und Jesuit 
 one of Von Huelsen' s best efforts he remarked to his 
 chief aide-de-camp : " There is the making of an excel- 
 lent theatrical manager in that young fellow." These 
 words, spoken in 1841, bore fruit ten years later. Mean- 
 while, Von Huelsen stuck to the army, although he 
 obtained no promotion whatsoever; indeed, when he 
 eventually retired after seventeen years' actual service 
 he only held the rank of lieutenant. But his social 
 talents were the means of exempting him to a great 
 extent from the dull routine of regimental duty, inas- 
 much as they led to his selection by officers in high
 
 THE IXTENDANT-GENERAL. 85 
 
 command to fill the comparative sinecure of ' ' personal 
 aide-de-camp." In this capacity he served the 1848 
 campaign in Denmark on the staff of Count Waldersee, 
 and assisted in suppressing the Revolution in Saxony a 
 year later, conducting himself with conspicuous gal- 
 lantry. 
 
 In 1851, three years after his marriage to Countess 
 Helene von Haeseler, a beautiful and accomplished 
 young heiress, Yon Huelsen achieved the topmost height 
 of his ambition. The then General- Intendant of the 
 Eoyal Theatres, Von Kuestner, having fallen out with a 
 member of the Royal Family respecting one of the lead- 
 ing figurantes at the Opera-house, offered his resignation 
 to the King, who accepted it without a moment's hesita- 
 tion, much to the surprise of Kuestner, who deemed 
 himself indispensable. Frederick William IV., how- 
 ever, had not forgotten Huelsen, and jumped, so to 
 speak, at the opportunity thus afforded him of planting 
 "the right man in the right place." Berlin could not 
 at first believe its ears when it learnt that Kuestner had 
 been pensioned ; its surprise knew no bounds when that 
 startling piece of intelligence was supplemented by the 
 announcement that a lieutenant of His Majesty's Guards 
 had been " commanded" to take up the succession of so 
 mighty a magnate as the " Koeniglicher Hof-Theater- 
 General-Intendant." Von Huelsen at once resigned his 
 commission in the army and entered upon his new func- 
 tions on June 1, 1851, having received a few days pre- 
 viously his appointment as Royal Court Chamberlain, 
 giving him access to the King's private apartments at 
 any hour, and many other valuable social privileges.
 
 86 THE INTENDANT-GENERAL. 
 
 His inauguratory address to the personnel of the Court 
 Theatres was as Prussian in spirit as the veriest military 
 martinet could have desired it to be. He harangued 
 the singers, actors, dancers, and supers in the right regi- 
 mental tone, as though they had been soldiers instead of 
 stage-players, exhorting them to observe a strict and 
 uniform discipline, and promising them absolute justice 
 at his hands. Under his regime the " Court Artists " 
 soon found that there was an end to the comfortable, 
 easy-going ways to which they had grown accustomed 
 during his predecessor's tenure of office. All sorts of 
 abuses that had hitherto been tolerated were swept away 
 with an iron hand ; the shortcomings and anachronisms 
 obtaining in the costume and property departments were 
 abolished; ruthless reforms were enforced in every 
 branch of the "Koyal Endowment," and military order, 
 regularity, cleanliness and punctuality reigned supreme 
 over an institution which, for two or three years before 
 Huelsen's appointment, had exhibited alarming symp- 
 toms of deterioration and incipient decay. 
 
 In all respects, except the engagement of really first- 
 class artists in which matter a Prussian Court Manager 
 is fettered by all manner of restraints unknown to im- 
 presarii of the purely commercial variety Herr von 
 Huelsen has made the Berlin Opera-house and Schau- 
 spielhaus absolute models of what such institutions 
 should be. Their repertoire is enormous, and every one 
 of its items is capable of being set, mounted, and played 
 at twelve hours' notice. The Hofoper ballets can confi- 
 dently challenge European competition, even that of 
 Vienna and Milan. The orchestra of the opera is of
 
 MANAGERIAL DISTINCTIONS. 87 
 
 great power and fine quality; as to choruses, singing 
 and acting supers, stage effects, &c., everything goes as 
 smoothly and accurately as though the whole machine 
 were moved by clockwork. As a stage-manager, Herr 
 von Huelsen has proved a thousand times that he can 
 hold his own with Chronegk of Meiningen, or even with 
 Henry Irving; which is saying a good deal. He has 
 been an indefatigable worker, and, according to his 
 lights, an apostle of Progress and Development a stead- 
 fast encourager of native talent, in authors as well as in 
 artists, and a good friend to "the profession," only 
 exacting from singers and actors, no matter how distin- 
 guished their position therein, entire obedience to the 
 rales and regulations prevailing in the Eoyal theatres 
 under his direction. His services have been on more 
 than one occasion munificently acknowledged by the 
 German Emperor, who bestowed upon him the predicate 
 of " Excellency " in 1874, accompanying that high 
 honour by the grand-cordon of the Crown-Order, created 
 him a Grand Chamberlain in 1882, and the following 
 year (on the occasion of Von Huelsen's Jubilee) nomi- 
 nated him Knight Grand Cross of the Eed Eagle, than 
 which there is only one more exalted decoration in 
 Prussia. The autographic letter in which this confer- 
 ment was notified to its recipient, concluded as follows : 
 "It is my hearty wish that by God's grace you may 
 long be enabled to fill your honourable office with 
 undiminished vigour and activity. Your grateful King ; 
 William." 
 
 It is probable that the London manager of a " Eoyal" 
 theatre, however distinguished his services to the musical
 
 88 MANAGERIAL DISTINCTIONS. 
 
 and dramatic arts, might live to an extremely advanced 
 age without being summoned to Windsor for investiture 
 with the Grand Cross of the Bath. That is a honour to 
 which even a veteran warrior like Colonel Mapleson, or 
 a fervent patriot like Mr. Augustus Harris, can hardly 
 venture to aspire with hopefulness, however highly they 
 may appraise their intrinsic claims to distinction at the 
 hands of their Sovereign. The decoration in question, 
 however, is the exact equivalent, cceteris paribus, of that 
 bestowed on the leading Berlin manager by the mightiest 
 of Continental monarchs ; and a striking illustration of 
 the social estimation in which music and the drama are 
 held abroad may be derived from a glance at the list of 
 Imperial and Royal Orders of Chivalry, of which Herr 
 von Huelsen has been made a member, in recognition of 
 his managerial merits, by fifteen European Crowned 
 Heads. He is a Knight Grand Cross of the Russian 
 Order of St. Stanislas, of the Saxon Family Order of 
 Ernestine, of the Hessian Order of Philip the Magna- 
 nimous, of the Wuertemberg Order of Frederick, of the 
 Italian Order " Crown of Italy," of the Baden Order of 
 the Zaehring Lion, of the Swedish Order of the Northern 
 Star, of the Oldenburg Family Order, of the Luxembourg 
 Order of the Oaken Crown, and of the Danish Danebrog 
 Order. He is also Knight Commander of the Hohen- 
 zollern Family Order, of the Russian " St. Anne " in 
 brilliants, of the Austrian " Leopold" and "Iron Crown" 
 (both carrying with them the title of Baron), of the 
 Saxon " Falcon," the Hessian " Lion," the Belgian 
 " Leopold " and the Anhalt " Albert the Bear." Such 
 are the dignities attainable in the Fatherland by a
 
 BOTHO VON HUEL8EN. 89 
 
 theatrical manager, than whom when arrayed in gala 
 uniform, his manly breast adorned with multi-coloured 
 ribands and cuirassed with sparkling crosses, plaques, 
 and crachats Solomon in all his glory was not a more 
 gorgeous being. Truly, his salary is only six hundred 
 a year ; but he could not be more heavily laden with 
 honours were he a three-fold millionaire. Besides, 
 there are pretty pickings, no doubt, connected with 
 the supreme direction of half-a-dozen subventioned 
 theatres, en tout Men et tout honneur. On the whole it 
 may fairly be assumed that any comparison instituted 
 between the position and circumstances of Herr von 
 Huelsen and that of the manager of any London Royal 
 Opera-house can hardly fail to result advantageously 
 to the Berlin Intendant. 
 
 [Since the above lines were written, Botho von Huelsen, " ein 
 treuer Diener seines Herrn," has joined the majority. He died 
 peacefully and painlessly at his Berlin residence on September 
 29th, 1886.]
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF PESTH. ROBERT VOLKMANN. A 
 
 FESTIVAL OF FOOLS. 
 
 IT was during my third visit to the stately and hospitable 
 capital of Hungary, that I became personally acquainted 
 with Eobert Yolkmann, whose fame as a composer had 
 at that time (1867) but just reached public cognizance in 
 Vienna, where, during the foregoing winter season, Hell- 
 mesberger had produced for the first time the gifted 
 Hungarian's Erstes Streieh-Quatuor in G minor (opus 14) 
 -a work that caused no small sensation amongst the 
 musical virtuosi and amateurs of the Kaiserstadt. At 
 the time I refer to he was no longer a young man, and 
 the story of his life had thitherto been one of bitter dis- 
 appointments and harassing privations. During early 
 manhood and middle age his countrymen had refused to 
 recognise his genius, which gave birth to compositions 
 they were incapable of understanding for the art of 
 music, until very lately, was but little cultivated in 
 Hungary, and the Magyars, as a rule, were stolidly in- 
 different to any strains save those of their national dance, 
 the czardas and his extreme poverty precluded him from 
 either publishing any of his works on his own account, 
 or paying executants to play them at concerts or private
 
 ROBERT VOLKMANN. 91 
 
 musical entertainments. A few years before the date of 
 my introduction to him, he had, however, succeeded in 
 persuading a publisher established in Pesth to print some 
 of his songs and concerted pieces (amongst them the 
 stringed quartet above referred to and two noble trios, 
 op. 3 and 5, the shining merits of which have of late 
 years obtained universal acknowledgment), upon terms of 
 remuneration that barely enabled Volkmann to keep 
 body and soul together by furnishing him with the mini- 
 mum amount of nourishment upon which an adult 
 human being can contrive to exist. Throughout a con- 
 siderable portion of that period of Hungarian national 
 stagnation during which the Constitution was suspended, 
 Eobert Yolkmann was practically the bondsman of this 
 close-fisted publisher, whose payments for his successive 
 works took the form of a wretched pittance, scarcely 
 sufficient to defray the rent of a dismal garret in Buda 
 and the cost of exiguous daily rations, consisting chiefly 
 of bread, cheese, and vegetables. During the severe 
 Hungarian winters, Volkmann frequently lacked the 
 wherewithal to purchase fuel an expensive article in 
 the Kingdom of the Five Eivers and, his clothes being 
 too shabby to wear in the streets by daylight, he was 
 compelled, in order to keep up the circulation in his 
 extremities, to pace up and down his miserable garret 
 for hours at a stretch, or to remain in bed. That his 
 productiveness was comparatively speaking small under 
 such conditions of hardship cannot be wondered at; 
 what works he did compose, however, during those years 
 of tribulation, became the property of his leaser, whom 
 they were destined to enrich. Yolkmann, himself,
 
 92 THE *' RECONCILIATION " WEEK. 
 
 never got anything by them but scanty food, sordid 
 raiment, and a lodging at which a London footman would 
 turn up his nose with scornful indignation, were he 
 required to occupy it whilst " in service." 
 
 The early spring of 1867 was a season of patriotic 
 . rejoicing and feverish emotion for the Hungarian nation. 
 For eighteen years Hungary had been dealt with as a 
 conquered country ; all the political and administrative 
 institutions had been in abeyance, and the heel of oppres- 
 sion had not been lifted from her neck for a single hour. 
 Austrian military reverses in 1866, however, compelled 
 Kaiser Franz Josef to make large concessions to his 
 Magyar subjects, the concrete outcome of which was a 
 transaction between the moieties of the Dual Eealm 
 which has endured to the present day, and may possibly 
 last for many years to come. One of the most strikingly 
 manifest results of this transaction was the " King's " 
 visit to Pesth in the .character of a Constitutional monarch 
 his first appearance in the Magyar capital since the 
 days of his boyhood. It was my special mission to wit- 
 ness his reception and the fetes given publicly and 
 privately in honour of the reconciliation achieved be- 
 tween victors and vanquished. Pepi Hellmesberger, 
 with his customary intelligence, had made arrangements 
 to give two concerts during the week of national elation, 
 knowing full well that the capital would be thronged 
 with representative Magyars, free-handed and pleasure- 
 loving, their pockets full of paper currency destined to 
 be squandered in recreation and revelry. I accompanied 
 the u quadrilateral of harmony " under his command 
 to Pesth, and punctually attended its first performance
 
 AN ARTISTIC SURPRISE. 93 
 
 at the Kedoute, where I lighted upon my old friend 
 Camillo Sivori, attracted to the twin-cities by the pros- 
 pect of a golden harvest, and found myself included, 
 through Hellmesberger's influence, in an invitation 
 addressed to the " musical and literary celebrities 
 honouring Pesth with a visit " by Heckenast, the leading 
 publisher of the Hungarian capital, to a supper-party at 
 his mansion in a street with a polysyllabic, and, to any 
 tongue save that of a born Magyar, unpronounceable 
 name. Heckenast, an enlightened and liberal patron of 
 the arts, had at that time but recently "discovered" 
 Eobert Volkmann, and taken the luckless composer under 
 his protection. He happened to mention, in the " artists' 
 room " at the Redoute, that we should meet Volkmann at 
 supper, and Hellmesberger at once suggested an agree- 
 able surprise for the latter with whose gloomy past he 
 was acquainted in the shape of a post-ccenal perform- 
 ance of the G minor quatuor by the Viennese quartet 
 party, the members of which, having rehearsed the work 
 a day or two before in view of a private concert for which 
 they had been engaged by Count George Karolyi, had it, 
 so to speak, at their fingers' ends. The genial sugges- 
 tion was adopted by acclamation, and as soon as the 
 concert had terminated, Heckenast's guests, some twenty 
 in number, were conducted by their host to his residence, 
 where they found Volkmann and one or two other local 
 notabilities awaiting them. 
 
 A glance at the great Hungarian composer sufficed to 
 convince any observant person that he had before him a 
 man of sorrow, acquainted with grief. His bowed 
 shoulders and sad, lustreless eyes told a tale of exces-
 
 94 EGBERT VOLK1IANN. 
 
 sive application, toil at the desk and immoderate con- 
 sumption of " midnight oil." A heavy, drooping, 
 grizzled moustache enhanced the melancholy expression 
 of his countenance, furrowed by the pencil of care rather 
 than of time, and " sicklied o'er " with a sallow pallor 
 by long years of confinement to small rooms, insufficient 
 nutriment and lack of exercise. His chief characteristic 
 appeared to be an invincible shyness, almost amounting 
 to painful timidity. To me he conveyed the impression 
 of a nature, originally gentle and diffident, that had been 
 subdued by ill-luck and unkind usage to a chronic con- 
 dition of self-depreciation and hopelessness. To my 
 endeavours to draw him into conversation he replied 
 with discouraging brevity, in low and hesitating tones. 
 His black clothes too manifestly a ci-devant gala suit, 
 indued only upon occasions of exceptional pomp and 
 moment were threadbare and of strangely antiquated 
 cut. Even Hellmesberger's kindly jesting and inex- 
 haustible flow of apposite anecdote failed to brighten 
 Yolkmann's mournful visage with even a fleeting smile, 
 until our host's good cheer and generous wine had some- 
 what thawed the ice of his inborn reserve and habitual 
 low spirits. Towards the end of supper, when cigars 
 had been lighted and champagne was flowing freely, he 
 began to take part in the conversation, which was of an 
 extraordinarily animated and brilliant character, dealing 
 mainly with the two topics in which every one present 
 was more or less keenly interested music and the 
 political resurrection of Hungary. It was in commenting 
 upon the latter, rather than upon the former, that Volk- 
 mann displayed knowledge and eloquence of no ordinary
 
 VOLKMANN'S MUSICAL THEORIES. 95 
 
 calibre. In speaking of the public men by whom the 
 transaction with Austria had been brought about, he let 
 fall a few masterly sketches of character revealing a 
 depth of psychological insight that took most of his 
 hearers by surprise. Upon the potentialities of music, 
 as a descriptive art, he made some very striking remarks, 
 never at any considerable length, but, like a meat- 
 lozenge, containing much essential force compactly pro- 
 pounded. Commenting, for instance, on the Wagnerian 
 theories, he observed: "Music, like painting, is imita- 
 tive, not reproductive. Her imitations are necessarily 
 addressed to persons gifted with musical apprehension, 
 just as those of painting appeal only to the eye that is 
 appreciative of colour or form. Her graphic power is 
 not indicative of concrete facts, but of their character- 
 istics, and makes itself readily manifest to the ear that is 
 at once receptive and cultivated. Even that ear requires, 
 in nine cases out of ten, to be prepared for the recogni- 
 tion of a tone-description by a certain amount of in- 
 formation, conveyed to the intelligence in the ordinary 
 
 manner A mere melody is seldom able to tell its 
 
 own story intelligibly. I mean, of course, the story its 
 composer intends it to tell. Tempi, phrasing, and har- 
 monic treatment are more available, as musical narrators 
 or, rather, describers than tunes. The inevitable 
 formality of a tune fetters its faculty of depicting ideas, 
 circumstances, or actions, all of which may be recognis- 
 ably sketched in sound by imitative figures and instru- 
 mental combinations That information other than 
 
 oral is indispensable, in descriptive music, to the hearer's 
 perception of the meaning sought to be conveyed to him,
 
 96 "A NEW QUARTET." 
 
 is beyond a doubt. For instance, the special significance 
 of certain rhythmical mannerisms and accents in our 
 national music cannot but be lost upon those who possess 
 no acquaintance with Hungarian history, traditions and 
 manners. In my own attempt to describe musically the 
 ordinary incidents of a day's life in a Hungarian frontier- 
 stronghold of the olden time, I feel confident that I have 
 made my tone-sketches comprehensible to such of my 
 countrymen as may be endowed with musical understand- 
 ing. To the average foreign musician my special meanings 
 can only appear in the light of eccentricities in tonality." 
 It was long past midnight when Hellmesberger 
 suddenly rose in his place and exclaimed, "Enough talk 
 for the present. Let us have some music. Sivori is 
 dying to play us something classical of his own composi- 
 tion ; and I I have brought with me a new quartet by 
 a young composer whose name I forget he is a mere 
 boy and none of you have ever heard of him which I 
 and my comrades here would like to play to Volkmann. 
 Heckenast, I know you have a four- sided desk some- 
 where in this hovel of yours ; produce it, and let us get 
 to work. We will play in the next room, opening the 
 folding doors, and my Englishman shall turn over. Our 
 audience including the maestro, who looks so comfort- 
 able that I would not have him disturbed for the world 
 shall remain in here and listen, if they please to do so." 
 Sivori laughingly begged to be allowed to hear the " new 
 work " before contributing his mite to the entertainment, 
 and without further delay the prearranged "surprise" 
 was put into execution. Volkmann sat ensconced in a 
 huge arm-chair, smoking a powerful Partagas, his eyes
 
 VOLKMANN'S IMPROVISATION. 97 
 
 half-closed, and his whole attitude expressive of that 
 blissful state of body and mind, hight kief. As the 
 executants commenced the spirited Allegro with which 
 his G minor quartet opens, every eye was turned towards 
 him. He started up, as though stricken by an electric 
 shock, hastily put down his cigar and clutched both arms 
 of the fauteuil, looking about him confusedly, like one 
 suddenly awakened from a deep sleep. Presently, he 
 sank back into his seat, covering his face with his hands ; 
 and when we next caught a glimpse of his sad grey eyes, 
 they were wet with happy tears. Never before or since 
 that memorable night have I heard the quartet perhaps 
 his most passionate and romantic composition for 
 strings so magnificently played, or so enthusiastically 
 applauded. At its close, a shout of "Eljen a Yolk- 
 mann ! " was raised by all present, and Heckenast called 
 upon his guests to drink " the Master's " health in brim- 
 ming bumpers of Roederer. Eendered speechless by 
 glad emotion, Yolkmann could only express his gratifica 
 tion by repeatedly pressing the artistic hands that had 
 wrought him such paramount pleasure, his cheeks glisten- 
 ing the while with " unfamiliar brine." A little later, 
 when he had recovered his self-possession, he sat down 
 to the piano of his own accord and held us spell-bound 
 for some twenty minutes with an improvisation "on a 
 heroic subject " (which I recognised years after in his 
 recueil of "Musical Poems," intituled " Visegrdd "), 
 ever to be remembered by the survivors of that joyous 
 company as an extempore production of unique beauty 
 and indescribable fascination. 
 
 During my brief sojourn in Pesth on the above-men- 
 
 VUL. i. H
 
 98 A FESTIVAL OF FOOLS. 
 
 tioned occasion and in connection with the so-called 
 " Reconciliation Week," I underwent a very curious 
 and exceptional musical experience, chiefly worth re- 
 calling because so pre-eminently illustrative of the wild 
 excitement then prevailing throughout all classes of 
 Hungarian society, and finding vent in extravagances 
 of action that struck me at the time as all but incompati- 
 ble with sanity of mind in their perpetrators. One of 
 the fetes organised by the patricians and artists of Pesth 
 in honour of the great national rejoicing was announced 
 under the amazing title of " A Fools' Evening, given by 
 the Committee of Folly," and came off one Sunday 
 evening in the Grand Eedoute, with the co-operation of 
 over five thousand persons of both sexes, one and all 
 earnestly bent upon proving themselves, in appearance 
 and behaviour, bereft of their senses. The entertain- 
 ment lasted ten hours; and I am bound to say that, 
 from beginning to end, it was an uninterrupted and 
 kaleidoscopic display of more or less humorous insanity. 
 I could fill half a dozen pages with a catalogue deraisonne 
 of its anomalies and absurdities ; the space at my com- 
 mand, however, only permits a brief reference to those 
 eccentricities which partook of a specially musical cha- 
 racter. After the possessor of a voucher (himself neces- 
 sarily travestied into some maniacal seeming) had 
 passed the ordeal of examination by the Committee, 
 stationed on the grand staircase, he was received with 
 triumphal blasts, at the main entrance to the hall, by a 
 " Mad Orchestra " consisting ef ten bugles, eight side- 
 drums, and one violin. Deafened and dizzy with the 
 incomparable din of this braying and thumping cohort,
 
 A FESTIVAL OF FOOLS. 99 
 
 he passed through a flame-coloured wicket into the 
 Redoute, converted for the nonce into the semblance of a 
 gigantic menagerie, its walls lined with dens of the most 
 approved pattern, their grated doors flung wide open. 
 Returning for convenience from the third to the first 
 person, I may state that the first question which oc- 
 curred to me as I glanced round that astonishing apart- 
 ment was, "Where are the wild beasts?" A second 
 later they "jumped to the eye," as the French idiom 
 hath it, on a raised platform at the further end of the 
 hall, pent up in an enormous built cage some twenty 
 feet high, and constituting an orchestra, eighty in num- 
 ber, assiduously engaged in performing The Beautiful 
 Blue Danube. The disguises were admirable, and had 
 been allotted to the wearers in such sort as to intensify 
 the general incongruity suggested by furred and fea- 
 thered music-makers. For instance, the leading flautist 
 was an elephant, whose aspect whilst diligently blowing 
 his Querpfeife under his trunk was irresistibly comical. 
 The triangle was being gravely tingled by a Royal 
 Bengal tiger of alarmingly truculent mien ; a portly old 
 lion, his tail comfortably adjusted across his knee, led 
 the violoncelli ; a solemn pelican was tooting the French 
 horn, its mouthpiece inserted in the side of his bill ; the 
 drums were being administered to by a mild-eyed grey 
 bullock of the true Banat breed ; side by side, amongst 
 the first violins, were a bear, a colossal perch, and a frog 
 of prediluvian dimensions ; the two bassoons were deftly 
 handled by a mammoth spider and a shiny sturgeon, 
 whilst a giant prairie tortoise clashed the cymbals as 
 though that were the exclusive function to fulfil which
 
 100 A FESTIVAL OF FOOLS. 
 
 was his inborn mission in life. The leader, a famous 
 German chef d" 1 orcJiestre appeared as a gorilla of un- 
 exampled hideousness, quite the most appalling creature 
 my eyes had ever thitherto beheld ; and he conducted 
 with a mimic knotted club formidably suggestive of 
 " homicide with intention." The whole tableau was 
 irresistibly provocative of convulsive and inextinguish- 
 able laughter. Moreover, facing this zoological band, at 
 the opposite end of the hall was installed another "full" 
 orchestra, consisting of life-size puppets set in motion 
 by machinery, and occupying the lid of a Brobdi^g- 
 nagian musical box, the inside of which was tenanted 
 by a real live military band in full play, so that its 
 strains, produced by an unseen agency, seemed to pro- 
 ceed from the dolls, whose conductor, a singularly limber 
 automaton, rivalled his dos-a-dos, the gorilla, in wildly 
 energetic action. Taken in connection with the prac- 
 tice of the divine art, the orchestral menagerie was the 
 funniest sight a musician could hope to look upon in 
 the flesh. Of the puppet band one wearied readily ; not 
 so of the harmonious wild beasts, whose " infinite variety" 
 custom " could not stale."
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF ROME. THE GEsfr ORGANS. MIDNIGHT 
 
 MASSES. OPERA AND BALLET IN ROME. RAMACIOTTI. 
 
 MY acquaintance with the Eternal City a close and 
 loving one, at least on my part began and ended under 
 the Papal dispensation. Royal Rome is unknown to 
 me. When I last sojourned within her venerable pre- 
 cincts, she was the capital of the Catholic world ; since 
 which time she has possibly gained in vitality, but cer- 
 tainly lost in dignity, by becoming the chef-lieu of a 
 single nation a mere centre of fussy, futile politics and 
 fashionable mundane vanities. If there was anything 
 that the ecclesiastical regime prevailing throughout the 
 Papal States only sixteen years ago more especially 
 abominated than another, it was innovation. To remain 
 at a stand-still, gravely, serenely, decorously, was the 
 height of authority's ambition I mean, in all secular 
 matters, such as administration, science, literature, and 
 the arts. Progress and emancipation were highly ob- 
 jectionable words to the clerical dignitaries who com- 
 fortably ruled the Roman roast in anti-CEcumenical days ; 
 for those worthies held them to be convertible terms 
 with Iconoclasm and Anarchy. It is not exaggerative 
 to say that a passive dislike to new things and ideas
 
 102 PONTIFICAL ROME. 
 
 pervaded Roman society, civil as well as religious, at 
 the time I refer to. Prosaic architecture, " impres- 
 sionist " painting, narrative music, the revelations of 
 chemists and geologists, the bold conjectures of modern 
 philosophers and eager enterprise of Latter-Day jour- 
 nalists were all regarded with distrust and apprehension 
 by the upper and middle classes, who sided almost 
 unanimously with stone against stucco, Eaphael against 
 Maret, Bellini and Donizetti against Berlioz and Wagner, 
 the Fathers against Faraday and Darwin, Machiavelli 
 against Schopenhauer, and the " Osservatore Romano " 
 against the " Perse veranza." Owing to this prevalent 
 indisposition to accept or even tolerate novelty on the 
 part of its native inhabitants, rich and poor, Eome 
 whilst the Cross-Keys banner still floated above St. 
 Angelo was the most old-world capital in civilised 
 Europe. Its conservatism may have been at some time 
 or other, before I became familiar with its characteristics, 
 more artificial than real, or less voluntary than com- 
 pulsory. But it had become a second nature to all 
 sorts and conditions of Romans when I lived among 
 them and got, by their own admission, to know them 
 well. 
 
 The attitude of the Papal Government towards music 
 in particular, whether sacred or secular, was a curious 
 combination of the inflexible conservatism above alluded 
 to, of celibate prudery and cynical indulgence. In all 
 musical performances of a public character, at church as 
 well as in theatres and concert-rooms, the influence of 
 this quaint blending was plainly apparent. I have 
 heard hundreds of masses with orchestral and organ
 
 CHURCH MUSIC IN ROME. 103 
 
 accompaniments in Eoman churches, and can confidently 
 assert that nine-tenths of them were by old and com- 
 paratively obscure composers, such as Morales, Carpen- 
 trasso, Buffo, Festa, Pierre de la Eue, Yittoria and 
 Anerio, the remaining tenth being chiefly by ancient 
 and distinguished writers ; for example, Palestrina, Caris- 
 simi and Allegri. I do not remember hearing anything, 
 belonging to this class of work, more modern than Jomelli 
 and Paisiello. But, in the matter of voluntaries, almost 
 unbounded license was allowed to the organist, who 
 might and did, as his fancy happened to prompt him in 
 that direction, introduce airs from nineteenth-century 
 operas, and even popular melodies, into his reminiscences 
 or arrangements of sacred strains. I was particularly 
 struck with some startling contrasts of this kind afforded 
 by a splendid performance given in honour of the Bam- 
 bino an effigy of the Infant Saviour usually kept in the 
 church of Ara Cceli at which I was fortunate enough 
 to be present on New Year's Eve, 1869, during a brief 
 interval between two important sessions of the (Ecu- 
 menical Council. To this function, celebrated in the 
 Gesu, one of the most gorgeous fanes in Christendom, 
 all the Eoyal personages then in Rome had been specially 
 invited. Pius IX. himself sang mass, and pronounced 
 the benediction. It was an occasion of extraordinary 
 solemnity and splendour ; but to me, I confess, its 
 most interesting feature was the music. Then strange 
 as it may appear, for the first time, though I had 
 already spent several months in Eome did I hear 
 really good singing and admirable, soul-enthralling organ 
 playing.
 
 104 THE GESU ORGANS. 
 
 The Gesu is possessed of three organs, not very power- 
 ful or rich in combinations, but exquisitely sweet-toned 
 and in perfect tune at least, they were so sixteen years 
 ago ; one in either wing, or arm of the cross in the shape 
 of which the church is built ; the third just above the 
 main entrance opposite the high altar. On these charm- 
 ing instruments, for more than an hour before the Pontiff's 
 arrival at the church door, did three accomplished organ- 
 ists successively play voluntaries, movements from masses, 
 and selections from familiar Italian operas. As soon as 
 the final resolution of some glorious old fugue the sub- 
 ject of which seemed to be struggling in the toils of 
 counterpoint, like Laocoon with the serpents had died 
 out amid the solemn thunder of the pedal pipes, a sweet 
 melody from Lucia, Eltaliano in Algeri, or Ernani would 
 steal upon the ear from another quarter in all the plain- 
 tive tenderness of a mellow wooden flute-stop. And 
 then, almost before this insinuating song had melted 
 away into silence, its last lingering note would be 
 drowned in the joyous chords of some sturdy old " Jubi- 
 late," square, simple, and just sufficiently aping the fugal 
 form to interest the scientific musician, while delighting 
 the not-scholastically trained ear. It was, indeed, a 
 plenteous regale of sound, thoughtfully arranged and 
 tastefully served. Meanwhile, flitting forms arrayed in 
 white and violet vestments were lighting up the count- 
 less candles round the Holy of holies till the sheeny 
 marbles of the great altar flashed again with prismatic 
 reflections. Suddenly, while an inspiration of supreme 
 tunefulness was enthralling my senses in the purest of 
 raptures, heavy curtains were let fall over the gallery
 
 MIDNIGHT MASS. 105 
 
 windows, shutting out the golden sunbeams and envelop- 
 ing the body of the church in mysterious shadow, whilst 
 the altar illumination of tapers shone out with tenfold 
 brilliancy. As a coup de theatre, it was the most splendid 
 effect I had ever hitherto seen introduced into an eccle- 
 siastical spectacle. Soon afterwards the venerable Pope 
 arrived, attended by a gorgeous cortege of Cardinals, 
 Bishops, torchbearers, Swiss Guards, Roman Senators 
 and Knights of Malta. His advent was greeted by a 
 fine choral rendering of a sprightly antique motivo, 
 accompanied by silvern bells, triangles innumerable, all 
 three organs and twelve trumpets. The church itself 
 was magnificently decorated with Gobelin tapestries, 
 velvet hangings and a profusion of fresh flowers ; and in 
 front of the altar was displayed the Bambino himself 
 under a blaze of concentrated light. As Pio Nono crossed 
 the threshold of the Gesu five hundred muskets clashed, 
 brought sharply to the " Present ! " by the battalion on 
 duty within the sacred edifice. The whole effect, to 
 eye and ear, was simply inimitable and never-to-be- 
 forgotten. 
 
 A painful contrast, in the way of musical entertain- 
 ments of an ecclesiastical order, to the above performance 
 in the Gesu, was afforded by a Midnight Mass I was 
 induced by treacherous persuasion to attend on Christmas 
 Eve at San Luigi dei Francesi. My betrayer, I need 
 scarcely say, was an Englishman who had "done the 
 thing himself." Roman friends never advise you to 
 indulge in recreations of that class. If you ask them 
 what they think of such diversions they are apt to shrug 
 their shoulders, slightly shake a significant fore-finger
 
 106 MIDNIGHT MASS. 
 
 and smile a caustic Italian smile. It is your Briton or 
 American who u knows Eome " that will insist upon your 
 seeing and hearing everything most inconvenient and 
 costly to be seen and heard, and will even go with you 
 should you require the inducement of company to per- 
 suade you, against your better judgment, to sacrifice 
 time and comfort upon the altar of morbid curiosity 
 cynically resolved that, suffer what he may, you at least 
 shall not be spared one drop of that bitter cup he has 
 already drained to the dregs. On the 24th December, 
 1869, a peculiarly malignant compatriot had fervently 
 assured me that, at San Luigi dei Francesi, I should 
 hear strains of celestial harmony and contemplate a 
 dazzling illumination in celebration of the Nativity Morn. 
 It was a wet night. On such occasions conveyances 
 vanish from the streets of Rome with mysterious una- 
 nimity. Before I got to the church I was moister than is 
 compatible with unalloyed physical comfort, and a ten 
 minutes' episode of exposure to rain on the broad steps, 
 whilst striving to wriggle my way through a motley 
 throng of damp Zouaves, peasants, pickpockets, and 
 professional beggars, brought me to a condition of 
 humidity that could scarcely have been surpassed had I 
 been dipped bodily into the Tiber. After much labour 
 and tribulation I at length succeeded in entering the 
 sacred edifice. The first vileness that assailed one of my 
 senses was a mosaic of stenches, amongst which were 
 chiefly distinguishable the malodours of garlic, incense, 
 candle-snuff, boiling grease, damp cloth, and shoe-leather. 
 The next, outraging another sense, was a nondescript 
 noise, respecting which I soon had to ask myself, What
 
 MIDNIGHT MASS. 107 
 
 may this be, that offends my ears and, in less than a 
 minute, has worn out my patience ? Is it, haply, the 
 heavenly harmony promised to me ? are these the sublime 
 strains that could not by any possibility fail to transport 
 my ravished soul to realms of bliss? It was; they 
 were ! Any score or so of blind-beggars, British-born 
 and musically proclivious, picked up at random in London 
 streets and set to intone a Catnach ballad in, say, sixty 
 verses, could have matched, in every respect, the per- 
 formance of the San Luigi choristers on that dread 
 Christmas Eve. Moreover, there was an altogether 
 intolerable organ, quivering with senility, and divided 
 against itself one of its registers being an eighth of a 
 tone sharper than the other, and both wofully out of 
 tune. Upon this instrument of torture some organist in 
 his novitiate had been instructed to do his worst ; and 
 most conscientiously did he fulfil his mission. For 
 instance, whenever the choir had dismally drifted into 
 the tonic chord, he would burst out joyously into that of 
 the two dominants, or wail a plaintive relative minor. 
 None of his dissonant vagaries, however, for a moment 
 disturbed the choristers, or hindered them from plodding 
 doggedly on with gruesome sonority, more nasal than 
 laryngean. The effect was indescribably bewildering 
 something like a tale of Hoffmann illustrated by Retzsch 
 and set to music by the fiddler-fiend who once ap- 
 peared to Tartini in a dream. Thus, methought, must 
 they sing in Dante's Fifth Circle, where circumstances 
 over which its inmates have no control render their 
 manner of passing the time exceptionally repugnant to 
 their feelings and tastes. Only to those endowed by
 
 108 OPERA IX ROME. 
 
 Providence with nerves of oak and triple brass is it given 
 to endure much of such Tartarean grunting, aggravated 
 by the discordant spasms of a bad organ writhing under 
 unskilfully administered persecution. After suffering a 
 brief and unmerited agony, I struggled forth into the 
 rain with all the haste and eagerness of one pursued by 
 the Avenger. Ever since that fearsome experience I 
 have been accustomed to think of the Christmas Eve 
 choral service performed at San Luigi dei Francesi as the 
 Stomach-ache of Sound. 
 
 Extremes meet a proverb happily exemplified by the 
 circumstances that the very same Papal authorities who 
 were so genially tolerant of operatic airs in church, 
 declined to permit the performance of certain operas in 
 any Eoman theatre until they had undergone a searching 
 revision at the hands of the Pontifical Censor (a singu- 
 larly straitlaced Monsignore, whose acquaintance I made 
 during my sojourn in the Eternal City), frequently result- 
 ing in sweeping alterations of their plots, dialogue, and 
 even names, for reasons only apparent to the ecclesiastical 
 mind. Titles of works which are household words in 
 every country of Europe suffered a police change when 
 at Rome in the days of Pio Nono. A meaningless alias 
 was bestowed upon our old friend Rigoletto ; the Traviata 
 was modestly transformed into Violetta, ; La Forza del 
 Destino became Dorina, and so forth, in at least a dozen 
 instances. The quality of the performances by no means 
 atoned for the liberties taken with text and title. It was 
 uniformly execrable, for the management, considering 
 anything good enough for the merely musical public of 
 Rome, concentrated all its energies, intelligence and out-
 
 ROMAN BALLETS. 109 
 
 lay upon the production of attractive ballets, to which 
 the reverend Quaestor and his tonsured subordinates 
 entertained no kind of objection on the ground of 
 morality or decorum. In Rome a ballet of this descrip- 
 tion used to run and probably still does so through 
 a whole season, filling the Tordinone every night, and 
 hummed, more or less loudly, by the entire audience. 
 Italians will not be deterred from giving tongue to their 
 likes and dislikes with a freedom unknown to us frigid 
 islanders ; and, sitting in the Apollo stalls amongst the 
 principal, I used to hear the airs of Brahma (the ballet 
 of that (Ecumenical winter) chanted all around me by 
 dandies of the first water, very seldom under their breath. 
 As a rule Roman society did not attend the opera to listen 
 to the music, but to chat, flirt, and exchange scandals. 
 Having philosophically made up their minds that they 
 were doomed, as far as the singing was concerned, to be 
 strappazzati) or put upon and tormented, the nobles and 
 wealthy bourgeois resigned themselves cheerfully to their 
 fate, and treated the theatre as though it were a drawing- 
 room in which a private musical-party was being held ; 
 e'.., they never paid the least attention to the performance 
 provided for their amusement, but indulged in chiacchere 
 to their hearts' content. 
 
 To the native circles of Rome, in Papal times, classical 
 music was all but unknown. Not even by combining 
 the professional and amateur executant resources was it 
 feasible to get up a stringed-quartet party. Very few of 
 the Roman matrons or virgins were pianists ; and those 
 few, with a brilliant exception or two, played insignifi- 
 cantly or viciously. There was but one good fiddler to
 
 110 KAMACIOTTI. 
 
 be met in Eoman salons Eamaciotti, a fine artist and 
 polished gentleman and lie was only " in society " as le 
 mari de sa femme, having espoused a marchioness whose 
 family and friends, whilst deeply resenting his musical 
 talent, tolerated his presence at their receptions upon her 
 account. Arthur Strutt most genial, learned, and hos- 
 pitable of Anglo-Eomans made him known to me soon 
 after my arrival, and during the ensuing six months we 
 "made much music" together, greatly to our mutual 
 satisfaction and comfort. The German Club was the 
 centre of culture and exercise in matters musical. Its 
 weekly gatherings were not unfrequently honoured by a 
 visit from the inimitable Canonico, Ferencz Liszt, whose 
 favourite pupils, from time to time, made their social 
 debut at that jolly rendezvous of art- students, diplomatists, 
 travelling celebrities, and good fellows of all nationalities. 
 It was there not at the Sala Dantesca, Eome's only 
 concert-room that I first heard Sgambati and Ketler, 
 two of Liszt's alumni who have since then earned Euro- 
 pean reputations as exponents of his works. The one 
 really musical salon of Eome was that of the Princess 
 Pallavicini, to which my kind old friend, Cardinal Hay- 
 nald, himself an excellent pianist and ripe musician, 
 procured me the entree. But, with the exception of 
 Eamaciotti, Sgambati, and Pinelli, a nephew and pupil 
 of the Eoman violinist, all the performers at the " Palla- 
 vicini Wednesdays " were of foreign birth and training. 
 Of course, in so cosmopolitan a city as Eome, first-class 
 amateur pianists and vocalists abounded throughout the 
 winter season. Pre-eminent amongst the former was 
 Mrs. Astor, the mother of Willie Astor, then studying
 
 FOREIGN AMATErRS IN ROME. Ill 
 
 sculpture in Tadolini's studio, and now U.S. Minister at 
 the Court of King Humbert ; amongst the latter Mr. Odo 
 Eussell, then Second Secretary of the British Legation 
 at Florence, but residing at Eome en mission speciale, and 
 afterwards Lord Ampthill, G.C.B., a Privy Councillor 
 and H.B.M. Ambassador to the German Emperor. 
 " Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis ! "
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ROUMANIAN LAYS AND DANCES. THE DACIAN MINSTRELS. 
 PLUM-PUDDING SET TO MUSIC. SERVIAN REMINIS- 
 CENCES. 
 
 I HAVE been more than once impelled by certain trouble- 
 some and recurrent doubts to ask myself the question, 
 Is there, or has there ever been, such a thing as Rou- 
 manian Music ? It was a difficult question to answer, 
 for more than one reason. In the first place there is 
 unquestionably something about the songs sung and the 
 dances played throughout the length and breadth of the 
 Dacian lands (which comprise Bessarabia, the Bukovina, 
 and a considerable portion of Transylvania, as well as 
 the Kingdom of Roumania proper, whilom the United 
 Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia) that reminds 
 the discriminating ear of Turkish, Hungarian, and 
 Slavonic strains. This circumstance is readily to be 
 accounted for by the fact that Dacia, for a thousand 
 years past, if not more, has been an oppressed and down- 
 trodden land, the favourite battle-ground of Eastern 
 Europe, surrounded on all sides by warlike and rapacious 
 neighbours, whose favourite recreation it was to overrun 
 the " sweet and lovely country " (scumpa tseara si fru- 
 moasa), carry off its sons and daughters into slavery, and
 
 THE ROUMANIAN* LANGUAGE. 113 
 
 every now and anon, annex it altogether. The Rouma- 
 nians of the Middle Ages, as well as of a more modern 
 epoch, although they frequently fought their invaders 
 with great gallantry and resolution, were nearly always 
 in a state of vassaldom, writhing under the armed heel 
 of some neighbour mightier than themselves. It is not 
 to be wondered at that their successive conquerors made 
 deep impressions upon their manners and customs, and 
 even imparted various foreign flavours to their national 
 music. That they retained their language originally 
 the " army Latin," or lingua franca, commonly spoken 
 in the foreign legions of the Roman Empire (two of 
 which colonised Dacia in the time of Trajan) is an 
 extraordinary illustration of the instinctive race-conser- 
 vatism exemplified in Western Europe by the Welsh, 
 Scotch Highlanders, Bretons, Basques, and Swiss Rou- 
 manians. Of course, Hungarian, Polish, and Turkish 
 occupations of Roumania forcibly introduced a large 
 number of foreign words into the Dacian vernacular ; 
 indeed, when I first began to study Roumanian, exactly 
 twenty years ago, sub consule Cusa, twenty-four percent, 
 of its total vocabulary consisted of Magyar, Slav, 
 Turkish, and even Greek importations, the remaining 
 seventy-six per cent, being of pure Latin origin. I may 
 observe for the fact is an interesting one, though it 
 certainly has nothing to do with Roumanian music that 
 since Roumania practically shook off the Turkish yoke 
 in 1866, her leading philologists amongst them Prince 
 J6n Ghica, her present representative at the Court of 
 St. James, Basil Alecsandri, her Poet Laureate and 
 Minister in Paris, and Majorescu, formerly her Minister 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 ROUMANIAN MUSIC. 
 
 of Education have been assiduously engaged in purify- 
 ing the Roumanian tongue and ridding it of the "bar- 
 barous " idioms that had crept into it in the manner 
 above indicated. Their eiforts have been so far crowned 
 with success that the limbd romand of to-day only con- 
 tains about five words of alien origin in every hundred, 
 retained in deference to popular convenience ; and, freed 
 from the cramping trammels of the Cyrillic alphabet, is 
 as well-ordered and learnable a literary language as 
 either of its first cousins, Italian or Spanish. 
 
 To return, however, to the subject of this chapter. 
 Ultimately I made up my mind that there ivas such a 
 thing as Roumanian music music, that is to say, which, 
 despite its borrowed " tricks and manners,'' and frequent 
 suggestions of Hungarian and Turkish influence, stead- 
 fastly displays certain melodic characteristics peculiar to 
 itself, as distinctly recognisable, let us say, as the Magyar 
 rhythm alia zoppa (or scale with two superfluous seconds, 
 a harmonic minor with a sharp fourth), or the funda- 
 mental droning fifth of the Celtic music. It is difficult 
 to describe these characteristics intelligibly ; that they 
 exist I shall endeavour to demonstrate. Such as it is, 
 the music of Dacia is essentially, almost exclusively, 
 melodic. Harmony does not enter into its being ; it has 
 never created a vocal duet, trio, or part-song ; its horas 
 (derivatur chorus) are sung in unison, the time being 
 marked by the stamping of feet and swaying of bodies 
 as the singers hold hands in a circle and revolve, like 
 English village children to the strains of " Here we go 
 round the mulberry-bush." Roumanian music, in com- 
 mon with that of all peoples who have suffered long and
 
 ROUMANIAN MUSIC. 115 
 
 cruel subjugation, is for the most written in the minor 
 mood. There are some exceptions ; but they are of 
 modern production, and owe their genesis, as I have 
 ascertained, to gipsies, not to pure-blooded Dacians. 
 These latter, by the way, in their patriotic anxiety to prove 
 that emancipated Eoumania is " up to time " in the gentler 
 arts of civilisation, have taken to composing a vast 
 amount of the weakest rubbish that ever put forward a 
 claim to rank as vocal or instrumental music. Nothing 
 more rickety or wishy-washy than the doine and hore of 
 Scheletti, Yentura, and Michael Poliso has ever been 
 fabricated by the British drawing-room ballad manufac- 
 turer, whose capacity for uttering musical platitudes I 
 had deemed unrivalled until I became acquainted with 
 the works of the above-mentioned gentlemen. 
 
 The genuine Eoumanian music, with its elementary 
 accompaniment of a pedal-point that is not necessarily 
 in tonic relation to the key of the melody it underlies 
 and supports with its rugged intervals, quaint flourishes 
 or agremens, and plaintive semitonic wailings is ex- 
 tremely ancient; so much so that if you ask a vocal 
 peasant what might be the age of the ditty with which 
 he cheers his bullocks on their ploughing way, it is ten 
 to one that he will answer you, " Acel cantic, Domnul? 
 That song, my lord ? It is as old as the Devil " a 
 reply suggestive of a somewhat exceptional antiquity in 
 a popular melody. Until very lately, none of the national 
 airs had been notated ; for their conservation from the 
 fourteenth century, in some cases, down to the present 
 day, Eoumania has to thank her wandering minstrels 
 (laotort), who have transmitted them with perfect accu- 
 
 i 2
 
 116 BALLADS AND ELEGIES. 
 
 racy so, at least, it is believed through generations, 
 innumerable of the " sons of Trajan " (fii Trajanului). 
 These airs belong to three categories ; cantice batrinestej 
 that is, historical or legendary ballads ; dome, love-songs 
 and elegies ; hore, lively lyrics, much of the class that 
 used to be popular in after-dinner circles when English 
 society was convivial and chirpy, i.e., stanzas with a 
 chorus ; the difference between the British and Eouma- 
 nian lyric of this kind being that the burden of the 
 former is sung, whilst that of the latter is danced. There 
 is, moreover, a fourth sort of air, having some analogy 
 to our Christmas Carol ; it is called colinda, and is sung 
 in unison by bands of children, on Christmas and New 
 Year Eves, under the windows of the Boyars' houses. 
 Two of these colinde " Florile Dalbe " (Strange 
 Flowers) and " Plugul " (The Plough) are of unknown 
 antiquity, and very dear to the heart of every true Eou- 
 rnanian. A gentle melancholy runs through words and 
 music alike ; indeed, this is the case with all the genuine 
 Eoumanian songs and dances, whether their tempi be 
 slow or rapid. During my long sojourns in Moldavia 
 every now and anon I happened upon a hora of an un- 
 mistakably rollicking character "Am un leu" is a 
 shining example of these exceptions to the rule but on 
 inquiring carefully into the origin of these cheerful airs 
 I invariably found that they hailed from Transylvania, 
 where the influence of Magyar musical joviality had been 
 effectively brought to bear upon the languorous plain- 
 tiveness of the Eoumanian melodic method. 
 
 Of the cantice batrineste several that enjoy especial 
 popularity deal with the predatory exploits of certain cele-
 
 ROUMANIAN LEGENDS. 117 
 
 brated bandits (Heiduki)who flourished in the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries, and are still looked up to by 
 the Eoumanian peasantry as heroes of only a thought less 
 historical interest than Stephen the Great, Michael the 
 Brave, and Vlad the Cruel. Village youths and maidens 
 are never weary of listening to the wild adventures of 
 Gianul, Stepan Boujor (Stephen the Poppy), Tunsul (the 
 Shaven), Andrii Popa (Andrew the Priest), and Groza 
 (the Terror), of whom they are accustomed to speak as 
 omeni buni (worthy men), or puii de zmei (sons of giants). 
 Gianni is to the Eoumanian Legends what Eobin Hood 
 is to our own ballad lore. He robbed the rich to give 
 to the poor, exhibiting extraordinary daring and inge- 
 nuity in the execution of his predatory feats. I have no 
 idea how many verses there are in the celebrated song 
 that bears his name and professes to chronicle his princi- 
 pal achievements. All I can say about it is that I have 
 never succeeded in hearing the end of it, though I have 
 listened to it, more than once, for an hour at a stretch. 
 Probably the leading laotari, who are ready enough at 
 improvisation, extemporise additional verses to this 
 favourite ballad whenever they find their audience 
 deeply attentive to their lays. Were any drawing-room 
 vocalist to attempt the singing of the adventures of 
 Eobin Hood in a hundred and thirty-five verses or so at 
 a London evening party he would of a certainty be voted 
 the most intolerable bore that ever disgraced humanity ; 
 but I have never known " Gianul " to pall upon Eouma- 
 nians of any social class, no matter at what dismal 
 and unseemly length it was droned out by Nick the 
 Moldavian or Gregory the Nightingale, Eoumania's most
 
 118 LOVE-SONGS. 
 
 accomplished minstrels in my salad-days alas ! long 
 past. 
 
 Of the Doine, or love-songs, it may with truth be said 
 that their name is legion. Few of them, however that 
 is, of the ancient, characteristic ones are procurable 
 in print, although every laotar I had almost written, 
 every Roumanian knows them by heart, and Alec- 
 sandri, Eminescu, Bolintineanu, and other modern poets 
 of Dacia have written beautiful words to them. Alec- 
 sandri's "Dorul" is a lyric descriptive of the passion 
 which Roumanians are wont to say they alone of all the 
 Latin peoples can feel a blending of regret, hope, pain, 
 and love, alleged to be fatal (sooner or later.) to those 
 who experience it in all its fulness. To this class of 
 tune there is always a second part, but no burden, as in 
 the case of the cantic latrinest, or the hora. 
 
 Let me say a few words about the instruments upon 
 which these tunes are generally played. The violin and 
 Pandean pipes take the melody in turns ; the accompani- 
 ments are played upon a sort of guitar, upon the ciom- 
 balan, a thing of wood and wires, like an upright zither 
 without a back, and upon an instrument shaped like a 
 clarionet, but keyless, and pierced by half-a-dozen holes 
 at most. Amongst the peasants this is used as a solo 
 instrument, in both senses of the word solo, for it is the 
 only one they have any skill in. In tone it somewhat 
 resembles a bass flute, and I am not guilty of exaggera- 
 tion, I believe, in saying that thousands of Roumanian 
 shepherds and tillers of the soil play it as well as it 
 can be played. It "lends itself" very congenially to 
 the execution of a popular hora hight " The Tribute "
 
 ROUMANIAN MINSTRELS. 119 
 
 for some mysterious reason which I have never been able 
 to discover. 
 
 There is, probably, no country upon the Continent of 
 Europe in which music, considered as a social recreation 
 interchangeable between persons belonging to the higher 
 classes, is less assiduously cultivated more steadfastly 
 neglected would, perhaps, be the more accurate way of 
 putting it than Eoumania. At the very height of the 
 "fast and furious'' fashionable season in Bucharest, 
 one admitted to the penetralia of Boyar society may 
 attend half-a-hundred evening parties without being 
 called upon to make pretence, amid a ceaseless buzz of 
 small-talk, of listening to " a little music." As a rule, 
 nobody belonging to them by right of birth or position 
 sings or plays in Eoumanian salons. Politics and petite 
 soins monopolise the drawing-room energies of the Dacian 
 stronger sex coquetry and caquetage those of the weaker. 
 Upon the rare occasions when the musical element is, for 
 some special reason, introduced into the unwritten pro- 
 gramme of a soiree, at which " one dances not," the 
 laotari, or native minstrels, are hired for the night and 
 stationed in a roomy, divanned ante-chamber, through 
 which the guests must pass on their way into or out of 
 the reception-rooms. There, at brief intervals, they sing 
 the wild melodies of the country, or play quaint arrange- 
 ments of popular airs, familiar and dear to every born 
 Eoumanian, from about nine P.M. (the Dacian dinner- 
 hour is six, and dinners seldom last more than a couple 
 of hours) till one, or at the latest two A.M. You are by 
 no means expected by your hostess or host to pay aiiv 
 attention to the musical entertainment thus provided for
 
 120 ROUMANIAN MINSTRELS. 
 
 your delectation; still, it is "the thing" to encourage 
 the laotari from time to time by strolling into the apart- 
 ment occupied by them, and listening for a few minutes 
 to their inspiring strains whilst half reclining, cigarette 
 in mouth in some of the more old-fashioned Boyar 
 palaces a chibouk will be offered to you in the " min- 
 strels' room " upon a divan luxuriously bespread with 
 velvety Moldavian rugs. The minstrels themselves, 
 Eoumanian gipsies to a man, are an extremely sensitive 
 and excitable folk of highly- wrought temperament, sub- 
 ject, as a matter of course, to reactions of dismal flac- 
 cidity. When their efforts to please are unheeded for 
 any length of time, their spirits are apt to flag and their 
 playing to become slack and nerveless. To a few atten- 
 tive listeners however especially to such as are not too 
 indolent or stuck-up to express appreciation by a little 
 judicious applause they rise as readily as a hungry 
 trout to a fly, and brighten into deft and stirring execu- 
 tion with that inexhaustible enthusiasm which only fires 
 the souls of genuine inborn musicians. 
 
 The laotari) as I have already observed, are gipsies to 
 a man, in the literal as well as conventional sense of 
 that definition for, with few and unimportant excep- 
 tions, female singers and players are rigorously excluded 
 from the so-called " minstrel brotherhoods " at present 
 enjoying private favour and public celebrity in the "fair 
 and lovely land " of Basil Alecsandri. These " brother- 
 hoods " pride themselves somewhat inordinately upon a 
 strict observance of the traditions orally communicated 
 to them and to those who came before them, from gene- 
 ration to generation for five or six centuries past. One
 
 KOUMAXI.VX MINSTRELS. 121 
 
 or two of the provincial laotari bands, unacknowledged 
 by tlie chiefs of the minstrel " mystery," admit song- 
 stresses to participation in their performances ; but such 
 Master- Singers as Niko Moldoveanul (Nick the Molda- 
 vian), or Grigor o Kucinoara (Gregory the Nightingale) 
 would scorn to tolerate the presence of petticoats amongst 
 the tuneful fraternities submitted to their sway. 
 
 Of yore the laotari were far more important personages 
 than they are now. Their profession chiefly owing to the 
 confidential nature of its supplementary branches was 
 a highly lucrative one. Not only were they Minne- 
 singers whose periodical rounds throughout the country 
 afforded the wealthy provincial Boyars the only artistic 
 recreation then available to the Dacian squirearchy 
 extempore poets and musical improvisatori, but purveyors 
 of news in ante-journalistic days, and, to boot, trusty go- 
 betweens in all the secret negotiations of love. In their 
 hands were the threads of countless family intrigues, as 
 well as of not a few political conspiracies; and they 
 were seldom, if ever, known to betray the confidence 
 reposed in them. I am writing of imperative and all but 
 lawless times, when Boyars were not to be trifled with, 
 and the laotari, knowing full well that any indiscretion 
 might cost them their heads, or subject them to the 
 irreparable inconvenience of impalement, inflexibly kept 
 their own council and made a good thing of so doing. 
 In nine cases out of ten, their arrival upon an estate was 
 a welcome interruption to the tiresome monotony of rural 
 life, and furnished the profoundly-bored Boyar with 
 an indefensible pretext for indulging in a congenial 
 burst of revelry and jollification. Messengers were de-
 
 122 ROUMANIAN MINSTRELS. 
 
 spatched in all directions to the neighbouring landowners, 
 charged with invitations to a round of banquets and 
 hora bouts, organised as a natural consequence of the 
 laotar Ps advent. At these feasts, the minstrels, stationed 
 in a semi-circle behind the amphytrion's chair, and pic- 
 turesquely arrayed in dark velvet jerkins and scarlet 
 caps, sang alternately their newest and oldest lays, or 
 improvised upon themes propounded to them by the 
 chief personages of the company, or chanted extempore 
 couplets, dealing humorously with the special charac- 
 teristics of their auditors. Considerable licence was 
 accorded to them, as to the mediaeval jester. It was an 
 understood thing that no offence was to be taken at 
 the witticisms however personal and pungent of the 
 " privileged Tsigani." Thrice during the afternoon's 
 and evening's performance which, comprising the long- 
 protracted hora that succeeded the vocal part of the 
 entertainment, generally lasted many hours it was the 
 prerogative of the leading laotar to hand his cap, bowing 
 profoundly to his host, who, after dropping into it his 
 own tribute, passed it on to his male guests, and when 
 it again reached him, after having gone the round of the 
 table, restored it to its owner with a kindly, " Pouftich, 
 brat !" (Take this, brother !) Good store of broad silvern 
 yaJmssars and eke of sparkling golden ducats caused the 
 gaudy head-gear to weigh heavily as the dark-eyed, 
 brown-skinned gipsy took it deferentially from the hand 
 of his benefactor, and without even glancing at its con- 
 tents for such was the behaviour prescribed by laotar i 
 etiquette poured them into the leathern pouch hanging 
 from his untanned girdle.
 
 ROUMANIAN MINSTRELS. 123 
 
 When I first knew Koumania, long before its Eoyal 
 and railway days, when Boyars still ruled the land, and 
 serfdom, though legally abolished, was practically a 
 Dacian " institution " by no means devoid of vitality, 
 the laotarl retained some brilliant vestiges, in outward 
 appearance at least, of their pristine smartness and pres- 
 tige. Now-a-days they have come down in the world, 
 like their patrons, the country squires, whom universal 
 suffrage has reduced to nonentity. Not, as in the " good 
 old times," do they perambulate the provinces in glossy 
 velvet jackets and gay crimson kaciule, secure of an 
 hospitable welcome and generous guerdon at every pro- 
 vincial magnate's chateau. They may be seen hanging 
 about hotels in the larger Eoumanian cities, or in subur- 
 ban pleasure gardens (like the Herestreu at Bucharest), 
 of which they constitute the chief attraction. Three or 
 four of their best " brotherhoods," each under the leader- 
 ship of a famous tenor-singer or supremely gifted fiddler, 
 abide permanently in the capital, where during the 
 fashionable season they are in considerable request at 
 diplomatic dinner parties, and at the evening receptions 
 already alluded to. According to the numerical strength 
 of the band engaged, from five to ten pounds will remu- 
 nerate their services for a spell of, say, six hours in 
 duration; tut a guest at such an entertainment may, 
 without committing any breach of the social law, bestow 
 upon them largesse, when leaving the house of his host. 
 Their dress, as a rule, is that of the average Dacian 
 counter-jumper, subfusk in hue, relieved perhaps by a 
 bright scarlet, blue, or pea-green necktie, the solitary 
 outward and visible sign of their congenital fondness for
 
 124 ROUMANIAN MINSTRELS. 
 
 gaudy colours. When not actually playing, they bear 
 themselves cringingly. The brightest things about them 
 are their restless eyes, from which sparks of their innate 
 wildness flash out now and anon, in strange contrast to 
 the prosaic seediness of their attire and spiritless servility 
 of their attitude. But, once launched into the rendering 
 of some fantastic doina or rollicking hora, a surprising 
 change accrues to their demeanour and facial expres- 
 sion ; they draw themselves up cheerily almost proudly 
 and take free elbow-room with the gestures of eman- 
 cipate men, joyously conscious of their natural gifts and 
 developed powers ; their lugubrious physiognomies are 
 illuminated by beaming smiles; the droop, as though 
 by magic, vanishes alike from shoulders, eyelids and 
 mouth-corners. It is then that the art he all unreason- 
 ingly loves transfigures the laotar from a limp loafer into 
 an eager executant of the strangest strains that ever 
 startled and fascinated a cultured musical ear. Not one 
 of these minstrels possesses the least knowledge of the 
 elementary rules of harmony, or is acquainted with even 
 the rudiments of notation. They make music as the 
 birds do, they know not why or how; but from them 
 many a Western composer might pick up valuable hints 
 anent novelty of thematic treatment, so quaintly subtle 
 and exquisitely delicate are the modulations and enhar- 
 monic transitions they contrive to extract from their 
 instruments, often poor in quality and always eccen- 
 trically heterogeneous in combination. One peculiar 
 characteristic of the music they play and sing I may 
 mention here. It is for the most part vocal as well 
 as instrumental doina as well as hora cast in the
 
 ROUMANIAN MINSTRELS. 12-5 
 
 minor mood, and actual discords are frequently employed 
 in the laotari concerted arrangements to enhance the 
 intrinsic gloom of the melody, with a weird and singu- 
 larly impressive effect. 
 
 Nine years have elapsed since my last sojourn one 
 extending over several months at a stretch in the prin- 
 cipalities, since that date promoted to the rank of king- 
 dom ; but during the previous decade, I had enjoyed 
 many opportunities of becoming well acquainted with 
 Eoumanian music and minstrelsy. At one time I knew 
 every eminent laotar in Moldavia, if not in Wallachia, 
 by sight, and was for a strainu (foreigner) tolerably 
 familiar with the artistic specialities of all the " stars," 
 instrumental or vocal, working the country from Suczava 
 to Galatz. Of the many roaming minstrel-bands with 
 which it was my good fortune to foregather in the course 
 of my own successive wanderings through the " scumpa 
 tseara si frumoasa " between the years 1865 and 1875, 
 the "brotherhood" submitted to the sway of Kick the 
 Moldavian, was in every respect the most remarkable. 
 It consisted of eight performers, each of whom could 
 play more than one instrument, and with really extra- 
 ordinary ability, whilst one and all were tuneful and 
 passionate singers. I first came upon them, very late at 
 night, in a summer-garden, the abode of vociferous frogs, 
 myriads in number, and never weary of croaking batra- 
 chian part-songs in every vocal register, from the gruffest 
 of basses to the shrillest of trebles. Thither some of 
 my Boyar friends conveyed me, to sup under the dark 
 blue canopy of a Roumanian midnight sky, and to hear 
 the best minstrelsy in all the laud. As we were sitting
 
 126 ROUMANIAN MINSTRELS. 
 
 in a bosky nook, dimly lighted by one stearine candle, 
 defended from the breezes by a crystal sheath, we 
 became aware of dusky faces peering in upon ns from 
 among the rustling green leaves. It struck me, I 
 remember, that if the owners of such ominous physiog- 
 nomies earned their daily bread by honest means, Dame 
 Nature must have done them a cruel wrong. The situ- 
 ation seemed precarious; suddenly the frog-choruses 
 themselves, to my ear, acquired an intolerably menacing 
 vehemence. Whilst I was anxiously scanning those 
 dingy visages, in the faint hope of detecting a ray of 
 mansuetude in at least one gleaming eye, they all broke 
 out into merry smiles ; off went a fiddle with a humor- 
 ous flourish ; tink-a-tank twangled the double-necked 
 guitar under the deft fingers of Niko Moldoveanul; a 
 flutey tooting revealed the presence of Pandean pipes, 
 uncommonly mellow in quality ; and Nicolai Terranul 
 (Nicholas the Peasant), a slender young Tsigan, with 
 crisply curled black hair, and eyes like dark brown 
 opals, stepped forward, bowing with all the grace and 
 ease of a practised courtier, and sang one of the gayest 
 predatory ballads of his repertoire in a throstle-throated, 
 truly admirable manner. 
 
 The "Peasant" and the " Moldavian " could both 
 fiddle distractingly well, besides singing in such sort as 
 to stir the heart and charm the ear, and playing the 
 ciombolanu a sort of upright zither, plucked at with a 
 plectrum quite inimitably. To either of them a page 
 of printed notes would have been about as intelligible as 
 a chronological brick from Mesopotamia. Of their com- 
 rades, one in particular a withered gipsy, exactly the
 
 ROUMANIAN MINSTRELS. 127 
 
 colour of an ancient copper kettle, with revolving wild 
 eyes was the original genius of the " brotherhood." 
 His instrument was the fiddle, upon which he could 
 imitate exactly the tones of the flute, Paudeans, and 
 three-holed reed the genuine Dacian peasant's solace 
 and only musical " familiar." This incomparable sound- 
 mimic was, moreover, a composer and improvisatore, 
 extravagantly proud of his compositions, which seemed 
 to me the ravings of insane tonality, though there was 
 unquestionably " method in their madness." When he 
 extemporised, his "brothers" accompanied him by ear 
 and intuition, hitting off the just harmonies with a sur- 
 prising prescience of the most improbable melodic tran- 
 sitions. In all his rhapsodies there were real tunes, 
 r-ast in the oddest of rhythms, but correct in form and 
 intelligible enough to a quick musical ear. The copper- 
 coloured, wizened Tsigan had queer ways of his own. 
 His ordinary attitude in the company was retiring, not 
 to say furtive ; but when he detected appreciativeness in 
 his audience he would edge his way through his fellows 
 to their front, jerk his chin down upon his fiddle like 
 some extremely aged and supernaturally wily bird, roll 
 his eyes, wink, and grin a saffron grin. Then, dropping 
 his bow lightly on the strings, he would conjure there- 
 from, with the supplest of wrists and most dexterous of 
 fingers, such weird sounds as I, for one, have never 
 before or since heard produced from any combination of 
 wood, catgut, and horsehair. 
 
 The remaining members of the brotherhood were, 
 avowedly, a second guitar, second-fiddle, three-holed 
 pipe, grunter, and Pandeans. I say avowedly, because
 
 128 ROUMANIAN MINSTRELS. 
 
 those were, so to speak, their official attributes in the 
 band ; but it appeared to me that each man could, at a 
 pinch, play his neighbour's instrument, and others as 
 well. He of the Pandeans was a gipsy version of Don 
 Quixote; very long, very brown, very dried-up, very 
 loose-jointed, with a face chiefly consisting of converg- 
 ing nose and chin, set off by a pair of dark sad eyes, 
 bovine rather than human. All of this artist's flesh that 
 I could see, reminded me, in colour and texture, of South 
 American dried meat. He had a curiously lugubrious 
 way of piping, as though conscious that it was his doom 
 to forward his own process of desiccation by blowing his 
 inward self into the reeds fringing his under lip. Judg- 
 ing by his facial expression whilst dealing with the lower 
 tones, each one of them might have been fraught with 
 his death-warrant. As a player, you could not have 
 looked upon a more melancholy man ; and yet, when it 
 behoved him to sing, he could smile quite genially, 
 whilst giving out rich, velvety bass notes from the 
 deepest depths of his lank, cavernous chest. I found 
 him a pleasant fellow to talk to, profoundly interested in 
 his art, and childishly curious with respect to the music 
 of other lands. So, indeed, were they all ; and I shall 
 never forget the rapture of attention and glow of excite- 
 ment with which they listened to some sketchy souvenirs 
 of Wagner, Berlioz, and Liszt, which I played to them 
 on a dreadful old grand piano one day, when I had bid- 
 den them to my hotel for the entertainment of a few 
 friends. It was a treat to observe their intense apprecia- 
 tion of harmonic methods and treatments absolutely new 
 to them, and to listen to their intelligent attempts to fish
 
 PLUM-PUDDING EXPERIENCES. 129 
 
 out the novelties on their own instruments afterwards. 
 In conclusion, I cannot forbear mentioning what struck 
 me at the time as a fine trait artistic and chivalrous 
 of those untutored but gifted Eoumanian minstrels. They 
 refused their fee, when dismissed for the evening, saying 
 that what I had taught them more than paid for their 
 humble service, without counting the pleasure they had 
 experienced in hearing " undreamt-of sound- wonders." Of 
 such stuff were the Dacian laotari when I knew them ! 
 
 Throughout a period of absence from " my own, my 
 native land," extending over well-nigh a score of years, 
 it was my lot to spend Christmas more than once in 
 places that, even from the modern British tourist's point 
 of view, may be classed as " out-of-the-way," and 
 amongst people having no cognizance whatsoever of our 
 Christmas symbols or of the fare we deem peculiarly 
 appropriate to our family celebrations of the chief Chris- 
 tian anniversary. When compelled by circumstances 
 over which I had no control to pass the festive season in 
 some "foreign part" belonging to the category above 
 alluded to, I invariably made an effort prompted thereto 
 by those old associations which exercise so irresistible 
 an influence upon Englishmen wandering far from home 
 to get up a genuine, thorough-going Christmas dinner 
 for my own delectation and that of any other Briton 
 who, like myself, happened to be enduring temporary 
 exile within my reach. I^eed I say that plum-pudding 
 constituted the leading nay, the one indispensable fea- 
 ture of these symposia ? The mince-pie I have always 
 regarded as an institution of secondary importance ; 
 whereas plum-pudding is an absolute essential to the due 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 PLUM-PUDDING EXPERIENCES. 
 
 observance of the Nativity feast. As far as I am per- 
 sonally concerned, this axiom only holds good when 
 Christmastide comes upon me abroad. In these isles I 
 never eat plum-pudding at that or any other season ; for 
 I do not like it, and it disagrees with me in a quite sur- 
 prising manner. But I have consumed it or something 
 more or less like it on the 25th of December in Berlin, 
 Vienna, Rome, Versailles (at a memorable Christmas ban- 
 quet, eaten within hearing of the guns of Mont Valerien, 
 and in the company of twenty Englishmen well-known 
 to fame, entr'autres William Howard Russell, Alfred 
 Austin, the late Lord Ampthill, Hilary Skinner, and poor 
 Bob Landells), Belgrade, Pesth, and Bucharest. It is 
 of an exceptionally quaint plum-pudding experience 
 that accrued tome in the last-named capital commonly 
 known to Mudie's subscribers as " The City of Pleasure " 
 that I now propose to give some account. 
 
 At the time to which I refer, the State which has 
 lately blossomed out into Royal rank under the style 
 and title of the Kingdom of Roumania was a fief of Tur- 
 key, officially known as the United Principalities of 
 Wallachia and Moldavia, forlorn of railways, badly-off 
 for roads, and governed in a happy-go-lucky sort of way 
 by an intelligent but curiously dissolute Hospodar, 
 hight John Alexander Cusa. The Roumanians were in 
 many important respects a long way behind the inhabit- 
 ants of Central and Western Europe; several arts of 
 modern civilisation were unknown to them ; they were 
 as ignorant of plum-pudding, for instance, as is the 
 unborn babe. Yes ; strange and even unnatural as it 
 may appear to English apprehensions, the Dacians of '64
 
 MY ROUMANIAN COOK. 131 
 
 were as good and happy as it was in their nature to be 
 at Christmastide (their Serbatore Craciunului, by the 
 way, comes off twelve days later than our Feast of the 
 Nativity) without the stimulus to virtuous conviviality 
 that is afforded by plum-pudding. Having ascertained 
 that such was the case by painstaking inquiry, and 
 being detained by the exigencies of a special mission on 
 the banks of "sweet Dumbovizza" during the festive 
 week, I resolved that I would have an indisputable 
 English plum-pudding for my Christmas dinner, or know 
 the reason why. I may as well say at once that I ful- 
 filled the latter moiety of my resolve as completely as 
 the fondest heart could wish but not the former. 
 
 I had set up house or rather, rooms in somebody 
 else's house in a modest kind of way, and engaged a 
 native cook who, being a gipsy as well as a Moldavian, 
 was musical to the core. Meticka (the Eoumanian dimi- 
 nutive for Demetrius) could play the fiddle or ciomboldn 
 with excellent taste and spirit, and sing right tunefully 
 with a soft light tenor voice that would have made the 
 fortune of a French or German hero of operetta. He 
 was also an adept in the somewhat primitive culinary 
 science of Moldo-Wallachia, and could turn out a dish 
 of ud impletatd (stuffed egg-plant) as well as the Hos- 
 podar's chef himself. A cheerier cook than Meticka 
 one freer from professional prejudices or more eager to 
 please his master for the time being I never encountered. 
 Instead of scowling at suggestions after the approved 
 manner of his kind, he received them with genial smiles ; 
 and the less he understood them the more energetically 
 did he endeavour to carry them out. In spite of one or 
 
 K 2
 
 132 A NOVEL EXPEDIENT. 
 
 two startling surprises I had experienced, resulting from 
 his failure to give practical expression to my theoretical 
 instructions, I had faith in Meticka. I deemed him 
 capable of compounding and cooking the plum-pudding 
 in prospectu upon which I had fixed my mind's eye ; the 
 more so that a happy fancy, as I believed, had inspired 
 me with an expedient for guarding him against any of 
 the errors of interpretation or shortcomings of memory 
 that had frustrated his previous efforts to realise my 
 wishes. 
 
 It happened that I had with me, nestling in a secret 
 drawer of my travelling- desk, a maternal grand-aunt's 
 recipe for the composition of an inimitable plum-pudding. 
 Throughout my wanderings per mare per terras I had 
 never parted from this precious document, regarded in 
 my family with deep reverence as the abiding record of 
 a sublime revelation especially vouchsafed to a gifted 
 ancestress. I translated the muniment in question into 
 current Eoumanian, and early in the third week in 
 December proceeded in person to purchase each several 
 ingredient incident to the preparation of a pudding 
 which, for me, was invested with the hallowed character 
 of an heirloom. This done, it became incumbent upon 
 me to induce Meticka to learn by heart the text of my 
 deceased great-aunt's instructions " How to make a 
 Christmas Pudding," as well as the names of that dainty's 
 component parts and the proportions in which they were 
 to be utilised. After I had recited all these details to 
 him in my most impressive manner, I added, " Now, my 
 good Meticka, is there not some easy, popular air in 
 your repertoire of national melodies to which you could
 
 A MUSICAL RECIPE. 133 
 
 adapt this recipe? I think that, were you to sing it 
 about the house for a week or so say as frequently as 
 you are in the habit of favouring us with "Doi ochj " or 
 " Cinel, cinel " you might, so to speak, make it a part 
 of your own being, and thus obviate the possibility of 
 forgetting the least of its prescriptions." His dark eyes 
 sparkled with intelligent joy as he replied, " Beloved 
 sir, there is such an air. You must know it well, for all 
 the laotari (minstrels) sing it, and it is the delight of the 
 Boyars. ' Am un leu ' will take any words ; it is an 
 elastic tune. Leave it to me, domnu ; in an hour your 
 pudding-words shall fit it like a glove ! " 
 
 It may be as well to mention here parenthetically that 
 the favourite lay of Eoumanian peer and peasant alike 
 probably because its leading incident is one eminently 
 calculated to enlist the national sympathies is intituled 
 "Am un leu, s'am se'l be," and embodies a salient 
 Dacian instinct with remarkable exactitude in its first 
 verse, which may be roughly Anglicised as follows : 
 
 I've a piastre 'tisn't mine 
 
 Traderideridera. 
 Nevertheless I'll spend it in wine- 
 
 Traderideridera. 
 
 That being done, my conscience may tell 
 Me whether I have done ill or well 
 
 Traderi, deriderideridera ; 
 Houp la ! deridera ! 
 
 These spirited words, and others to follow, dealing 
 with petty frauds in a light-hearted temper which is 
 highly appreciated in the scumpa tsedra si frumousa that 
 gave my musical Meticka birth, are set to a no less
 
 134 A MUSICAL RECIPE. 
 
 spirited tune almost the only Eouraanian melody known 
 to me that is composed in an exclusively major key ; 
 and, as he reminded me, I had certainly heard it a few 
 hundred times during my sojourn in the Principalities, 
 then drawing towards its close. 
 
 Meticka committed the recipe to memory ; and, hav- 
 ing skilfully adjusted its items and edicts to the above 
 popular melody, went about the house for a day or two 
 more tunefully than ever, singing it at the top of his 
 voice in fifteen verses or so. If I remember aright the 
 opening stanza ran thus : 
 
 Faina, grasime, amestecat; 
 Lemae zagharisita si patrat, 
 Stafide, migdale, mai multe ouu, 
 Smochine, bere, pucin rachiu : 
 
 or, in the vernacular 
 
 Flour and suet, sugar and spice, 
 Candied lemon-peel, cut into dice, 
 Currants and eggs and almonds a few, 
 Raisins and beer, and brandy, too : 
 
 with the " Traderiderideras " all in their proper places, 
 and the jocund " Houp la ! " to wind up with. On 
 Christmas Day, Meticka became almost oppressively 
 vocal with the pudding-song. As the dinner-hour ap- 
 proached, his confidence in the proximate realisation of 
 all the promise so melodiously set forth by that ditty 
 rose to joyous certainty, until the " Houp la ! " of his 
 refrain became, as it were, the triumphant outcry of 
 irrefragable conviction. As I heard him thus proudly 
 carolling in the fulness of his heart, I murmured com-
 
 UNMUSICAL SERVIA. 135 
 
 placently " My Christmas padding is an accomplished 
 fact." 
 
 When, however, the pudding made its appearance on 
 my table in due succession to carne de bouu fripta (roast 
 beef) and curcdn fertu (boiled turkey) it proved to be a 
 gruesome porridge, thick and slab, brownish-grey in 
 colour, studded with dark glutinous knobs of evil aspect, 
 and singularly malodorous. All the precautions of the 
 careful Briton all the minstrelsy of the trustful Dacian 
 had only resulted in this revolting compound. With 
 a mournful smile I unhesitatingly conferred it upon 
 Meticka, whose spirits were effectually damped by an 
 heroic attempt to consume it, and made up my mind, 
 once for all, that (even when set to music) plum-pudding 
 was not achievable in Eoumania by faith or works, or 
 both combined. 
 
 In stating my conviction that the Servians are the 
 most unmusical people in Europe I trust that I do that 
 nation of pig-breeders and plum-growers no very 
 heinous wrong. No kind of art at present flourishes in 
 Servia, nor in those adjacent countries to which, despite 
 Berlin Treaties and other solemn international compacts, 
 she still persists in putting forward a shadowy claim. Ac- 
 cording to the Servian Ethnographical Society which, 
 I may say parenthetically, is imperium in imperio, a power 
 in the youngest of European kingdoms Servia is to its 
 Slav neighbours what the dog, from a railway-traffic 
 point of view, is to other domestic animals, as set forth 
 in that inimitable drawing of Keene representing an 
 old lady on the platform of a station, surrounded by pets 
 in cages and hutches, and a porter holding up a tortoise
 
 136 UNMUSICAL SERVIA. 
 
 demonstratively to her view whilst explaining the tariff 
 to her in the following lucid terms : " The stationmaster, 
 mum, he says as cats is dogs, and rabbits is dogs, and 
 parrots is dogs ; but this here tortus is a hinseck, and he 
 won't make no charge for it." Similarly, to the ardent 
 Czillak patriot, Bulgaria is Servia, and Bosnia is Servia, 
 and the Herzegovina is Servia, not to mention Croatia 
 and Montenegro. Admitting the correctness of his view 
 (only because it suits me to do so for the time being), I 
 say again that Servia, in the most comprehensive sense 
 of the word, is unmusical nay more, that it is the con- 
 verse of musical. What it produces in the way of vocal 
 and instrumental noise is the negation of music, emi- 
 nently calculated to split rocks rather than to soften them, 
 and fully equal, not only to rend the knotted oak, but 
 to saw up that monarch of the forest into planks. During 
 my repeated and, on more than one occasion, protracted 
 sojourns in the Principality that was its rank until 
 a few years ago, when it promoted itself to the rank of 
 Kingdom I have frequently, much too frequently, 
 heard male Servians grunt and female Servians squeal, 
 under the pretence of singing, in a manner that would 
 have done distinguished credit to the most vociferous 
 hog of all the bristly herds that constitute the staple of 
 their national trade ; and it has been my dismal fate, 
 times without number, to listen to Servian military bands, 
 doing such deeds of terror with brass and wood, as have 
 blanched my cheek and chilled my blood. But no sound 
 of strictly Servian origin that has ever reached my ears 
 could be justly described as musical. It must have been 
 a typical Czillak whom Shakespeare had in his mind
 
 UNMUSICAL SERVIA. 137 
 
 when he wrote, " The man that hath not music in his 
 soul, and is not moved by concord of sweet sounds, is fit 
 for treason, stratagem and spoil." As a matter of fact, 
 those are the pursuits for which Servians display an 
 aptitude altogether undeveloped in them as far as the 
 production or appreciation of melody and harmony are 
 concerned. So inveterately indifferent are they to the 
 charms of Polyhymnia that the itinerant concert-troupes 
 annually making their rounds through Eastern Europe and 
 looked for at certain seasons with joyful eagerness by the 
 inhabitants of such out-of-the-way towns as Temesvar, 
 Debreczin, Hermannstadt and Crajova, never dream of 
 crossing the Danube to Servia, well aware that musical 
 performances are permanently at a discount in that sin- 
 gularly inartistic realm. Even the gipsy minstrels, who 
 swarm throughout the Lower Banat on the opposite bank 
 of the great river, steadfastly refrain from expending any 
 portion of their earnings in the ferry-fares between 
 Semlin and Belgrade; sorrowful experience having 
 taught them that the brightest fiddling, gayest piping, and 
 most tuneful singing is incapable of extracting a single 
 copper from the baggy pocket of any human being indi- 
 genous to the Servian capital. On calm summer even- 
 ings, whilst strolling along the riverward ramparts of 
 Belgrade Citadel, you can faintly hear the merry strains 
 of the Zigeuner playing and singing in the hotel-gardens 
 of Semlin to generous and appreciative Austro-Hun- 
 garian audiences, supping al fresco in those leafy retreats 
 with wild minstrelsy obUigato until far into the night. 
 But the sallow songsters shun the right bank of the 
 river, where Save and Danube meet. They might sing
 
 138 THE LATE PRINCE MICHAEL. 
 
 themselves dumb within the precincts of a Belgrade inn, 
 at or after supper time, and yet fail to earn a plaudit or 
 a penny. This they know; and it effectually checks 
 even their errant impulses and enterprising spirit, for 
 they are as greedy of appreciation as of gain. 
 
 In all Belgrade there is not a concert-room no, not 
 even in the Konak, or Eoyal Palace, the illustrious occu- 
 pants of which, from Milosch down to Milan, have one 
 and all been as radically unmusical as their subjects. I 
 once spent three months at a stretch in that city, and was 
 on unceremonious visiting terms with several of its lead- 
 ing families; but I do not remember to have seen a 
 pianoforte in any Servian house, or to have elicited a 
 single admission of partiality to music from any Servian 
 dame or damsel. One morning, whilst breakfasting with 
 the lamented Prince Michael a man of great natural 
 gifts but few accomplishments, to whom, strange to say, 
 music was an offence the conversation happened to turn 
 upon the state of the liberal arts in Servia, and I took- 
 occasion to ask His Highness whether any of the ladies 
 attached to the Court circle were musically inclined, and, 
 if so, who might be the most skilled executants, vocal 
 and instrumental. He replied, without a moment's hesi- 
 tation, " Eeally, I do not know. I believe my cousin 
 Catherine plays the piano ; but I have never heard her 
 do so, for she knows that I dislike every kind of music." 
 The Prince's peculiarity in this respect being notorious 
 throughout Belgrade society, I need scarcely say that 
 music was strictly tabooed at the entertainments given 
 from time to time by the members of the Corps Diplo- 
 matique, whenever which was but rarely their ban-
 
 ALT RIZA PASHA. 139 
 
 quets or soirees were honoured by His Highness' s 
 presence. 
 
 If, in the preceding paragraphs, I have succeeded in 
 conveying to my readers anything like an adequate 
 notion of the hopeless unmusicality characterising the 
 Servian nation, they will assuredly not be surprised to 
 learn that such reminiscences as I have retained of music 
 and musicians in Belgrade are exclusively connected 
 with the foreign element of that capital's population. 
 "When I first paid it a brief visit, nearly twenty years 
 ago, the mighty fortress for the possession of which 
 Moslem and Christian have so often and fiercely fought 
 in times long past, was still in the hands of the Turks, 
 and the first music, or that which was intended to be so, 
 produced for my especial delectation, as the honoured guest 
 of the worthy old Pasha in command of the garrison, 
 was of a nature to all but petrify me with astonishment 
 and consternation. Having gleaned from the British 
 Diplomatic Agent, with whom I was staying, that I was 
 a music-lover, His Excellency Ali Eiza, bent, in the ful- 
 ness of his heart, upon giving me the greatest artistic 
 treat of which he could dispose, despatched the full band 
 of the artillery regiment constituting the bulk of his 
 garrison, to the court-yard of the British Agency at an 
 early hour of the morning after the banquet at which he 
 had entertained me with profuse Oriental hospitality. 
 This band, some forty strong and brass to a man, except 
 the drums and a peal of silver bells intermingled with 
 horse-tails, received orders to take up a position exactly 
 under the bedroom window of the newly-arrived English 
 EfFendi, and there, at precisely seven A.M., to open upon
 
 140 A TEEEIBLE AWAKENING. 
 
 him with the March of Sultan Mechmet by many de- 
 grees the most vigorous concerted piece in the Ottoman 
 military orchestral repertoire. The English Effendi was 
 slumbering profoundly when this visitation burst upon 
 him with all the terrors of the unknown and unexpected ; 
 but had he been a hybernating dormouse, or one of the 
 Seven Sleepers, the preliminary blast and thump of 
 Mechmet would have awakened him with more than 
 lightning-like promptitude. The first thought that 
 flashed across my bewildered brain, as I started up in 
 bed, was that I had been shot out of a eun of large 
 
 / o * ' 
 
 calibre ; the next, presumably suggested by the blare 
 and braying of the trumpets and trombones, that the 
 end of all things was at hand, and the inconceivable 
 clamour assailing my ears was an announcement of that 
 consummation confided to wind instruments of an alto- 
 gether supernatural class. Collecting my scattered wits 
 at the expiration of a few hideous seconds devoted to 
 incoherent conjecture, I got upon my feet and staggered 
 to the window, peering nervously through which I took 
 in the whole dread reality at a glance. There they were, 
 forming a hollow double circle, in the centre of which 
 stood the gorgeous bandmaster, leading with his hand in 
 lieu of a baton two score swarthy, wiry, deep-chested 
 Arnauts, blowing, beating, and jingling at high pressure, 
 and looking as if they could go on doing all these things 
 for unnumbered hours without turning a hair. I may 
 say with truth that I had never entirely realised what 
 cymbals were capable of, in the way of poisoning human 
 happiness, until I heard that band play. Nor had I been 
 aware that any tune could be harmonised in such sort
 
 A TURKISH SERENADE. 141 
 
 that its accompaniment should exclusively consist of dis- 
 cords. As "long I stood there, wondering, fearing," 
 I learnt all this and a good deal more, equally discom- 
 forting. Presently the bandmaster, looking upwards in 
 a spasm of inspiration, brought on by a more than usually 
 deadly dissonance at that particular moment the brasses 
 were playing simultaneously in at least six different keys 
 caught sight of my face at the window. Instantly a 
 lurid smile illumined his tawny countenance ; he waved 
 his hand more frantically than before, and spoke some 
 word of power to his bandsmen, the immediate result of 
 which was an explosion of noise to which their previous 
 achievements in that line had borne the relation of a 
 whisper to an eruption of Vesuvius. By this time my 
 kindly host, slippered and dressing-gowned, made his 
 appearance in my room, and explained to me at the top 
 of his voice that this abominable din was in the nature 
 of a high compliment, paid to me by my august host of 
 the preceding evening that it would last for fully an 
 hour and a-half longer that etiquette required me to 
 remain at my open window throughout the execution of 
 the entire programme, and, finally, that the entertain- 
 ment would cost me at least ten ducats (nearly five 
 pounds), that being the smallest backshish one so highly 
 favoured by the Pasha could offer to the garrison band. 
 " It is rather unfortunate for you," continued his Excel- 
 lency with agreeable complacency, " that Ali Eiza took 
 such a fancy to you last night at dinner, and that I men- 
 tioned to him how fond you are of music. He is a most 
 amiable old gentleman, the very soul of hospitality, and 
 I should not wonder if he were to insist upon sending
 
 142 A TUEKISH SERENADE. 
 
 the band here of a morning, thrice a week or so, to 
 serenade you as long as you remain my guest. You will 
 find it somewhat expensive, I am afraid ; perhaps, too, a 
 little Turkish music may go a long way in your case. I 
 am accustomed to it, and rather like it, being uncom- 
 monly hard of hearing, though it is now and then a 
 thought louder than I could wish ; but I have known 
 people oddly enough, too, of a musical turn upon 
 whom it has produced a very painful impression. By 
 the way, you will have to get yourself up en grand gala 
 after breakfast, take my carriage, and drive to the fortress 
 to thank the Pasha for his graceful attention, and express 
 your delight with the admirable performance of his mu- 
 sicians. It would gratify the good old man if you could 
 assure him that their strains had struck you as being 
 sweeter than those of the nightingale, and softer than 
 the murmur of a perfumed breeze something neatly 
 turned in the Oriental manner, you know." So saying, 
 my Amphitryon departed ; and I returned to the open 
 casement to " suffer and be strong " for other ninety 
 minutes or so. In due time the backshish was adminis- 
 tered to the dusky chef a* orchestre, with the noisome 
 effect of eliciting an extra morceau from the band, in 
 token of its gratitude. In short, I was made to drink 
 of that bitter cup, even to its very dregs. 
 
 Eesolved to carry out my instructions, I visited the 
 Pasha early in the afternoon, and found him installed in 
 the "best room " of the selamlik, obviously expectant of 
 my call. When I assured him of the gratification I had 
 derived from listening to music " such," I emphatically 
 observed, u as I had never before heard or dreamt of in
 
 CRUEL KIXDXESS. 143 
 
 my life " (which was strictly true), his venerable linea- 
 ments positively beamed with delight. "I knew you 
 would like our national airs," he exclaimed; "our friend 
 the Agent told me you were a musician, and as such you 
 could not fail to appreciate them. How much more 
 melodious and beautiful they are than your Western 
 tunes, are they not ? Those fellows I sent to you this 
 morning can play all sorts of Occidental music operatic 
 arrangements, fantasies from Les Huguenots. La Favorite, 
 que sais-je : all very well in their way, I do not doubt, 
 but they fail to please me. So I told the bandmaster 
 upon no account to play anything to you but real 
 genuine Turkish music ; and it seems I did well. You 
 cannot know how it rejoices me that you should appre- 
 ciate our fine stirring melodies " (stirring was the word, 
 I felt, but not exactly in the sense intended by my inter- 
 locutor). "You shall hear one or two of them again, 
 now this is about the hour at which the band plays to 
 amuse my family and myself and I will see that you do 
 not lack the music your soul loves whilst you sojourn in 
 Belgrade. Not a word, my dear friend ; leave it to me 
 nothing will rejoice me more, upon awaking at early morn, 
 than the thought that you are enjoying the finest music 
 in the world, which my thrice happy Destiny enables me 
 to place at your disposal." Five minutes later the band 
 was mustered in the place cFarmes commanded by the 
 Konak windows, and went through its programme of the 
 morning again with punctilious and maddening exacti- 
 tude. A happier man, the while, than All Biza Pasha 
 could not have been discovered within the limits of the 
 Ottoman Empire nor a more miserable wight than my-
 
 144 DISCOMFITURE AND FLIGHT. 
 
 self. That dire day's experiences and the apprehension 
 of what could not but succeed them, should the Pasha 
 fulfil his promise, considerably abbreviated my stay in 
 the Servian capital. In point of fact I quitted Belgrade 
 the very next morning ; and did not return thither until 
 two years later, to witness the evacuation of the fortress 
 by the gallant Turkish garrison, Pasha, band and all 
 upon which occasion, as Prince Michael rode through the 
 citadel gates upon a priceless charger (the Padishah's 
 gift) to take possession of the stronghold he had so long 
 coveted, I heard for the last time the choice selection of 
 Turkish airs that had driven me out of Servia in the 
 autumn of 1865. 
 
 Another curious musical reminiscence of Belgrade 
 dates from the year of the great Servian rebellion (1876), 
 during the greater portion of which it was my duty to 
 abide in the Principality as a chronicler of current 
 events. Whilst in Belgrade, awaiting permission to 
 join the Eusso-Servian headquarters at Parachin, I be- 
 came acquainted with all the members of the Diplomatic 
 Body, which had undergone a complete change of per- 
 sonnel since my last previous visit, and was no less sur- 
 prised than delighted to find amongst them one of the 
 finest amateur pianists and ablest sight-readers in Europe. 
 This was Count Joannini, the chief of the Italian Mis- 
 sion, a pupil and worshipper of Franz Liszt, whose com- 
 positions he played with great facility and infinite relish. 
 Upon paying my first visit to this accomplished musician 
 whom I had hitherto only known by* reputation as a 
 particularly well-informed diplomatist- I found him 
 seated at one of two grand-pianos, arranged head and
 
 COUNT JOANNIXI. 145 
 
 tail in the approved concert "form," in a room the walls 
 of which were lined with bookcases and shelves laden 
 with bound music, whilst every table and chair was 
 profusely littered with "notes" of the newest, printed 
 at Vienna, Leipzig, and Berlin, the leading publishers of 
 which cities, as I afterwards learnt, kept his Excellency 
 supplied, " up to date," with compositions for the P. F. of 
 a certain class. Count Joannini delighted in four-handed 
 playing, and especially in that variety of " morceaux a 
 quatre mains " which is specially written for two clavi- 
 chords. He was not a little proud of possessing every 
 work of the sort that had ever theretofore been printed, 
 from Mozart's tuneful Sonata in D (Series 16) down to 
 Brahms' complex Variations on a Theme by Haydn 
 (opus 56 B). Several of them, forwarded to him since 
 his appointment to the Mission at Belgrade, he had not 
 even heard in their totality, for the simple reason that 
 there was no one in either the native or foreign local 
 circle of society capable of playing them with him. I 
 have seldom seen anybody look so pleasurably astonished 
 as he did when I mentioned that "il suonare a prima 
 vista " was a favourite musical recreation of mine. Two 
 minutes later we were both "in position," with a thick 
 cahier of Liszt's Symphonic Poems facing us ; and, before 
 we parted that afternoon, had worked our way through 
 Tasso, Mazeppa, Hamlet, and the Todtentanz. He was, 
 indeed alas ! that I should have to speak of him in the 
 past tense a brilliantly intelligent pianist, gifted with 
 that quick perception of a composer's meaning which is 
 only exhibited by elect musical natures, and deeply 
 versed in all the most approved methods of dealing with 
 VOL. i. L
 
 146 COUNT JOANXINI. 
 
 technical difficulties. Thenceforth, until the day of my 
 recall from Servia, I spent every hour of my spare time 
 with Joannini at the piano. By the time the great 
 Turkish victory at Djunis had practically put down the 
 rebellion, we had tried every four-handed number in his 
 collection. Shortly afterwards we parted, little thinking 
 we were never to meet again. For four or five years we 
 kept up correspondence, though at long intervals ; my 
 last letter to him, however, remained unanswered, and 
 just four years ago, the melancholy tidings reached me 
 that he had perished by his own hand. Partly through 
 brooding over disappointments connected with his career, 
 and partly through self-torment provoked by pecuniary 
 embarrassment, he gradually lapsed into a state of chronic 
 melancholy, forsaking society, and even foregoing his 
 piano ; until one morning in March, 1882, finding exist- 
 ence altogether intolerable, he locked himself up in his 
 bedroom and blew out his brains. Thus miserably ended 
 one of the most cultivated musical dilettanti it has ever 
 been my good fortune to foregather with a ripe scholar 
 and gentleman of many " excellent differences," but too 
 sensitive and highly-wrought to bear up against a long 
 run of ill-luck. My saddest Eeminiscence of Musicians 
 Abroad is associated with his name.
 
 CHAPTEB VI. 
 
 INDIAN MUSIC. ORIENTAL VERSIONS OF THE BRITISH 
 NATIONAL ANTHEM. 
 
 THIRTY years ago, when the peripetia of the Crimean 
 War were quickening the pulses of Englishmen fever- 
 ishly, it was by no means an uncommon incident of a 
 stroll through London streets to encounter a lean, 
 shivery foreign person with a complexion the colour of 
 curry-powder, chiefly clad in linen and presenting an 
 appearance, generally speaking, of profound and chronic 
 discomfiture. This saffron-hued alien, when shambling 
 along the pavement of a crowded thoroughfare, was 
 rarely vocal or instrumental ; but if you happened to 
 meet him in fashionable or suburban regions, far away 
 from the bustle "and roar of the business centres, you 
 invariably found him singing the songs of his native 
 land to the accompaniment of a peculiarly depressing 
 oblong drum, shaped like a rolly-polly pudding, upon, 
 either skin-clad end of which he beat incessantly with 
 his knuckles. As an unsophisticated child I remember 
 to have asked those set in authority over me what 
 manner of man this might be, and to have been informed 
 that he was " the poor Indian, whose untutored, &c.," 
 and that the instrument he percutated with such dis- 
 
 L 2
 
 148 INDIAN STREET-SINGERS. 
 
 tracting persistency was the tom-tom. At the period I 
 refer to there were a good many of these dingy Oriental 
 soloists about town, to me quite indistinguishable from 
 one another. They all looked exactly alike, and did 
 exactly the same things; things, I am bound to say, 
 almost unbearable to a child afflicted with a musical ear. 
 Their melodies were composed of random notes, alter- 
 nately howled and moaned to dismal monosyllables, all 
 vowels and liquids, something after this manner : 
 " La-la-lo-na-ma-na-lo-la," and so on ad infinitum, with 
 the dub, dub, dub, dub of the rolly-polly drum 
 oblligato all the while, as intolerably iterative as the 
 thumping of the pistons- in the innermost parts of an 
 ocean steamer struggling along at high pressure against 
 a head wind and a heavy sea thumps which generate 
 responsive throbs in the temple and qualms in the mid- 
 riff of the unseaworthy passenger. I remember being 
 incredulous, as a boy, as to these lyrics having any 
 meaning ; to me, and I have no doubt to the majority 
 of my cotemporaries, youthful or adult, they sounded 
 like mere gibberish an idiot's tale, full of sound and 
 fury, signifying nothing. The knowledge of riper years 
 leads me nowadays to surmise that they may have been 
 romantic narratives, such as " The Sports of Krishna," 
 otherwise Samodadamodaro (they sounded very like it) ; 
 or love-songs of the Sakandkshapundarikaksho class ; or 
 haply epithalamia, such as Maninivarnane Chaturacha- 
 turbhujo ; which, I may remark for the information of 
 concert-room vocalists, is sung to the music Deshiya- 
 varadl and in the mode Ashtatall. Moreover, in the 
 ninth Sarga of the Glta Govinda, intituled Kalahantari-
 
 THE " SOXG OF SONGS." 149 
 
 tavarnane Mugdhamukundo, there is a plaintive ditty, 
 the burden of which runs thus : " Ma kooroo manini 
 manamaye " (My proud one, do not indulge in scorn) ; 
 and this, I feel convinced, the ginger-complexioned 
 songsters of my boyhood's days must have been addicted 
 to yelling, for it lends itself so very aptly to the style 
 of voice-production they particularly affected. According 
 to Jayadeva, the inspired author of the Gita Govinda, 
 the refrain in question should be sung to the music 
 Gurjjari, and in the mode Yati. If those saffron min- 
 strels complied with his instructions, I can only say that 
 the music of Gurjjari may have been extremely pleasing 
 to the Eaga Megh, a divine fundamental melody, of 
 which, or rather of whom (for the Eagas ranked as 
 deities in the quaint old Hindoo mythology), she, 
 Gurjjari, was the third wife; but that its effect upon 
 Western organisations lacking, perhaps, the subtlety of 
 sense required for the appreciation of its beauties, was 
 curiously dispiriting. 
 
 Edwin Arnold, one of the greatest of English living 
 poets, who has endowed us with an incomparably beau- 
 tifuL version of Jayadeva's masterpiece, the. Indian 
 " Song of Songs," tells us that from time immemorial 
 music was always taught orally by the Hindoos, and did 
 not, therefore, pass down through the ages from the old 
 minstrels in any notated form. It is thus that he ac- 
 counts for the failure of that illustrious Oriental scholar, 
 Sir William Jones, to discover the original music of the 
 Gita Govinda, notwithstanding the indications afforded 
 by the author, who has prefixed to each of its successive 
 lyrics the name of the " mode " in which it was to be
 
 150 HINDOO SCALES. 
 
 sung. It seems that in the course of his quest after the 
 melodies of the Hindoo Canticle, the Pundits of the 
 South referred Sir William to those of the West, who 
 again referred him to the Northern Brahmins, these 
 latter in their turn declaring that they had no ancient 
 music, but imagined that the notes of the Gita Govinda 
 must exist, if anywhere, in the land of Jayadeva's birth. 
 Edwin Arnold, however, has ascertained that an elabo- 
 rate science of melody was familiar to the ancient 
 Indians, who like the Greeks of yore understood 
 little or nothing of harmony. According to this para- 
 mount authority upon every branch of Oriental art, the 
 distinguishing feature of Hindoo airs still is, as it was 
 in olden times, an extremely fine gradation of notes, 
 which permits the accurate sub-division of the semitone 
 into demi-semitones, on voices and stringed instruments 
 alike, by the native executant. This faculty of sub- 
 division imparts a certain captivating delicacy of nuances* 
 recognisable by all cultivated musicians, to the other- 
 wise monotonous temple-singing of India. 
 
 Nisikanta Chattopadhy&ya, the author of an instructive 
 treatise on the Yatras, or popular dramas of Bengal 
 for the most part miracle-plays like the medieval 
 Christian "Mysteries" after observing that these 
 dramas consist principally of songs, always provided 
 with their respective melodies and cadences, says that 
 the Hindoos have always been ardent lovers of music. 
 Even in the most ancient period of their literature may 
 be found minute directions how the verses of the S&ma- 
 Yeda are to be sung by officiating priests, according to 
 the three different intonations called Udatta, Anudatta
 
 HINDOO SCALES. 151 
 
 and Svarita. " Ganiit parataram nahi " (There is nothing 
 superior to song) is an Indian proverb of extraordinary 
 antiquity, and the Hindoo musical literature is very 
 extensive. Damodara, a renowned writer upon the 
 Divine Art, in his "Mirror of Song" (Sangita-Dar- 
 panam) describes the Hindoo musical scale as being 
 composed of seven tones, types of natural sound ; viz., 
 suruj, the peacock's screech ; rikhub, the parrot's cry ; 
 gundhur, the bleat of the sheep ; muddhun, the crane's 
 call; punchum, the note of the koil, an Indian bird; 
 dhy vut, the horse's neigh ; and nik-had, the trumpeting 
 of the elephant. The notes of the gamut are gener.illy 
 indicated by the first syllables of their designations su, 
 ri, gu, mu, pu, dhu and ni. Out of these seven primi- 
 tive tones are formed six Ragas or divine fundamental 
 airs named Bhairava, Malakosha, Hindola, Dipaka, 
 Criraga and Megh, each of whom has five wives 
 (Raginis). Again, each Ragini has borne to her Raga 
 spouse eight melodious children, the Uparagas, or minor 
 tunes ; so that, according to Edwin Arnold, the orthodox 
 repertory of Indian vocal music, or Hindoo " Little 
 Warbler," contains two hundred and forty distinct and 
 individual songs, each having its fixed occasion, subject, 
 and season, all to be reverently observed ; as otherwise 
 the deity presiding over each separate lyric was not 
 thought likely to attend and give perfect effect to the 
 music. " These lyric divinities," writes the author of 
 " The Light of Asia," are personified and described in 
 such works as the "Ratnamala:" thus " Gurjjari " (a 
 melodic manner frequently prescribed for use by Jaya- 
 cleva in the Indian "Song of Songs") "is represented
 
 152 INDIAN MUSICAL SCIENCE. 
 
 as a feminine minstrel of engaging mien, dressed in a 
 yellow bodice and red sari richly bedecked with jewels, 
 and enthroned in a golden swing." 
 
 By the Hindoo Pundits of old, musical science was 
 divided into seven branches ; surudhyaya, or solfeggio ; 
 tal, or time ; nrit, or rhythmical dancing ; aurth, or 
 poetry; rag, or melody; bhav, or expression; and hust, 
 answering to method, or touch. Endless constructive 
 subtleties characterised these musical terms. "Thus" 
 (I quote again from Arnold's preface to his version of 
 the Gita Govinda) "tal, or time, is a word made up of 
 the first letters of tand, the dance of Mahados, and las, 
 the dance of his consort Parvati. But these are mere 
 etymological niceties, characteristic of the hard language 
 in which one single word may be written in a hundred 
 and eight ways.'' According to the erudite Nisikanta 
 Chattopadhyaya, the same spirit of nice distinctions and 
 minute analysis is manifest in the divisions of the various 
 cadences (Talalaya) into which each Eaga, Eagini, and 
 Uparaga is appropriately fitted. 
 
 Hindoo musical instruments are of four classes (1) 
 tata, the lute kind ; (2) sushira, the flute kind ; (3) 
 avanaddha, the drum kind; (4) ghana, the bell kind. 
 Of these, the lute proper, or vina, was formerly the 
 national instrument par excellence. Sarasvati, the Hindoo 
 goddess of learning and music, and Eishi Narada, the 
 most popular of Indian saints, are always represented 
 holding a vina, and, in the Jajurvedas, Jajnavalkya is 
 described as the inventor of an instrument of this sort 
 having a hundred strings. The European voice registers 
 are known to the Hindoos by the names udara (bass),
 
 INDIAN SONGS. 153 
 
 mudara (tenor), and tara (soprano). Eagas, Eagtnis, 
 and Uparagas, which may be roughly defined in English 
 as rudimentary airs, melodic methods and perfected 
 popular tunes, must so says Nisikanta be carefully 
 adjusted to the divers feelings or states of mind which 
 songs are meant to express, and are invariably so 
 adjusted in the Miracle-Plays, lyrical dramas still so 
 popular in Bengal that they are acted there not only 
 thrice a year, during the three feasts and processions in 
 honour of Krishna, but in all months and seasons upon 
 festive occasions, religious or secular. The Yatra songs 
 are said to be as numerous as the stars, and the list of 
 Hindoo composers, from the tenth century down to the 
 present time, would fill a portly tome. Of cotemporary 
 Indian song- writers, or rather song-setters, Eajah Cau- 
 rindra Mohan Tagore is at once the most fertile and 
 popular. I have, unfortunately, been unable to get hold 
 of a single specimen of his creative ability as a melodist ; 
 but from what I have gathered from Indian" acquaint- 
 ances respecting the character of his compositions, I 
 should imagine that he must be the Jack Hatton of 
 Hindostan. 
 
 Not even the great authorities to whom I am indebted 
 for so much valuable information upon the subject of 
 Indian music have been able to find out the name of the 
 maestro who composed the music of the Glta Govinda, 
 probably the most ancient opera in existence ; by the 
 way, Nisikanta compares it and other Yatras of equal 
 antiquity to the Pastorals of Tasso and Guarini, in 
 which songs predominated over dialogue, and which, 
 moreover, treated of shepherds and shepherdesses, as
 
 154 HINDOO MELODIES. 
 
 did the popular Indian lyrical drama. Edwin Arnold, 
 who has heard all these pieces performed in the best 
 manner by native artists, is of opinion that the 
 special music composed to the " Song of Songs," could 
 it be recovered from the limbo of ages and rendered 
 intelligible to European musicians by the aid of modern 
 notation, would add immensely to the interest of the 
 Sanskrit Canticle. Even at present, he says, any com- 
 petent inquirer into the existing melodies of India, 
 popular and sacred, might find his research rewarded by 
 many exquisite airs, worthy of study by Western com- 
 posers and music-lovers. Perhaps the English ear is not 
 quite finely trained enough yet to relish demi-semitones, 
 which appear to constitute the peculiar charm and special 
 attraction of Hindoo songs ; but experiments in Indian 
 vocalism would, I have no doubt, be listened to with the 
 greatest interest by London amateurs, were any oppor- 
 tunity of hearing it afforded to them. Where, however, 
 are Indian songs, printed or in manuscript, to be ob- 
 tained? I have put this question to several "old 
 Indians" in succession, without, however, obtaining 
 anything like a satisfactory answer. One or two have 
 expressed their conviction that Hindoo music cannot be 
 adequately expressed by European notation ; and this 
 may be so, if demi-semitones constitute one of its chief 
 integral elements. At any rate, I have failed in all my 
 endeavours to obtain a sight of any Indian musical com- 
 position, vocal or instrumental, although Edwin Arnold 
 distinctly states that the Indians of to-day have still 
 their dhoorpuds, or heroic ballads; their kheals, ghuzuls 
 and rekhtahs, love-songs of Mogul derivation ; their
 
 HINDOO MELODIES. 155 
 
 dadras and nuktahs, serenades of Hindoo origin ; the 
 tuppah, hummed by Hindi and Punjabi camel-drivers ; 
 the terana, or " song without words ; " the palna, or 
 cradle-song ; the sohla, or marriage strain ; the stood, 
 or eulogistic chants ; and the zikri, which are hymns 
 of morality. It is possible that among these varieties 
 of vocal music, some echoes of the antique melodies to 
 which Jayadeva's admirable lyrics were set, may be pre- 
 served ; for conservatism in every sort of art is a leading 
 Hindoo characteristic. Perhaps those chilly strangers 
 with the gamboge cheeks and opaline eye-balls, with 
 whom old memories prompt me to associate Indian 
 music, knew how to sing the loves of Eadha and 
 Krishna as they were sung by skilled gundharbs or goo- 
 uees about the time at which Henry II. reigned over 
 England, and could have chanted the demi-semitonic 
 scales with all the accuracy and finish not infrequently 
 displayed by the common or garden cat in practising 
 that description of vocal exercise. Alas ! those Asiatic 
 minstrels are no longer perceptible to the naked eye in 
 London streets. The Indian Mutiny put English folk 
 out of conceit with songsters who, independently of the 
 fact that their performances were a very stomach-ache of 
 sound, looked as if they might have been own brothers 
 to the merciless traitors who butchered English women 
 and children at Cawnpore. An unreasonable fancy, very 
 likely; but it certainly knocked the Hindoo vocalist's 
 profession on the head as far as this country was 
 concerned. 
 
 At a time when the loyalty of our Indian fellow-sub- 
 jects is a factor of surpassing importance in the great
 
 156 INDIA'S NATIONAL ANTHEM. 
 
 problem we are called upon to solve viz., How the British 
 Empire may be preserved in its vast and stately entirety 
 and when we are being daily assured by Continental 
 friends and foes alike that the populations subjected to 
 our rule in Hindostan are so sick and tired of our selfish 
 and unscrupulous tyranny that they positively yearn to 
 exchange it for the disinterested and conscientious pro- 
 tection of Kussia, it may not be inopportune to point out 
 that the natives of British India have of late years mani- 
 fested an ever-growing disposition to rival Englishmen 
 in their fealty to the Imperial Crown, and more especially 
 in their devotion to the person of our gracious Empress- 
 Queen. To the majority of untravelled Britons, India is 
 still a splendid mystery, the secrets of which they have 
 not even attempted to penetrate, chiefly because the 
 engrossing nature of their bread-earning pursuits in this 
 country hinders them from bestowing serious attention 
 upon matters not immediately concerning their daily life- 
 routine. It may be doubted, for instance, that one Anglo- 
 Saxon in twenty is aware of the fact that " God save the 
 Queen " is every whit as familiar to her Majesty's Indian 
 subjects as it is to the denizens of these isles ; that, in 
 short, it is no less the National Anthem of Hindostan than 
 of Great Britain, Canada, and Australia. Yet this is un- 
 doubtedly the case. The patriotic emotion such as it is 
 of the Berkshire ploughman and Bengali ryot finds vocal 
 expression upon high-days and holidays in one and the 
 same hymn, allowance being made for certain intrinsic 
 and unconquerable differences between the English and 
 Indian idioms and musical figures. For it must be under- 
 stood that English tune-forms are as unmanageable I may
 
 INDIA'S NATIONAL ANTIIEM. 157 
 
 even say irreproducible by Indian vocalists and instru- 
 mentalists as are the Ragas, Eaginis and Uparagas of 
 Hindoo music by our own executants. Our plain-sailing 
 melodies, which set forth no narrower interval than a 
 semitone, appear, no doubt, at once intolerably coarse 
 and tame to the Indian ear, trained to relish subtler sub- 
 division of sound ; whilst the tunes of the great Asiatic 
 peninsula, abounding as they do in demi- semitones and 
 thirds of notes, untranscribable by our system of notation, 
 seem utterly incoherent and meaningless to European 
 musicians, whose oral receptivity of intervals between 
 note and note is restricted to the capacities of the chro- 
 matic scale. Without going so far as to say that it is 
 impossible for a skilled Hindoo vocalist gundharb or 
 goonee to sing an English song exactly as it is written, 
 I may confidently assert that he or she would experience 
 great physical difficulty and inconvenience in doing so. 
 No melody, of course, could ever become popular in any 
 country unless it could be sung with perfect ease by the 
 uneducated as well as the cultivated music-lover ; where- 
 fore, in order to insure the popularity of " Grod Save the 
 Queen " throughout our Indian Empire, it was necessary 
 not only to translate the words of the National Anthem 
 into the leading languages of that huge realm, but to fit 
 them with tunes at once singable by Indian vocalists and 
 suitable to Indian taste. 
 
 This was no small undertaking ; but it was successfully 
 carried out some few years ago by the London National 
 Anthem Committee, a body of gentlemen constituted, if 
 I remember aright, shortly after her Majesty's assumption 
 of the Imperial style and title, with the object of fami-
 
 158 SOURINDRO MOHUN TAJOEE. 
 
 liarising the natives of British possessions in all parts of 
 the world with " God Save the Queen," by furnishing 
 them with metrical versions of that hymn in their respec- 
 tive tongues, as well as with such musical settings of the 
 translations or paraphrases in question as might meet 
 their views of what an eminently popular lyric ought to 
 be. To achieve this end, as far as British India was con- 
 cerned, the Committee appealed to a learned Pundit, 
 skilled alike in the arts of poetry and music Sourindro 
 Mohun Taj ore and persuaded him to undertake the task 
 of rendering the words of the National Anthem into 
 Sanskrit and Bengali, and of setting those words to tunes 
 of a distinctly Indian character. Despite the difficulty 
 of supplying equivalents in either of these languages to 
 English words (such synonyms being only contrivable 
 by ingenious generalisation), and that of writing verse in 
 them which shall conform to the rules of English metre 
 a difficulty, in the latter case, rendered almost insur- 
 mountable by the fact that Bengali and Sanskrit words 
 end for the most part in vowels, whilst English words 
 generally terminate in consonants Sourindro fulfilled 
 the commission with which he was entrusted, and in such 
 a masterly manner that his musical and metrical versions 
 of " God Save the Queen " have, in an incredibly short 
 space of time, taken as firm root in Indian soil as has 
 the original anthem in its native country. To suit the 
 musical tastes of different Indian races for it appears 
 that each province of Hindustan has its own melodic 
 method, or, at the very least, manner Sourindro adapted 
 four native and highly popular tunes to his words, and 
 composed eleven other melodies to which they might be
 
 INDIA'S NATIONAL ANTHEM. 159 
 
 sung, and in which local predilections for this or that 
 sequence of intervals or rhythmical eccentricity have 
 been carefully considered. 
 
 It seems that "God Save the Queen," as we know it 
 (and the Germans too, under the title of " Heil Dir im 
 Siegeskranz ") bears no inconsiderable resemblance to a 
 famous old Indian melody, hight Lurna-Jhijhiti. This 
 latter, therefore, having been submitted to a few slight 
 alternations, requisite in order to make it fit English, 
 Sanskrit, and Bengali words alike, holds the first place in 
 Sourindro's series of adaptations and compositions. It is 
 little less simple than Dr. Bull's tune. The second number 
 of the series is itself a series ; that is to say, it consists 
 of the four verses of the anthem, each set to a different 
 variation of the Indian melody Behaga, also a tolerably 
 intelligible and unsophisticated strain, though I may 
 observe that it is exclusively made up of natural notes. 
 No. 3 (Eagini Bibhasa) is one of Sourindro's original 
 compositions, chiefly remarkable by the circumstance 
 that, being written in the natural key, it does not con- 
 tain, or rather use, the subdominant F. In No. 4 (Eagini 
 Saranga), also by Sourindro, the notes E and A are con- 
 spicuous by their absence from the tune, the intervals of 
 which, here and there, resemble those with which Scotch 
 reels have long since made us familiar. No. 5 (Eagini 
 Khambaj), another original Sourindro, is written in the 
 key of F, but concludes in that of C, which would appear 
 to be the predominant key of No. 6 (Eagini Yogina), 
 into which, however, Sourindro has introduced B flat and 
 A flat in a haphazard sort of way that produces an ex- 
 ceedingly curious effect upon the ear. His next version
 
 160 INDIA'S NATIONAL ANTHEM. 
 
 (Ragini Gauri) is extremely peculiar, from a European 
 musical point of view, and abounds in quaint intervals 
 and uncommon progressions. 
 
 In No. 8 (Bagini Bhairabi), Sourindro Mohun Taj ore, 
 whilst professing to maintain the natural key, has in- 
 dulged in some quite amazing vagaries with the four 
 primary flats ; or rather, to speak correctly, he has re- 
 frained from modifying the feats in that direction of the 
 composer (whose name is supposed to be hidden behind 
 the veil of extreme antiquity) of the Indian melody 
 Bhairavi, to which our learned Pundit has adapted all 
 three sets of the National Anthem's words. This melody 
 seems to indicate that its author tried to write it in the 
 key of C (about which he was not quite certain), on the 
 vague but accommodating principle of "when in doubt, 
 put in a flat.' 7 It is indeed a fearful and wonderful tune, 
 but it is surpassed in all its more surprising characteristics 
 by Bagini Tori, the air which immediately follows it, 
 respecting which I entertain the double conviction, firstly, 
 that its unlikeness to " God Save the Queen " is an 
 absolute miracle of ingenuity on Sourindro's part ; and 
 secondly, that, whatever Hindoo songsters may be able 
 to achieve in the way of tackling it, no English vocalist 
 will ever succeed in doing so. This tune, in which the 
 four flats with which Bagini Bhairabi is bedevilled are 
 supplemented, as instruments of oral torture, by F sharp, 
 is eminently calculated to enable the Western world to 
 realise exactly why it is that Europeans fail to appreciate 
 the subtle charms of Indian music; and furthermore, 
 how it is that ears trained to take in such hair-raising 
 compositions as Bagini Tori with grateful rapture are
 
 INDIA'S NATIONAL ANTHEM. 1G1 
 
 congenitally unreceptive of straightforward Occidental 
 strains. 
 
 Before concluding this all too superficial notice of 
 Sourindro's musical versions of our National Anthem, it 
 may be as well to point out, with respect to the nine 
 melodies already referred to, that the first, second, and 
 fifth are generally sung at night ; the third, sixth, eighth, 
 and ninth, in the morning ; the fourth, at midday ; and 
 the seventh in the evening. "Why this is so I have not 
 the least idea ; but I have the learned man's word for it, 
 and entertain no manner of doubt that the above time 
 distribution of the tunes in question, which involves no 
 change in the words sung to them, is the outcome of 
 some solemn ordinance that carries conviction to the 
 Indian mind. 
 
 The tenth of the series before me (Ragini Shahand) is 
 a melody though I should not have thought so, judging 
 by internal evidence which was a great favourite in 
 days long past with the Mohammedan Emperors of India. 
 According to Sourindro, it is usually sung on auspicious 
 occasions, and is therefore admirably adapted for "a 
 benedictory song " like the National Anthem. This, I 
 venture to observe, is a matter of opinion. To me it 
 appeai-s to be the sort of tune eminently calculated to 
 produce a lethal effect upon " milky mothers." No. 11, 
 again (Eagini Surata), " is one of the melodies sung in 
 the rainy season," and was selected by the Pundit as he 
 modestly states in his luminous introduction to the series 
 in order to specially commemorate the honour con- 
 ferred upon him, during that very season of the year, by 
 the National Anthem Society in asking him to undertake 
 
 VOL. i. M
 
 162 INDIA'S NATIONAL ANTHEM. 
 
 " a loyal and grateful task." The twelfth (Kagini 
 Misra-Deogiri) exhibits rhythmical peculiarities, of which 
 its composer endeavours to convey some notion in the 
 following explanatory sentence. " It has," he writes, 
 " been composed without reference to the number or 
 duration of notes, as observed in the original English 
 piece, and is an adaptation from a style of singing known 
 in India as Nagara-Kirtana, first introduced by Chai- 
 tanya Deva, the great religious reformer of Bengal, who 
 flourished about 1498 of the Christian era. The music 
 is religious in character, and is generally intended for 
 singing by a large number of persons in street proces- 
 sions." This version of " God Save the Queen "is an 
 especially interesting illustration of the class of air which, 
 from a Hindoo point of view, is distinctly of a religious 
 character ; for, strange to say, it will be pronounced by 
 English musicians to be by far the most cheerful, not to 
 say rollicking, of Sourindro's whole series. For the 
 fitting, or rather misfitting of the English words to this 
 astonishing tune, he alone is responsible. As he has 
 arranged them, they cannot be sung without violating 
 every existing law and custom of metre. Perhaps his 
 Sanskrit and Bengali words go smoothly enough to a 
 wildly incoherent scrabble of notes. Not being able to 
 read them myself, and not having an Indian minstrel at 
 hand to sing them to me, for which circumstance I am 
 humbly grateful, I cannot pronounce any positive opinion 
 upon this point. But I hope they suit Sourindro's music 
 better than do the good old English words, as adapted 
 to that learned Pundit's ingenious adaptations.
 
 CHAPTEK VII. 
 
 JAPANESE MUSIC. 
 
 IN all probability my readers, with few exceptions, 
 availed themselves of the opportunities of hearing 
 Japanese vocal and instrumental music that were 
 afforded to Londoners some months ago, before the 
 " devouring element " swallowed up the busy little vil- 
 lage, which, while it lasted, was so constantly fre- 
 quented by the " first flight " of our metropolitan idlers. 
 Without wishing to impugn the intrinsic beauty of the 
 compositions that were performed by the dusky villagers 
 for the delectation of the British public at South 
 Kensington, I venture to assume that the majority of 
 English music-lovers will agree with me, in relation to 
 those compositions, that Japanese music is not altogether 
 intelligible to the European ear, which, moreover, does 
 not derive unmixed gratification from listening to it ; 
 that its melodies scarcely realise our preconceived 
 notions of tunefulness; and that its harmonies, possibly 
 owing to their extreme subtlety of contrivance, are to us 
 sources of perplexity, not to say distress, rather than of 
 rapture. Strange as it may seem to the habitues of 
 Eichter's Concerts, Monday Pops, and miscellaneous 
 matinees , such as the London musical season abounds 
 
 M 2
 
 164 JAPANESE MUSICAL OPINION. 
 
 in, the Japanese relish the works of European composers 
 every whit as little as we appreciate the songs, instru- 
 mental soli and concerted pieces of Japan. They are of 
 opinion that our physical organisation for the reception 
 of musical impression is far inferior to their own, and 
 therefore incapable of distinguishing, one from another, 
 the exquisitely delicate finesses of their tone-gradations 
 and harmonic combinations. Conversing one day with 
 Dr. Mueller, the Oriental historian, on the subject of 
 music and the relative merits of the German and 
 Japanese schools, a noble Japanese, renowned for his 
 proficiency in the fine arts, observed : u Your European 
 compositions can only give pleasure, in Japan, to 
 children, coolies, and women. There lives not a Japanese 
 of good birth, breeding and education who can put up 
 with them for a moment. They are insignificant and 
 dull, lacking alike in invention and variety." The 
 gentleman who pronounced this crushing sentence upon 
 the music of the West had been a sojourner in Berlin 
 and Vienna, where he had heard the symphonies of 
 Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert executed by the best 
 orchestras of Germany and Austria. Those master- 
 pieces impressed him as poor, weak, colourless compo- 
 sitions, unworthy of comparison to the rich, vigorous 
 and brilliant musical works of his native country. 
 
 I have no doubt that any distinguished English 
 musical amateur, if asked for his opinion upon Japanese 
 strains, would speak at least as unfavourably of them 
 as the Japanese dilettante spoke of the immortal German 
 Masters' sublime productions. To our apprehensions of 
 melody and harmony Japanese airs and concerted pieces
 
 ORIGIN OF JAPANESE MUSIC. 165 
 
 appear incoherent and discordant ; but, simply because 
 we cannot understand and appreciate it, we are scarcely 
 justified in denouncing the music of Japan as absolutely 
 meaningless. As a matter of fact, the art of music, as 
 it is cultivated and practised in Japan and China, has 
 been for many centuries past an important element of 
 civilisation. It plays a leading part in all public 
 ceremonies of a religious, official, or social character; it 
 is the favourite private recreation of all classes, from 
 prince to peasant; its invention and development are 
 attributed to the gods ; and it is organised, as a science, 
 upon a system of such extraordinary complexity and 
 comprehensiveness (being inix~d up with astronomy, 
 mathematics, and codes of symbols that have to do with 
 all sorts of objects, animate und inanimate), that our old- 
 established arrangements and rules concerning notation, 
 counterpoint, thorough-bass, &c., when compared with 
 those of Japan, appear to be almost absurdly simple and 
 childlike. Between English and Japanese "theory" 
 there is about as considerable a difference as between 
 simple addition and the extraction of the cube root. It 
 would be unreasonable to deny the value and signi- 
 ficance of music having so elaborate a scientific system 
 for its constructive basis, and being, moreover, a 
 national institution of extraordinary antiquity, the pride 
 and delight of a most intelligent and ingenious people. 
 As in the Greek mythology, its origin is ascribed by the 
 sacred historians of Japan to a Deity identified in 
 popular belief with the sun. The Japanese Apollo, 
 however, was a lady, rejoicing in the euphonious title of 
 Amaterasu no Ohongami, and the only daughter of
 
 166 A MUSICAL LEGEND. 
 
 Izanagi, the leading male divinity of Japan, from whose 
 right eye she issued one fine morning whilst he was 
 bathing in the sea. Ohongami was a lovely creature, but 
 short-tempered and sulky. She took offence, shortly 
 after her birth, at the harmless badinage of one or two 
 frivolous young gods of the "masher" type, who chaffed 
 her about her toilette ; and all of a sudden shut herself 
 up in a gloomy cavern, the only entrance to which she 
 blocked with a huge boulder, declaring that thenceforth 
 she would have nothing more to do with such rude 
 Deities. These latter, who one and all admired her 
 extremely, held a meeting in the dried-up bed of a river, 
 where they unanimously passed a resolution to the effect 
 that the Radiant Maid must be induced to return to her 
 family and friends by hook or by crook. Accordingly 
 Iskikoridome and Amatsumore, the Japanese Mercury 
 and Vulcan, fabricated a perfect mirror of extraordinary 
 dimensions, and hung it up on a branch of a tall japonica 
 just in front of the rock closing the entrance to the 
 cavern. They then commenced a musical entertainment, 
 specially arranged for the occasion by the celestial hier- 
 archy. The first number was a chorus, performed by 
 several hundred cocks, the heralds of sunrise. As the 
 Growings of these " early birds " failed to produce the 
 desired effect upon the goddess, a female Deity named 
 Ame no Udsume played a solo on the fife, accompanied 
 by several other immortals on bowstrings, at which they 
 plucked with bamboo plectra, and on pieces of sonorous 
 wood, beaten with drumsticks. This morceau d" 1 ensemble 
 proving as unsuccessful as the chanticleer part-song to 
 lure Ohongami forth from her subterraneous retreat,
 
 A MUSICAL LEGEND. 167 
 
 Udsume climbed upon the lid of an enormous round 
 wooden box, and began to dance, singing the while a 
 plaintive lay, the words of which have been preserved 
 to the present day, and are utilised in connection with 
 the Japanese numeral system. They run as follows : 
 " Hito futa miyo, Itsu muyu nano, Ya kokono tari, 
 Momo chi yorodsu;" anglice, "Gods, look at the gate, 
 behold the majestic goddess ; Shall not joy fill our hearts? 
 Are not my charms potent ? " Hearing these eulogies, 
 presumably addressed to a rival beauty, Ohongami could 
 not resist the temptation to push back the rock a little 
 bit, in order to peep at her competitor, and was heard to 
 mutter, "I thought that my eclipse would plunge Heaven 
 and Japan into darkness and consternation. Why, then, 
 is Udsume dancing on a box-lid, and why do the gods 
 indulge in unseemly merriment ? " Udsume replied, " I 
 am dancing and they are in high spirits because we have 
 amongst us a goddess infinitely handsomer and more 
 powerful than yourself." As she spoke, the first-class 
 Divinity Ame no Futadama no Mikoto thrust forward 
 the mirror to the cavern entrance, and Ohongami, 
 fascinated by the reflection of her own charms, issued 
 from her hiding-place. The bearer of the looking-glass 
 at once took her by the hand and implored her, on 
 behalf of himself and friends, to join those present in 
 "a little music," which she complacently agreed to do, 
 and never thereafter manifested any desire to withdraw 
 herself from public attention. In this quaint legend is 
 embodied the Japanese account of the origin of music, 
 to which art, even when illustrated by such primitive 
 instruments as bowstrings and drumsticks, the world
 
 168 MUSICAL CULTURE IN JAPAN. 
 
 lies under at least one paramount obligation, the re- 
 appearance of the sun having been brought about by the 
 morning concert given by the denizens of the Japanese 
 Olympus to Amaterasu no Ohongami, the "influential 
 goddess who shines in the heavens." 
 
 The influence exercised by Japanese music in its 
 native country does honour to its illustrious extraction, 
 and fulfils the exalted destiny foretold to it by its Divine 
 inventors, one of whom is reported to have spoken of it 
 in the following somewhat highflown terms : " Music 
 has the power of making heaven descend to earth ; it 
 inspires human beings with the love of virtue and the 
 practice of duty. Do you wish to know if a kingdom be 
 well governed, and if its morals be good or bad ? En- 
 quire what sort of music is current within its frontiers ! " 
 In no European country is music so intimately associated 
 with the routine of every-day life as in Japan, where it 
 is regarded as the necessary solace and amusement of 
 mankind. Amongst women the art is so assiduously 
 cultivated that every Japanese matron or maiden is more 
 or less skilled in the manipulation of some musical instru- 
 ment ; and the poorest bride's dowry includes a Sonokoto, 
 or thirteen-stringed lute, and a Samhine, or three-stringed 
 guitar. At every street-corner in Japanese towns min- 
 strels of the improvisators class may be encountered, 
 who chant extempore ballads of inordinate length, 
 accompanying themselves on guitars of different shapes 
 and sizes, every one of which has its own special title and 
 " method." In the Yoshiwara (District of Delights) at 
 Tokio, Mr. Mitford counted nearly four hundred tea- 
 houses, in which the well-to-do inhabitants of that city
 
 TEMALE MINSTRELS. 169 
 
 gave their formal dinner-parties and " receptions." 
 Music is a leading feature of these entertainments, and 
 the establishments in question, despite their large num- 
 ber, are all well supplied with executants. So general, 
 indeed, is the demand for music at public places of 
 refreshment in Japan, that even the humblest inns and 
 cabarets are provided with Geshias (female minstrels), 
 who welcome the traveller on his arrival, and amuse him 
 during his repasts with performances upon the Shami- 
 seng, a three-stringed guitar, the body of which is made 
 of mulberry-wood covered with catskin. This instru- 
 ment, which can be tuned in five different ways, is gene- 
 rally used for accompanying the voice, and is played 
 with a plectrum. The Geshias are farmed out to tea- 
 houses, hotels and private persons requiring their ser- 
 vices by impresarii, who buy them at the age of five or 
 six from their parents, at the rate of from thirty to fifty 
 shillings apiece. Their proprietors have them taught to 
 sing and to play upon two or three instruments ; when 
 they have completed their fourteenth year, if they are 
 capable of taking part in concerted music, they are 
 drafted into a tea-house orchestra, and acquire a market 
 value of twenty pounds or so. The charge made for a 
 Geshia's services averages eightpence per hour, besides 
 which she is entitled to a small bonus daily. This she 
 saves up for her dowry ; in the course of fifteen years, 
 the term of her bondage, it accumulates until she is 
 finally in possession of a sum which enables her to find a 
 husband. During her professional career she invariably 
 goes by a "stage name;" on retiring into private life 
 she cuts her past adrift, as it might interfere with her
 
 170 MUSICAL GUILDS. 
 
 matrimonial chances, marries some decent small trades- 
 man or skilled handicraftsman, and makes, for the most 
 part, an excellent wife and mother. 
 
 All Japanese musicians belong to corporations of one 
 or another of four classes. The first of these is a highly- 
 dignified and aesthetic body of " swells," called the 
 Gakounine. Its members rank "with and after" the 
 most exalted officers of the State ; in former times it 
 was the fashion amongst the Daimios, or great terri- 
 torial nobles, to belong to the Gakounine, which devotes 
 itself exclusively to the study and performance of sacred 
 music. The "brethren of the Gakounine" are one and 
 all distinguished instrumentalists, profoundly versed in 
 the secrets of musical science. The Mikado's orchestra 
 the best in Japan is composed of their picked 
 soloists, and, I need scarcely say, plays nothing but 
 pieces of a religious character and of great antiquity. 
 Its repertoire comprehends all the strictly "classical" 
 music of the country. The second corporation, that of 
 the Ghenine, includes all the male performers of profane 
 music, few of whom have penetrated the mysteries of 
 "theory," or are familiar with the elaborate system of 
 notation obtaining in Japan. They rank in the social 
 hierarchy with merchants, and supply executants to the 
 Taicoon's private band. The third corporation, which 
 ^ is divided into two categories, the Kengio and Koto, 
 jp consists exclusively of blind men, and is restricted to the 
 execution of what the Japanese term " Ordinary Music" 
 presumably dances and popular ballads. This corpo- 
 ration is a branch of the Boussets-Sato, or Association 
 of the Blind, founded in the twelfth century by Kakigo,
 
 MUSICAL GUILDS. 171 
 
 a famous Japanese general who, being vanquished and 
 taken prisoner in battle, tore out his own eyes and 
 threw them at the feet of his captor. The members of 
 this association shave their heads, practise all manner 
 of crafts and callings, and pay their wages into the 
 exchequer of the order, which provides for their main- 
 tenance. Those amongst them, who are unfit for any 
 other trade or profession become musicians, and are 
 chiefly employed in playing at Court, at public fetes and 
 at noblemen's private parties. The chief of the Boussets- 
 Sato resides at Miako and is invested with absolute 
 authority over all the members of the Association, any 
 one of whom he may condemn to die ; his death-sentence, 
 however, must be confirmed by the Minister of Justice 
 before it can be carried into effect. 
 
 The fourth corporation or class of musicians by far 
 the most numerous of all, as well as the least respectable 
 includes all sorts and conditions of Japanese women 
 who earn their living by taking part in musical perform- 
 ances. To this army of female executants the Geshias 
 contribute the largest contingent, many thousands in 
 number. The fair sex, in Japan, is not permitted to 
 share actively in any performance of sacred music. This 
 prohibition, no doubt, has its origin in a prejudice akin 
 to that which, in Catholic countries, formerly forbade 
 women to participate in the musical services of the 
 Eoman Church. Japanese ladies, however, as well as 
 the professional cantatrici, learn to sing and to play 
 their own accompaniments upon the Kokiou, a sort of 
 violin, the Ghekine, or guitar, and the Koto, or psaltery, 
 of which instruments, as well as of the Japanese scales,
 
 172 JAPANESE MUSICAL THEOEY. 
 
 notation, and system of harmony, I shall have something 
 to say further on. But no Japanese woman has hitherto 
 acquired renown as a composer ; a circumstance which 
 may partly account for the small consideration in which 
 the fourth musical corporation, or " female division," is 
 held in the realm of the Eising Sun. I may add that, in 
 times long past, the four classes of musicians above 
 described were subdivided into an infinite number of 
 guilds, but that nowadays all the minor distinctions of 
 old have been done away with. Each corporation is 
 ruled by a Grand Master, in whom is vested the right 
 of rewarding special merit by pecuniary recompenses, 
 prizes, or honorific distinctions. It would appear that 
 the distinction most highly valued by executant artists 
 is the privilege of tuning the first string of their violin, 
 guitar, or psaltery an octave higher or lower than the 
 regulation pitch. This honour, though inexpensive, is 
 more rarely conferred than rewards of a more solid 
 character. 
 
 The Japanese musical system is identified, construc- 
 tively as well as traditionally, with the political, religious, 
 and scientific history of Japan. It has to do with the 
 laws of nature, as the Japanese know them, the celestial 
 constellations, the divisions of the year and the articles 
 of the moral code. Notation being symbolical of all these 
 things, a Japanese tune may be a scientific treatise, an 
 astronomical scheme, an almanack, or an essay on ethics. 
 Given a little extra ingenuity in the arrangement of 
 sequences or combinations of notes, it may be all four 
 simultaneously. Five is the cabalistic number of Japan ; 
 every system connected with things human or divine is
 
 THE PENT ATONIC SCALE. 173 
 
 based upon this number, which is invested with a sacred 
 character ; in a word, the Pentagon is to the Japanese 
 what the Trinity is to the European, a symbol of perfec- 
 tion, instinct with mysterious significance and power. 
 This being so, I need perhaps scarcely say that Japa- 
 nese music is pentatonic. It is, in fact, called "The 
 System of Five Sounds," which five sounds are not 
 affected to any special key, but occupy the same positions 
 with relation to one another in all keys. I subjoin their 
 names, with a few of their extra-musical meanings in 
 illustration of the curious connection that, in Japan, 
 exists between notes and all manner of other actualities, 
 terms and ideas : 
 
 Kiou. First note. A temple. A lord. 
 
 Sho. Second note. Commerce. A servant. 
 
 Kakou. Third note. A horn. A peasant. 
 
 Tche. Fourth note. A sign. A material object. 
 
 Ou. Fifth note. A feather. An abstract notion. 
 
 These five notes constitute a hierarchy of their own, in 
 which Kiou occupies the highest and Ou the lowest 
 rank. They correspond, in their musical order, to the 
 tonic, second, third, fifth and sixth of our diatonic scale ; 
 that is to say, assuming them to be parts of the natural 
 key, Kiou is C, Sho D, Kakou E, Tche G, and Ou F. 
 Besides the pentatonic scale there are other notes, also 
 five in number, called " Sounds of Substitution," which 
 make up a sort of chromatic scale, lacking two semitones, 
 however, of the twelve which compose our make-shift 
 P.F. scale, in which true sharps and flats do not exist, 
 but only blendings of them. Though there are only ten
 
 174 JAPANESE NOTATION. 
 
 notes at least as far as I have been able to make out 
 the Japanese musical system there are twelve keys, one 
 for each month of the year, and emblematic of, or rather 
 synonymous with, it. The Japanese believe that the 
 wind prevailing throughout each particular month blows 
 in a certain musical key especial to that month, e.g., 
 that the note Tairio is preferentially sounded by the 
 breezes during the month Tairio (January), and so on 
 through the tale of months constituting the full year. 
 Each of the twelve keys has to be dealt with by the 
 composer in a " mode " peculiar to itself, of which, how- 
 ever, the pentatonic scale is the basis; the different 
 " modes" being obtained by substituting semitones for 
 the full tones of the normal, or "astronomic " Japanese 
 scale. One of these " modes " is almost identical with 
 our minor scale. The twelve tonics, or month-notes 
 made up of the " Five Sounds," the " Sounds of Substi- 
 tution," also five in number, and two sounds for which I 
 am unable to account by any recorded evidence form a 
 chromatic scale; and the framework of the system of 
 composition, as well as of the scales used therein, is 
 founded upon successive ascending fifths and descending 
 fourths. 
 
 There are several codes of notation in Japan ; but only 
 one that employed in connection with sacred music is 
 relatively complete. It seems to be chiefly affected to 
 the use of performers upon string and wind instruments ; 
 the string to be played upon is indicated by a number 
 placed beside the sign describing the note, a similar 
 contrivance pointing out to the flute-player the hole he 
 must stop with one of his fingers in order to produce a
 
 JAPANESE XOTATIOX. 175 
 
 particular sound. The note-sign gives the name of the 
 sound to be produced in relation to the tonic of the key. 
 Accidentals are shown by small accents marked at the 
 sides of the note-signs, and inform the performer that he 
 must slightly raise or lower his finger on the string or 
 hole. A single or double circle, placed on the right or 
 left side of the note-sign, means that the note in question 
 is to be played one or two octaves higher or lower than 
 the normal pitch, which is indicated at the commence- 
 ment of the piece. The value or duration of each note is 
 shown in two ways 1. By leaving between the note- 
 signs (which succeed one another in vertical order) a 
 space more or less wide, according to the relative value 
 of each note; 2. By placing to the right of the note- 
 sign a circle, semi-circle, or quarter of a circle, imparting 
 a respective value to the note equivalent to our crotchet, 
 quaver, or semi-quaver. Absolute signs or words indi- 
 cative of time or rhythm are wanting to the Japanese 
 system of notation ; but all the tunes, for instruments or 
 voice, that have come under my notice are manifestly 
 composed in common time or in two-four, three beats in 
 a bar being a measure apparently unknown in Japan. 
 The crescendo sign is a comma, appended to a long note, 
 and invariably accompanied, in concerted music, by a 
 click of the castanets (Shaku-bioshi). In the notation 
 of secular music, monosyllables (varying according to 
 the character of the instrument for which the part is 
 written) are appended to the note-signs and describe how 
 the note is to be produced that is, continuously or 
 iteratively. In the case of wind-instruments, for instance, 
 the monosyllable employed is ra; sometimes repeated two
 
 176 THE JAPANESE ORCHESTRA. 
 
 or three times, as thus : rara, rarara. Japanese music is 
 written in vertical lines from right to left, beginning at 
 the top of each page. In the case of songs the words are 
 written on the left of the line, and the incidental signs 
 on the right. Singing, in Japan, is regarded as an 
 accessory to a musical performance, not as the principal 
 feature thereof in fact, as an accompaniment to the 
 leading solo instrument, with which the voice of the 
 singer must always be in unison. 
 
 The Japanese orchestra (Baiashi) is generally composed 
 of nine executants, as follows : Two drummers (Taiko- 
 gata), two flautists (Fuye-gata), two Pandean -pipers 
 (Shoshi-kiriki), one triangle-player (Kane-gata), and two 
 vocalists (Ootai-gata). Thus constituted, the orchestra 
 is called Koonine-baiashi ; when it only comprises one 
 performer of each class it bears the name of Gonine- 
 baiashi. Every piece of music performed by this orchestra 
 is commenced and concluded by the triangle-player, who 
 is followed by the pipers, then by the flautists, and lastly 
 by the drummers. Considering the Kane-gata and the 
 Ootai-gata as obbligati, the real orchestral score may be 
 most aptly described as a sestetto concertante. There 
 exists an ancient series of paintings on silk descriptive 
 of the festivities formerly held in honour of the moun- 
 tain-god Shighen. One of these pictures represents a 
 " grand orchestra," to which was assigned an important 
 role in the celebrations in question. The paintings con- 
 sists of two sections, facing one another; that to the 
 right depicts a player on the great Japanese lute (Sono- 
 koto), and a Shoshi-kiriki seated between two performers 
 on the Sho-no-fuye, a sort of harmonium; that to the
 
 THE JAPANESE ORCHESTRA. 177 
 
 left contains two Taiko-gata, two Shoshi-kiriki, two 
 Fuye-gata, and two more players of the Sho-no-fuye. 
 The ordinary band engaged for private parties a Japa- 
 nese "Bijou Orchestra" numbers three executants, 
 whose instruments are the Sono-koto, or thirteen-stringed 
 lute ; the Shamiseng, or three-stringed guitar ; and the 
 Kokiou, a four- stringed fiddle, held across the knees and 
 played with a curved horsehair bow. The belly of this 
 quaint instrument is made of catskin, stretched very 
 tightly and glued to the sides of the frame. Finally, 
 the theatrical orchestra of Japan is composed of the fol- 
 lowing instruments: the Girine, a two-stringed fiddle, 
 with a back of sycamore wood and a belly of serpent- 
 skin, the sounds elicited from which bear no inconsider 
 able resemblance to the eldritch screech emitted by a 
 cart-wheel turning on a rusty axle; the Pokpan and 
 Hiongpan, two varieties of castanets ; the Seng-tian, an 
 oboe with eight ventages ; the Poong-koo, a small drum, 
 upon which the conductor beats time with his baton ; 
 the Soula, a brass tom-tom, or gong ; and the Taakan, a 
 psalterion with twenty-eight wires, which the player 
 strikes with two small bamboo plectra. The Soula is 
 tuned in accordance with the system of the " Five 
 Sounds," and has a compass of three octaves and a note, 
 commencing with G, first line of the bass clef, and ter- 
 minating with A above the line, treble clef. 
 
 This orchestra, which is very nearly identical with 
 that of the Chinese national theatre, has been heard in 
 London, not altogether with unmixed pleasure. A special 
 education of the ear, such as the performances of Occi- 
 dental music do not afford, is requisite to ensure appre- 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 THE JAPANESE ORCHESTRA. 
 
 elation of the profound science that orders all its combi- 
 nations and methods ; whilst its bearing upon astronomy, 
 meteorology, physics, and morality is necessarily lost 
 upon persons unacquainted with the elaborate symbolism 
 that underlies the Japanese musical system. From an 
 English point of view or rather, of hearing the effects 
 produced by the Japanese theatrical band proved little 
 short of distracting. Its ensemble yielded, so to speak, a 
 macedoine of incoherent and dissonant sounds, made up 
 of tinkling, tootling, clashing, screeching, clicking and 
 booming, in which no organic tune could be detected, 
 and no constructive scheme was perceptible. It appeared 
 to us a sort of orchestra that, consisting of succubi and 
 fiends of a low class, might have been specially engaged 
 to perform dance-music at a Witches' Sabbath on the 
 1st of May in the upper regions of the Brocken. I 
 have known men of approved courage men capable of 
 mounting "the imminent deadly breach" with cheerful 
 alacrity to flee, pallid and terror-stricken, from the 
 appalling sounds emitted by a Japanese full band, which 
 I had reason to believe was regarded in its native country 
 as a vehicle of entrancing melody and sublime harmony. 
 To me, I admit, its musical achievements appeared to be 
 about on a par with those of the marrowbone and cleaver 
 artists, who were wont to perform at butchers' weddings 
 in days long past, and to whose morceaux d? ensemble I 
 have, when a child, listened with mingled amazement 
 and consternation ; or with the scarcely less surprising 
 cacophonic feats of certain Turkish provincial bands, 
 veritable volcanoes of noise, with whose stirring strains 
 1 have been regaled whilst sojourning with old-fashioned
 
 JAPANESE INSTRUMENTS. 179 
 
 country pashas, delighting in what they were pleased to 
 denominate "the inimitable music of the Crescent." To 
 the best of iny belief there is no crescent in London no, 
 not even in the suburbs, that would put up with it for as 
 much as half-a- minute at a time ; but my Mohammedan 
 friends undoubtedly preferred it to the dance-music of 
 Strauss, or to the selections from the operas of Verdi, 
 Rossini, and Meyerbeer, which their instrumentalists 
 were sometimes instructed to "interpret" in special 
 compliment to myself. There must, after all, be some 
 decided merit in music that pleases millions of people. 
 That other millions fail to appreciate that merit is surely 
 nothing to the purpose. Who shall decide whether or 
 not Japanese civilisation including art-culture, of course 
 be of a higher and finer kind than ours, or vice versa ? 
 Only those who are equally versed in both ; and it may 
 be doubted that such a human being exists. For my 
 part, I cannot take upon myself to say, or even think, 
 that an art so elaborately systematised and assiduously 
 studied not to mention its extraordinary local popu- 
 larity as Japanese music, can be altogether irrational, 
 vicious, and abominable. I do not understand or like it ; 
 I never shall ; but beauty it must possess, for the simple 
 reason that it is beautiful to one of the most intelligent 
 and artistic races in the world. 
 
 The musical instruments of Japan, like those of 
 "Western countries, belong to three classes; stringed 
 instruments, played with the bow, the plectrum, or the 
 finger; wind instruments ; and instruments a percussion, 
 from which sound is elicited by blows. But they would 
 not be Japanese if they did not differ from Occidental 
 
 N2
 
 180 JAPANESE SACPED MUSIC. 
 
 instruments in many important respects. Imprimis, 
 they are told off by hallowed custom into two grand 
 categories instruments of purity and instruments of 
 impurity. The former (Gakkooki) are specially affected 
 to the performance of sacred music ; the latter, of which 
 I forget the class-name, to that of profane airs, the words 
 of which are not infrequently of an erotic character. 
 Several, however, of the instruments appertaining to the 
 category of purity, slightly modified in construction, are 
 to be found in the impure class. In this respect a hard 
 and fast line is laid down in theory, but is not kept up 
 in practice. For the execution of religious compositions 
 of purely Japanese origin the following instruments are 
 used : the Kagoora-fuye, a six-holed flute ; the Yamato- 
 koto, a six-stringed psaltery ; and the Shakoo-bioshi, 
 wooden castanets. But when the sacred music to be 
 performed happens to be of Chinese or Corean extraction, 
 it is the correct thing to play it on the Shono-fuye', a sort 
 of accordion ; the Hitshiriki, a small flageolet ; the 
 Koma-fuye, a four-holed flute ; the Fuye proper, a seven- 
 holed flute; the Kinnokoto, a seven -stringed psaltery; 
 the Biva, a large four-stringed guitar ; the Taiko, or big 
 drum ; the Joko and Kakko, two small flat drums ; and 
 the Shoko, or gong. 
 
 In Japan the standard of pitch is not given by a 
 tuning-fork, but by a reed, or set of reeds, expressing 
 the twelve fundamental notes of the Japanese tonality, 
 their sounds being produced by aspiration instead of 
 expiration. A set of these pitch-pipes, twelve in number, 
 contained in a dainty-lacquered box, lined with silk, is 
 called Shoshi ; one of six, each tube being two-sounded,
 
 THE JAPANESE FLUTE. 181 
 
 bears the name of Shoshi-buye ; one of three, only 
 emitting the six sounds most commonly used in musical 
 composition (namely, Osho, D natural ; Kosho, E flat ; 
 Taisoku, F natural ; Kiosho, G flat ; Kossen, G natural ; 
 and Tshurio, A flat), is called Mitzshioshi ; and there is, 
 besides, a single bamboo-tube, pierced with twelve holes, 
 each hole being lined with ivory and provided with an 
 explanatory Japanese character, indicating the note of 
 which it is warranted to give the true pitch under 
 pressure of inspiration. 
 
 The most important variety of wind instrument in the 
 realm of the Eising Sun is the flute, designated indif- 
 ferently Fuye or Teki, and subdivided into two classes, 
 the Koowan-teki, or flutes held horizontally ; and Siyu- 
 teki, or flutes held vertically, as the clarionet and oboe 
 are with us. Of the former class, the original Japanese 
 flute (Fuye), a bamboo tube pierced with seven holes, 
 was invented at Tangool, whence it passed into China 
 about a century and a-half before the commencement of 
 the Christian era. The Chinese, however, assert that 
 the first Fuye was made in China, anno 143 B.C., by a 
 musical genius named Kiou-Kong. According to the 
 Sinico-Japanese Encyclopaedia, all musical sounds, vocal 
 and instrumental, are based upon the seven notes pro- 
 duced by the ancient Fuye'. Flutes of the Fuye class 
 were formerly made of thigh-bones of a large sort of 
 ape, and yielded a much fuller, rounder tone than the 
 more modern bamboo-flute. Apropos of these monkey 
 tibias, and their power of discoursing sweet music, a 
 story is told of one Shiogen, a celebrated Fuye player of 
 antiquity, who at one period of his career a fugitive
 
 182 SHIOGEN AND THE SNAKE. 
 
 from justice was compelled to take refuge from his 
 pursuers in a dismal cavern, popularly credited with 
 being the regular dwelling-place of an enormous anthro- 
 pophagian serpent. Shiogen knew all about this snake ; 
 and the notion that it might put forward some conclusive 
 objection to his intrusion made him very uncomfortable. 
 But what was he to do ? From the myrmidons of the 
 law, as enforced in Japan, he could expect no mercy ; 
 whereas, as he sagaciously reasoned, perhaps the serpent 
 might be out visiting, or asleep, or not hungry, in any of 
 which cases he would be safer in the cave than out of it. 
 So he lay down, and was composing himself to sleep 
 when something glided up to him, which, upon inspec- 
 tion, turned out to be a python, with a lion's head, fiery 
 eyes, and a forked tongue, three feet long, hanging from 
 its red and gaping jaws. As this creature manifested a 
 disposition to swallow the trespasser whole, Shiogen 
 made up his mind that his last hour was come, and, 
 picking up his beloved flute, began to "play himself 
 out " with a favourite air of the period. He had scarcely 
 tootled a bar when the monster so says the legend 
 cocked its head on one side in a sentimental way, and 
 listened. Gradually tears of pleasure extinguished the 
 flames that had hitherto flashed from its eyes ; it kept 
 time to Shiogen's melody by waving its tongue to and 
 fro like the pendulum of a Maelzel's metronome ; as the 
 tune got more and more intricate it positively slobbered 
 with enjoyment, and even tried to grunt a sort of funda- 
 mental bass to the lei canto of the seven-holed Fuye. 
 Presently, unable to bear such continuous rapture any 
 longer, it undulated gently away, leaving Shiogen sole
 
 JAPANESE INSTRUMENTS. 183 
 
 and undisputed tenant of the cavern, which he inhabited 
 for some time thereafter, secure of the absolute privacy 
 which its unfavourable reputation in the neighbourhood 
 could not fail to assure to its occupant. From my own 
 experience of Japanese airs I should incline to the belief 
 that the unfortunate python, aware of its visitor and 
 entering its cave " on hospitable thoughts intent," was 
 paralysed with wonder and consternation by the hideous 
 sounds with which Shiogen assailed its ears, and after 
 a brief interval of agonised endurance turned and fled 
 precipitately from what, in its uninstructed simplicity of 
 mind, it probably took to be the actual presence of the 
 leading Japanese Devil. Anyway, from the above- 
 quoted legend is derived the popular belief, still pre- 
 valent in Shiogen' s native land, that the tones of the 
 Fuye are specially endowed with power to drive away 
 serpents and other venomous reptiles. However this 
 may be, it is certain that a little of the Fuy goes a long 
 way with most Europeans, and is apt to hasten their 
 departure from any spot near which that remarkable 
 instrument may happen to be played by a skilled 
 Japanese soloist. 
 
 The simplest in construction of the Siyu-teki, or 
 vertical flutes, is the Seuno-fuye', a set of Pandean pipes 
 twelve in number, made of bamboo, fixed in a frame 
 and adorned with golden dragons on a ground of red 
 lacquer. The twelve tubes produce the twelve funda- 
 mental sounds of the Japanese scale. Another variety, 
 the Mine-teki, is an eight-holed clarionet, emitting the 
 notes that constitute our diatonic scale of B major. Then 
 there is the Shak-haci, twenty inches long and pierced
 
 184 JAPANESE INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 with five holes, which was introduced into Japan from 
 China during the reign of the Emperor Ming-hwang 
 (713 742) ; the Toshio, also a five-holed clarionet, two 
 feet five inches in length, which dates from the seventh 
 century; the Hitoyo-kiri, a much shorter instrument, 
 the tone of which is exceptionally mellow, upon which 
 account it is chiefly used for accompanying the human 
 voice; the Hitshiniki, an oboe producing a curiously 
 shrill and rasping tone, unendurable to the Western ear 
 (this is one of the "instruments of purity," and is 
 eminently calculated to drive those condemned to hear 
 its eldritch screeches to wallow in crime) ; the Ka, an 
 oboe which is always used in Chinese theatrical bands, 
 and seldom out of them; the Shiono-fuye, a box of 
 whistles, which may be played either by blowing into or 
 sucking at a mouth-piece inserted in one end of the box ; 
 and, finally, the Rapakai, a huge sea- shell, into the 
 point of which an embouchure is fitted. This primitive 
 instrument is utilised in war-time for signalling pur- 
 poses, and is also sounded with soul- subduing effect 
 during certain religious ceremonies. Blown with vigour, 
 it gives out a sound that hits off the happy mean 
 between a moan and a roar a sort of sublime bray, such 
 as might be uttered by a canonised donkey suffering 
 from rheumatism. Those who hear the Eapakai for 
 the first time seldom linger long with the exclusive 
 object of dwelling upon its strains. They are soon 
 visible to the naked eye in some other neighbourhood, 
 and may be observed to pant from the speed with which 
 they have changed their place of temporary sojourn. 
 The strings of Japanese fiddles, guitars, etc., are made
 
 JAPANESE INSTRUMENTS. 185 
 
 of waxed silk ; those used for instruments upon which 
 sacred music is played are manufactured exclusively at 
 Kioto, and are extremely expensive, whilst "profane" 
 strings are made at Yedo, and are cheap. They are sold 
 in sets, according to the key in which the instrument for 
 which they are destined is to be played, and each com- 
 plete set is known by the name of its original in- 
 ventor, or by the number of its thickest string. The 
 king of Japanese stringed instruments, hight Kokiou, 
 has already been mentioned in a preceding para- 
 graph ; so have the Girine and Shamiseng, the most 
 popular instruments of the street-corner Japanese band. 
 But I omitted to describe the bow upon which the 
 Japanese fiddler plays with his Kokiou the Japanese 
 method being precisely the converse of ours, which 
 prescribes playing on the fiddle with the bow. This 
 latter, in Japan, is three feet four inches in length, made 
 of sandalwood and horsehair. The stick is flat on one 
 side and round on the other, the hair being stretched 
 along its rounded side, and is in two pieces, connected by 
 a metal ring when the bow is in use. It is held firmly 
 in a horizontal position by one hand, whilst the other 
 grasping the Kokiou rubs its strings backwards and for- 
 wards against the bow. This method of playing obtains 
 with the Girine, the Kokoon, a fiddle of Corean origin, and 
 the Niyisene, a handsome two-stringed violin, the back 
 of which is made of black lacquer, ornamented with ara- 
 besque gilding, whilst the belly and sides are of wood 
 covered with young gazelle skin, and the neck terminates 
 in a gilt dragon's head. 
 
 Psalteries play a more important part in Japanese
 
 186 JAPANESE INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 music than fiddles ; their class-name is Koto, and their 
 varieties are more numerous than even those of the Fuye. 
 The simplest in form is the Soomakoto, a board about 
 three feet six inches long and thicker in the middle than 
 at either end, one of which is square and the other round 
 in shape. It has only one string, which the player 
 strikes with a bone plectrum fitted like a thimble to the 
 tip of his fore-finger, and looking like an elongated nail, 
 whilst he makes the note required by pressing the string 
 with a small bamboo cylinder at the intervals where frets 
 indicate the different tones, or where white lines painted 
 on the string itself serve the same purpose. The Sooma- 
 koto is said to have been invented by a mournful 
 Japanese swell in exile, who strove to banish melancholy 
 by stretching a piece of whipcord across the top of his 
 hat and playing on it with a chicken-bone. By reason of 
 its patrician origin, this instrument is still a favourite in 
 Japanese aristocratic circles. The Yakoomo-koto and 
 Atzooma-koto are varieties of the Sooma-koto, provided 
 with two and three strings respectively. The Grokkine, 
 another psaltery, has five, three of which are dyed 
 yellow, the fourth violet, and the fifth blue ; in lieu of 
 frets, the names of the notes to be produced by pressure 
 on the string are inscribed on the finger board at the due 
 intervals. The Yamato-koto, of historical renown as 
 having figured prominently in the legend of the Sun- 
 Goddess, narrated in the second paragraph of this 
 chapter, is a six-stringed psaltery of celestial origin, 
 exclusively used for the performance of sacred music. A 
 gracefully-formed and most elaborately decorated instru- 
 ment of this class is the Soghe-koto (nine strings), which
 
 A SYMBOLICAL HARP. 187 
 
 is specially affected to the delectation of the concubines 
 belonging to the chief of the Japanese Government for 
 the time being. Perhaps the most symbolical of stringed 
 instruments is a small harp called the Kiuno-koto, to 
 which is attributed the power of checking vicious desires 
 and purifying the soul. In length it is three feet, six 
 inches, and six lines, representing the 366 days of the 
 Bissextile year. It is six inches broad at either end, 
 because there are six cardinal points in Japan north, 
 south, east, west, zenith, and nadir. In its centre its 
 breadth is four inches, which stand for the four seasons. 
 It is a little broader at top than at bottom, as a hint that 
 lofty things are superior to grovelling things. Its belly 
 is convex, for the heavens are so ; its back is flat, that 
 being the shape of the earth, according to Japanese 
 beliefs. Besides being almost oppressively emblematical, 
 it is highly ornate, being overlaid with black lacquer and 
 gold, and lavishly inlaid with ivory, mother-of-pearl and 
 tortoiseshell in devices of great artistic beauty. The 
 Ginda'i, a thirteen- stringed harp, enjoys the proud pri- 
 vilege of being only played upon by members of the 
 aristocracy. One must be indisputably "born," in the 
 German sense of the word, to while away the lagging 
 moments by dallying with the strings of the Gindai. A 
 plebeian dares not even play a pentatonic scale upon that 
 august appanage of hereditary nobility. Less exclusive 
 harps are the Tsooma-koto, trapezoidal in shape; the 
 Ivakoognoto, a square instrument with twenty-five 
 strings ; the Nishine, a round harp with a metal tongue 
 iu its inside, which vibrates with a buzzing sound when 
 the strings are twanged by the plectrum ; the Nighen-
 
 188 JAPANESE GUITARS. 
 
 kine and Sankine, small Kotos which have fallen into 
 desuetude ; and, finally, the Sono-koto, or great Japanese 
 lute, a magnificent instrument, six feet in length, fitted 
 with thirteen strings, and so richly inlaid as to be, for 
 the most part, a very marvel of marqueterie and deco- 
 rative ingenuity. It is played with three pointed ivory 
 thimbles, worn on the tips of the thumb, first and second 
 fingers. 
 
 First in rank of Japanese guitars is the Koo, an 
 Imperial instrument, the whole surface of which is 
 embellished with arabesques and figures of animals 
 painted in pure gold on a ground of dark lacquer. It 
 is four-stringed, and circular in shape, with a neck 
 eighteen inches long, and nine frets. Then come the 
 Shunga, the Ghekine, the Shighene, all four-stringed ; 
 the Kirisiene, three-stringed, and played with a tortoise- 
 shell plectrum; the Kaotari, three-stringed, elaborately 
 ornamented and partly covered -with gilt leather, on 
 which the Imperial dragon is painted in several colours ; 
 the Taisene, Samhine, Shamiseng (of which there are 
 several beautiful varieties) and the Biva, which dates 
 from the year 851, and was formerly played on horse- 
 back. It is now a drawing-room instrument, much in 
 vogue amongst the " upper ten " of Japanese society. 
 Before closing this rough sketch of the leading Japanese 
 stringed instruments, I must not omit to mention the 
 Taakan, a psaltery with twenty-eight metal wires, bearing 
 a strong family resemblance to the Hungarian ciombolan. 
 It is extremely effective in orchestral music, and may be 
 heard in every Japanese and Chinese theatre. 
 
 Of the Japanese instruments d percussion the most
 
 PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS. 189 
 
 formidable is the Taiko, a colossal version of our big 
 drum ; the trunk of a tree hollowed out and covered at 
 either end with thick deer-skin. There is an elegant 
 little drum called the Tassoomi, which Japanese dancers 
 hang round their necks and strike with their finger-tips 
 whilst performing the Butterfly-dance. The Doo, or gong, 
 is extremely popular in Japan ; some of its varieties are 
 quaintly shaped, and repousse, so as to present all manner 
 of surface irregularities. In the Buddhist temples the 
 Nihoihagi huge bronze cymbals are always on hand 
 during Divine service ; they are also freely utilised in 
 military bands. Clusters of bells, resembling sledge- 
 bells, are attached to a short stick and rattled during the 
 performance of sacred and profane music alike. They 
 are called Soodsoo, and serve to mark the tempi of con- 
 certed pieces very effectually. Castanets (Shakou-bioshi) 
 of different sizes, and a sort of Xylophone (Mokkine), 
 consisting of thirteen slips of wood set loosely in a frame, 
 and played upon with two metal-topped wands, like tiny 
 drumsticks, complete this category of Japanese instru- 
 ments. In conclusion, I can wish my readers no better 
 fortune than that they may be preserved from hearing 
 any of the extraordinary performances achieved by 
 Japanese orchestras composed of the above executant 
 elements. That way madness lies !
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PIANOFORTE-PLAYING. 
 
 IT is, no doubt, chiefly owing to the extraordinary 
 mechanical developments undergone by the pianoforte 
 in the course of the last three or four decades, that 
 pianoforte-playing, professional and dilettantine, is by 
 no means what it used to be thirty years ago. It is a 
 good deal more, unquestionably, in some respects ; in 
 others it is a good deal less at least, so it appears to 
 me, who have passed my life amongst performers upon 
 the clavichord and was most assiduously taught to play 
 upon that instrument before I could express myself 
 with intelligible distinctness in my mother-tongue. The 
 desirability of producing tone-colour from a colourless 
 keyboard may have been deeply felt in those days ; but 
 it was not regarded by executants as " the one thing 
 needful," nor, as a matter of fact, was it a standing 
 subject of discussion in musical circles, as it has been of 
 late years. The chief objects sought to be attained by 
 the school of pianoforte-playing that was prevalent on 
 this side of the Channel in the " forties " were evenness 
 and, if I may say so, silkiness of touch, exquisite finish 
 with respect to the details of execution, flexibility of 
 hand and wrist, independence of each individual finger,
 
 TIANISM FORTY YEARS AGO. 191 
 
 a certain rigidity of arm as far as attitude was concerned, 
 and extreme discretion not to say self-restraint in 
 the use of the forte-pedal. The pianists of my child- 
 hood's days were not in the habit of smiting or brow- 
 beating their instruments ; they tickled them tenderly, 
 and coaxed them into discoursing most excellent music. 
 Even the disciples of Sigismund Thalberg, whose operatic 
 medleys about that time suggested a number of new and 
 startling effects to drawing-room dilettanti, treated the 
 piano on the whole as a willing and plastic soloist, not 
 as a reluctant potential orchestra, to be forcibly coerced 
 into the performance of unnumbered polyphonic tricks. 
 Nobody attempted to wrest from it the tones of the 
 horn, bassoon, or violoncello, or even to make it mimic 
 the human voice for Mendelssohn's wordless songs had 
 not then achieved the extraordinary popularity they 
 were destined to attain in this country. In a word, 
 more was not expected from the pianoforte than it was 
 capable of yielding. Composers as well as executants 
 took it for what it really was, and dealt with it accor- 
 dingly. The great innovator, Franz Liszt, and all his 
 works were objects of wonder, rather than of admiration, 
 to the average British pianist, whose deeply-rooted 
 objections to revolutionise his or her fingers and style 
 proved difficult to eradicate. Calm, neat, technically 
 accurate playing was the rule in cultivated musical 
 society ; emotional " renderings " and sensational " in- 
 terpretation " the exception. 
 
 When, nearly forty years ago having been severely 
 trained by an unflinching classicist in the Wohltem- 
 perirtes Klavier, Chromatische Fantasie and French and
 
 192 ANTE-THALBERG 
 
 English. Suites of John Sebastian Bach it fell to my lot 
 to be taken about a good deal to public concerts and 
 private musical parties in green velvet, cut-steel buttons, 
 and a lace collar, airs with variations were all the vogue 
 on the platform and in the salon. Compositions of this 
 class by Henri Herz, Cramer, Chaulieu, Czerny, Kalk- 
 brenner, Moscheles, K/uhlau, Osborne, and many others 
 of less note, were played everywhere with amazing per- 
 severance and relish. Amongst the works of a more 
 serious and original character which found favour 
 with the concert-room public were the P.F. concertas 
 and sonatas of Hummel and Field, teeming with 
 intricate execution and levying no inconsiderable tax 
 upon the intellectual as well as physical resources of 
 the player. Doehler, Praeger, Burgmueller, Huenten, 
 Eavina, Beyer, Salaman, and Dreyschock, if I remember 
 aright, came with a rush to the front a little later. I 
 had given up green velvet and taken to broadcloth when 
 all the musical world and his daughters were playing 
 Doehler's Nocturne in 5 flats, Salaman's admirable 
 Saltarello, and Osborne's " Pluie des Perles " which 
 last-mentioned morceau de salon as well as its social 
 successor, Lefe*bure-Wely's " Cloche du Monastere," 
 laid hold of the British public with quite exceptional 
 tenacity. Thalberg's reign, at first stoutly disputed 
 by critics and classicists, endured for fully ten years 
 after being firmly established by society. It weighed 
 heavily upon the schoolroom, and caused countless key- 
 boards to be bedewed with angry and sorrowful tears. 
 His arrangements, with their airs perplexingly divided 
 between the player's thumbs, whilst the fingers were
 
 THALBERG AND LISZT. 193 
 
 engaged in letting off fireworks and discharging cascades 
 all over the upper and lower registers of the instrument, 
 were very different enterprises for the daughters of 
 Albion to tackle from Kotzwara's " Battle of Prague," 
 Dussek's Eondos and Sonatinas, dementi's Studies, or 
 even such tests of digital dexterity as Haendel's u Har- 
 monious Blacksmith," and P.F. Suites. The "rigid 
 attitude," so carefully fostered by inflexible school- 
 mistresses and deportment-inculcating governesses forty 
 years ago arms gracefully curved, elbows gently 
 rounded, and the like had to be foregone in favour of 
 calisthenic gestures worthy of a German Turner- Verein. 
 A " show-piece " painfully prepared for society by Anna 
 Maria in the schoolroom poor girl, how she laboured 
 over and hated it ! became a lively sudorific to the 
 performer, and no small trial to the audience. Thalberg, 
 moreover, led to Liszt, a still more dire revolutionist of 
 style and Technik ; not to any great extent, for a long 
 time, in English private society addicted to music, but 
 sufficiently, in the way of mere experiment, to inflict a 
 great deal of unmerited suffering upon the then rising 
 generation of amateur pianists. Fortunately, about the 
 time I refer to, Mendelssohn's Lieder ohne Worte struck 
 a firm root in hundreds of London salons, and succeeded 
 in not only holding their own against the Thalbergian 
 tricks and tours de force, but in living them down by 
 dint of sheer intrinsic superiority. Who, amongst 
 average pianoforte dilettanti, plays Thalberg's "Home, 
 Sweet Home," "Mose in Egitto," or " Com' e gentil " 
 nowadays ? and who, on the contrary leaving fanatical 
 Wagnerians out of the account does not take and give 
 VOL. i. o
 
 194 MENDELSSOHN. 
 
 pleasure by rendering on the piano the genial inspira- 
 tions that flowed from Mendelssohn's musical nature as 
 spontaneously and copiously as limpid water from a 
 mountain spring? The creator's works have survived 
 him, and bid fair to achieve immortality; the great 
 arranger survived his works, which are practically un- 
 known to the pianists of the present day. 
 
 My earliest remembrances of remarkable pianoforte- 
 playing are connected with Madame Dulcken, Cipriani 
 Potter, Mendelssohn, Thalberg, W. H. Holmes, Stern- 
 dale Bennett, Lindsay Sloper and Alexander Dreyschock. 
 I give the names as nearly as I can in the order in 
 which memory recalls them to me in connection with 
 performances that were at once sources of joy and despair 
 to a musical and ambitious child, still wrestling with 
 the technical difficulties of the keyboard. All the artists 
 above-mentioned were, from my point of view, distract- 
 ingly, overwhelmingly, crushingly excellent; but the 
 one who most deeply and enduringly impressed me was 
 Mendelssohn, whom I had the supreme good fortune to 
 hear and see extemporise at great length in the house of 
 a gifted friend alas ! long since dead ; being privileged 
 to stand the while by the piano and watch the magician's 
 fingers casting their spells upon the subjugated and 
 responsive keys. From that moment although I only 
 saw and heard him once again, in the organ-loft of St. 
 Paul's, when the rapidity of his pedal-playing well-nigh 
 unsettled my reason he became my idol and ideal, and 
 remained so for years. It is certainly not too much to 
 say that I worshipped him dans mon for interieur with 
 all the ardour that was in me. His bright, glowing
 
 DULCEEX AND POTTER. 195 
 
 eyes, and sweet benevolent smile, exercised an irre- 
 sistible fascination upon me ; to my boyish apprehen- 
 sions he seemed endowed with supernatural powers 
 one to whom naught was impossible and nothing could 
 be refused. On the occasion first referred to, the theme 
 given to him for improvisation was the "Blue Bells of 
 Scotland," with which he dealt in unconventional ways 
 I had never dreamt of, one grand treatment alia fuga 
 culminating in a cadence that exhausted the resources 
 of execution, as far as they were then known to me. 
 Another incident, hand olliviscari, took place that even- 
 ing. He made me play a Bach prelude to him, with 
 cold perspiration running down my back and in such an 
 agony of nervousness as I have never since been called 
 upon to fight against I was only nine years old and 
 extremely sensitive and, when my terrible ordeal had 
 come to an end, patted my head, kissed me between the 
 eyes, and said: " Little fellow, you were born a musician, 
 and will play the piano some day." I doubt whether 
 that night there was another so happy and proud a boy 
 as I within the confines of Her Most Gracious Majesty's 
 realms. 
 
 Madame Dulcken's playing, I remember, struck me 
 as extraordinarily brilliant and forcible. So did Cipriani 
 Potter's, whose twelve masterly P.F. studies had made 
 my small fingers ache many a time and oft. Thalberg 
 astonished and discouraged me ; the inconceivable 
 smoothness and featness of his execution, combined with 
 the surprising intricacy of the passages that seemed to 
 glide off his fingers, carried conviction to my soul that 
 it was utterly useless for me to go on trying to learn to 
 
 o2
 
 196 STEB.NDA.LE BENNETT. 
 
 play, as I could certainly never hope to attain anything 
 like Thalbergian facility. A scarcely less depressing 
 effect was produced upon me by the wonders wrought 
 by Dreyschock's phenomenal left hand. They were in 
 reality only clever tricks, perfected with infinite pains ; 
 but they seemed much more to me at that time. Sloper's 
 sparkling warmth and Holmes' s classical coldness created 
 impressions, when I first heard those eminent musicians 
 play in public, which are still fresh in my memory, asso- 
 ciated, incongruously enough, with the Chartist Eiots of 
 April, 1848, from which circumstance I am led to believe 
 that I must have become cognisant by ear of these 
 famous English executants in that year and month. But 
 next to the inimitable Mendelssohn of all the pianists 
 I listened to with more or less rapture and envy before 
 completing my tenth year, Sterndale Bennett was the 
 one who most thoroughly fulfilled my boyish ideal of 
 what playing ought to be. For finish, delicacy of ex- 
 pression, accuracy of phrasing, and a certain gentle 
 grace of style that imparted an indefinable charm to his 
 interpretations of classical works, I have never listened 
 to anybody quite his equal. The late Sir George Smart, 
 who delighted in contriving musical treats for me during 
 my green velvet period, once took me to call upon 
 Sterndale Bennett, promising me that " the great man " 
 should play expressly for my delectation. This promise 
 having been explained to Bennett with due representa- 
 tion of my precocious passion for music, he smilingly 
 turned to me, saying, " "Well ; what shall I play for 
 you ? " For the moment I could think of none of the 
 names of my favourite chevaux-de-lataille, and ner-
 
 ARABELLA GODDARD. 197 
 
 vously blurted out, " Would you mind playing through 
 the full scales with both hands ? " He replied, " Not at 
 all ; nor is it half a bad test of pianoforte-playing. In 
 fact, I consider it a high compliment to be asked to play 
 my scales ; " with which he sate down to the piano and 
 played them so incomparably as to afford me a delightful 
 revelation with respect to the effects that may be elicited 
 from the piano by the simplest forms of execution, 
 expounded by fingers of paramount skilfulness. Perhaps 
 the term " accomplished " was of all others the most 
 justly applicable to him as composer and executant 
 alike. His music and playing were respectively the 
 complement of one another interchangeable expressions 
 of his exact mind and elegant taste. Hence the chief diffi- 
 culty of his P.F. compositions to the tolerably proficient 
 amateur. They are not only intolerant but prohibitory 
 of slovenliness and " free individual interpretation. " 
 They must be played precisely as they are written, or 
 not at all ; they exact completeness of understanding 
 and appreciation from the performer, as well as an 
 unusual degree of manual dexterity. 
 
 I think it was during the season of 1853 that I first 
 heard Arabella Goddard, who came before the public as 
 a slight, quiet-looking girl of fifteen, with works at her 
 fingers' ends that had at least, so it was said at the 
 time never theretofore been performed in a London 
 concert-room. In Beethoven's greater and later sonatas, 
 then only partly intelligible to me and all but unknown 
 to the English musical public, she was note-perfect, and, 
 moreover, had committed more than one of them to 
 memory an extraordinary feat for a mere child, such
 
 198 ARABELLA GODDARD. 
 
 as she was three-and-thirty years ago. According to 
 Sir George Grove, she made her debut at a concert of 
 the Quartet Association on April 14, 1853, in the 
 sonata, opus 106, which she played by heart ; and I am 
 under the impression that a few weeks later I heard her 
 play the Posthumous Sonata without book. Her tempi 
 and execution were as a rule faultless, even then too 
 faultless, perhaps; for over-conscientious attention to 
 the countless details of such colossal compositions as 
 those above referred to, left her no spare intellectual 
 force wherewith to investigate the Master's true mean- 
 ing. It could hardly have been otherwise, at her age. 
 Endowed by nature with an abnormal capacity for 
 taking pains, she had it in her to overcome the most 
 appalling technical difficulties, and to render them with 
 absolute but passionless accuracy. There was nothing 
 she could not play, if she made up her mind to master 
 it ; but her interpretations of great imaginative works, 
 though they might satisfy the intellect, could not 
 content the soul. Romantic music did not appear to 
 move her ; she could play Chopin's notes exactly, but 
 not his thoughts. On the other hand, inestimable 
 pleasure was to be derived from listening to her render- 
 ings, at once forcible, solid, and crisp, of Bach's Pre- 
 ludes and Fugues, in which it always struck me that 
 her special executive capacities and strong musical 
 individuality found their highest expression. Hers was 
 a fine, firm, even touch; it lacked variety, however, 
 and never conscientiously lent itself to the production of 
 " tone-colour." But she was a great and good pianist 
 in the days of the Crimean War, when she won im-
 
 T.F. IMPROVEMENTS. 190 
 
 perishable laurels in Germany ; and, I have no doubt, 
 still is so. The last time I heard her was in the year of 
 Grace, 1856, when I left England for a foreign service 
 that endured throughout twenty-two years, and brought 
 me into personal contact, at one time or another, with 
 all the eminent continental pianists who have success- 
 fully aided in accomplishing the revolution in school, 
 style, and manner of pianoforte-playing which has ac- 
 crued within that period. When I returned definitively 
 to my native country in the winter of 1878-9, I found 
 the pianism sit venia verbo! of my early youth dead 
 and forgotten or, at least, only remembered as any- 
 thing more than a lifeless tradition by a comparatively 
 small number of old musical fogies like myself. 
 
 I have endeavoured to indicate the leading features of 
 the important changes undergone some thirty odd years 
 ago by the method of pianoforte-playing generally 
 adopted in this country, referring with unavoidable 
 superficiality to the eminent executants through whose 
 example and influence those changes were mainly 
 brought about. Whether the innovations in compo- 
 sition for and manipulation of the pianoforte called 
 forth the surprising developments of that instrument's 
 resources invented by its manufacturers or were them- 
 selves the offspring of those developments, is a question 
 scarcely less difficult to answer conclusively than the 
 antique "poser" respecting the priority of the hen or 
 the egg. In all probability the mechanical contrivances 
 by which the clavichord acquired greater force and 
 breadth of tone, as well as other qualities and capacities 
 that may be said to have revolutionised its special in-
 
 200 INSTRUMENTAL INNOVATIONS. 
 
 strumental character, were nearly coeval with the trans- 
 formation effected by Thalberg and Liszt in the method 
 of playing theretofore prevalent, each innovation being 
 the natural complement of the other. One thing is 
 certain ; namely, that, as far as the satisfactory render- 
 ing of chamber music is concerned, the improvements 
 achieved in the construction of pianofortes were pro- 
 ductive of dire results. They overthrew the balance 
 of power that had been established by the greatest 
 composers of such music between certain stringed in- 
 struments and the pianoforte, imparting to- nay, almost 
 enforcing upon the latter an undue and undesirable 
 tone-predominance over the former. Admitting the 
 exercise of an almost superhuman discretion, in con- 
 nection with the use of the pedal or the employment of 
 physical vigour, on the part of the contemporary pianist, 
 the very instrument he plays upon incapacitates him 
 from producing the effects, in connection with the violin 
 or violoncello, that were contemplated by Beethoven, 
 when he wrote his violin and pianoforte sonatas, or by 
 Mozart whilst deftly fashioning seven of his admirable 
 trios. The combinations of tone aimed at in the compo- 
 sition of these works were necessarily dependent upon 
 the thin quality of the sound then yielded by the 
 clavichord at the summons of a touch far lighter than 
 that of the modern executant. Moreover, the tone of 
 stringed instruments has lost, rather than gained, in 
 force, owing to the heightening of concert pitch by 
 nearly a semitone within the last half century an 
 innovation that has led to the employment of strings, 
 for the instruments a cordes, slightly thinner than those
 
 COUNTRY QUARTERS. 201 
 
 in use at the time when Beethoven established his so- 
 called "classical pitch." The pianoforte of to-day, 
 therefore chiefly by reason of its own increment of 
 tone-power, and, in a lesser degree, through the loss 
 of such power suffered by the stringed instruments 
 dominates its associates in chamber music so consider- 
 ably as to frustrate the arrangements of composite 
 sound put together with such consummate skill by the 
 paramount trinity of trio-writers, Beethoven, Mozart, 
 and Haydn. The chamber music of these great maestri 
 is so enchantingly beautiful that its present rendering 
 at the hands of our best executants fills us with pro- 
 found and lively delight ; but we never hear it as its 
 composers meant it to be heard, nor ever shall, while 
 Steinway and Chickering continue to rule the concert- 
 room and sway the salon. 
 
 It was not until eight years had elapsed after I quitted 
 England, having accepted service under a foreign 
 Government, that I fully realised the radical change that 
 had meanwhile been taking place in pianoforte-playing. 
 I had passed the intervening time in more or less 
 obscure country quarters towns of the old world sort, 
 in which pianism and pianists were socially at a discount, 
 art-culture of any kind was undreamt of by the well- 
 to-do classes, and music was regarded as an accidental 
 and unimportant relief to the monotony of every-day 
 existence a sort of frill, ornamental but frivolous, at- 
 tached to the stiffly starched shirt-front of local society. 
 In one of these retreats a prosperous trading provincial 
 centre the only professional pianist was a crabbed 
 elderly gentleman, who kept a small music shop, taught
 
 202 A PROVINCIAL PIANIST. 
 
 what he had been led to believe was the art of playing 
 to a few dull children of unambitious bourgeois parents, 
 and eked out his slender earnings by periodically tuning 
 two or three score instruments, by courtesy styled 
 pianofortes, of the sort which breed grave doubts in the 
 mind of the sensitive musician whether the invention of 
 the clavichord should be appraised as a blessing or a 
 curse to mankind. When any transitory executant star 
 of from the seventh to the fifteenth magnitude con- 
 descended to shed a passing ray upon C , this sour 
 
 old fellow, being the unique musical institution of his 
 native place, always contrived to get himself "called in" 
 by the authorities as a professional adviser with respect 
 to the arrangement of a concert programme, in which 
 the beneficiaire of the moment sometimes permitted him 
 to figure as a P.F. soloist ; and although the deeds he 
 did upon these occasions had as little in common with 
 pianoforte-playing, from an artistic point of view, as 
 screeving has with painting or a Catnach ballad with 
 poetry, they were always sympathetically greeted by 
 audiences familiar with his incapacities u as long as they 
 remembered anything," and who experienced the same 
 sort of passive regard for him that they felt for the town 
 pump, the discordant peal of bells in the tower of their 
 grey old church, or the licensed municipal idiot a more 
 popular person on the whole, I incline to believe, among 
 his fellow townsmen, than their " only jig-maker." I 
 may parenthetically remark that I incurred the latter' s 
 
 high displeasure shortly after my arrival at C by 
 
 getting up a social agitation in favour of founding a 
 Musical Association and by volunteering to play in
 
 riANISM IN VIENNA. 203 
 
 public two or three times for the benefit of local 
 charities. With the Association which took root and 
 flourished exceedingly for some years he scornfully 
 refused to have anything to do, although courteously 
 solicited to assist in its organisation ; and of my per- 
 formances on the pianoforte he spoke in terms which 
 they very probably merited, but which were certainly 
 
 the reverse of complimentary. Poor old W ! the 
 
 easiest of Mendelssohn's P.F. works were far beyond 
 his powers Beethoven was but a name to him, and 
 of Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, I verily believe he had 
 never heard. Brimful of the romantic school as I was 
 at that time, I must have been a terrible thorn in his 
 side; and I well remember how, whenever he en- 
 countered me by chance in concert-room or street, he 
 would conspicuously look another way with an indig- 
 nant sniff, muttering protests against my existence in 
 language which can scarcely have promoted the welfare 
 
 of his immortal part. My sojourn at C unsettled 
 
 the established order of things upon which his physical 
 equilibrium had hitherto been kept up, and, as I have 
 since regretfully learnt, he did not long survive my de- 
 parture from that town, in which, to his apprehensions, 
 I had represented the spirit of revolution and promul- 
 gated the doctrines of anarchy. Peace be to his manes ! 
 My next abiding-place was Vienna, whither I was sent 
 on a special mission in the early spring of 1865. There 
 the new school of pianoforte-playing revealed itself to me 
 in its full force and eager striving after variety of tone- 
 colour. Soon after I had settled down in the Kaiserstadt, 
 fully believing that I should live the remainder of my
 
 204 THE LION OF POLAND. 
 
 days within its precincts, I became an assiduous frequenter 
 of public and private musical entertainments, and was 
 most generously admitted to the penetralia of the chief 
 Viennese musical organisations by the great artists who 
 directed them. One of my early experiences of " vir- 
 tuosity " on the piano, illustrating an aggravated phase 
 of its novel departure, was gained at a matinee given in 
 a concert-room attached to the Imperial Palace by the 
 Chevalier Antoine de Kontski, surnamed by his admiring 
 countrymen " The Lion of Poland." This title of honour, 
 I am bound to say, was not altogether lacking in appro- 
 priateness ; indeed it was to a considerable extent justified 
 by his method of dealing with any luckless instrument 
 that fell into his hands professionally. Thus might a 
 vivacious monarch of the desert, with spirits unsubdued 
 and sinews unrelaxed by bondage, play on or with the 
 pianoforte, if that way disposed by nature or accidental 
 impulse. Blows from a playful leonine paw could scarcely, 
 I should think, strike a larger number of notes simul- 
 taneously or with greater force of impact than did the 
 vigorous hands of the Sarmatian Lion to whom I listened 
 twenty years ago, for the first time, in a daze of mingled 
 wonder and consternation. One of the pieces he played 
 on the occasion referred to, I remember, had been in- 
 tituled in such sort as to explain its special function and 
 aim with laudable directness. It was called " Le Eeveil 
 de la Pologne," and was eminently qualified, as rendered 
 by M. de Kontski, to awaken the dead, let alone slothful 
 patriots of the Polish or any other persuasion. An 
 eminent Viennese critic wrote a panic-stricken notice of 
 the matinee alluded to, on the morrow of the performance,
 
 CARL TAUSIG. 205 
 
 concluding his remarks with the following impressive 
 words : " From battle, murder, and from sudden death, 
 and from the Lion of Poland's pianforte-playing, good 
 Lord, deliver us ! " 
 
 Shortly after the alarming experience above recorded, 
 I was sent on a brief mission to Berlin, where a young 
 Austrian diplomatist, himself an amateur pianist of the 
 very first order, and one of Carl Tausig's favourite pupils, 
 introduced me to that truly great teacher and executant, 
 then in the zenith of his influence, which swayed the 
 leading circles of musical society in the Prussian capital, 
 even including the " advanced" clique that took its cue, 
 in all questions connected with the divine art, from Frau 
 von Schleinitz, the wife of the Minister of the Household 
 a lady of great musical attainments, who suffered no 
 P.F. compositions save those of Liszt's, and no " reduc- 
 tions pour le piano " of any works but Wagner's, to be 
 played in her salon, the rendezvous every Tuesday even- 
 ing of many distinguished professional and dilettanti 
 musicians. Tausig was good enough to play to me 
 several times, at his own apartments and in the Bech- 
 stein repository of pianofortes, where some of the finest 
 instruments in Europe were always at the disposal of 
 masters of the craft. But that his playing lacked inner 
 warmth whilst teeming with superficial fire and sparkle 
 I should incline to rank Tausig as one of the three 
 greatest pianists to whose marvellous achievements I 
 have ever listened ; placing him immediately after Liszt, 
 and just a little to the front of Rubinstein. His render- 
 ings, however irreproachable in technique, tempi, and 
 observance of the composer's markings were so intrin-
 
 206 CARL TATJSIG. 
 
 sically chilly that they never attained the topmost heights 
 of interpretative greatness. He seemed to me always to be 
 playing critically, even when executing the most intricate 
 passages at a speed I have never since heard equalled, 
 save by Alfred Gruenfeld. When I say that he played 
 his own compositions to perfection, and without apparent 
 effort, any one acquainted with those works will readily 
 apprehend that his mastery over technical difficulties was 
 absolute and exhaustive. His memory for details of 
 emphasis and ornament expressed itself in a meticulous 
 accuracy of reproduction that was positively aggravating ; 
 so much so, that more than once, whilst listening to his 
 photographic renderings of Bach and Scarlatti, I caught 
 myself wishing that some momentary derangement would 
 prompt him to take a liberty, however slight and venial, 
 with the composer. But he never did, nor would he 
 tolerate any " frivolities " of the kind that was his term 
 for what dear old Cipriani Potter used to call " the 
 pardonable license of an intelligent interpreter " in his 
 pupils. It was not in Tausig's nature, though a more 
 musical musician never lived than he, to play anything 
 (including his own works) otherwise than he saw it in 
 black and white. Far from disdaining " effects," even 
 those of a sensational character, to the production of 
 which the resources of the modern pianoforte lend them- 
 selves so temptingly, he was extraordinarily skilled in 
 the achievement of such contrivances. But they had to 
 be distinctly indicated by the composer; nothing would 
 induce him to supply them on his own responsibility, no 
 matter how forcibly they might be suggested by the 
 character of the composition. As a necessary conse-
 
 CARL TAUSIG. 207 
 
 quence of the almost painful conscientiousness by which 
 he regulated his own unexceptionable playing, he was the 
 severest of teachers, never objurgatory, like Kuellak, or 
 pettish, like Taubert, but gravely and witheringly critical. 
 Irony, of a peculiarly saturnine and scathing sort, lurked 
 in his admonitions and imparted a stinging smart to his 
 reproofs. On one occasion, when he acceded to my re- 
 quest that I might be present whilst he was giving class- 
 lessons to a few of his advanced pupils of both sexes, 
 I saw one or two young pianists of high merit at 
 least, from my point of view actually wince under the 
 lash of his solemn, unimpassioned satire. Yet all his 
 acolytes loved him, for he was in reality the most amiable 
 of men and kindest of masters, indefatigable in his endea- 
 vours to stimulate the sluggish, encourage the nervous, 
 and develop special capacities in the intelligent. He 
 would not have anything to do with unmusical natures. 
 As soon as he convinced himself that any one of his 
 pupils was really deficient in musicality he gave that 
 pupil up, on the ground that he (Tausig) could not 
 consent to receive remuneration for an undertaking he 
 felt himself unequal to. But where he happened to light 
 upon genuine talent allied with poverty too often the 
 case in North Germany, where the average of well-being 
 amongst the highly educated classes is much lower than 
 in this country he would bestow the utmost pains upon 
 gratuitous instruction, and even supply out of his own 
 pocket the means of living, whilst pursuing their studies, 
 to his more indigent alumni. In private life he was a 
 delightful companion to those privileged to enjoy his 
 intimacy ; for his memory was richly stored with anecdote,
 
 208 CARL TAUSIG. 
 
 and his powers of narration were of no ordinary calibre. 
 Being the soul of honour, truth, and uprightness, every- 
 thing vulgar or trivial was repugnant to him, and 
 licensed jesters, renowned for the salacious coarseness 
 that so strongly flavours German conversational humour, 
 curbed their tongues in his presence. In a word, Tausig 
 was one of the elect of mankind. He did great good 
 whilst he lived, and his premature death was a heavy, I 
 might almost venture to say an irreparable loss to the 
 modern school of pianoforte-playing, upon which his 
 inflexible sobriety of method exercised a restraining and 
 most salutary influence. Reverting for a moment to his 
 characteristics as a performer, I may add that he produced 
 a broader tone than any other Berlin pianist of his day 
 that his lightness of touch in rendering the fanciful 
 and elaborate ornamentations of Chopin and Liszt was 
 simply exquisite, and that he was especially remarkable 
 for the verve and ton with which he executed those 
 amazing tours deforce, invented by himself as well as by 
 the mighty Hungarian ecclesiastic, which are the terror 
 of ninety-nine expert pianists in every hundred. No 
 one who ever listened to his feats in this direction will 
 be likely to forget what a wealth of sound and com- 
 plexity of combinations his deft fingers extracted from 
 the key-board. In him were combined the more salient 
 excellences of the old and new schools of pianism. It is 
 pleasant to know that his admirable method has been 
 faithfully adhered to by a few of his surviving pupils, 
 amongst whom may be reckoned some of the most dis- 
 tinguished musicians of Northern Germany. 
 
 At the close of the 1866 campaign in Bohemia I
 
 VIENNESE EXECUTANTS. 209 
 
 returned to Vienna with the fixed intention which in 
 due time, I need scarcely say, proved as untenable as the 
 majority of human resolves of making that delightful 
 city my dwelling-place for the remaining term of my 
 natural life. The Kaiserstadt was then, as it still is, 
 the most musical capital in Europe ; I felt that my lines 
 were cast in a pleasant place, and, as soon as I had made 
 arrangements for a prolonged sojourn in the second floor 
 of a huge palace in the Freyung, I addressed myself to 
 the agreeable task of obtaining admission to the leading 
 circles of professional and amateur musicians. This 
 undertaking was rendered an easy one by the aid of a 
 few cordial letters from masters of the craft in London 
 and Paris, introducing me to eminent Viennese execu- 
 tants who had reaped abundant laurel crops at different 
 times in English and French concert-rooms ; and, as soon 
 as the kindly recipients of my credentials discovered that 
 I was not altogether "a profane," they made me free, 
 frankly and unreservedly, of the inmost arcana of Vienna 
 musical society. During the ensuing three years no pro- 
 duction I may almost say no preparation of any im- 
 portance connected with the divine art took place in the 
 Kaiserstadt at which I did not assist, and I still look 
 back to the experiences of that period as the most 
 interesting and instructive of my whole life. Eighteen 
 years ago the Vienna school of pianoforte-playing was 
 entering a stage of transition from the calm, accurate, 
 classical method to the fiery, careless, enthusiastic style 
 it adopted early in the seventies, and has since, as I am 
 assured, adhered to. The creme de la creme of Viennese 
 musical society was stricken by wonder, rather than filled 
 VOL. i. p
 
 210 JOHANNES BRAHMS. 
 
 with admiration, by Eubinstein's innovations, both in 
 " reading " and tone -production ; purists, whose name 
 was legion, took strong exception to Brahms' roughness 
 and technical laisser-aller, as well as to the startling 
 liberties he frequently took with classical texts. His 
 following at that time was a small one, compared to what 
 it became in later years under the energetic leadership 
 of Dr. Edward Hanslick ; but it was a compact, resolute, 
 and profoundly convinced phalanx, counting in its ranks 
 some of the most able teachers and accomplished dilet- 
 tanti in the Austrian capital. Brahms' playing, however, 
 rarely heard, and always severely criticised by two or 
 three of the eminent writers who formed, or at least 
 guided, public opinion with respect to matters musical 
 was not highly esteemed even by those who lauded his 
 compositions to the skies. His renderings of these latter 
 were objected to, as manifesting a reckless disdain of 
 mere executant detail that detracted from their general 
 effect, presenting them to the audience as dashing 
 sketches, instead of as finished pictures. The music - 
 lovers who thronged the Conservatoire or the smaller 
 Eedouten-Saal to hear Johannes Brahms play his own 
 music whenever he came up from Pesth to introduce a 
 new trio or P.F. sonata to the public, felt slighted in 
 that he apparently took but slender pains to gratify their 
 fondness for technical exactitude, and grudged him the 
 license he often granted to himself of " vamping" diffi- 
 cult passages he had not taken the trouble to master, or 
 even extemporising, in their place, others more con- 
 venient to his fingers. The critics with one or two dis- 
 tinguished exceptions eagerly pointed out these short-
 
 JOHANNES BRAHMS. 211 
 
 comings, apparently unmindful of the fact (which Brahms 
 himself never hesitated to admit) that perfection of tech- 
 ni'jiiC) pure and simple, was, in his estimation, a matter 
 of small moment compared to the purpose he had always 
 kept steadfastly in view viz., to convey the true mean- 
 ing of his musical ideas and poetical conceptions to his 
 hearers. To me his playing was always intensely inte- 
 resting. Its inaccuracy and slovenliness vexed my ear ; 
 but its descriptiveness and, still more, its suggestiveness 
 were fruitful in exercise for the intelligence. One of 
 the strongest impressions it made upon me leaving, of 
 course, its vigorous and subtle intellectuality out of the 
 question was that the great Hamburg composer never 
 thoroughly studied any work selected by him for per- 
 formance in public, but contented himself with mastering 
 its plan and intention, as he understood them, and with 
 imparting his view thereof to his hearers. This he suc- 
 ceeded in doing, as far as my experience of his playing 
 enables me to pronounce an opinion, in a highly forcible 
 and intelligible manner. Brahms never left any doubt 
 upon a musician's mind as to the meaning of the com- 
 poser whose work he happened to be dealing with; or 
 rather as to what he (Brahms) was convinced the com- 
 poser in question meant. His readings of Beethoven, for 
 instance, often differed in essential respects from those 
 of other great contemporary pianists, notably from those 
 of Rubinstein, whose interpretation of the later P.F. 
 sonatas, in particular, had little in common with that of 
 Brahms, save the actual note-text, and not always even 
 that. But I incline to believe that Brahms is endowed 
 with a clearer and truer insight into Beethoven's musical 
 
 p 2
 
 212 JOHANNES BRAHMS. 
 
 conceptions than even the illustrious Moldavian, whose 
 lineaments and facial expression bear so striking a 
 resemblance to the portraits of the immortal Master. 
 Making due allowance for inferiority of technique Beet- 
 hoven's execution is said to have been faultless and 
 for the developments in tone-producing power effected 
 in modern pianofortes, I can fancy that Brahms plays 
 Beethoven's concertos and sonatas very much as Beet- 
 hoven himself played them. The influence of Beethoven 
 is so unmistakably manifested in Brahms' orchestral 
 works, and even in some of his songs, that Brahms may 
 reasonably be credited with an exceptional capacity for 
 entering into the spirit of Beethoven's compositions. 
 For my part, I am convinced that he is possessed of the 
 capacity in question, and it is by reason of this especial 
 gift that his renderings of the later sonatas which in 
 the hands of Von Buelow appear to me mere bloodless, 
 colourless problems are, to my mind, the most satis- 
 factory I have ever listened to, despite their many tech- 
 nical imperfections. It is probably the result of one of 
 those inexplicable anomalies which so often characterise 
 artistic natures that one who, as a pianist, seems so 
 indifferent to the attractions of adroit execution should, 
 as a composer, set tasks of such inordinate difficulty to 
 the pianoforte-player as those contained in Brahms' P.F. 
 works, some of which exact an almost superhuman flexi- 
 bility and endurance on the part of their performer. It 
 is just possible that Brahms himself could play them as 
 they ought to be played, if he would take the trouble to 
 practise them. This, however, he does not do or did 
 not when I was privileged to meet and hear him and
 
 JULIUS EPSTEIN. 213 
 
 there are but few pianists living who combine the phy- 
 sical strength, manual skill, and intellectual quickness 
 that may enable a performer hors ligne to overcome the 
 formidable difficulties with which the works above 
 alluded to teem. To sum up Brahms' pianoforte- play ing 
 in a few words, it belongs neither to the old nor to the 
 new school; it is not coldly classical, nor ardently emo- 
 tional; it lacks some of the qualities that constitute 
 executant greatness of the first order; but it is original, 
 and instinct with a genius that is reproductive as well as 
 creative. 
 
 The leading pianist of Vienna during my residence in 
 that city from ]866 to 1869 was Julius Epstein, one 
 of the most careful and conscientious artists in Europe, 
 and almost the last representative of clear, cold, crisp 
 classicality who found favour with the impulsive and 
 somewhat fickle Viennese public. Epstein fulfilled func- 
 tions of inestimable utility to the music-lovers of the 
 Kaiserstadt, although his intrinsic merits as a performer 
 were relative rather than positive. He was, so to speak, 
 the backbone of chamber music, whilst Joseph Hellmes- 
 berger was its right arm. He could be, and was, relied 
 upon to play the P.F. part in any concerto, trio, or duo 
 that concert-givers might deem it expedient to include 
 in their programmes, no matter at how short notice, and 
 to play it, moreover, with a mechanical accuracy above 
 all praise. Excepting when stars of the pianist persua- 
 sion were available to the directors of the Conserva- 
 torium or of the " Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde " a 
 frequent occurrence in a city which, during the winter 
 months particularly, is the favourite rendezvous of all
 
 214 JULIUS EPSTEIN. 
 
 the most eminent European soloists Epstein's name was 
 always to be seen on the "bills" of those institutions, 
 carrying with it the foreknowledge that whatever works 
 he was engaged to play would be rendered with irre- 
 proachable correctness. His appearance was in perfect 
 keeping with his style and execution as a pianist. Julius 
 Epstein, when I first made his acquaintance, was thirty- 
 four years of age, tall, slight, and of a sallow complexion, 
 with raven black hair, moustache, and whiskers, as care- 
 fully attended to as those of the most dandified "plunger" 
 in the Vienna garrison. His clothes, always dark in 
 colour, were admirably cut by Ebenstein, the prince of 
 Austrian tailors, and fitted him to a nicety. His linen 
 was of unspotted and dazzling whiteness ; his pale laven- 
 der gloves triumphantly exemplified the supreme fitness 
 of things ; his patent-leather boots were lustrous black 
 mirrors. Being somewhat short-sighted, he wore glasses, 
 which enhanced the frigid and precise gravity of his 
 expression. When he was seated at the piano his body 
 never swayed or swerved in the least, even whilst his 
 long white fingers were achieving marvels of agility, but 
 preserved the rigidity and severe tenue of a model drill- 
 sergeant under inspection. That such a type of deport- 
 ment should be frugal in his dealings with the pedals 
 was a natural consequence of the imperturbable sobriety 
 characterising his every action. Tausig himself was not 
 more chary of " effects," other than those produced by 
 the finger, than Epstein ; whilst Sterndale Bennett had 
 not a more silky and even touch, the result (as he once 
 solemnly informed me) of indefatigable scale-playing for 
 two hours a day throughout some twenty years of his
 
 JULIUS EPSTEIN. 215 
 
 life. In one respect his playing was always a treat ; in 
 another, a disappointment. It was as nearly faultless as 
 anything done by human hands could be ; but it never 
 made the least apparent effort to awaken the sympathies 
 of the audience for the composer, or to place the per- 
 former en rapport with those around him. That Epstein 
 would play every note of the music assigned to him, 
 exactly in conformity with all the author's indications 
 touching time, accent, and emphasis, was a foregone con- 
 clusion to all habitues of Vienna concert-rooms ; but it 
 was no less certain that his faithful rendering of what 
 he saw, and no.thing more, would be absolutely devoid 
 of enthusiasm, warmth, or sensibility. He did not blame, 
 or even deprecate, in others what he abstained from him- 
 self more, I have reason to believe, through constitu- 
 tional reserve than through lack of feeling or incapacity 
 to express what he felt. Rubinstein's wildest extrava- 
 gances, such as that impulsive artist would indulge in 
 when playing en petit comite to a dozen or so of double- 
 dyed musicians, never stirred Epstein to the utterance 
 of a word of protest or condemnation ; but neither did 
 the tremendous success of such tours de force I mean, 
 in the way of tone-production as well as of execution 
 ever tempt him to introduce effects of that class into his 
 own performances. Liszts might come, and Eubinsteins 
 might go ; but Epstein went on for ever (and, I sincerely 
 trust, still continues to do so) in the calm, impassive, 
 immaculate style that stamped his playing with the hall- 
 mark of surpassing respectability; defied reproach, ignored 
 emotion, exalted propriety to the rank of a first-class 
 virtue, and, by inference, relegated sensationalism to the
 
 216 ANTON RUBINSTEIN. 
 
 limbo of unpardonable vices. Such was the pianoforte- 
 playing of Julius Epstein, the most accurate and least 
 interesting of all the eminent pianists with whom I was 
 brought into contact during my sojourn on the banks of 
 the "beautiful blue Danube." 
 
 It was in the year 1868 that I first became acquainted 
 with Anton Eubinstein at the chambers of my friend 
 Hofkapellmeister Joseph Hellmesberger, on the topmost 
 floor of a cruelly lofty house in the Tuchlauben, nearly 
 opposite the Conservatorium of those days; a very 
 different sort of building to the gorgeous edifice behind 
 the Hotel Imperial in which the alumni of the Viennese 
 Hochschule der Musik are now taught how to write 
 fugues, read orchestral scores at sight, and play every 
 instrument under the sun. I was exceptionally lucky 
 in hearing the gifted Moldavian play almost daily for 
 several weeks in succession, in private as well as in public. 
 For the first time the new school of pianism was revealed 
 to me in the fulness of its splendid sensationalism. It 
 had not theretofore been my good fortune to encounter 
 Franz Liszt, its illustrious founder, at the piano, or even 
 to hear any of his greater P.F. works performed by 
 executants of his own training. Rubinstein's orchestral 
 effects and variety of tone-production on my favourite 
 instrument, therefore, surprised no less than they 
 delighted me. During his sojourn in Vienna he played 
 more particularly at the houses of his musical friends, 
 where I most frequently met him music of every period 
 and description ; a great deal of his own, more freely, 
 but less carefully, than that of others; the majority of 
 Beethoven's P.F. sonatas, in the interpretation of which,
 
 ANTON RUBINSTEIN. 217 
 
 to my mind, he excelled nearly every other pianist of 
 the day ; many of Chopin's and Schumann's most diffi- 
 cult works (his renderings of the 5th Impromptu and 
 the Kreisleriana can never be forgotten by any who 
 heard them played by him one night after supper at 
 Johann Herbeck's to an audience after his own heart- 
 pianists of a certain force, every man and woman of 
 them) ; gems of contrivance and constructive ingenuity 
 by Henselt, Tchaikovski, Heller, and several other 
 modern masters; suites by Bach, scraps of Scarlatti, 
 Eameau and Couperin, studies by Hummel and- Mos- 
 cheles, one and all with extraordinary alternations of 
 vigour and delicacy, and, above all, with an ever-present 
 subtle suggestiveness of the player's own distinct indi- 
 viduality. This latter circumstance struck me as all the 
 more singular when I had become sufficiently familiar 
 with his playing to note its peculiarities because his 
 compositions had always appeared to me to receive their 
 immediate inspiration, either in subject or style, from 
 some composer other than himself. Thus, anomalous as 
 it may seem, my view of him as an executant and writer 
 may be most aptly expressed as follows : he plays the 
 music of others as though it were his own, and composes 
 his own music as though it were that of other people. 
 Admitting this view to be correct, it would point to the 
 logical deduction that Rubinstein's originality genius 
 is perhaps the more appropriate term to apply to so 
 remarkable a musician finds expression rather in his 
 playing than in his compositions ; and I really believe 
 that this is so. His is an essentially impressionable and 
 receptive nature, always probably quite unconsciously
 
 218 ANTON RUBINSTEIN. 
 
 under the influence of some individuality stronger 
 than its own. Most of his earlier works afford internal 
 evidence of having been suggested by Mendelssohn's 
 elegant melodic forms and graceful methods of treat- 
 ment. Later ones have obviously been written by 
 Rubinstein whilst he was under the spell of Robert 
 Schumann's imaginative enchantments. Others might 
 have been improvised by a robust Chopin. A very few 
 are Beethovenesque, although in manner rather than in 
 substance, displaying subjects of noble simplicity, broadly 
 and massively handled. In all likelihood, whilst study- 
 ing the compositions of these and other maestri at 
 different periods of his own musical development, with a 
 view to making himself master of their every detail, he 
 has become impregnated with the special characteristics 
 of each great composer successively, and has been con- 
 strained by his own sympathetic and plastic disposition 
 to reproduce those characteristics in whatsoever compo- 
 sitions he himself may have given birth to at the time. 
 
 But to return to his playing, in which his vigorous 
 individuality has always made itself manifest. Opinions 
 may, and do, differ about his readings of the musical 
 classics, about his tempi, and, above all, about his passion 
 for striking contrasts and sensational effects, which 
 prompts him over frequently to endeavour to make the 
 pianoforte do more than it is capable of doing. But I 
 do not think that any experienced pianist, professional 
 or amateur, will deny that Anton Rubinstein is one of 
 the greatest performers on the clavichord whom the last 
 quarter of a century has produced. With respect to 
 touch, flexibility, power, and endurance, his is exhaustive
 
 ANTON RUBINSTEIN. 219 
 
 playing. It is, perhaps, absurd to speak of his touch 
 as though it were a special capability ; for he is possessed 
 of every imaginable sort of touch, from the deep and 
 clinging, which has the faculty of extracting the maxi- 
 mum breadth and length of tone from a tense wire, to 
 the light and feathery, such as notes might be expected 
 to yield were the keyboard tripped over by fairy feet 
 or brushed by butterflies' wings. His flexibility is the 
 more amazing that the physical aspect of his fingers, 
 which are short, thick, and blunt, affords no promise of 
 pliancy, but rather the contrary. I have observed, 
 however, in the cases of other admirable pianists, e.g., 
 AVilhelm Taubert, Ferdinand Hiller, Carl Eeinecke, 
 Alfred Jaell, Johannes Brahms, Leonhard Bach, and 
 Jose'ffy, that fingers of the above description, properly 
 trained, are every whit as supple as the long, slender 
 digits of such players as Epstein, Halle, or Kuhe. 
 Eubinstein's exceptional power and endurance as a 
 pianist are doubtless attributable to his great bodily 
 strength and to a muscular development unusual in 
 pianists. Broad-shouldered, deep-chested and thick-set, 
 any professional pugilist would at a glance pronounce 
 him an ugly customer ; and his hand-grip, if he likes 
 you, is something to be remembered with feelings of a 
 not altogether pleasurable nature. Thanks to these 
 corporeal gifts and to the indefatigable industry with 
 which, as a youth, he applied himself to surmounting 
 the mechanical obstacles that bristle so formidably in 
 every earnest P.F. student's path, Anton Rubinstein 
 (like the greatest of all pianists, living or dead, Franz 
 Lizst) arrived long ago at that advanced stage of profi-
 
 220 ANTON liUBINSTEIN. 
 
 ciency in which mere technical difficulties, howsoever 
 complex and intricate, cease to be a cause of trouble, or 
 even of momentary perplexity, to the player, whose 
 fingers are become capable of carrying out without 
 hesitation, and almost without effort, any instructions 
 conveyed to them by his will, the immediate mandatory 
 and interpreter of his intelligence. The indices of the 
 telegraph dial do not obey the dictates of the " operator " 
 more instantaneously, or with more inevitable exactitude 
 than the fingers of such players as Liszt and Eubinstein 
 unravel the tangles of a skein of musical contrivances at 
 their owner's behest. Nothing short of the absolute 
 subordination of the finger to the brain enables great 
 instrumentalists to execute the astounding feats of sight- 
 reading, and more especially of transposition at sight, 
 that seem to be mere matters of course all in the day's 
 work, as one would fancy from the ease with which they 
 are accomplished to Eubinstein. Is it possible to 
 conceive a more surprising display of combined intellec- 
 tual and physical force than the playing at sight of a 
 difficult piece of music in a key other than that in which 
 it is presented to the performer's eye ? Leaving out of 
 the question the elaborate unconscious cerebration that 
 must take place during such an achievement, the change 
 of key necessitates alteration in every mechanical detail 
 of the fingering, and this alteration has to be thought 
 out and put into execution simultaneously by the player, 
 who must, at one and the same time, take into his mind 
 a musical phrase (possibly three or four bars in length j, 
 its meaning, accents, &c., and the exact notes of which 
 it is composed, in two keys, ordering his fingers by an
 
 ANTON RUBINSTEIN. 221 
 
 effort of volition in such sort that they shall express that 
 phrase upon the keyboard, not as he sees it with his 
 fleshly eyes upon the printed page before him, but as his 
 spiritual sight informs him it must be at a continuous 
 interval of so or so many notes higher or lower in the 
 scale than the original. I know of no more tremendous 
 achievement of no exercise of the human intelligence 
 bringing as many faculties of the brain to bear collec- 
 tively, instantaneously, and simultaneously upon one 
 complex purpose. Of all living pianists, to the best of 
 my belief, Anton Eubinstein is the most infallible reader 
 and transposer a prima vista. I have stood behind him, 
 scarcely crediting the evidence of my own senses, whilst 
 he has rendered a manuscript orchestral score, in sixteen 
 parts, on the piano with all the freedom and apposite 
 expression of a first-class pianist who should be playing 
 a P.F. composition with which he was tolerably familiar. 
 I have heard him transpose one of the most heart- 
 breaking fugues (heart-breaking, of course, only from 
 a mechanical point of view) of the " forty-eight " from a 
 flat key into a sharp key, the latter not even being one 
 of his own selection, but chosen by a fellow-pianist whom 
 I shrewdly suspected at the time to be guilty of intend- 
 ing to set Eubinstein an impossible task. He played 
 the fugue in question which I had only too good 
 reason to know by heart without missing a note or 
 omitting an emphasis. When it was over, I noticed that 
 the perspiration was standing out in great beads upon 
 his massive forehead, from which unwonted symptom of 
 fatigue I drew the inference that he had put a heavy 
 strain upon his powers. But that he had performed
 
 222 ANTON RUBINSTEIN. 
 
 this astonishing feat, at unforeseen request and without 
 a minute's hesitation, others can testify besides myself. 
 Of those who were present on that memorable occasion, 
 I regret to say, four eminent musicians are no longer 
 living Kapellmeister Johann von Herbeck ; Dr. Edward 
 Schelle, the erudite critic, then wielding his mighty pen 
 in the service of the Vienna " Presse ; " Count Lau- 
 rencin, also an eminent writer upon musical subjects, and 
 through his near connection with the Imperial family 
 (he was a natural son of the late Emperor Ferdinand) a 
 highly influential personage in the art circles of the 
 Kaiserstadt; and Roever, the accomplished 'cellist of 
 Hellmesberger's unrivalled Quartet-party, which is still 
 an honoured and flourishing institution of the Austrian 
 capital. But the Hellmesbergers themselves, father 
 and son the two " Pepis " who have played such lead- 
 ing parts in the musical life of Vienna for a score of 
 years past are still alive and hearty, well able to bear 
 witness to the deeds above alluded to, and to many 
 others, scarcely less marvellous, achieved by Anton 
 Rubinstein some sixteen years ago in their presence and 
 mine. So are Gruen, Hoffmann, Epstein, Robert Fuchs, 
 and several more, good musicians and true, at that 
 time constant frequenters of the elder Hellmesberger's 
 " mansion in the skies," where celestial music always 
 rewarded the assiduous climber for an ascent which did 
 patient and persevering athleticism meet with its deserts 
 should assuredly have qualified Hellmesberger's more 
 intimate friends for membership of the Alpine Club. 
 
 Rubinstein's playing has always impressed me as 
 being, in certain important respects, unique ; for instance,
 
 ANTON RUBINSTEIN. 223 
 
 in its fiery impetuosity, its inexhaustible capacity for 
 varying its productions of tone-colour, and last, though 
 not least remarkable its extraordinary pianissimi ; 
 mere instrumental whispers, but perfectly articulate and 
 free from indistinctness. There is more than one eminent 
 performer of the present day who can " sing " upon the 
 piano quite as sweetly and intelligently as Kubinstein, 
 and who is fully his equal in the execution of individual 
 tours de force ; but I know of no other whose forces 
 manifestly increase, instead of diminishing, with the 
 vanquishing of each successive difficulty that presents 
 itself to him, and who, at the end of a long programme, 
 can play its last number generally a terrible exposition 
 of some paramount technical difficulty or difficulties 
 more brightly, crisply, and vigorously than he played its 
 first. Rubinstein compels the pianoforte to yield up and 
 give out its utmost tone-power, not by thrashing it as 
 though it were an hereditary foe with whom it is his 
 purpose to settle an account of offence that has been 
 running for several centuries, but by applying to its 
 keyboard the exact sort of pressure which is bound to 
 bring it to compliance. It may be said that pianofortes 
 find the discipline they receive at his hands extremely 
 trying more so, even, than some of them can bear with- 
 out breaking down under their trials. But, on the other 
 hand, a good master chastens the servant whom he loves 
 of course, for that servant 7 s good and no pianist 
 alive, I will be bound to say, is more deeply attached to 
 the instrument upon which he plays than is Anton 
 Rubinstein, that fine musician, magnificent executant, 
 and prince of good fellows to boot.
 
 224 FEANZ LISZT. 
 
 It is with, extreme diffidence that I attempt to record 
 my impressions of the pianoforte-playing of the greatest 
 and most lavishly-gifted performer upon that instrument 
 whose executant feats have heretofore come under my 
 personal cognizance. He who essays to describe the 
 audible outcome of Franz Liszt's genius, as expressed 
 by that transcendent artist's fingers upon the keyboard, 
 should be a combination of Berlioz and Euskin a 
 musical and literary capacity of the very first water. 
 For Liszt was universal in his playing, equally a master 
 of all schools and styles, including his own ; which latter 
 from physical as well as intellectual disabilities other 
 pianists experience great difficulty in mastering. The 
 Canon of Albano was an elderly man when I heard him 
 play most frequently during the (Ecumenical winter in 
 Eome, between sixteen and seventeen years ago, and later 
 on lost the inimitable force and flexibility which then 
 characterised his execution ; but at that time his normal 
 powers were unimpaired (at least, so I was assured by 
 musicians who had heard him in his prime), and the 
 miracles he worked upon the clavichord were at once so 
 astounding and so beautiful that, by comparison with 
 them, all I had thitherto experienced in the way of 
 accomplished pianism appeared, to me as naught. In 
 what I will venture to designate as "orchestral play- 
 ing," the extraordinary length and elasticity of his 
 fingers enabled him to surpass all other performers. To 
 him tenths were intervals as easily compassed as octaves 
 are to pianists whose extremities are cast in the ordinary 
 mould ; he could play them in rapid sequence, with as 
 many intermediate notes as he had fingers to fit to them.
 
 FRANZ LISZT. 225 
 
 As to his execution, he seemed to plunge his hands into 
 the keyboard and withdraw them thence teeming with 
 passages of the most amazing difficulty, which he scat- 
 tered abroad without the least manifest effort. 
 
 It was my good fortune at different times, in Vienna 
 and Eome, to hear him play a few of the great master- 
 pieces of Beethoven, as well as a good many of his own 
 original compositions and inimitable " transcriptions ; " 
 moreover, he extemporised twice in my presence the 
 first time at great length upon Schubert's exquisite Sere- 
 nade (Staendchen), and the second, more briefly, but 
 with surprising elaboration, upon "Batti, batti." I have 
 therefore been able to appreciate his various qualities as 
 a performer in their three principal developments ; and 
 in all three I found him not only unrivalled, but unap- 
 proachable. His interpretation of Beethoven, whilst 
 distinguished from that of almost every other great 
 cotemporary pianist by a devout fidelity to the tempi and 
 worded or marked instructions of the composer, was at 
 once dignified, romantic, and passionate. All the secrets 
 of the great master's conceptions were revealed and 
 explained by Liszt's magic touch. Although I had 
 played the notes of the " Appassionata " and the 
 " Adieu " times innumerable, and listened to many 
 more or less intelligent renderings of those sublime 
 works, I had never felt their full grandeur or under- 
 stood their exalted significance until Franz Liszt's 
 genius expounded them to me, upon an instrument such 
 as .Louis von Beethoven knew not when he wrote his 
 ineffable P.F. sonatas. The living player merged his 
 own remarkable individuality in that of the dead com- 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 FRANZ LISZT. 
 
 poser ; or else the spirit of Beethoven moved his inter- 
 preter for the time being ; at any rate, the result of 
 either psychical process was one never to be forgotten. 
 
 To hear him play his own compositions or arrange- 
 ments in private was almost to hear him extemporise. 
 "When performing them in public, I believe he usually 
 adhered to their printed text ; but in the salon or club- 
 room (as when I listened to him during a soiree given 
 by the German Club at Borne, in December, 1869), 
 surrounded by intimate friends or approved musicians, 
 he could seldom resist the temptation of trying experi- 
 ments in the way of treatments or cadences, and espe- 
 cially delighted in surprising those familiar with his piano- 
 forte works, by interpolating therein new episodes or novel 
 effects. I particularly remember hearing him dealing in 
 this irreverent and startling way with his admirable tran- 
 scriptions of Faust and The Flying Dutchman, to the 
 rapturous astonishment of all the pianists present, who 
 were " note-perfect " in those chefs-d'oeuvre of mecha- 
 nical contrivance. Upon the occasion referred to, Car- 
 dinal Haynald, Liszt's dearest friend and the companion 
 of his boyhood himself, moreover, an excellent pianist 
 who, like myself, was standing close to the piano, 
 threw his arms round his illustrious fellow-countryman's 
 neck, kissed him on both cheeks, and then, turning to 
 the electrified group of listeners, exclaimed, "Was there 
 ever such a God-gifted creature, so fertile in invention, 
 so strangely enabled to realise in sound the beautiful 
 thoughts that incessantly surge up from the depths of 
 his soul to its surface ? We must all reverence as well as 
 love this great man, recognising in him an elect recipient
 
 FRANZ LISZT. 227 
 
 of Divine favour, grace, and inspiration ! " Indifferent 
 as Liszt had become and how could it be otherwise, 
 looking back to his interminable list of public triumphs 
 to plaudits and social worship, he was visibly touched 
 by the heartfelt words of his old friend, and gave vent to 
 his emotion in an outburst of Hungarian melody, har- 
 monised and embellished with the utmost richness and 
 elegance. That night was an ambrosial one, ever to be 
 gratefully remembered by those who were privileged to 
 participate in its delights. 
 
 It was, however, when avowedly improvising, that 
 Liszt " let himself go," giving full rein to his fancy or 
 humour of the moment, and indulging, to the top of his 
 bent, in the exaggeration of technical difficulty. At 
 such times, stimulated by strong excitement, he would 
 put forth to their utmost executive limits the excep- 
 tional physical forces with which nature had gifted him, 
 and would achieve what, to any other pianist, had been 
 impossible. Practice and will had so disciplined his 
 fingers and accustomed them to fulfil infallibly the 
 orders transmitted to them from his brain, that, in all 
 probability, the word " difficulty " (in connection with 
 technique) had ceased to possess any exact significance, 
 as far as Liszt the executant was concerned. Nobody 
 who has heard him improvise can doubt that, absolutely 
 free from any kind of pre-occupation as to the ability of 
 his hands to execute whatever he may call upon them to 
 do, he gives play to the creative and constructive facul- 
 ties of his intellect without troubling himself in the 
 least about the mere mechanical instruments attached to 
 his wrists. However unexampled the sequences or com- 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 FRANZ LISZT. 
 
 plicated the groups of notes suggested by his imagina- 
 tion, he unhesitatingly gives them expression, being cer- 
 tain that his executant machinery can and will carry 
 them out faultlessly in obedience to an unconscious 
 exercise of volition on his part. This has always seemed 
 to me one of the most extraordinary powers ever 
 acquired and wielded by a human being. Within my 
 remembrance only three pianists have possessed it 
 Liszt, Mendelssohn and Eubinstein, the first-named in a 
 far higher degree of development than the other two. 
 To be able, without an instant's warning or preparation 
 for, in these cases, execution is absolutely simultaneous 
 with conception to reproduce in organised combinations 
 or successions of sounds the fantasies of genius or pro- 
 blems of science is a faculty so seemingly superhuman 
 to those who have it not that I can conceive it to be 
 utterly incomprehensible, and even incredible to the vast 
 majority of mankind. Were the phenomena of Liszt's 
 improvising feats, for instance, recounted in cold blood 
 to any unmusical person of fair average intellect, it 
 would scarcely be surprising should his only comment 
 upon the statement be, "I do not believe a word of it, 
 because it is impossible ! " Extemporisation of this class 
 like transposition at sight, or those all but instan- 
 taneous feats of mental arithmetic with which George 
 Bidder used to dumbfounder the ablest ready-reckoners 
 of his schoolboy days is and must ever remain a more 
 than Eleusinian mystery to the children of men in general. 
 As it is universally admitted by members of the craft 
 that Liszt has been, for at least fifty years of his life, 
 pre-eminent amongst pianoforte players in interpretation,
 
 WAGNER ON LISZT. 229 
 
 execution and improvisation alike, there is, I think, abun- 
 dant justification for the belief I have entertained ever 
 since I first heard him perform namely, that he is in all 
 respects the greatest pianist who ever lived. This, more- 
 over, was Eichard Wagner's opinion of him. Wagner, 
 who was not given to hero-worship, and whose capacity for 
 enthusiasm was always kept under control by his critical 
 faculty, frequently confessed that words failed him to 
 express his wondering admiration of the gift that enabled 
 Liszt to invest himself with the personality of what- 
 soever composer whose works he might be engaged in 
 rendering. On one occasion he wrote, in relation to this 
 speciality of his illustrious father-in-law: " He who has 
 enjoyed frequent opportunities, particularly in a small 
 intimate circle, of hearing Liszt play Beethoven's 
 music, for example must have realised the fact that 
 the playing in question was not mere reproduction, but 
 actual production. The real boundary- line between 
 these two achievements is not so easily settled as most 
 people believe ; but this I have ascertained beyond 
 dispute that in order to reproduce Beethoven, one 
 must be able to produce with him. It would be impos- 
 sible to make this comprehensible to those who, as long 
 as they have lived, have heard nothing but ordinary 
 performances and professional renderings of Beethoven's 
 pianoforte works. In the course of time I have gained 
 so melancholy an insight into the evolution and essence 
 of such renderings that I had rather not wound any- 
 body's feelings by expressing myself more clearly with 
 regard to them. On the other hand I would ask all 
 musicians who have, for instance, heard Beethoven's
 
 230 WAGNER ON LISZT. 
 
 Op. 106 or 111 played by Liszt to friends in private, 
 what they previously knew about those compositions, and 
 what they learned of them upon those occasions ? If this 
 was reproduction, assuredly it was worth much more 
 than all the sonatas reproducing Beethoven which are 
 ' produced ' by our pianoforte composers in imitation of 
 those imperfectly comprehended works. The peculiarity 
 of Liszt's development as a musician was simply this 
 that he did at the piano what others do with pen and 
 ink ; and it is undeniable that even the most original 
 composer, during his first period, does nothing but 
 
 reproduce At Weimar once, during the very 
 
 day upon which I became certain that my personal 
 safety was endangered " (he was compelled to quit Ger- 
 many, being under prosecution for political offences), 
 li I saw Liszt conducting a rehearsal of my opera Tann- 
 haeuser, and was wonder-stricken in recognising in him 
 my second self. What I had felt in composing that 
 music, he felt in performing it ; what I wanted to 
 express when I wrate it down, he actually expressed in 
 giving it sound. It was strange that, at the moment 
 when I was about to become homeless, I should gain, 
 through the appreciation and adaptability of this ines- 
 timable friend, a real home for my art, which home I 
 had theretofore invariably longed and sought for in the 
 
 wrong place At the close of my last sojourn in 
 
 Paris, when I sate brooding over my sad fate, ill, 
 wretched, and desperate, my glance fell upon the score 
 of Lohengrin, and all of a sudden I felt a piteous grief 
 that this music should never be transferred to sound 
 from the surface of the pallid note-paper. At once I
 
 LISZT AND CZAR NICHOLAS. 231 
 
 wrote a few words to Liszt ; he replied that preparations 
 for the performance of the opera were even then being 
 made on the largest scale that Weimar's restricted 
 resources would allow. Everything that men and means 
 could do to make the work intelligible was done ; but 
 errors and misconceptions impeded the wished-for suc- 
 cess. What was to be done to supply the lacking ele- 
 ments, to bring about a true understanding between all 
 those who engaged in the production, and to ensure the 
 ultimate triumph of the opera ? Liszt saw it at once, 
 and did it ! He it was who gave to the public his own 
 impression of the work in a manner, the irrefutable 
 eloquence and overwhelming efficiency of which remain 
 unequalled to the present day." 
 
 During Liszt's second visit to St. Petersburg, the Czar 
 Nicholas invited him to a soiree at the Winter Palace, 
 and in the course of the evening personally asked him 
 to play. An imperial request being equivalent to a 
 command, Liszt sate down to the piano and commenced 
 one of his brilliant Hungarian Ehapsodies. The Czar, 
 instead of bestowing that exclusive attention upon the 
 performance to which Liszt was accustomed, and which, 
 in fact, he exacted from his audiences in private as well 
 as in public no matter of what exalted elements they 
 might happen to be composed entered into an animated 
 conversation with one of his generals, talking in his 
 usual and by no means subdued tone of voice. Liszt 
 went on playing for a minute or so, at the expiration of 
 which time, seeing that the Emperor was not listening 
 to him, he suddenly came to a full stop, and rose from his 
 seat at the instrument. Tableau ! Although he had paid
 
 232 LISZT AND CZAR NICHOLAS. 
 
 no heed to Liszt's performance, Nicholas Alexandreivich 
 missed the sound of the piano, and sent one of his cham- 
 berlains to ask the artist why he had ceased playing 
 whether he was indisposed or the piano had not been 
 properly tuned. Liszt's steely grey eyes flashed with 
 righteous indignation as he replied : " The Czar well 
 knows that whilst he is speaking every other voice even 
 that of music is bound to be mute ! " So saying, he 
 turned his back on the astounded official, and abruptly 
 left the room. Everybody present expected that the 
 maestro would receive his passport the first thing on the 
 following morning, with the peremptory order on the 
 part of the Minister of Police to quit Eussian territory 
 within four-and-twenty hours. To the surprise of the 
 Court, however, Czar Nicholas took in good part the 
 severe reproof administered to him by the fearless pianist, 
 to whom he sent a costly gift the next day ; and ever 
 after, when Liszt's name was mentioned in his presence, 
 spoke of him with cordial admiration as a musician who 
 not only respected himself but had the courage to insist 
 upon respect being paid to his art, " even" (as the Czar 
 was wont to observe) " by ignorant persons like myself, 
 who know so little about music that they do not deserve 
 that great artists should waste their time and talents in 
 trying to amuse them." 
 
 Having told some part of what I personally know and 
 feel about the playing of the giants of pianism, I will 
 crave permission to say a few words respecting a few of 
 the younger executants of the day, with whose perform- 
 ances I have had occasion to become conversant. They 
 are four in number ; two Germans and two Slavs ; all
 
 JOSfiFFY, PACHMANN, BACH. 233 
 
 excellent artists, deservedly holding high rank in their 
 profession, firmly established in popular favour through- 
 out Central and Eastern Europe, and, being compa- 
 ratively speaking young men, entitled to look forward 
 confidently to long, brilliant and remunerative careers. 
 Three of them are men of unusually small stature, 
 thick-set and short-fingered ; in every physical respect 
 the converse of the ideal pianist, who, as I have been 
 given to understand by musical ladies of my acquaint- 
 ance, should be tall, narrow-shouldered, long-necked 
 and haired, endowed with slender white talons, and 
 generally (to borrow an epithet from my fair in- 
 formants) " romantic-looking." It is odd how few of 
 the really great pianists I have met fulfilled these 
 conditions. Franz Liszt and my genial friend Moritz 
 Moszkowski are the only two I can call to mind who 
 realised them exhaustively. Amongst first-class execu- 
 tants little burly men are decidedly in the majority, and 
 long emaciated ones in the minority. To the former 
 category most indisputably belong Joseffy, De Pachmann, 
 and Leonhard Emil Bach, three of the best young per- 
 formers on the clavichord now before the public. Alfred 
 Gruenfeld, to whom I venture to assign the very first 
 place in the category above alluded to, is an uncommonly 
 good-looking fellow, neither short nor tall, well-built 
 and as muscular as a professional athlete. His appear- 
 ance and bearing are rather those of an Austrian hussar 
 in mufti than of a pianist. Even when seated at his 
 instrument he is apt to look round him with a gay and 
 somewhat defiant glance, as though he were settling 
 down in the saddle on a favourite charger prior to per-
 
 234 ALFRED GRUENFELD. 
 
 forming some risky feat of the manege, instead of on a 
 music-stool, with a view to rendering a Chopin Polonaise 
 or a Schumann Novelette. 
 
 When Alfred Gruenfeld was in London during the 
 season of 1879, he was only three-and-twenty, but had 
 so thoroughly mastered the technical difficulties of his 
 art that at least in that particular direction he had 
 nothing to learn. He was, even then, an admirable 
 sight-reader, and gifted in no small measure with the 
 rare faculty of felicitous improvisation. Many of my 
 readers doubtless remember what a sensation he created 
 at a monster concert in the Floral or St. James's Hall (I 
 forget which) by an extempore treatment of the leading 
 themes in Lohengrin, which he played as an encore. His 
 capacity for imitating the styles and methods of living 
 and dead composers amounted to little short of genius. 
 He would take some ordinary familiar tune the simpler, 
 and even the more common-place, the better for his 
 purpose and deal with it successively in the manners 
 of Mozart, Haydn, Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, 
 Chopin, Schumann, Wagner, Offenbach, Strauss, and a 
 dozen more, so absolutely merging his own individuality 
 in that of the composer whose peculiarities he was re- 
 producing for the time being, as, au premier abord, to 
 deceive the most practised ear. His tours de force, in 
 the way of mere execution, were no less surprising than 
 his versatility with respect to touch and tone-production. 
 I have, for instance, repeatedly heard him play Chopin's 
 well-known waltz in D flat the right-hand part, of 
 course in octaves at full speed, without omitting a 
 single ornament. Every pianist will admit that this, in
 
 ALFRED GEUENFELD. 235 
 
 its way, is an incomparable feat. With such marvels of 
 dexterity, however, he was never weary of regaling his 
 friends, and would play to them all day and all night 
 long, if they wished it, without exhibiting the least sign 
 of fatigue. I never, before or since, encountered such 
 an indefatigable performer. One night, at the German 
 Club in Mortimer Street, upon some special occasion 
 when " high jinks " had been going on all the evening, 
 he dropped in at about half-past eleven (having been 
 already playing at a concert and a couple of parties), 
 "took the piano," in obedience to an unanimous call on 
 the part of the members present and their guests, and kept 
 it, barring brief intervals devoted to refreshment, until 
 live o'clock the following morning. During the interim 
 he gave us specimens of all the leading P.F. composers' 
 works, and extemporised half-a-dozen times upon themes 
 suggested by one or another of his hearers. Like 
 Rubinstein, he believed firmly in the inspiration of 
 tobacco, and never played so well as when a cigar was 
 smouldering in a corner of his mouth. Gruenfeld was, 
 perhaps, too out-and-out a Bohemian though of the 
 most harmless, genial, and cheery sort to succeed in 
 London. When I last saw him he told me that he had 
 been grievously disappointed by his reception here, in 
 private as well as in public, and that, in all probability, 
 he should not repeat his visit to this metropolis. For the 
 last five years his time has been chiefly spent " on tour " 
 in Germany, Russia, Scandinavia, Hungary, Poland, 
 Eoumania, and the United States, where he has won 
 laurels without number, and, I rejoice to say, has made 
 a good deal of money.
 
 236 ALFRED GRUENFELD. 
 
 It is so seldom that a high honorific distinction is 
 bestowed upon mere executant musicians in Eussia, that 
 the recent conferment of the Stanislas Order upon Alfred 
 Gruenfeld by Czar Alexander III. has made a consider- 
 able sensation in German musical circles, as well as at 
 the Court of St. Petersburg itself. The Czars, like the 
 Sultans, have distinguished themselves during the pre- 
 sent century by their munificence to pianists " on 
 tour ; " but Imperial recognition, in such cases, has for 
 the most part assumed the form of gifts of money or 
 jewels, not of crosses and ribands. Alfred Gruenfeld, 
 however, appears to have carried all before him at 
 Gatchina and the Winter Palace. Princess Woronzoff's 
 palace, on the Mo'ika Canal, is the chief temple in which 
 aristocratic music-worship is celebrated in St. Peters- 
 burg. It appears that Gruenfeld, during his sojourn on 
 the banks of Neva, officiated as high-priest of the 
 temple in question, and performed musical rites almost 
 daily within its walls. Amongst the "congregation" 
 were to be found the Czar's brothers and sisters-in-law, 
 and many of the great Eussian Boyars. There are some 
 excellent musical amateurs, vocal as well as instru- 
 mental, amongst the ladies of the Imperial Court. The 
 Duchess of Leuchtenberg, a sister of the late General 
 Skobeleff, is an admirable soprano singer ; so is Princess 
 Bieloselska; whilst Madame de Scheremetieff holds a 
 post of honour in the foremost rank of Latter-Day 
 " orchestral pianists." Through the influence of the 
 veteran composer, Adolf Henselt, who is inspector- 
 general of the colleges for young ladies of noble birth 
 throughout Eussia proper, Gruenfeld was engaged to
 
 MEXTER AXD DAVIDOFF. 237 
 
 give concerts in two or three of those educational insti- 
 tutions, the inmates of which lead a strictly conventual 
 life as a rule, and played his very best to highly sympa- 
 thetic audiences of from seven to eight hundred damsels, 
 all dressed alike in snow-white uniforms. Several 
 excellent pianists, amongst them Woelffl, Luetschg and 
 Van Ark, are attached to the St. Petersburg Conserva- 
 toire, their present chief being Madame Sophie Menter, 
 who not long ago succeeded the lamented Louis Brassin 
 as principal Professor of pianism at the Imperial High 
 School, and, like her predecessor, has as much teaching 
 as she can do at two guineas per half-hour lesson. 
 More than one eminent teacher of music in the Russian 
 capital, besides Henselt, derives a large income from 
 some office or employment altogether foreign to the 
 musical profession. Charles Davidoff, for instance, first 
 of living violoncellists, is not only Director of the 
 Imperial Academy of Music, but financial manager of 
 Prince Danischeff's enormous ironworks, with a salary 
 equal to the pay and allowances of two full generals of 
 the Russian army. It appears that Davidoff was an 
 assiduous student of mathematics and physics as a 
 youth, a circumstance which accidentally reached the 
 wealthy ironmaster's ears (Danischeff, it should be men- 
 tioned, isfanatico per la musica], and suggested to him 
 the " happy thought " of conferring upon the eminent 
 soloist an appointment that should make him comfort- 
 able for life, independently of concerts and teaching. 
 It was a kindly expedient, and worthy of imitation in 
 countries which pride themselves on being a long way 
 ahead of Russia in civilisation and " art- culture."
 
 Joseffy is a strange but highly gifted being, to whom 
 even his best friends and he has been the pet, at one 
 time or another, of nearly every eminent musician of 
 Germany and Austria do not hesitate to apply the 
 epithet mauvais sujet. For some years after I had first 
 made his acquaintance he was hardly ever out of a 
 scrape ; and his adventures in the way of overrunning 
 the constable would fill a highly entertaining volume. 
 In appearance he is a rough-hewn replica of Algernon 
 Swinburne, less the delicacy of complexion and fineness 
 of " points " characterising that fleshliest of poets. To 
 the best of my remembrance he has not as yet played in 
 this country ; which should be a source of regret to all 
 English music-lovers, to whom his renderings of works 
 belonging to the romantic school Chopin, Liszt, and 
 Schumann in particular could not have failed to give 
 the keenest delight. In the matter of technique Joseffy 
 is one of the world's wonders. Nothing but the excep- 
 tional shortness of his fingers prevents him from 
 equalling the great Canon of Albano himself, as far 
 as mere execution is concerned. He has a way of 
 combining, or rather intermingling the digits of both 
 hands in a certain class of extremely intricate passages 
 that must be seen to be realised and believed in. The 
 last time I met him was in poor Johann von Herbeck's 
 sky-parlour, where he kept a large party of musical 
 critics and executants up till daybreak by a very 
 remarkable prodigality of his repertoire" 1 s apparently 
 inexhaustible resources. At the conclusion of this 
 entertainment, his hearers being fairly worn out with 
 the high tension at which he had kept their nerves for
 
 PACHMANN. 239 
 
 several hours, nothing would satisfy him but that I 
 should play him a match of " Kegel " billiards at a cafe 
 of his predilection, which enjoyed the distinction of 
 being permitted to keep open all night long, and like 
 the Maison Doree of old had not been closed to its 
 customers for many a year. The stake, he insisted, 
 should not be money, but a bowl of a curiously deadly 
 potion, compounded of rum, tea, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, 
 nutmeg, and lemon. That was his notion of rational 
 enjoyment skittle-billiards and hot egg-nog at four 
 o'clock of a summer morning, after a spell of music in 
 the course of which he himself had played from thirty 
 to forty of the most difficult works ever written for the 
 pianoforte. I have not seen him since that memorable 
 orgy, but have been in constant expectation of hearing 
 that he had succumbed to some one of his many amiable 
 eccentricities. Only the other day, however, the far 
 more agreeable intelligence reached me that he had 
 remitted home thirty thousand dollars from San 
 Francisco, in which city he had wound up a triumph- 
 ant starring tour through the United States. That 
 Joseffy, having earned such a comfortable sum of 
 money, should have kept it, I look upon as one of 
 the most amazing incidents of cotemporary history. 
 
 Vladimir de Pachmann has of late been so frequently 
 heard in English concert-rooms and salons, and, during 
 the past season, has achieved so unequivocal a status 
 here as a popular favourite, that I may confine my 
 remarks upon his pianism within a very brief space. 
 As an interpreter of Chopin he is probably unrivalled at 
 the present time. Since the death of that composer, no
 
 240 BACH. 
 
 executant except, perhaps, the inimitable Princess 
 Czartoryska, who was taught by Chopin himself has 
 made the true meaning and sentiment of his works so 
 vividly manifest to the public as his compatriot, M. de 
 Pachmann. It was, I think, Fetis who said, "Pour 
 comprendre et faire comprendre Chopin il faut avoir du 
 sang sclave dans les veines ; " and the shrewdest of 
 French musical critics was right. All the finest Chopin 
 players I have ever heard have been Poles or Eussians ; 
 and the best of these latter is De Pachmann. His 
 repertoire is comprehensive, and he plays all manner of 
 music with excellent taste, delicacy, and finish ; but 
 Chopin is distinctly his speciality. For endurance he is 
 entitled to rank on an equal footing with Eubinstein and 
 Jose"ffy " les deux inepuisables,'' as Madame de 
 Schleinitz once aptly styled them. As a matter of fact, 
 this accomplished artist is as familiar with the creations 
 of Dussek, Field, Hummel, Moscheles, Scarlatti, Eameau, 
 and Couperin, as he is with those of Chopin, Liszt, and 
 Schumann. 
 
 Leonhard Emil Bach has for some two years past 
 been frequently and conspicuously before the London 
 public, which has signified its delight in his admirable 
 performances by ample tribute of the applause they 
 have so richly merited. The Chevalier Bach, who holds 
 an honorary position at the German Court as pianist to 
 the Emperor, is a type of the most advanced school of 
 Teutonic pianoforte virtuosi, who are trained to credit the 
 clavichord with the possession of a larger stock of 
 expressive resources than it really possesses, but who, at 
 least, successfully compel it to yield up all the sounds
 
 BACH. 241 
 
 and effects of producing which it is susceptible. Under 
 the hands of Leonhard Bach who has profited largely by 
 the instruction he was fortunate enough to receive from 
 his illustrious master, Franz Liszt the piano not only 
 discourses most excellent music, but, at times, assumes 
 an orchestral character. I first met Bach at the Abd- 
 deen Palace in Cairo, where he and his fellow-traveller 
 for the nonce, Ole Bull were the instrumental stars of a 
 state concert given by Ismail Khedive, then in the zenith 
 of his viceregal splendour. At that time (February, 
 187G) Bach was a mere stripling, and had but recently 
 terminated his studies. His playing, however, struck 
 me as uncommonly vigorous and intelligent ; and he 
 scored heavily in the diplomatic salons of the Egyptian 
 capital, in which music held its own manfully and 
 womanfully ten years ago. Later on I repeatedly heard 
 him play at Berlin and Vienna, in both of which critical 
 cities he took a high position among the younger 
 apostles of sensational pianism. Since that time his 
 style has ripened, and his production of tone is become 
 far mellower than it was during his " storm and strain " 
 period. Bach, I am glad to say, has transferred his 
 household gods from Berlin to London en permanence. 
 He will supply a want that has been keenly felt for 
 some years past in metropolitan musical circles that of 
 a really first-class pianoforte-player, resident amongst us, 
 and always available for the higher musical requirements 
 of the British public. 
 
 That such a want as this and it is undeniable 
 should exist in so enormous a city as London, which 
 may, moreover, justly advance considerable pretensions 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 ENGLISH PIANIST. 
 
 to musical taste and culture, is a fact at once extremely 
 regrettable and difficult to account for satisfactorily. 
 Why is this metropolis mainly dependent upon foreign 
 and non-resident talent for pianoforte-playing of unex- 
 ceptionable quality ? How is it that our musical educa- 
 tional institutions have hitherto failed to produce 
 pianists of either sex who may be classed in the same 
 category of executants as any of the great performers 
 referred to in this chapter, or as Madame Schumann, 
 Mademoiselle Jauotha, and half-a-dozen other gifted 
 ladies of alien birth who from time to time visit these 
 shores ? Is our system of teaching at such establish- 
 ments defective ? or are English men and women lacking 
 in the highest sort of executant ability, as far as piano- 
 forte-playing is concerned ? These are questions to 
 which, possibly, answers may be supplied by musical 
 writers of greater knowledge and courage than myself. 
 All I can say is that it seems to me passing strange, 
 considering how extensively the pianoforte is studied in 
 this country, and how numerous are the English-born 
 professional pianists who have learnt all that our 
 Academies and Schools of Music have been able to teach 
 them, that season after season should pass away without 
 bringing to the front a single pure-bred British per- 
 former on the most popular of musical instruments, 
 comparable otherwise than disadvantageously to any 
 one of the more eminent Continental pianists. "Why 
 this is so, I would rather not surmise in this place. But 
 it is so. " 'Tis true, 'tis pity ; pity 'tis, 'tis true ! "
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ADELINA PATTI AT HOME. 
 
 THE Rock of the Night, at the base of which the Queen 
 of Song has built her home-nest, is a blunt Welsh hill 
 with a strongly-marked brow and an obtuse profile ; 
 greener than most of its neighbours, seamed here and 
 there with rudely constructed stone walls, and sparsely 
 studded on its lower slopes with a few sturdy trees, now 
 clad it is the third week of October, and the Rock faces 
 the window by which I am writing these lines -in all 
 the golden and russet glories of autumn. Craig-y-Nos 
 is one of a long double line of high hills, many of which 
 are thickly wooded, whilst a few present the aspect of 
 tawny, barren moorland ; they stretch away inland for 
 some thirty miles from Swansea Bay into the heart of 
 Brecknockshire, where they join the renowned Brecon 
 Beacons. Between these hills winds the Swansea Valley, 
 watered by the Tawe and its tributary mountain streams, 
 whose name is legion ; the Valley of the Usk and one or 
 two other picturesque vales, the titles of which are inge- 
 niously compounded of liquid consonants, the sixth vowel 
 and the compound letter w, branch out of this fine 
 valley, along which runs a single line of railway, fre- 
 quently at an elevation of several hundred feet above the 
 
 R2
 
 244 CRAIG-Y-NOS. 
 
 bright river hurrying seawards and babbling as it flows, 
 so loudly that its incessant voice can be distinctly heard 
 from the summit of the Mght-Rock. The whole region 
 surrounding Adelina Patti's country-seat for many a mile 
 is of a singularly romantic character ; for the most part 
 wild and weird, abounding in verdant fairy nooks and 
 broad expanses of waste-land, over which one would 
 scarcely be surprised, in the grey gloaming, to see giants 
 stalking from cairn to cairn, or cave to cave. The dusky 
 hill-sides and shadowy valleys wear a legendary look 
 during the mystic hours of early morn and late afternoon, 
 as though they must, in some remote age, have been the 
 chosen haunts of elves and sprites, wood-demons and 
 water-nymphs. When the sun shines upon them in the 
 fulness of his power, they glow with fine deep yellows, 
 rich browns and dark lush greens; but "between the 
 lights " they are overcast by sullen shades, from grey 
 to black, that impart to them a strangely grave and 
 forbidding aspect. 
 
 On a shelf, or natural plateau, of Craig- y-Nos stands 
 the castle, offering the most striking contrast imaginable 
 to the primitive, old-world region in which it is situate ; 
 for it is, so to speak, an epitome of all the comforts and 
 luxuries with which the more recent developments of 
 science and art have enabled Fortune's favourites to 
 solace and embellish their every-day lives. It is a 
 castellated building of great breadth and depth, con- 
 structed of reddish- grey limestone, which composes 
 admirably with the prevailing tints of the surrounding 
 landscape. Besides the central turret, from the breezy 
 platform of which waves the " house-flag" of its gifted
 
 CRAIG-Y-5TOS. 245 
 
 owner, a massive clock-tower flanks the eastern wing of 
 Craig-y-Nos Castle, and its bells, which faithfully repro- 
 duce the Westminster Chimes so familiar to a Londoner's 
 ears, record the progress of Old Time every quarter of 
 an hour throughout the day and night. The Castle, 
 which takes its name from the huge rock beetling high 
 above it to the westward and sheltering it from the 
 fierce Atlantic gales that now and anon sweep up the 
 Swansea Valley, was by no means what it now is, when 
 Madame Patti purchased it from its original owner, one 
 of the " old ancient Powells, look you " whose patrony- 
 mic is identified with the history of Glamorganshire. At 
 that time it consisted simply of the corps de logis, a solid 
 square building to which she has added two spacious 
 wings, and which stood gloomily by itself in the centre 
 of a picturesque wilderness of long cover and pasture 
 land overlooking the Tawe and the opposite side of the 
 valley, the Castle itself standing on a broad slab of rock 
 about a hundred feet above the river-bed. The slope 
 trending downwards from the house to the waterside has 
 been converted into a series of turfed terraces, resembling 
 a wide staircase of giant's steps covered with green 
 velvet. These terraces are skirted at either end by 
 winding gravelled paths with easy gradients, and are, 
 moreover, traversed by one flight of steepish steps hewn 
 out of the hill-side. The lowest terrace of all is merged 
 in a beautiful lawn, level with the river-bank and 
 studded here and there with flower-beds. A light iron 
 bridge spans the river, and connects the castle grounds 
 with a fine young plantation belonging to Madame Patti 
 and bordered by a carefully rolled gravel-walk that
 
 246 THE NIGHTINGALE'S NEST. 
 
 follows the course of the swift stream for some hundreds 
 of yards. A similar walk fringes the opposite river- 
 bank, and leads past a long walled enclosure (containing 
 kitchen-gardens, kennels, and a plantation or two of 
 sapling Scotch firs) to a circular lake, well stocked with 
 fish and fed by one of the many crystal brooks that flow 
 into the Tawe hereabouts. This lovely walk, with the 
 river which just here forms two cascades, distant from 
 one another about fifty yards on its right, and the 
 gleaming, glassy lake on its left, commands a supremely 
 impressive view of the great valley, walled in on either 
 side by round-topped hills, and seemingly blocked at its 
 eastern end by one of the huge frowning Beacons. 
 
 The castle stands back about a hundred feet from the 
 high road connecting Swansea with Brecon. From this 
 thoroughfare it is separated by a pretty garden, square 
 in shape and centred by a circular drive ; all this portion 
 of the grounds being enclosed in high stone walls, partly 
 covered by creeper roses, jasmines, and ivy. As you pass 
 through the massive arched gateway facing the main 
 portal, the lodge and entrance to the stables are on your 
 right hand, and on your left is a broad path leading to a 
 large shrubbery and a pheasantry. Entering the house 
 and ascending a double flight of stone steps you come to 
 a hall running the whole length of the old corps de log is, 
 luxuriously fitted up, and ornamented with oil-paintings, 
 faiences, and cases of stuffed salmon and trout. Exactly 
 opposite the entrance is the drawing-room door, flanked 
 on either side by two masterpieces of wood-carving, 
 representing a Florentine youth and maiden in fifteenth- 
 century costume. To the right is the dining-room,
 
 THE NIGHTINGALE'S NEST. 247 
 
 built upon a lower level than that of the hall, and com- 
 municating at its further end with the superb winter- 
 garden, of which more anon. To the left lie the billiard- 
 rooms and music-gallery, Madame Patti's boudoir, a 
 cosy little writing-room and the grand staircase leading 
 to the upper part of the house, where those who happen 
 to be but sparsely endowed with the organ of locality 
 may readily lose their way amongst the successive corri- 
 dors and quaint little round-the- corner stairs that 
 meander hither and thither, amid suites of guest- 
 chambers, in the distracting way peculiar to old country 
 houses. Madame Patti's bedroom and dressing-room 
 overlook the valley and are situate in the older portion 
 of the castle. They deserve special mention and shall 
 have it; meanwhile, before quitting generalities for 
 details in this word-sketch of the Diva's home, I may 
 mention that the house is lighted throughout with gas, 
 manufactured on the estate, and that all the reception- 
 rooms, including the winter-garden, are brilliantly illu- 
 minated by Swann and Edison's electric lamps, yielding 
 a rich, soft, yellow radiance that never fatigues the eyes, 
 whilst it shows off the beautiful furniture, art- decorations, 
 pictures, and bric-a-brac to perfection. The force pro- 
 ducing this delightful light is generated in an outbuilding 
 divided from the conservatories, graperies, and peach- 
 houses by a huge kitchen garden ; the process is effected 
 by the aid of a steam-engine of six-horse power con- 
 suming from six to seven tons of fuel per month. The 
 castle is moreover warmed from basement to roof with 
 hot air, by means of which an average temperature of 
 from GO to 65 Fahrenheit is maintained in all the
 
 248 A SONGSTRESS'S SOUVENIRS. 
 
 corridors and passages as well as the residential rooms, 
 each of which latter, however, is fitted with a powerful 
 calorifere, intended to act as a substitute for the hot-air 
 system, should the latter come to grief by any untoward 
 mishap during the cold weather. 
 
 All the reception-rooms teem with objels d'art pre- 
 sented to Madame Patti by august and distinguished 
 personages, as well as by her faithful and grateful friend, 
 the public of Europe and America, during her long 
 artistic career of triumphs unexampled and unparalleled. 
 But the drawing-room and boudoir of Craig-y-Nos Castle 
 are very museums of souvenirs personal to herself of 
 precious tributes of homage paid to her inimitable talent, 
 of the affection inspired by her singular sweetness of 
 nature, and of gratitude for the exquisite pleasure her 
 unrivalled singing has afforded to millions of her fellow- 
 creatures during a full third of the present century ; for 
 Adelina Patti has been a public singer since her eighth 
 year, and her vocalisation was scarcely less marvellous, 
 in its floridness, accuracy, and finish thirty-three years 
 ago than it is at the present moment. In a bow- window 
 recess of the drawing-room stands a magnificent bronze 
 bust, hight " Time is Money," supported on either side 
 by an elegant bronze vase of elaborate workmanship, 
 presented to the chatelaine of Craig-y-Nos by admiring 
 friends of New York. Eanged in glass cases set upon 
 the mantel shelf are a gorgeous laurel wreath, executed 
 in massive gold, with a large star of brilliants as a 
 pendant, a San Francisco offering; jewelled silvern 
 goblets and huge loving cups in the precious metals, 
 further tribute from the free-handed Pacific State; a
 
 A SONGSTRESS'S SOUVENIRS. 249 
 
 horseshoe, splendidly mounted, which Madame Patti 
 picked up on the shore of Salt Lake ; and a golden olive- 
 branch, two feet in length, upon each leaf of which is 
 graven the title of an opera belonging to her repertoire. 
 The priceless Italian and French cabinets that adorn the 
 walls of this stately salon (the furniture of which, with 
 the exception of some gorgeous presentation chairs, 
 worked by the hands of grandes dames de par le monde, 
 might be described in Whistlerian parlance as " a sym- 
 phony in blue and silver") contain golden and silvern 
 wreaths, offered by the publics of Paris, Vienna, Ham- 
 burg, Moscow, Florence and Milan ; inimitable knick- 
 knacks of all sorts, such as jewelled etuis, smelling- 
 bottles, necessaires, chatelaines, comfit-boxes, and orna- 
 ments for the head, neck, and waist. In the centre of 
 the room, opposite an admirable pastel of Madame Patti, 
 recently executed by the renowned Grispini, and standing 
 by itself on a tall rosewood easel, is placed the colossal 
 concert-grand piano, specially manufactured for and 
 presented to Madame Patti by Steinway. It is the 
 largest instrument of its class in the world, and unques- 
 tionably the finest upon which I have ever yet played. 
 The huge table near it is heavily laden with photo- 
 graphic albums, filled with autographic portraits of all 
 the more recent composers and executants, vocal and 
 instrumental, whose names are household words to every 
 musician throughout the wide world. No maestro, from 
 Eossini down to Delibes, is missing from this collection, 
 unique of its kind, and one of the Diva's most highly prized 
 possessions. Her boudoir (pink and steel-grey) contains 
 presentation portraits of the venerable German Emperor,
 
 250 THE WINTER-GARDEN. 
 
 the Czar and Czarina, the Princess of Wales, the late 
 Duke of Albany, King Kalakaua, the King and Queen 
 of Spain, Dona Ysobel de Borbon, and one or two of the 
 Infantas, as well as of several other Imperial, Royal and 
 Serene Highnesses. Some of these " counterfeit pre- 
 sentments" are set up in stands on a buhl cabinet 
 crammed with golden and silvern wreaths Madame 
 Patti has received thirty of these costly offerings, and I 
 may parenthetically remark that one who is poor though 
 honest would rejoice with exceeding fervour were he 
 endowed with her "portable property" in this particular 
 direction pour tout potage dainty Sevres and Dresden 
 china, gemmed and hand-painted fans, each a chef d" 1 ceuvre 
 of art, and countless other precious trifles, having no 
 object in existence save to be beautiful, rare, and for 
 the most part, worth a good deal more than their weight 
 in gold. 
 
 Through the dining-room, the chief adornment of 
 which is a three-quarter portrait of Madame Patti by 
 Winterhalter, we pass into the winter-garden, a long 
 range of lofty glass-houses fringing and overlapping the 
 western wing of the castle, and affording a sufficient 
 promenade for its denizens during wet weather, which 
 occurs not infrequently in the Swansea Valley. This 
 noble crystal gallery and the suite of conservatories 
 adjoining it are tapisses with climbing exotics, amongst 
 them several curious varieties of Labigeria, with their 
 fancifully patterned leaves and great glowing scentless 
 blossoms. From amongst this wealth of tropical foliage 
 the electric lamps gleam forth here and there after dark 
 like dazzling flowers, and light up the deep valley belo\v,
 
 THE BILLIAKD-ROOM*. 
 
 making Tawe's waters flash again as they ripple impetu- 
 ously along. Words fail me to do justice to the magical 
 effect produced by this glass reservoir of lambent 
 light upon the wild scene of rock, wood, and water that 
 faces Craig-y-Nos. It must be seen to be realised once 
 seen, it can never be forgotten. In the eastern wing of 
 the castle are situate two vast billiard-rooms, communi- 
 cating with one another, the first containing besides a 
 full - sized English table fitted with automatic bell- 
 markers a gigantic Geneva orchestrion, which plays 
 fifty-two operatic overtures and selections with a spirit, 
 force, and delicacy of expression that do infinite credit to 
 its fabricators. At one end of the further billiard-room, 
 the centre of which is occupied by an absolutely perfect 
 French table, a broad music-gallery has been erected, in 
 which stands an Erard full-grand of exceptionally fine 
 tone and touch. Another interesting feature of this 
 splendid room is a complete phonographic apparatus, 
 into the ear of which Madame Patti sometimes warbles 
 a sparkling roulade or crisp staccato ; whereupon, a 
 handle being rapidly turned, a weird, fairy voice, the 
 miniature reproduction of her own wondrous organ, pipes 
 out her fiorture, note for note and inflection for inflection, 
 with truly surprising exactitude. It has been my privi- 
 lege to inspect some of the art- treasures gathered toge- 
 ther in Madame Patti's rooms on the first floor of the 
 castle; they include a genuine Raifaelle, "The Yirgin 
 and Child," painted on panel ; an ancient and singularly 
 beautiful Russian Ikon, representing the head of Our 
 Saviour ; and an admirable replica of the immortal 
 Madonna della Sedia. The suite itself is furnished
 
 252 THE PATTI JEWELS. 
 
 throughout with tasteful elegauce in pale blue satin and 
 delicate lace. A mighty iron safe is let into the masonry 
 of the thick stone wall fronting the grounds and river. 
 In this fire-proof receptacle, within a few feet of her 
 bedside, Madame Patti keeps such of her jewels, Imperial 
 and Royal decorations, etc., as are not deposited with her 
 London bankers. I have no idea how many parures of 
 brilliants, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, pearls, and tur- 
 quoises she possesses ; perhaps she herself could scarcely 
 tell without the aid of her faithful Caroline, who has 
 charge of jewels equivalent in value to several princes' 
 ransoms; but I know that, day after day, when she 
 comes down to dinner, her throat, ears, and fingers are 
 adorned by new splendours, and that every imaginable 
 combination of precious stones would appear to have 
 found a place in her collection of ornaments. Huge 
 diamond butterflies and birds, presented to her by 
 Emperors and Kings, Empresses and Queens, sparkle 
 on her breast ; enormous brilliant solitaires glitter with 
 a thousand varied lights as they dangle from her dainty 
 ears ; great square emeralds and round sapphires, en- 
 circled by lustrous diamonds, glow upon her fair arms. 
 Decked in these precious gauds and in the cunningest 
 fabrics of the needle and the loom, herself far more 
 bright and beautiful than them all, she looks like a Fairy 
 Queen ; and such, indeed, is the " Lady of the Castle," 
 as the villagers for many a mile eastwards and west- 
 wards are wont to style her the Good Fairy of the wild 
 "Welsh valley in which she has fixed her abode, and in 
 which she has brought comfort and well-being to many 
 a humble fireside, where, before her happy advent to
 
 THE "SOTTL OF THE CASTLE." 253 
 
 the Hock of Night, poverty and privation sojourned en 
 permanence. 
 
 The Queen of Song's castle on the Rock of Night is 
 rather a large establishment for a nightingale's nest. 
 During her annual term of residence roughly speaking, 
 six months of the twelve Madame Patti keeps up a 
 staff of servants forty-two in number, including three 
 keepers, five gardeners, and two skilled mechanics, 
 whose special charge is the generation of gas and electric 
 light. This small host of dependants is governed by 
 her two lieutenants, William Heck and Caroline Bau- 
 meister, both of German nationality and largely gifted 
 with the many-sidedness that is a special characteristic 
 of the middle-class Teuton. Heck doubles the part of 
 bailiff with that of major-domo. He is an able agronome, 
 accountant, and mechanician. He has all the compli- 
 cated arrangements for lighting, heating, ventilating 
 and sanitating Craig-y-Nos at his fingers' ends ; he con- 
 ducts the business correspondence of the estate and 
 house. Three years ago Madame Patti purchased the 
 superb orchestrion which she has christened " L'&me du 
 chateau," and for which, I may mention, she paid three 
 thousand guineas. It is an extremely intricate piece of 
 machinery, and requires constant attention, being con- 
 structed with such extraordinary ingenuity that its 
 capacity for getting out of order would appear to be 
 unlimited. Heck, however, has mastered its innermost 
 details so exhaustively that he is perfectly competent to 
 treat any of its minor complaints with a thorough know- 
 ledge of their nature and the remedies they call for. 
 Caroline Baumeister has charge of Madame Patti's ward-
 
 254 MADAME PATTl'S HOUSEHOLD. 
 
 robe and jewels, keeps her accounts, and rules the 
 female department at Craig-y-Nos with a firm and intel- 
 ligent hand. She, as well as her colleague and com- 
 patriot, Heck, is absolutely devoted to the accomplished 
 mistress of the castle, for whom, I am convinced, she 
 would lay down her life at any moment, were she called 
 upon to do so. As much may be said, and as truthfully, 
 of another member of Madame Patti's household a 
 young Cuban woman named Patrocinia del Castillo, who 
 has for some years past been attached to the Diva's 
 person, and is likely to remain so as long as they both 
 live. No sojourner under Madame Patti's roof can fail 
 to observe with pleasure how devotedly she is served 
 by all her dependants. On her part she treats them 
 more like friends than like mere domestics. Their 
 " ordinary " is as plentiful and succulent as her own ; 
 good sound claret is supplied to them a discretion during 
 every week-day dinner, and champagne on Sundays. 
 Honest and loyal service is generously acknowledged at 
 ,Craig-y-Nos, so that all the elder members of the house- 
 hold have prospered exceedingly. I have heard it whis- 
 pered that " Fraeulein Caro's " savings amount to some- 
 thing very comfortable, and that any one who should 
 purchase her personal jewellery for a thousand guineas 
 would make at least 50 per cent, profit by his bargain. 
 
 Throughout three months of the year from the com- 
 mencement of August to the end of October the guest- 
 chambers of Craig-y-Nos are seldom untenanted for more 
 than twenty-four hours at a stretch. From the scenes 
 of Madame Patti's past triumphs on the Continent and 
 beyond seas broader than the British Channel from
 
 ROADS TO CRAIG -Y-XOS. 255 
 
 "New York, Chicago and far San Francisco from London 
 and from our great provincial cities, her friends, old and 
 new, succeed one another continuously in voyages of dis- 
 covery having her hospitable castle for their goal. For the 
 place is not altogether easy to get at, being respectively 
 five and seven miles distant from the two railway stations 
 nearest to it, both situate on the Swansea Valley line, a 
 single, outlying thread of the South Wales network of 
 iron roads. One of these stations, Ystelafera by name, may 
 be most conveniently reached from Swansea, the western 
 terminus of the line in question ; the other, yclept Cray, 
 is readily approachable from Brecon Junction on the 
 Midland line. In the whole region intervening between 
 these stations mere sheds, tenanted by solitary officials, 
 cumulative as regard their functions and Craig-y-Nos 
 no vehicular means of transport exists, save and except 
 the carriages of the castle ; wherefore Madame Patti's 
 visitors are absolutely dependent upon her for the 
 wherewithal to reach or quit her home among the 
 mountains. A level piece of road in the Swansea valley 
 is about as rare as an Alp in the Mark Brandenburg ; 
 consequently, the Craig-y-Nos horses find it but a sorry 
 jest to convey batches of guests and mountains of lug- 
 gage backwards and forwards over the hilly highways, 
 ever being mended but never in thorough repair, that 
 connect the Eock of Night with the slender streaks of 
 steel tapering off Swansea- wards to the west and Brecon- 
 wards to the east. Once arrived at the Rock, however, 
 after eighty minutes' drive by either route through a 
 country whose strange wildness and gloom I have already 
 endeavoured to describe, the difficulty of attaining that
 
 256 LIFE AT THE CASTLE. 
 
 haven of rest is speedily forgotten in a sense of luxurious 
 comfort, and in admiration of the intelligence and good- 
 taste that have so judiciously applied great wealth to 
 the creation of a sort of fairy palace in the very heart 
 of a desolate Welsh vale, seventeen miles from a news- 
 paper or a fishmonger's shop, and half that distance from 
 the nearest country-seat a circumstance, by the way, 
 which all but cuts off Madame Patti from social inter- 
 course with her country neighbours, owing to the steep 
 gradients and generally heavy character of the roads. 
 Her visitors, for the most part, come to her from the 
 remote world of art, literature, and intellectual activity, 
 with the thoughts and sympathies of which the simple 
 valley -folk amongst whom she lives her holiday -life are 
 as profoundly unacquainted as though they were inha- 
 bitants of Georgium Sidus. 
 
 Daily existence at Craig-y-Nos Castle is a practical 
 refutation of the familiar French axiom " Les jours se 
 suivent et ne se ressemblent pas." Such, at least, has 
 been my experience of more than one sojourn within its 
 walls. My visits, however, have always been paid late 
 in the autumn, when the days are short and the evenings 
 shivery. In sultry August, doubtless " truly rural " 
 resources of pastime are more available than in chill 
 October. But the routine of the castle, when I have 
 been staying there, has invariably been as follows. 
 Madame Patti' s guests are served with their first break- 
 fast in their own apartments, and at what hour they 
 may please to indicate. She herself passes her mornings 
 in her special snuggery overlooking the Tawe and Pen- 
 y-Bwlth, a copse-girdled, bald-browed hill that faces
 
 LIFE AT THE CASTLE. 257 
 
 the Eock of Night from the opposite side of the valley. 
 It is during these forenoon hours, and then only, that 
 she exercises her voice, chiefly with chromatic scales 
 and staccati ; at other times she does not sing in her 
 own house, though she may often be heard dashing off 
 a roulade or warbling a trillo in her incomparable fashion 
 as she trips about the corridors. Executant music, 
 indeed always excepting that performed by the gigantic 
 orchestrion every evening is not a la mode at Craig-y- 
 Nos ; for the chatelaine hears more than enough of it, of her 
 own and of other artists' making, during the eight months 
 of the year which she devotes to professional work. Who 
 can wonder that she should seek respite and nepenthe 
 from her memories of operas and concerts in an annual 
 holiday, exempt, or nearly so, from vocalisation and 
 pianism ? There are four pianos at Craig-y-Nos, each a 
 chef tfceuvre in its kind ; but, even when Madame Patti's 
 guests have included as many first-class performers as 
 the instruments she owns, I have known day after day 
 pass without one of the latter being opened. This par 
 parenthese. At noon precisely up to which hour their 
 time is unrestrictedly at their own disposal all the 
 Diva's guests are expected to assemble in the huge 
 glass annexe adjoining the dining-room, where " break- 
 fast at the fork," artistically prepared by M. Justin, the 
 cordon-bleu of the castle, is served in princely style. To 
 partake of perfectly cooked food and premiers cms in a 
 lofty crystal hall, thoroughly warmed, perfumed by 
 exotic flowers, and commanding a superb panorama of 
 mountain, valley, wood and water, is a circumstance 
 productive of highly pleasurable sensations. It promotes 
 VOL. i. s
 
 258 LIFE AT THE CASTLE. 
 
 cheerfulness of spirit, and a fine indifference to the 
 quality of the weather outside. The one daily delivery 
 of letters and newspapers comes off when coffee and 
 liqueurs are brought in at the close of this superlative 
 meal ; and a soothing hour is passed with the aid of 
 cigarettes, small-talk, and the latest London and Paris 
 news. At two precisely a string of landaus, phaetons 
 and dog-carts makes its appearance on the broad, curved 
 sweep of gravel fronting the grand entrance ; and the 
 whole party of guests, told off into coteries of three or four 
 and led by their hostess in her pony-carriage, is whirled 
 away to some romantic spot, a dozen miles or so dis- 
 tant, where all alight and take a " constitutional " on 
 the Queen's highway whilst the horses are rested and 
 baited. Befreshment for man, as well as for beast, 
 accompanies these afternoon expeditions in the shape of 
 biscuits, fruits, and pleasing liquids of various descrip- 
 tions. At five o'clock the cortege again draws up before 
 the castle doors, and everybody retires to his or her 
 room where tea is served until dinner-time, sharp 
 seven, when the electric light is turned on, and the 
 great mansion assumes a highly festive aspect. Madame 
 Patti's boudoir, adjacent to the English billiard-room, 
 is the place of general rendezvous in which her friends 
 assemble punctually as the second gong is sounded. To 
 them she descends, arrayed in a ravishing toilette I 
 have never yet seen her twice in the same dress and 
 adorned with gleaming jewels, which set off her dark 
 beauty to admiration. Dinner at Craig-y-Nos is the 
 sort of meal that would have secured the approval of 
 Lucullus, when that accomplished epicure dined with
 
 LIFE AT THE CASTLE. 259 
 
 himself. Again a cheerful frame of mind becomes mani- 
 fest in the convives gathered round Madame Patti's table. 
 Coffee is served in the French billiard-room, whither all 
 hands repair at the close of this ineffable repast; for 
 men do not sit over their wine, telling highly-flavoured 
 stories, at Craig-y-Nos, modo anglicano, but u take out 
 their ladies " a la frangaise in the same processional 
 order as that observed during the previous transit from 
 boudoir to dining-room. Whilst the post-prandial cigar 
 is aglow, " the soul of the castle " (as Madame Patti has 
 nicknamed her mighty orchestrion) plays overtures, 
 operatic selections and dance-music for an hour or so ; 
 after which the great event of the evening a " sport " 
 called Ladies' Pool comes off on the fine match-table 
 in the English billiard-room. This game is a novel and, 
 for persons of the sterner sex, somewhat tantalising 
 version of pyramids. As its name denotes, it has been 
 devised for the exclusive diversion of "ministering 
 angels." The exhilarating privilege of pocketing a ball 
 or balls is reserved for those who double our joys and 
 halve our sorrows. Lovely woman has it all her own 
 way, as usual ; but something more conspicuously than is 
 her wont. No male player may make a winning hazard ; 
 or, if he be so ill-advised as to commit that offence, the 
 ball he has holed is ignominiously replaced upon the 
 upper spot, and he is severely reprimanded for having 
 retarded the progress of the game. His only legitimate, 
 though distinctly humiliating function one which, if 
 he be a true pool-player at heart, fills his soul with rage 
 and mortification every time he makes a stroke is to 
 leave his object-ball in the very jaws of some pocket, 
 
 s2
 
 260 LIFE AT THE CASTLE. 
 
 so that the lady whose devoted jackal he is for the time 
 being may be enabled to hole it with a minimum of 
 skill and effort. This maddening reversal of the whole 
 purpose and intent of the noble game of pool is apt, I have 
 observed with pain, to conjure a big, big D not infre- 
 quently to the lips of the masculine martyrs called upon 
 to put it in practice. Imagine the horror and remorse 
 of an expert whist-player, condemned by some hideous 
 law to trump his partner's best card in the very trick 
 upon which the fate of the rubber depends ! No less 
 poignant is the anguish that racks the breast of the 
 male participant in Ladies' Pool every time he complies 
 with the malignant regulations of that abominable game. 
 I played it nightly for a fortnight at Craig-y-Nos, 
 thereby, I shrewdly fear, prejudicing the prospects of 
 my immortal part to no inconsiderable extent. Fortu- 
 nately, it never lasted long; for the axiom "Early to 
 bed" has the force of a statute in Madame Patti's 
 realm, the denizens of which are expected to retire for 
 the night at eleven P.M. An hour later the gas and 
 with it the electric light is turned off at the main, and 
 darkness, save for the glimmer of a stray candle here 
 and there, reigns throughout the castle. One of the 
 parrots there are three of these fowl on the premises, 
 all " full of excellent differences " is privileged to have 
 a night-light in his bedroom, it being an idiosyncrasy of 
 this particular bird (Cooky by name) to fall off his perch 
 when asleep. It would appear that he cannot see in 
 the dark, contrary to the custom of his kind ; conse- 
 quently, when he tumbles down, he requires a light to 
 enable him to regain the exact position in his cage which
 
 THE PATTI PARROTS. 2G1 
 
 he is accustomed to occupy during his slumbers. He is, 
 moreover, gravely suspected of being afraid of ghosts ; 
 so the rule of the castle with respect to the extinction 
 of all lights at midnight is waived in his favour. The 
 other parrots, Jumbo and Charlie, sleep in the dark. 
 They are less nervous birds than Cooky, and seldom 
 suffer from nightmare. Besides, Cooky is Madame 
 Patti's prime favourite. If she thought a whole chan- 
 delier-full of lighted wax candles, perfumed with amber- 
 gris, would contribute to his bodily ease and mental 
 tranquillity, that article would certainly figure in his 
 sleeping-chamber ; whereas her affection for Jumbo and 
 Charlie is of a calmer and less absorbing character. Yet 
 Jumbo is a highly-gifted parrot, gifted with fluent and 
 appropriate speech, and with extraordinary powers of 
 mimicry. He is considerably older and wilier than 
 Cooky, and takes an intensely practical view of life, 
 whilst Cooky is sentimental and impulsive. I regret to 
 say that gluttony is a leading characteristic of the latter 
 bird, who would pawn his birthright for a cold boiled 
 potato, floury to the core. Jumbo also loves this particular 
 dainty well ; but his greater self-control prompts him to 
 consume it deliberately and with due observance of 
 social decorum. Charlie is a bird of great beauty. His 
 livery is not sober grey, turned up with scarlet, like 
 that of Cooky and Jumbo ; but gorgeous green and gold, 
 shot here and there with blue and red of different shades. 
 Despite this splendid array, he is a gloomy cynic, for 
 the most part brooding over imaginary wrongs, and 
 severely resentful of any delicate attentions in the 
 nature of " Scratch a poll, poor Polly ! " I have never
 
 262 DISTINCTIONS AND GIFTS. 
 
 met a more saturnine or less sycophantic fowl. All 
 Madame Patti's choicest blandishments fail to soften his 
 rugged nature, or even to unsettle for a moment his 
 sullen imperturbability. He is the Timon of parrots. 
 
 This brief word- sketch of the Nightingale's Nest and 
 its inmates would be curiously incomplete and unsatis- 
 factory did it not set forth some details of interest re- 
 lating to the distinctions and gifts bestowed upon 
 Madame Adelina Patti by those born in purple, as well 
 as to the treasures, artistic and literary, of which Craig- 
 y-Nos Castle is the repository. The name of these 
 treasures is legion ; they form a collection, a catalogue 
 raisonne of which such as might be drawn up by a 
 very superior kind of auctioneer with the assistance of 
 the Court Newsman setting forth all their special 
 attractions would fill many pages of this book. Such 
 mention as I am permitted to make of them here 
 must necessarily be somewhat cursory and incomplete. 
 Craving indulgence for certain unavoidable shortcomings, 
 let me address myself to my task without further pre- 
 face, animated by that inflexible sense of duty which 
 prompted the immortal Captain Eeece, E.N., " com- 
 manding of the Mantlepiece" to marry his washer- 
 woman. 
 
 First and foremost in the estimation of its gifted 
 owner, as well as in its own intrinsic interest, comes 
 Madame Adelina Patti's autographic album an oblong 
 volume bound in dark leather and fitted with a patent 
 lock, the tiny golden key of which, confided to the 
 keeping of Fraeulein Caro, is only produced from time 
 to time by that functionary, in compliance with special
 
 THE AUTOGRAPHIC ALBUM. 263 
 
 request, for the behoof of those whom her mistress 
 delighteth to honour. The book contains about sixty 
 souvenirs of eminent musicians, dead and living, com- 
 posers and executants ; souvenirs taking the various 
 forms of stanzas, sonnets, epigrams in verse and prose, 
 and of musical motivi or cadenze, set down in manuscript 
 notation by the greatest maestri of the past quarter of a 
 century. The only name of supreme renown uninscribed 
 on the pages of this interesting album is that of the late 
 Eichard "Wagner, none of whose fatiguing soprano roles 
 (fortunately for her voice) Madame Patti ever undertook 
 to impersonate, a circumstance which probably accounts 
 for the absence of his autograph from her reeueil of com- 
 posers' signatures. On opening the book, the first 
 paraphe that meets your eye is that of Emilio Naudin, 
 the famous Parmesan tenor, with whom Adelina Patti 
 sang shortly after her debut in Europe, and who, as far 
 back as the year 1863, has recorded in black and white 
 his conviction that her vocalisation, when she was only 
 just out of her teens, was inimitable. The next signa- 
 ture, appended to a few lines manifestly dictated by 
 affectionate admiration, is that of the ever to be lamented 
 Mario, Conte di Candia, with whom Madame Patti 
 maintained an unbroken friendship for more than twenty 
 years. Many important contributions were made to the 
 album during the year 1864 ; for instance, a few bars of 
 the great bravura air from II Barliere, written by the 
 hand of Gioachino Eossini ; an excerpt from the Pardon 
 de Ploermelj in the MS. of Jacob Meyerbeer ; scraps of 
 music, poetry, and prose, subscribed by the composers 
 Hector Berlioz, Stephen Heller, Michael Costa, Vincent
 
 264 THE AUTOGRAPHIC ALBUM. 
 
 Wallace, and Michael Balfe, and by the following 
 vocalists of the " first flight " Giulia Grisi, Marietta 
 Alboni, Theresa Tietjens, Constance Nantier-Didie'e, 
 Theodor Wachtel, Antonio Giuglini, Italo Gardoni, 
 Giorgio Eonconi, Tamberlick, Sims Beeves, Charles 
 Santley, and Brignoli. For grace of tournure and happi- 
 ness of thought, the epigram inscribed by Hector Ber- 
 lioz, in bold, square characters, that contrast so vigor- 
 ously with the careless caligraphy of many of his 
 fellow-composers, is the literary gem of the year above- 
 mentioned. It runs thus : 
 
 "Oportet^." 
 Les latinistes traduisent cet adage par 
 
 " H f aut souffrir ; " 
 Les moines par 
 
 " Apportez le pate ; " 
 Les amis de la musique par 
 
 " II nous faut Patti." 
 
 HECTOR BERLIOZ. 
 
 The honoured names of Arabella Goddard and Luigi 
 Arditi are also included in the list of autographs with 
 which 1864 enriched Madame Patti's album. That of 
 Stigelli Georg Stiegele, the accomplished Wuertemberg 
 tenor and song-writer is the only one of conspicuous 
 mark contributed during the ensuing year; but 1866 is 
 distinguished by an inscription and musical excerpt 
 under the sign-manual of Maestro Yerdi, whose intense 
 appreciation of Madame Patti's talent finds expression 
 in a sentence unmistakably inspired by genuine enthu- 
 siasm. Like Eossini before him, he appears to entertain 
 the conviction that Adelina Patti was brought into the
 
 THE AUTOGRAPHIC ALBUM. 265 
 
 world for the express and exclusive purpose of inter- 
 preting the creations of his genius to absolute perfec- 
 tion; and I have been told that on one occasion, an 
 impresario having written to him asking for the names 
 of the three cantatrici who, in his opinion, were best 
 qualified, as actresses and singers alike, to impersonate 
 Yioletta (La Traviata], he replied laconically : " First, 
 Adelina ; second, Adelina ; third, Adelina." Beneath 
 his entry in the album, and on the same page, stand 
 autographic tributes of homage and friendship from that 
 gifted artist, Madame Trebelli, and her genial husband, 
 the lyric tenor, Signer Bettini. Next in succession 
 come the signatures of Tamburini, Calzolari, Cotogni, 
 and Bottesini, followed by four inestimable autographs, 
 not one of which, however, is dated. That of Daniel 
 Auber is appended to a few bars of the overture to Fra 
 Diavolo, and a line or two of unstinted laudation ; 
 Charles Gounod has set down in obvious haste the motivo 
 of the garden-duet from Faust " to recall himself to the 
 remembrance of inimitable Adelina ; " Christine Nilsson 
 records her u devoted friendship for the songstress 
 queen" on the next page, and the lamented Julius 
 Benedict contributes a carefully turned compliment to 
 the chatelaine of Craig-y-Nos, written in the album 
 during his last sojourn at the castle, some four or five 
 years ago, when his eyesight was so seriously aifected 
 that, for the time being, he was practically blind. I 
 was staying at the house that autumn it was not very 
 long after his second marriage and well remember the 
 tender care and absolute devotion lavished upon the 
 septuagenarian maestro by his gifted and attractive
 
 266 THE AUTOGEAPHIC ALBUM. 
 
 young wife. The king of oculists, Critchett, subse- 
 quently wrought a miracle in his behalf, and restored 
 his sight; but, at the period I allude to, Benedict 
 believed himself doomed to total and life -long blindness, 
 and his straggling, laboured autograph in Madame 
 Patti's album bears touching testimony to the nature 
 and extent of a calamity which he endured with singular 
 fortitude, and even cheerfulness, although it threatened 
 his old age with poverty, and with what appeared to 
 him still more terrible enforced idleness. 
 
 Another interesting screed in the Diva's collection is 
 the opening phrase of the famous Fledermaus waltz, jotted 
 down and signed by its composer, Johann Strauss. 
 Braga, too, has written in a dozen bars or so of his 
 " Chanson Valaque," with the 'cello obbligato, which 
 ran through every concert-room in Europe about a 
 decade ago. Two rival " heroic tenors," Niemann and 
 Capoul, outvie each other in offerings of flattering 
 homage the German in verse, the Frenchman in prose 
 on successive pages of the album ; and hard by their 
 passionate effusions may be found the MS. of an original 
 song, composed at Craig-y-Nos last year, and dedicated 
 to the "Schlossherrin," by Kapellmeister Wilhelm Ganz, 
 one of Madame Patti's most faithful and trusted friends 
 in the musical profession. Besides the souvenirs more 
 particularly mentioned in the foregoing lines, the album 
 contains verses by Spanish, Eussian, French, and Italian 
 poets, and a good many autographs of minor interest. 
 Enough, however, has been already said to demonstrate 
 its extraordinary value as a probably unique recueil of 
 its kind. Not even the honorific distinctions and costly
 
 THE PATTI REPERTOIRE. 267 
 
 gems bestowed upon Madame Patti by the rulers of 
 mighty nations bear such incontrovertible testimony to 
 the paramount quality of her executant gifts as do the 
 spontaneous outpourings of the enthusiasm those gifts 
 and their application have aroused in the breasts of such 
 mighty musicians as Berlioz, Verdi, Meyerbeer, Eossini, 
 Gounod, and Auber, who, one and all, have recognised 
 in Adelina Patti the greatest songstress of the past 
 quarter of a century. 
 
 As, to the best of my belief, an absolutely complete 
 list of the parts studied and committed to memory by 
 Madame Patti in the course of her career as an operatic 
 singer has never heretofore been brought to public 
 cognizance, it seems to me fairly probable that the 
 following summary of her repertoire, which I have taken 
 down from her own lips, will be perused with no incon- 
 siderable interest by my readers. I should, perhaps, 
 premise that I have indicated, by prefixing a star to 
 certain titles of operas in the subjoined list, those roles 
 which Madame Patti has at different times found herself 
 called upon to learn, and even rehearse, but which 
 owing to one untoward circumstance or another she 
 has never performed in public : 
 
 Verdi: Traviata, Trovatore, Ernani, Rigoletto, Aida, 
 Luisa Miller, Giovanna cPArco, * Vespere Siciliane, *Ballo 
 in Maschera. 
 
 Eossini : Earlier e di Siviglia, Semir amide, Gazza 
 Ladra, Otello, Most in Egitto. 
 
 Donizetti : Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Pasquale, 
 EElisir d'Amore, Figlia del Reggimento, Linda di Cha- 
 mouni.
 
 268 THE DIVA'S DECORATIONS. 
 
 Meyerbeer : Les Huguenots, VEtoile du Nord, Le 
 Pardon de Ploermel, * Robert le Diable. 
 
 Bellini : La Sonnambula, I Puritani. 
 
 Mozart : Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, *Il Flauto 
 Magico. 
 
 Gounod : Faust, Romeo et Juliette, Mireille. 
 
 Auber : Les Diamans de la Couronne, *Fra Diavolo. 
 
 Poniatowski: Gelmina, Don Desiderio. 
 
 Bizet : Carmen. Flotow : Martha. Eicci : Cris- 
 pino e la Comare. Campana : Esmeralda, Lenepveu : 
 Velleda. Cohen : Estrella. 
 
 In all forty-seven operas, in the leading parts of which 
 she is " note-perfect," and forty-two in which she has 
 actually appeared upon the operatic stage. Many of the 
 above roles she has sung in French, as well as in Italian, 
 and is fully qualified, were she required to do so, to 
 render them in Spanish, German, or our own vernacular, 
 all which tongues she speaks with remarkable facility 
 and purity of accent. 
 
 Amongst the Imperial and Eoyal decorations and gifts 
 of jewellery, longum describere, bestowed upon Madame 
 Patti in acknowledgment of her great acquirements as a 
 vocalist I may mention a few which are invested with 
 special interest in connection with their donors as well as 
 with their recipient. The late Czar Alexander Nicolaie- 
 vich, of whose kindness to her Madame Patti has innumer- 
 able anecdotes to relate, conferred upon her the Russian 
 Gold Medal for Proficiency in the Arts and Sciences, set 
 in magnificent brilliants and suspended by an Imperial 
 Crown in diamonds to the riband of St. Alexander Nevski 
 an Order of Chivalry corresponding in rank to the
 
 ROYAL GIFTS. 269 
 
 Garter, Golden Fleece, and Annunziata. Madame Patti 
 is also the proud possessor of a somewhat out-of-the-way 
 decoration, as Knightly Orders go that founded by the 
 Royal Kalakaua, King of the ci-devant Cannibal Islands, 
 whose full-length portrait adorns the blue boudoir in 
 Craig-y-Nos Castle. I believe the correct style and title 
 of this Island Potentate's Order to be "Kulia i Kannu," 
 whatever that may mean. It is an eight-pointed cross, 
 executed in crimson enamel and gold, of a somewhat 
 barbaric gorgeousness. A five-pointed star, formed of 
 thirty large brilliants of exceptional whiteness and lustre, 
 which Madame Patti frequently wears when en grande 
 toilette, looks as if it ought to be the symbol of some 
 " Exalted" or "Most Illustrious" Order. It is, how- 
 ever, only a token of regard presented to her by the 
 citizens of San Francisco on the occasion of her last visit 
 to California. From Maria Pia, Queen of Portugal and 
 own sister to Humbert of Italy, Madame Patti has re- 
 ceived a massive locket, containing Her Majesty's por- 
 trait, and enriched by an enormous Oriental pearl 
 encrusted in brilliants ; from Queen Victoria a valuable 
 diamond bracelet ; from Ysobel de Borbon, whilom Queen 
 of Spain, a huge amethyst solitaire set in pearls and 
 diamonds, and a pair of superb ruby earrings. Every 
 imaginable sort of ornament in precious stones has been 
 presented to her by members of the Hohenzollern, Roman- 
 off and Hapsburg Imperial families, quite as much at one 
 in loading her with trinkets as in maintaining the integ- 
 rity of the Triple Alliance. For the information of the 
 fairer moiety of my readers (those of the sterner sex are 
 requested to skip the remaining lines of this paragraph)
 
 270 GEMS AND CURIOS. 
 
 I may add that Madame Adelina Patti's collection of 
 jewels for the most part consisting of gifts from august 
 personages or testimonials offered to her by the general 
 public comprises five diadems of brilliants, five rivieres 
 of brilliants, six complete parures(i.e. necklace, earrings, 
 bracelets, brooch and ring) executed in (1) brilliants ; 
 (2) emeralds and brilliants; (3) rubies and brilliants; 
 (4) sapphires and brilliants ; (5) pearls and brilliants; (6) 
 turquoises and brilliants. Of " casual" rings, brooches, 
 bracelets, earrings, and jewelled pins, not forming part of 
 any particular set, she owns scores upon scores. Amongst 
 her miscellaneous ornaments are half-a-dozen gigantic 
 diamond bees, butterflies, and beetles, each one of them 
 worth a good deal more money than the " three acres 
 and a cow" with which Hodge has recently been 
 tempted to essay a new political departure; several 
 parures of pale and deep red Neapolitan coral, of glowing 
 carbuncles, of rococo " arrangements " in gold and gems 
 of many colours, and of antique camei and intagli. To 
 her vast collection of " curios " I have already alluded, 
 omitting, however, to mention a silvern double- 
 barrelled pistol, richly encrusted with precious stones, 
 two sets of rare old golden and cloisonne cups from 
 Moscow and Tula, a couple of embossed trowels with 
 which the Diva has on two occasions patted lumps 
 of wet mortar in the process of laying first-stones, golden 
 medailles d'konneur by the dozen, and, finally, no end of 
 diplomas, triumphs of calligraphic dexterity cunningly 
 engrossed upon creamy vellum or milk-white parchment, 
 and recording Madame Patti's active or honorary con- 
 nection with musical institutions in every part of the
 
 DIPLOMAS OF HONOUR. 271 
 
 civilised world. One of these documents, handsomely 
 framed, occupies a post of honour in the castle library, 
 between two excellent likenesses of the chatelaine and 
 Signer Nicolini, and over against a fine portrait of Mr. 
 Joseph Bennett, the eminent essayist and musical critic. 
 It is the grand diploma of the Philharmonic Academy of 
 Bologna, certifying that Madame Adelina Patti is the 
 only female member of that illustrious corporation. She 
 is not a little proud of possessing this brevet, unique as 
 regards musicians of her sex ; indeed, she has reason to 
 regard Bologna with especial affection and gratitude, for 
 one of its theatres bears her name, and the date of her 
 first appearance on the stage of the old (Emilian capital 
 is recorded for all time to come on a marble tablet let 
 into one of the walls of the Teatro Comunale, to my mind 
 the best opera-house in all Italy. 
 
 If in the foregoing pages I have succeeded in convey- 
 ing to my readers some idea of those u outward and 
 visible signs" which point to the results actually 
 achieved by the talent, industry, and perseverance of a 
 woman still in the prime of life, who, in the course of her 
 artistic career, has earned over half a million sterling by 
 singing and acting, I have done what I aspired to do 
 when I commenced this chapter, and am content.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MUSIC IN THEATRES AND AL FRESCO. 
 
 IN no executive branch of the musical art has a more 
 striking and general advancement been achieved in this 
 metropolis within the past quarter of a century than in 
 that portion of theatrical entertainments which consists 
 of orchestral performances, such as may be heard every 
 night in any London theatre, agreeably prefacing the 
 play or plays on the bill of the evening, and, in one or 
 two instances, making the entr'actes, or " waits," even 
 more recreative to the audience than the stage business 
 itself. A good band is nowadays well nigh as essential 
 an attraction to a metropolitan playhouse as a good acting 
 company ; and the former may be counted upon by the 
 public with even more confidence than the latter, taking 
 one theatre with another. Formerly let us say from 
 twenty -five to thirty years ago this was far from being 
 the case. Managers more especially those of the minor 
 theatres provided " music " for their patrons, in com- 
 pliance with a custom even then firmly established in 
 London alone, of all European capitals ; but the "music" 
 in question, as a rule, was curiously trivial in character 
 and feeble in execution, when not actually offensive to 
 those among the audience who happened, for their sins,
 
 FORMER LONDON ORCHESTRAS. 273 
 
 to be endowed with sensitive ears. Operetta, at the time 
 I refer to, had not taken up the high standing in popular 
 favour which it now enjoys, and the demands made upon 
 theatrical orchestras in the matter of accompaniment to 
 the voice were insignificant compared to those of the pre- 
 sent day ; but even in houses devoted to the performance 
 of extravaganzas, and styling themselves " the home of 
 burlesque," the bands were as a rule at once weak and 
 coarse, scrapy fiddling and obtrusive cornet-blowing 
 being their leading characteristics. The orchestras at 
 the two opera-houses were then the only theatrical bands 
 that could justly claim to be excellent; that of the 
 Princess's (then under the management of Charles Kean, 
 who conscientiously endeavoured to make every item of 
 his programme as good as possible of its kind) was a 
 fairly efficient one, most intelligibly led by Mr. J. L. 
 Hatton, whose incidental music to the Kean revivals and 
 novelties was for several successive years a conspicuous 
 feature of those admirable entertainments. But musi- 
 cians who remember the wheezy and squeaky debility of 
 the band at the Haymarket when one of the finest com- 
 panies ever gathered together on London boards was 
 playing Shakespeare at that theatre, or even later, under 
 the Buckstone regime; the slovenly roughness of the 
 accompaniments at the Strand, in the palmy days (as far 
 as acting and dancing were concerned) of Marie Wilton 
 and Elise Holt, Clarke and Rogers ; the deeds of dark- 
 ness, from a musical point of view, that were perpetrated 
 with string, wood, and brass at the Olympic, what time 
 the inimitable Robson succeeded for a time in breaking 
 the traditional ill-luck of that dingy little house, and at 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 PRESENT LONDON ORCHESTRAS. 
 
 the Adelphi, during the reign of the king of melodrama, 
 the late Benjamin Webster, whose like we shall not look 
 upon again ; those, I repeat, who can still recall to mind 
 the musical accessories to theatrical performances of the 
 period intervening between the Crimean War and the 
 Napoleonic campaign in Lombardy will not hesitate to 
 admit that the artistic progress effected in the training 
 and utilisation of instrumental executants in the minor 
 London theatres is little less than surprising. 
 
 As a matter of fact the theatrical bands of this metro- 
 polis can stand comparison, favourably to themselves, 
 with those of any Continental city. I venture to make 
 this assertion somewhat confidently, having, in the 
 course of the past twenty years, attended every imagin- 
 able sort of theatrical performance in all the countries 
 of Europe, except the Scandinavian kingdoms and the 
 Hellenic realm. There be opera-houses on the other 
 side of the silvery streak, enjoying no inconsiderable 
 reputation as musical institutions, and considered inimi- 
 table by their local frequenters, of which the orchestras 
 are, in more than one respect, inferior to those of the 
 "Comedy," the " Empire," or even the "Alhambra," 
 before the last-named theatre reverted to its original 
 condition as a music-hall. Of course bands engaged to 
 play ballet music and the accompaniments of comic 
 opera, operetta, etc., are expected to be of a quality 
 superior to that of the average theatrical orchestra. But 
 the latter, in London at least, has attained so high a 
 standard as to leave little to be desired. The bands at 
 Drury Lane, the Lyceum, Haymarket, Princess's, Gaiety 
 and Criterion discourse excellent music nightly ; and
 
 LONDON SHORTCOMINGS. 275 
 
 the orchestral interludes at the Court, arranged with 
 exquisite taste, and conducted with consummate skill by 
 Carl Armbruster (of whom, three years ago, Hans 
 Bichter said to me, "I do not know throughout the 
 length and breadth of Germany a better musician or 
 cleverer conductor ") constitute by no means the least 
 attraction of that admirably managed house. Even at 
 theatres of more modest pretensions in the orchestral 
 line, such as the Vaudeville, Adelphi, and Strand, the 
 musical performances are every whit as good as those of 
 the Paris Varietes or Berlin Wallner and Friedrich Wil- 
 helm, although the bands of the latter theatres claim to 
 belong to the specifically operatic category. In short, 
 it is at present as difficult to pick out a thoroughly bad 
 theatrical orchestra in London as it was to discover a 
 thoroughly good one five-and-twenty years ago. 
 
 This huge conglomeration of cities, the capital of the 
 most powerful and extensive Empire the world has 
 ever known, covering as much ground as a minor Ger- 
 man Principality, and numbering more inhabitants than 
 one or two full-blown kingdoms of my acquaintance, not 
 only lacks a national opera-house, but does not even own 
 a theatre specially affected to the performance of classical 
 tragedy and comedy. Paris has her Theatre Fran9ais, 
 Berlin her Schauspielhaus, Vienna her Burgtheater, in 
 all of which the works of the most eminent dramatists, 
 living and dead, are played in a highly authoritative and 
 complete manner by companies remarkable for their 
 general efficiency rather than for superlative excellence 
 in any of their individual members. London possesses 
 no Thespian temple hallowed thus to the cult of the 
 
 1 2
 
 276 THEATRES WITHOUT ORCHESTRAS. 
 
 legitimate drama ; even a combination of the Lyceum 
 and Haymarket, as they have functioned for some years 
 past under the Irving and Bancroft managements, would 
 not yield a theatrical concretion equivalent to that 
 afforded by any one of the above-named establishments, 
 in which melodramas such as The Bells and The Lyons 
 Mail, or nondescript absurdities of the Lords and Com- 
 mons class could not, under existing circumstances, pos- 
 sibly obtain representation. But, whereas music is an 
 integral and indispensable element of recreation, as that 
 commodity is supplied to the London public by theatrical 
 managers, the classical subventioned houses of conti- 
 nental capitals require no " concords of sweet sounds " 
 to round off and relieve the entertainments they provide 
 for their clients. It is held by many persons exercising 
 recognised authority with respect to the " fitness of 
 things " in Germany, as well as in France, that the 
 interruption of a dramatic unity by musical interludes, 
 for the most part irrelevant to the story or fundamental 
 thought (Grundidee) of the piece, or whose relevancy 
 thereto, at the best, is disputable and therefore distracting, 
 is a barbarism not to be tolerated by properly trained 
 and justly balanced intelligences ; that such interrup- 
 tion breaks the thread of artistic continuity which should 
 run without a hitch or tangle throughout the perform- 
 ance, and is calculated to jerk the spectator's train of 
 thought off the rails ; finally, that music in connection 
 with the drama, unless interwoven with the dialogue 
 and made essential to the action by the express inten- 
 tion and will of the author, is an anachronism and incon- 
 gruity unworthy alike of an aesthetic management and
 
 THEATRES WITHOUT ORCHESTRAS. 277 
 
 a thoughtful, conscientious public. There is another 
 reason, less high-sounding, but a good deal more to the 
 point than any of the foregoing ones, why the Intendants 
 of the " classical " theatres in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, 
 and other great continental cities taboo music from 
 their programmes. An orchestra is a costly item in a 
 theatrical menu, involving an outlay that swallows up 
 the income to be derived from the sale of a goodly 
 number of stalls and dress-circle seats; whereas the 
 three knocks with which the prompter or call-boy an- 
 nounces the proximate " pull up " of the curtain to the 
 audience entail no extra expense whatsoever upon the 
 impresa. I apprehend that sagacious thrift has prompted 
 the guiding spirits of the dramatic institutions in ques- 
 tion to indoctrinate the public in the theory that, just 
 as good wine needs no bush, so good theatrical perform- 
 ances need not the adventitious aid of music to enhance 
 their attractiveness. Use is second nature ; and I doubt 
 not that the habitues of the Fransais, the Hofburg, and 
 the Schauspielhaus (who differ in many essential respects 
 from the all-round theatre-goers of the French, Austrian 
 and German capitals) would be painfully shocked were 
 so frivolous an innovation as an orchestra adopted by 
 the dramatic establishments in which they are accus- 
 tomed to pass their evenings with the proud conscious- 
 ness that they are combining instruction with re- 
 creation. 
 
 Although our fellow-Europeans on the other side of 
 the Channel, no matter to what variety of the Caucasian 
 race they may happen to belong, persistently refuse to 
 admit that we are a musical people, it is very certain
 
 278 MYSTEEIOUS MUSIC. 
 
 that any London manager who should venture to elimi- 
 nate incidental music from his entertainments would 
 have good reason to regret so ill-judged an experiment. 
 Whether they pay any attention to the feats of the 
 orchestra or not, English audiences expect to be sup- 
 plied with some sort of instrumental performance be- 
 tween the acts, and would assuredly resent its omission 
 as an unjustifiable slight. The patrons of melodrama, 
 cispontine as well as transpontine, still cling fondly to 
 the tradition that crime requires to be accompanied on 
 the strings, tremolando and alia sordina, and that fiddles 
 cannot do less than shiver sympathetically when the gas 
 is turned down in preparation for a deed of blood or a 
 spectral manifestation. We are a sentimental and a 
 sensation-loving people, and delight in any ocular or 
 oral effect that helps to pile up the agony of a powerful 
 " situation." Deferring to the exigencies of this na- 
 tional characteristic, actors of high intellectual culture 
 and keen artistic perception like Henry Irving and 
 Wilson Barrett do not deem it inconsistent with the 
 dignity of dramatic art to emphasise sensational epi- 
 sodes even in Shakesperian plays by " mysterious 
 music " compounded according to the most approved 
 recipes for that class of orchestral stimulant. To my 
 mind this is a custom more honoured in the breach than 
 in the observance : but managers should know their own 
 business best, and if men who have served the true 
 interests of the drama, as well as their own, so strenu- 
 ously and loyally as the lessees of the Lyceum and 
 Princess's theatres deem it necessary, or even expedient, 
 to comply with old-established usage in relation to such
 
 OPEN-AIR MUSIC. 279 
 
 anachronistic but trivial details as tremulous chords and 
 subdued stage illumination of any particular hue, doubt- 
 less they have good solid reasons for practising these 
 and other cognate tricks of the ad captandum kind. The 
 public at large owes them a debt of gratitude for treat- 
 ing its transmitted prejudices with such kindly con- 
 sideration ; and a far larger meed of thankfulness for 
 the increased excellence of the musical fare which they 
 and other enterprising London managers have provided 
 for it " since this old hat was new." 
 
 In the matter of open-air music, we Englishmen are 
 heavily handicapped by our perfidious and malignant 
 climate. The seasons, in this country, are jumbled up 
 together anyhow, and cannot in the least be relied upon 
 with relation to any prospective social arrangements. 
 Sometimes our finest weather comes off in the winter 
 months, and summer disgraces itself by playing ghastly 
 practical jokes upon us in the shape of snowfalls, cold 
 winds, hail, rain, and that hurly-burly of meteorological 
 conditions in general which the Germans, in their fine 
 figurative way, are wont to attribute to family differ- 
 ences between the Devil and his Grandmother. Not 
 infrequently May might be January or November ; 
 were it not for the young green leaves that tell an 
 undeniable spring story, no little ingenuity would be 
 requisite to divine that a combination of east wind, 
 frigid sleet, lowering skies, and soaking slush, lasting 
 from a fortnight to three weeks, correctly represents the 
 month of transition from Thomson's " ethereal mild- 
 ness " to Arnold's x< lusty June." By reason of the dread- 
 ful uncertainty which chronically haunts us respecting
 
 280 OPEX-AIR MUSIC ABROAD. 
 
 the intentions of the weather, we are precluded, even at 
 high summer-tide, from making definite arrangements in 
 connection with out-of-door recreations which do not 
 involve athletic effort or pecuniary speculation. In other 
 lands, as northern as our own, where the seasons display 
 a certain sense of order and decorum, proprietors of 
 public gardens are enabled, year after year, when the 
 buds begin to crack their cases and the birds have done 
 their courting, to advertise al fresco instrumental per- 
 formances at stated intervals throughout the warm 
 months say, from May 1 to September 30 with a 
 tolerable certainty that they will not be prevented from 
 fulfilling their pledges to their patrons by any untimely 
 marvel in the nature of a transposition of the seasons. 
 In the famous Yolksgarten, at Vienna, Edward Strauss's 
 inimitable stringed orchestra, or some scarcely less re- 
 nowned military band, such as that of the Koenig von 
 Wuertemberg regiment equally efficient with strings 
 or brass and wood plays every evening in the open 
 during the summer, except when a thunderstorm drives 
 musicians and audience alike for shelter into a straggling 
 wood and glass shanty which stands hard by for their 
 accommodation. There are bands on Sundays and holi- 
 days that is, about four times a week throughout the 
 pleasant time of the year at the three Kaffeehaeuser, 
 or chief refreshment-stations of the Prater, at the Neue 
 Welt in Hietzing, and at cognate establishments in the 
 other great suburbs : good military bands, if you please, 
 not scratch orchestras like those to which one listens 
 with dismay in English watering-places and the minor 
 German Bad-Orte. I am speaking quite within limits
 
 OPEN-AIR MUSIC ABROAD. 281 
 
 when I say that a dozen such bands play for public 
 amusement in Vienna every summer Sunday; and yet 
 the Kaiserstadt can only boast of twelve hundred thou- 
 sand inhabitants as against London's five millions. At 
 Berlin, similar provision is made for the diversion of the 
 Emperor's lieges, partly by the State and partly by 
 private enterprise. From April to October, the splendid 
 Kapelle of the Guard- Cuirassiers is engaged for Satur- 
 day Concerts at the Zoo on the Spree, where thousands 
 of people belonging to the middle and upper classes dine 
 sub Jove, to the accompaniment of a most excellent 
 "concourse of sweet sounds." Every afternoon the 
 spacious and romantic Thiergarten resounds with the 
 strains of military music, performed by one or other of 
 the garrison bands in the Hofjaeger-Allee, or on Corso 
 days, when society airs its high- well-born attractions on 
 horseback and in open carriages in the stately Kaiser- 
 Allee itself, at the northern end of which the ugliest 
 monument in the world rears its hideous head the 
 Sieges- Denkmal, or Memorial of Victory, upon which 
 no Frenchman can gaze without feeling that his country's 
 defeats and humiliation are amply avenged. At the 
 Eiskeller, a vast beer-garden in the Dorotheen-Stadt ; at 
 the Tivoli Brewery, near the Kreuzberg, a mild sand- 
 hill overlooking the southern suburbs of Berlin ; and at 
 half-a-dozen other resorts of a similar character, Satur- 
 day and Sunday afternoons and evenings are enlivened 
 by admirable orchestral performances which, I need 
 scarcely say, draw crowds of customers to the establish- 
 ments in which they take place ; for the average German's 
 ideal of enjoyment a very harmless and reasonable one,
 
 282 MUSIC AND BEER. 
 
 as human pleasures go is to sit in a garden where he 
 can eat and drink at a moderate figure, with dance- 
 music and operatic selections thrown in, " free, gratis 
 and for nothing." The amount of thin, cool beer that 
 he and she, too will imbibe in the course of such an 
 al fresco concert as any of those above referred to would 
 amaze the majority of untravelled English men and 
 women. I have more than once watched the feats of 
 young girls belonging to the haute bourgeoisie what 
 Mr. Yellowplush might have defined as the " hupper 
 suckles" with singular appropriateness, in subtle allu- 
 sion to their powers of absorption wonder-stricken and 
 admiring, whilst they swallowed eight imperial pints 
 of Schwechater, or Tivoli, within an hour-and-a-half, never 
 leaving their parents' side for a minute as long as the 
 band continued to play. Their achievements in the 
 direction of putting away the barley -bree were, of course, 
 far surpassed in quantity by those of their male relatives 
 and admirers, listening to music being, perhaps, the 
 thirstiest pastime of the Fatherland ; but I am bound to 
 say that during my many years' residence in Germany 
 and Austria, beer- drinking Empires par excellence, I 
 never saw any person of either sex the worse for liquor 
 at an open-air concert, or was a witness to the least 
 misconduct or breach of social decorum on the part of 
 those present at the hundreds of al fresco musical per- 
 formances I attended in the respective capitals of the 
 Hohenzollern and Hapsburg realms. 
 
 My experience an unusually large one for a Briton 
 born and bred of the vast amount of inoffensive and 
 inexpensive happiness derived by Continental people
 
 LONDON'S SHORTCOMINGS. 283 
 
 from orchestral entertainments of the class indicated by 
 the title of this chapter, convinces me that English cities 
 in general, and this gigantic metropolis in particular, 
 would be much pleasanter places to live in if the 
 resources of al fresco music available to their inhabitants 
 were at least ten times more copious than they are, or 
 ever have been within my remembrance. London is 
 fortunate in the possession of several parks, leaving 
 nothing to be desired in the way of accommodation capa- 
 city, as far as space is concerned. It can also dispose 
 of, at least, half-a-dozen excellent military bands little 
 enough, considering the chiffre of its population, to which, 
 however, the strength of its garrison bears no relation 
 that will stand comparison with the proportion of the 
 military to the civilian element in the chief continental 
 capitals. Thus we have at hand the material for making 
 open-air music, but apparently do not know how to 
 utilise it. It might be organised by the State, or by 
 private enterprise, or by both, either in combination or 
 rivalry. The English climate is its most formidable 
 opponent ; the first thing to be done, therefore, is to 
 devise a practical means of protecting people against 
 torrents of rain and bitter blasts, such as are only too 
 apt to impart a peculiarly homicidal character to the 
 London summer. Spacious refuges like that in the 
 Vienna Yolksgarten, to which I have already alluded 
 should be erected in the immediate vicinity of the 
 open spaces selected for the accommodation of the bands 
 and their audiences, and fitted up with strong common 
 wooden chairs, a central platform for the musicians, and 
 a tea and coffee bar, if alcoholic refreshment be con-
 
 284 LONDON'S SHORTCOMIXGS. 
 
 sidered objectionable by the authorities. In the public 
 parks these refuges might be run up, solidly but inex- 
 pensively, by the Woods and Forests Department, and 
 leased at remunerative rents to private contractors, who 
 would doubtless find them profitable tenements enough. 
 By adopting this expedient the malignity of our national 
 weather might be checkmated, as far as its effect upon 
 open-air concerts is concerned, at least ; and a rich vein 
 of harmless amusement might be worked for the benefit 
 of the classes to whom at present Sunday is a day of 
 deadly boredom or sottish indulgence. 
 
 Of one thing I am certain, to wit, that we have not 
 nearly as much al fresco music in London as is good for 
 us. The reasons why, are numerous, the most difficult 
 to counteract being our climate, as aforesaid, our Sabba- 
 tarian prejudices, which hamper every scheme for popular 
 Sunday recreation, our official thrift in relation to small 
 matters, which contrasts so disagreeably with our official 
 wastefulness of enormous sums, and lastly the curious 
 reluctance of our Parliament to authorise expenditure 
 with the object of providing any sort of rational and 
 innocuous amusement for the people. These latter, too, 
 are manifestly apathetic with respect to a question 
 which, after all, possesses only a relative interest for the 
 wealthier classes, who can command musical entertain- 
 ment of the best quality, as well as every other luxury 
 of life, by paying for it. There is not so much nor such 
 variety of peripatetic out- door music in this metropolis 
 nowadays as there was when I was a boy, from thirty 
 to forty years ago. True, German bands, like the poor, 
 are always with us ; even more so than of yore, and of a
 
 LONDON REMINISCENCES. 285 
 
 deadlier character. Likewise there is no very depressing 
 lack of piano-organs, which have entirely replaced the 
 would-be orchestral instruments of torture, dragged 
 .along by donkeys, and the merry old tinklers on broom- 
 sticks, with fluted silk fronts and green baize jerkins, of 
 my childhood's days. But I miss the violoncello and 
 clarinet soloists, mostly sightless, who used to patrol 
 the streets of the " quiet " neighbourhood in which my 
 early youth was passed, whose rate of progress averaged 
 about one mile in four hours, and who never played any 
 air, so far as my memory serves me, that was not imbued 
 by its nature or their art with a settled and heartrending 
 melancholy. What has become, I would ask, of the 
 Hieland pipers, " braw " in all the faded splendours of 
 eighth-hand sporrans and plaids, kilts and philabegs, 
 with their tartans of clans which they could not name 
 when solicited to do so, and their significant little knives 
 stuck in their stockings, indicating profuse weasand- 
 slitting to the unsophisticated childish mind well primed 
 in Scott's national novels, but really functioning (as 
 observation taught me) in connection with the carving of 
 bread and cheese and the extraction of the reluctant 
 winkle from his curly home ? I never see or hear those 
 pipers now, and I am glad of it, for their instrument is 
 one which does not convey unmixed gratification to ears 
 that, like my own, have not undergone a peculiar train- 
 ing in appreciativeness of its musical charms. But they 
 used to be seemingly ubiquitous in London streets about 
 the time I refer to, and compared unfavourably, to my 
 childish apprehensions, with the wooden Highlanders on 
 guard in front of the snuff-shops, who were cleaner and
 
 286 LONDON REMINISCENCES. 
 
 more glossy than their perambulatory compatriots, over 
 whom they had the additional advantage of not giving 
 utterance to a stomach-ache of sound. Where are the 
 bright-eyed Savoyard boys with their sad little hurdy- 
 gurdies, picturesque rags, and white mice that lived 
 inside their waistcoats ? Where the shaggy pifferari, 
 skilled in evoking unearthly squeaks and wails from 
 hairy bags, tightly squeezed under their left arms ? I 
 have not seen a pifferaro in London highways or by- 
 ways for at least a quarter of a century. The music 
 they made was not strictly classical ; but how suggestive 
 they were of Calabrian forests, brigands' caves, and all 
 the picturesqueness, mystery, and horror of outlaw life 
 in Southern Italy ! Whither have vanished the two 
 or three really meritorious stringed bands one of them 
 used to play every Thursday afternoon in Manchester 
 Square which performed the overtures to Zampa, 
 Masaniello and William Tell so dashingly ? They were, 
 I fancy, chiefly composed of Italians and Frenchmen, and 
 used to take something considerable in silver every time 
 they performed. In common with many other youthful 
 music-lovers, I loved to follow them about for hours at 
 a stretch, and yearned to enlist in their harmonious 
 ranks. I also miss the legitimate artistic successors of 
 the two reduced Signori who were formerly wont to 
 execute pleasing feats in concert upon a wiry piano on 
 wheels, harnessed to a duet- proof white horse with un- 
 commonly hirsute fetlocks, and upon a weak violin, which 
 its owner or lessee used to extract from a gloomy -looking 
 black leather case with a tender care that would not 
 have been exaggerated in connection with the handling
 
 LONDON REMINISCENCES. 287 
 
 of a priceless Guarnerius or Amati. Those dejected but 
 able executants used to play, moreover, duos of a class 
 that has long been forgotten in this country thinly 
 spun-out arrangements of obscure Italian operas by 
 Mercadante and Paesiello, which had never taken root 
 in popular favour on this side of the Channel. Why, I 
 would ask, has so much of this eccentric but eminently 
 entertaining al fresco music disappeared from our streets, 
 leaving open-air London so much duller and less event- 
 ful than it was between the date of Her Majesty's acces- 
 sion to the Throne and the outbreak of the Crimean 
 war?
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 WAGNERIANA STRAUSSIANA. 
 
 IT is a no less curious than interesting fact, that in 
 the year of Richard Wagner's birth (1813), when his 
 native city was suffering all the horrors of an energetic 
 siege, a man of letters was living at Dresden who fore- 
 told the principles and foresaw the practice of the system 
 of operatic composition which has, for the past thirty 
 years, been identified in general opinion with the great 
 Saxon maestro. At the time referred to, Hoffmann, uni- 
 versally known some years later by his extraordinary 
 ghost-stories, had but newly taken to literature as a 
 profession; and it was in 1813 that he wrote an admi- 
 rable essay, intituled " The Poet and the Composer," 
 which subsequently appeared in his famous work, " The 
 Serapion Brothers." This essay takes the form of a 
 conversation between two friends, who discuss the dis- 
 tinctions existing between poet and composer, and 
 whether or not one and the same person could or should 
 discharge the functions of both. They arrive at the 
 important conclusion that the barriers seemingly sepa- 
 rating poet and composer must be swept away, for that 
 poetry and music are so closely allied as to be one in 
 reality. " For," writes Hoffmann, "words and notes
 
 POET- COMPOSERS. 289 
 
 receive their highest inspiration from one and the same 
 secret. The only true opera must be that,the music of 
 which is the direct and immediate progeny of its text. 
 Is not music the mysterious language of a remote spiritual 
 realm a language the wondrous accents of which are 
 echoed in our utmost soul, awakening a higher and 
 intenser vitality in it ? Shimmering and sparkling, all 
 our passions are stirred to common strife, and subside 
 into one inexpressible longing, which expands our breast. 
 Such is the indescribable effect of instrumental music. 
 But music must deal with life itself and its phenomena ; 
 adorning words and deeds, it must describe definite 
 passions and actions. Can we speak of mean things in 
 noble words ? Can music reveal to us aught save the 
 marvels of those regions from which it is transmitted to 
 us ? Let the poet equip himself for a bold flight to the 
 distant land of romance ; there will he find the wonders, 
 living and glowing with brilliant colours, which he may 
 import into actual life, so that we may willingly put 
 faith in them ; ay, so that we, as in a hallowing dream, 
 may escape from dry, everyday existence, and wander 
 along the flowery paths of romantic life, fully under- 
 standing its language, the words of which are set to 
 music." That these lines, scarcely less than prophetical 
 of Wagner's endeavours to make music and poetry 
 homogeneous, or at least to render each the necessary 
 and irrevocable complement of the other, should have 
 been penned by Hoffmann within a few weeks of the 
 " happy event " that brought the greatest composer of 
 this century into the world, was surely a strange and 
 fortunate coincidence ! 
 VOL. i. u
 
 290 WAGNER ON OPERA. 
 
 A hitherto unpublished letter, written by Eichard 
 Wagner, during his " Sturm und Drang " period, ex- 
 plaining his views of operatic potentialities and prin- 
 ciples of composition, will certainly be perused with 
 interest. It was addressed to Baron de Biedenfeld at 
 "Weimar, bears date January 17, 1849, is in the possession 
 of Major von Donop, one of the Hessian Landgrave's 
 Chamberlains, and runs as follows : 
 
 " I ever strove against the employment of the im- 
 measurable apparatus, comprising action, situation, and 
 plot, supported by the liveliest co-operation of all exist- 
 ing arts such as painting, plastics, gymnastics, etc. 
 merely to impress a certain number of taking melodies 
 upon the public memory ; I convinced myself that the 
 only object of all this display must be no less than 
 the whole dramatic work, and that opera, in this 
 respect, must stand even higher than the spoken stage- 
 play, because, to all other known methods of expression, 
 it adds that of music, the richest, most various, and most 
 inexhaustible. The Greeks, and perhaps even some of 
 our mediaeval dramatists, were able to adapt musical 
 effects to their dramas; but, since in our own times the 
 heroes of absolute music that is, of music apart from 
 poetry and in particular Beethoven, have raised the 
 expressive capacity of this art, through the orchestral 
 medium, to an entirely new potency, not previously 
 dreamt of even by Gluck, the influence of music upon 
 the drama has unquestionably acquired importance, 
 inasmuch as music naturally puts forward claims to the 
 development of her rich resources. The drama itself, 
 therefore, would have to augment its expressive faculty;
 
 WAGNER ON OPERA. 291 
 
 to disclose and cultivate its corresponding capacity to 
 the wealth of musical expression seemed to me to be 
 only possible to a musician. As I thus exalted the 
 musician to the rank of poet, I could not, of course, 
 permit him to lose sight of the drama's chief aim ; for 
 his special art music would be called in to fulfil this, 
 the highest of all artistic aims ; wherefore it necessarily 
 became my task, whilst cognisant and intimately con- 
 vinced of the wealth of musical expression, to resolve 
 upon the creation of nothing but drama that is to say, 
 of such drama as could not be produced without the aid 
 of musical consciousness in its author. To make myself 
 fully intelligible upon this point I must refer to one of 
 the principal scenes in my Tannhaeuser, viz., the Minstrel 
 Competition. Obviously, in order that the catastrophe 
 should be brought about by this scene, it was indispen- 
 sable that the poetical intention should predominate. To 
 allow the singers to compete with one another by per- 
 forming tricks of vocalisation, ornamental passages and 
 cadences, would have been to represent a concert-room 
 trial of skill, not a dramatic struggle of rival ideas and 
 feelings. On the other hand, however, this poetical 
 contest, in which the whole and full individuality of each 
 man taking part in it was to be displayed, could not be 
 realised save through the agency of the highest and most 
 varied forces of musical expression, as I understand it. 
 To my great satisfaction I have found that this very 
 scene, risky as it is, has secured whenever it has been 
 performed the most vivacious and enthusiastic sym- 
 pathy on the part of the audience ; and it was my 
 triumph to lay hold of our opera-public, quite unaccus-
 
 292 WAGNER ON OPERA. 
 
 tomed to this method of treatment, by appealing to their 
 intelligence instead of to their sensibility. 
 
 " Let me repeat it briefly once more : I have taken my 
 line as a musician, who starting from his conviction of 
 the inexhaustible resources of music wills to create the 
 highest work of art, namely, the drama. I say wills, in 
 order to indicate my endeavour ; whether I can, or not, I 
 am not able to judge ; but should I break down, it will 
 not be for lack of volition, but by reason of my feeble 
 gifts. I shall be much gratified if this succinct com- 
 munication enable you to obtain some insight into the 
 entity of my compositions ; I could impart to you more 
 words upon this subject, but not more meaning. If 
 possible, accord to me your favourable sympathy. Beg- 
 ging you to greet Liszt cordially for me, I remain most 
 respectfully your obedient servant, RICHARD WAGNER." 
 
 Another interesting and (until lately) unpublished 
 letter from the pen of the late Richard Wagner, ad- 
 dressed to the Countess Agenor de Gasparin in March, 
 1861, has been communicated to me. The genesis of this 
 document is accounted for as follows by its possessor. 
 Wagner was highly indignant at the scandalous treat- 
 ment to which Tannhaeuser had been subjected by a 
 cabal of frivolous fops at Paris. He had withdrawn that 
 work from the hands of the Opera-house management, 
 and absolutely refused to permit its repetition, although 
 strongly urged to weather the trumpery storm aroused 
 by its production. The Countess de Gasparin, a fervent 
 admirer of Wagner's genius, had been painfully affected 
 by the accounts of the Jockey Club's barbarous beha- 
 viour on the occasion in question details of which filled
 
 A DESPONDING LETTER. 293 
 
 columns of the leading Parisian papers at the time and 
 wrote to the great composer a long letter of condolence 
 and sympathy, in which she poured out all the sorrowful 
 and angry feelings with which her kind heart was over- 
 flowing. A few days later she received the answer, 
 which I subjoin in translation : " Paris, 3, Eue d'Au- 
 male, March 29, 1861. Honoured Madam, You can- 
 not for a moment doubt the effect produced upon me 
 by your wonderful letter. You knew that it would 
 bring me the solace of which I stood in need. Accept 
 my heartfelt thanks, and doubt not that I am absolutely 
 incapable of making the least concession to save appear- 
 ances, so long as the essence of my work fails to obtain 
 recognition. You have assuredly heard ere this that T 
 have withdrawn my opera I cannot refrain from avowing 
 with what deep inward grief I have done so. The spe- 
 ciality of my artistic conceptions invariably leads me 
 back again to the drama ; no means of realising them 
 lie open to me but those connected with the modern 
 theatre ; and what sort of an institution that theatre is I 
 need not tell you, for you hold it in no higher estimation 
 than I do. Imagine what my sensations must be when 
 I emerging, as it were, from the most absolute solitude 
 find myself compelled to come in contact with this 
 deeply dishonest world, in which everything ay, even 
 the commonest terms of my craft hurts me to the very 
 marrow of my bones ! Do you now believe me, when I 
 tell you that my longing for death is profound and real ? 
 My grateful greetings are yours ; grateful, for that I 
 have been permitted to encounter you on the path which 
 else I had been doomed to tread alone ! "With respectful
 
 294 WAGNER IN POVERTY. 
 
 homage, your most obedient EICHARD WAGNER." It is 
 only too manifest, from the dejected tone of the above 
 remarkable letter, that the writer, when he penned it, 
 had drained the bitter cup of disappointment to the 
 dregs. It was indeed indited at one of the darkest 
 moments of his chequered life, when his gallant spirit 
 was all but broken by a crowning mishap. Happily, 
 Fate had splendid compensations in store for the then 
 unappreciated composer of Tannhaeuser. 
 
 Curiously and sadly illustrative of the state of pecu- 
 niary embarrassment sometimes nearly approaching 
 destitution in which the late Eichard "Wagner was 
 constrained to live during the earlier years of his career 
 as an operatic composer, is a letter written by him forty- 
 one years ago to a Herr Morath, at that time engaged as 
 contra-bassist in the orchestra of the Magdeburg Stadt- 
 theater. Wagner, whilst sojourning at Magdeburg, had 
 become indebted to Morath in a sum that was no doubt 
 considerable, at that time, to debtor and creditor alike. 
 The latter eked out the modest wages allotted in the 
 year 1840 to a double-bass player in a provincial German 
 opera-house by copying music, in which occupation he 
 had so distinguished himself by correctness and legibility 
 as to have gained a reputation in musical circles, even 
 beyond the walls of Magdeburg city, that kept him in 
 full and tolerably remunerative employment. As it 
 would appear, he copied out a great deal of manuscript 
 for Wagner, for which service the Saxon maestro, then 
 passing through an especially dismal phase of his unap- 
 preciated period, was unable to pay the appointed price, 
 or any part of it, and remained so for many months after
 
 WAGXER TO A CREDITOR. 205 
 
 he had ceased to reside in Magdeburg. It was from 
 Dresden, on January 4, 1843, that Wagner addressed to 
 his patient and long-suffering creditor the following 
 characteristic letter, which has been published for the 
 first time very recently, and is at present in the posses- 
 sion of Jules Bernhardt Schroeder, the well-known Mag- 
 deburg pianoforte dealer : "My best Herr Morath, I 
 have made you wait a long time, and I must confess 
 that it has pained me in my innermost heart whenever I 
 have thought about you, and yet have found myself so 
 situated that it was absolutely out of my power to pay 
 you. It is only by means of the heaviest sacrifice 
 imaginable that I have been able to open out to myself 
 my present improved prospects ; I have been compelled 
 to endure all manner of want and privations in order not 
 to succumb completely. Even now, as far as my external 
 conditions are concerned, I have by no means attained 
 my goal ; for my earnings are so small as to be scarcely 
 worth mentioning. However, God will help me on my 
 way; and I will commence, at least, an endeavour to 
 right myself with you, for you have done me good 
 service and ever treated me with all possible consi- 
 deration. Besides, of all my creditors, assuredly none 
 needs money more urgently than yourself. Pray, there- 
 fore, accept herewith the thirty-five thalers you asked 
 for in your last letter. If I can ever serve you in any 
 way, believe me I shall do so with the best will in the 
 world. Eeoeive my heartiest thanks for all your kind- 
 ness, and the assurance of my profoundest respect. 
 Your most obedient RICHARD WAGNER." That, in his 
 own great need, he should have mustered up resolution
 
 296 " TRISTAN AND ISOLDE." 
 
 enough to discharge who knows at what painful incon- 
 venience to himself? a part of an old-standing obligation 
 to a man in humble circumstances who had first trusted 
 him and then had the magnanimity not to dun him, is a 
 fact sufficiently proving of itself that, under the surface 
 ruggedness of Wagner's character lay rich strata of con- 
 scientiousness, honour, gratitude, and loving human 
 kindness. 
 
 Tristan and Isolde, strange to say, was not produced 
 upon the stage of the Vienna Hofoper until two years 
 and a half ago. The story of this great " tone poem " 
 in connection with Vienna what the Germans would 
 call its Vorgeschichte is in some respects an odd one. 
 Twenty-three years have elapsed since that opera was 
 accepted by the management of the Hofoper. Scenery 
 was painted, properties and costumes were made for it. 
 Learning that it was about to be put in rehearsal, 
 Wagner came up to Vienna for the special purpose of 
 rendering every assistance in his power to the artists of 
 all categories selected to take part in its performance. 
 Months passed away, during which he spared no pains 
 to render his music intelligible to the leading singers of 
 the Imperial company ; but in vain. They studied their 
 parts assiduously, but could not master them ; at last 
 they came to him in a body and declared that the opera 
 was quite beyond their powers. One or two of them 
 went even farther, respectfully stating their conviction 
 that it was intrinsically too difficult to be ever performed 
 by any set of merely human artists. Eemonstrances 
 availed nothing ; Tristan and Isolde was dropped by the 
 management, and Wagner had uselessly sacrificed several
 
 "TRISTAN AND ISOLDE." 297 
 
 months of his valuable time, besides having been put to 
 heavy expense when he could ill afford it. The unhap- 
 piest weeks of his life, he has often alleged, were those 
 immediately following the abandonment of his favourite 
 work by the Vienna Intendantur. One day he left the 
 Kaiserstadt secretly, letting none of his friends there 
 know whither he was going. The consequence of this 
 proceeding was that when, during the following spring 
 (1864), King Louis of Bavaria made inquiries of the 
 Austrian Government, through his Minister at Yienna, 
 respecting the whereabouts of " the great master, whose 
 works he had admired for years, but whom he personally 
 did not know," nobody in Yienna could say where Wag- 
 ner was to be found, and several weeks elapsed before 
 his hiding-place in Switzerland was discovered. When 
 King Ludwig's summons at length reached him, it raised 
 him from the depths of despondency to a pinnacle of 
 hope he had never theretofore attained. He had, indeed, 
 begun to despair of his works ever being performed at 
 all, and was on the verge of melancholy madness when 
 the Eoyal Wittelsbach, in taking him by the hand, saved 
 his reason from overthrow and, in all probability, his life 
 to boot. Since that fortunate conjuncture in his 
 career Tristan and Isolde has been successfully produced 
 at Munich, Berlin, Leipzig, Weimar and Hamburg last, 
 though not least, at London, where during the summer 
 of 1882 it drew two of the largest audiences ever 
 gathered together within the walls of Old Drury. But 
 on the first of European operatic stages it was never once 
 performed during Eichard Wagner's life ; the Yienna 
 Hofoper, having owed him a debt of honour for a score
 
 298 WAGNER'S CHARACTER. 
 
 of years, only paid it to his manes. Tristan and Isolde 
 was set and mounted with the utmost splendour in the 
 spring of 1884 ; its cast comprised Winkelmann, Scaria 
 and Frau Materna; its "tone-poem" was interpreted by 
 the finest operatic orchestra in the world ; but it is a 
 pity that so handsome an amende honorable could not 
 have been made but one twelvemonth sooner, to 
 the living Master, instead of to his justly offended 
 shade. 
 
 An impression has for many years past been prevalent 
 throughout Europe that Wagner not only believed him- 
 self to be the greatest composer the world had ever 
 known, but revelled in the adulation of his disciples, and 
 heartily despised as well as disliked any one who with- 
 held from him the worship he considered his due, or 
 failed to recognise the surpassing merits of his music. 
 Now Franz Muncker, his intimate personal friend and a 
 daily visitor at "Wahnfried during "Wagner's yearly 
 sojourns in Bayreuth, represents him as " disliking to 
 be regarded as a phenomenal, or even exceptional being. 
 .... He was of late years constantly surrounded by 
 eager admirers and fanatical followers, and put up with 
 them (though not always) ; but they gave him no delight. 
 He preferred to them sometimes very conspicuously 
 his friends of independent opinions, and often complained 
 to these latter that he could scarcely ever get up an 
 interesting conversation with the others, because they 
 invariably agreed with everything he said. * Come and 
 sit by me,' he would whisper to a friend who had views 
 of his own ; * let us get away from these tiresome fellows 
 who are always saying " Yes." ' .... Nothing annoyed
 
 WAGNER'S CHARACTER. 299 
 
 him so much as when his admirers, in their exaggerated 
 homage to his person, happened to misapprehend his 
 wishes and perpetrate some act of silly indiscretion. 
 After the first performance of Parsifal, he told the loudly 
 applauding audience that he gratefully accepted their 
 manifestations on behalf of his artists, but begged them 
 not to summon him before the curtain in the usual way 
 with the call of ' Author.' At the next performance, 
 his rabid worshippers strove with all their might, by 
 hissing and groaning, to suppress the general public's 
 manifestations of approval, upon which he angrily 
 exclaimed to my father, 'These "Wagnerians are the 
 stupidest people in the world ; I should like to break 
 down the theatre doors with their heads. They must be 
 hissing, indeed ! It is disgraceful ! ' And he did not 
 hesitate to tell them so to their faces, later on. 
 
 " It was his constant endeavour to cultivate ripe and 
 independent judgment in those of his disciples who were 
 in close personal relation to him. To a musical student, 
 who spoke to him of Mendelssohn's and Schumann's 
 works rather contemptuously, he presented such of their 
 compositions as he happened to possess, with the recom- 
 mendation to * thoroughly study the works of those com- 
 posers and of others spiritually akin to them, before 
 finding fault with them.' .... He never would allow 
 himself to be measured against or compared with Mozart 
 and Beethoven. 1 1 should be the greatest fool alive,' 
 he used to say, ' if I attempted to equal those Masters, 
 or to produce anything like what they have produced. 
 I can only hold my own, after and anywhere near them, 
 by proving my intention to do otherwise than they did.'
 
 300 WAGNER'S CHARACTER. 
 
 Beethoven, in particular, was always esteemed by him 
 as ( the absolutely Unattainable and Inimitable,' whose 
 compositions it was his greatest delight to conduct. I 
 shall never forget Christmas Day, 1878. In celebration 
 of his wife's birthday, Wagner had summoned the Mein- 
 inger orchestra to "Wahnfried, and rehearsed with its 
 members several purely instrumental works, exclusively 
 Beethoven's compositions. Whilst changing the parts, 
 one of the executants happened to let fall a Beethoven 
 book. As he was stooping to pick it up, Wagner jest- 
 ingly exclaimed, ' Let it lie, it is of no importance. Our 
 turn comes now ; Offenbach and I, we only represent 
 true art. What do we want with Beethoven ! ' His 
 meaning, revealed by his tone and manner as he spoke, 
 was plain enough to most of us ; and yet there were 
 those present who jumped to the conclusion that ' Wag- 
 ner thought and spoke scornfully of Beethoven ! ' 
 
 " Not only did he, as a general rule, strongly object 
 to be asked to perform his own compositions, but it was 
 particularly disagreeable to him, in mixed society, to 
 be interrogated with respect to his artistic notions. 
 Above all, the catchword ZuJeunftsmusik (Music of the 
 Future) when unintelligently employed in conversa- 
 tion with him, never failed to put him in a violent passion. 
 He himself never questioned anybody not even his 
 most intimate friends about their musical professions 
 of faith ; indeed, he had friends who, as he was well 
 aware, did not understand a note of his music, and whom 
 he did not love one whit the less on that account. But 
 he did not think it worth his while to discuss, far less 
 to dispute, about the value of his endeavours with per-
 
 "WAGNERIAN ART." 301 
 
 sons who had not even an elementary idea of what really 
 were his aims and purposes." 
 
 The Town Council of Leipzig, in its capacity as Keeper 
 of the Register in which are entered the real names of 
 authors publishing works in that city anonymously or 
 under pseudonyms, has made official announcement to the 
 effect that the libretto of the four act opera by J. F. Kittl, 
 Bianco, and Giuseppe, or the French before Nice, published 
 in the year 1852 by Messrs. Breitkopf and Haertel, was 
 exclusively written by Bichard Wagner. This fact is 
 worth noting by encyclopaedists and compilers of the 
 deceased composer's biography. 
 
 The above passing reference to the Wagnerian " Hot- 
 spurs," whose extravagant and unreasoning partisanship 
 of his " system " caused the gifted Saxon so much vexa- 
 tion and annoyance during the latter years of his life, 
 calls to mind the absurdities, in the way of "synthetic 
 analysis," perpetrated by one of those fiery factionaries, 
 Edmund von Hagen, the author of an unconsciously 
 humorous work, entitled " Contributions to an Insight 
 into the Being of Wagnerian Art." One of these 
 u Contributions " an essay containing fifty-three pages 
 of printed matter is entirely devoted to " The Trumpet- 
 Signal of Freedom" in Rienzi, upon the importance of 
 which, musically, aesthetically, and politically, Yon 
 Hagen dilates to the top of his bent. The following 
 brief extract, which deals more particularly with the A 
 sounded on the trumpet at the opening of the overture, 
 will serve to exemplify the state of exaltation into which 
 Wagner-worshippers contrive to work themselves up 
 when engaged in explaining the secrets of his " method "
 
 302 GOUNOD ON WAGNER. 
 
 to profane outsiders i.e., the general public. "The 
 note A," writes Von Hagen, "constituting the first bar 
 of the Rienzi overture, and blown upon the trumpet, is 
 to me a glorious example of how the physiognomy of a 
 tone-poet may lie quite distinctly stamped upon the 
 surface of a single note, and may unmistakably look us 
 in the face out of that single note. This A the first 
 tone of Wagner's first published opera tells us that 
 Wagner is an organically creative artist. At the same 
 time it is of beautiful significance that the trumpet-call 
 in question should also be a summons to freedom. Thus, 
 this one tone, in its form and capacity, contains Wagner 
 in nuce. The trumpeter who has to sound the A in 
 question must know this. He must be inwardly con- 
 scious of what he is blowing when he blows this note ; 
 he must be penetrated through and through with the 
 knowledge that this note belongs to liberty. Should the 
 trumpeter only comprehend this note as a musician, and 
 confine himself to simply sounding it correctly, music- 
 ally speaking that is, exactly as it is written he had 
 better go about his business. Were he even the leading 
 Chamber- Virtuoso in a Court- Orchestra, he is certainly 
 no artist, and is utterly unfit to perform Wagner's 
 music." 
 
 Gounod and Verdi were interviewed by Martin Boeder 
 upon the subject of Wagner, shortly before the latter 's 
 death. Gounod expressed himself as follows : " Wag- 
 ner is the cleverest dramatic musician that ever lived. 
 But he is blind his followers have robbed him of his 
 sight. If this extraordinary man had pursued the course 
 in which, with Tannhaeuser and Lohengrin, he captivated
 
 VERDI ON WAGNER. 303 
 
 the hearts of his countrymen and of the whole educated 
 artistic world, we should have before us a phenomenon 
 of art such as the world had never heretofore beheld. As 
 it is, however, Wagner will perish ; and he himself has 
 dug his own grave." 
 
 Yerdi found fault with Wagner's disciples and so- 
 called " school " far more severely than with the Saxon 
 composer or his compositions. " Highly as I esteem the 
 man and artist, I would strictly forbid any art student, 
 not thoroughly grounded in every branch of simple and 
 double counterpoint, to meddle with a Wagnerian score. 
 All our most gifted young composers I can count them 
 for you on my fingers are bent on imitating ' il maestro 
 tedesco.' They cannot get on nowadays without ten trom- 
 bones and as many horns, with the aid of which they 
 bring forth abortions which only help to heap discredit 
 upon the name of Wagner. Personally I honour Wagner, 
 although he has held me up to scorn ; but I have a 
 horror of his school ! " 
 
 To Mr. William Singer, the well-known musical critic, 
 Gounod has also unbosomed himself with respect to 
 Wagner, apropos of a treatise he (Gounod) is said to have 
 written upon that composer's character and works. " In 
 reality," said Gounod, " the matter stands thus. Shortly 
 after the publication of my essay upon Mozart, one even- 
 ing at the house of a friend the conversation turned upon 
 Eichard Wagner. My hostess asked me what I thought 
 of that master. I told her; whereupon she observed, 
 u You really ought to put all that down upon paper." 
 Why not ? I confess that the notion took my fancy ; 
 and I jotted down a few of my ideas. In order to put
 
 304 GOUNOD ON WAGNER. 
 
 it out of my power to renounce my project, certain 
 persons circulated the report abroad that I had completed 
 a pamphlet on Wagner, whereas my utmost intention 
 had been to write a magazine article about him. To 
 that intention I still adhere ; for I feel absolutely called 
 upon to do justice to Eichard Wagner, of whom formerly 
 a great deal too much evil was spoken. Now far too 
 much good is said of him. Doubtless, a man who 
 created such works as his cannot have been an ordinary 
 person. Who would wish to deny that his was a great 
 nature, which rendered important services to music? 
 But between just recognition of his manifold qualities 
 and unbridled, extravagant enthusiasm there is a wide 
 difference. My convictions do not allow me to admit that 
 interminable recitative is endless melody. Endless 
 melody is to be found in Mozart. He always sings. 
 Inexhaustible song bubbles up from every portion of his 
 works. Only listen ! " Gounod commenced playing, 
 and then singing, with exquisite finish, Zerlina's air from 
 Don Juan, "Yedrai carino," and then broke off into 
 reminiscences from Beethoven's and Haydn's works, regal- 
 ing Mr. Singer with an admirable pianoforte recital, at 
 the close of which he exclaimed, " That is what I call 
 endless melody ; not an eternal straggling onwards, 
 without goal or repose not everlasting musical sprink- 
 lings (arrosage musicale) not continuous tentativeness, 
 regardless of forms not quavering masses of sound, 
 devoid of definite formula. Such methods overstep the 
 boundaries that even the most original artistic individu- 
 ality is bound to prescribe to itself. They only lead to 
 heresy; and indeed, as far as the majority of his works
 
 GOUNOD ON WAGNER. 305 
 
 is concerned, Wagner is no better than a musical heretic. 
 .... If it were only he ! But the whole crew of his 
 followers and worshippers it is they who do him the 
 greatest wrong by tacking their own extravagances on 
 to his, and endeavouring to organise the entire mess into 
 a system ! As if Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven, Auber, 
 Meyerbeer had ever thought about ' systems ' when 
 they wrote their masterpieces ; as if sober classifications 
 ever crossed the mind of a composer during those happy 
 and beneficent moments at which his genius finds ex- 
 pression ! This never-ending descriptiveness, this effort 
 to depict the smallest matters in sound, how far it all is 
 from the genuine inspiration that descends, like grace, 
 upon the composer from on high ! These people only 
 conceal their poverty of ideas under a clamour of words 
 and notes ; as if art consisted of doing very little with 
 abundant means, instead of making a great deal out of 
 small materials. Incapable of constructing a shapely 
 and compact work of art with organic, recognisable and 
 graceful or sublime forms, they bewilder the astounded 
 hearer with noise and false movements. Tap, tap, tap, 
 tap, again and again and again, wallowing in the vast 
 orchestral sauce (in which never a fish can swim) until 
 they are fairly drowned in it. The consequence of this 
 robust struggle to get on somehow is that it becomes 
 impossible for any one to concentrate himself, in order to 
 really become something, instead of only appearing to be 
 something. Hence you find most of our young artists 
 excluding genuine feeling and true art-worship from 
 their music, and making nothing but a noise in art, as 
 well as in life seeking success in fussy festivities, 
 VOL. i. x
 
 306 GOUNOD ON WAGNER. 
 
 advertisements, banquets, and public notoriety. Every- 
 thing from without and nothing from within. Mere 
 show ; no real power." 
 
 Mr. Singer asked him whether he had entertained any 
 personal relations with Wagner. He replied, " When 
 Wagner lived in Paris, and things were going badly with 
 him, he complained to me that nobody would produce his 
 operas. I advised him to select the most attractive 
 numbers of his works, and to have them performed at a 
 concert. In carrying out this suggestion I assisted him 
 to the best of my ability. The concert turned out a 
 success ; and at that time he was grateful to me. You 
 know how he attacked me later on; but, believe me, 
 that did not in the least alter my opinion of him as a 
 musician. It is necessary, in the case of Wagner, to 
 make a distinction between the man and the composer." 
 I ventured to remark that Wagner's music is played 
 nowadays at nearly all the Parisian concerts, and asked 
 Gounod whether he taking into consideration the cha- 
 racter, artistic predilections and tastes of the French 
 people believed in a future for Wagnerian music in 
 France. "Wagner's compositions are being played 
 here," replied Gounod, " and it is quite right that those 
 of his works which are beautiful and imperishable should 
 be performed. But it is difficult for me to believe that 
 his music will ever find a lasting home in France." He 
 added with solemnity, " On the contrary, I see the time 
 rapidly approaching at which the whole world will be- 
 come weary of these musical sophists and rhetoricians 
 who unremittingly strive to transform human pleasures 
 and enjoyments into suffering. The object of music is
 
 WAGNER'S VIEW OF DECORATIONS. 307 
 
 to make people happy, not to sadden them or to increase 
 their griefs and gloominess. Whether Wagner meant it 
 or not, his music has become the tattered umbrella under 
 which Messieurs les Chevaliers de la haute blague the 
 champion humbugs try to shelter themselves from a 
 bursting downpour of public discontent. A storm-blast 
 will sweep this thing away, and all that is gay, noble 
 and lovely will then sparkle in brilliant sunshine." 
 
 Wagner prided himself above all things upon being a 
 typical German ; and undoubtedly he was so in many 
 respects. But he offered a striking contrast to the majo- 
 rity of his countrymen in one regard ; viz. 3 in his stead- 
 fast aversion to orders of chivalry, medals, and other 
 " outward and visible " honorific distinctions. A greedy 
 worship of these baubles is one of the leading traits of 
 German character; and Wagner's frequently iterated 
 refusals to accept decorations were an inexhaustible 
 source of wonder to the sons of the Fatherland. He 
 had, however, two good and sufficient reasons for reject- 
 ing the collars, stars, and crosses offered to him by a 
 score of emperors, kings, and princes. In the first place, 
 he held that " monarchical badges " did not beseem the 
 breast of an " inveterate Eepublican," as he delighted to 
 style himself; in the second, he appraised his own genius 
 so highly as to deem it far above reward or recognition 
 by symbols of Imperial or Eoyal grace. Nineteen years 
 ago the Chapter of the Maximilian Order ("Pour le 
 Merite ") solicited its Chief, the King of Bavaria, to con- 
 fer the Grand Cross of that exalted Order upon Richard 
 Wagner. His Majesty was willing ; but the great com- 
 poser respectfully declined to accept the decoration. 
 
 x2
 
 308 WAGNER'S GENIALITY. 
 
 Shortly afterwards the late King Victor Emmanuel sent 
 him the " Soliti Santi " au cou in other words, the 
 Commandery of the venerable Order of SS. Maurice and 
 Lazarus. This high distinction was also " declined with 
 thanks." In 1876, upon the occasion of the great 
 Nibelung production, all the German sovereigns, includ- 
 ing the King of Prussia who consented to look over 
 Wagner's democratic proclivities in consideration of 
 his transcendent genius proffered their emblems of 
 chivalric honour to him, as likewise did the Emperors of 
 Austria and Eussia, the Kings of Denmark, Spain, 
 Sweden, etc. One and all were courteously rejected ; and 
 Wagner remained to his dying day the only German 
 composer of any eminence whose button-hole knew not 
 adornment by the least shred of parti-coloured riband. 
 
 ****** 
 There was a genial side to Wagner's masterful cha- 
 racter, which found expression in large and generous 
 hospitality, love of good cheer and jollifications, a ten- 
 dency to indulge in badinage, and, above all, an exqui- 
 site tenderness of manner towards his consort's children, 
 as well as his own, that rendered him an object of little 
 less than adoration to them. When he took to wife Cosima 
 Liszt, some time Frau von Buelow, she brought him three 
 step-daughters, the issue of her union with the eminent 
 pianist of that name. To these girls, Daniela, Blandine, 
 and Isolde, he was the tenderest of fathers. Had they 
 been his own flesh and blood, he could not have loved 
 them better, or treated them more kindly. When, how- 
 ever, a son of his very own was born to him, his joy and 
 exultation knew no bounds. He purchased a vast quan-
 
 THE WAGNERIAN WARDROBE. 309 
 
 tity of costly gay-coloured silken stuffs, to make hang- 
 ings for little Siegfried's nursery, and yards upon yards 
 of rosebuds, sewn together and made up into garlands, 
 with which he decorated the walls of that apartment, 
 and the cradle in which his baby heir reposed. His only 
 weakness in the way of personal embellishment dis- 
 played itself in his indoors apparel gorgeous dressing- 
 gowns, resplendent smoking-caps, many-hued silken 
 socks and " decorative" slippers. In the streets he was 
 almost always to be seen in old clothes, for which he had 
 a clinging and loyal affection. One short overcoat, of a 
 yellowish, bilious tint, he wore in cold weather for 
 nearly thirty years, and could not be induced to give it 
 up. Once his wife, moved to indignation by the dilapi- 
 dated condition and squalid shabbiness of the garment 
 in question, hid it away from him. As, however, he 
 gave no one in his house any peace whilst his " old 
 friend " was missing, she was fain (with many protests 
 and remonstrances) to restore it to him. He wore it 
 frequently at Bayreuth, during the abominable weather 
 that prevailed whilst Parsifal was undergoing rehearsal ; 
 and in the course of the winter, the " sopr' abito giallo 
 del gran maestro sassone " got to be as well known in 
 Venice as the Lion of St. Mark itself. 
 
 In the year 1869, Wagner was staying at Lucerne, 
 busy with the composition of his famous Tetralogy. His 
 Bavarian Majesty, desiring to give the Saxon Master a 
 birthday treat such as would delight his soul, specially 
 engaged the famous French stringed quartet (Messrs. 
 Maurin, Colblain, Mas, and Chevillard) which at that 
 time enjoyed the reputation of interpreting Beethoven's
 
 310 A ROYAL SURPRISE. 
 
 three last quatuors with supreme intelligence and feli- 
 city. Early in the morning of the 22nd May, Wagner's 
 natal day, these executants were introduced into the 
 composer's house, by the connivance of a member of his 
 family, about an hour before he had risen from his bed. 
 They softly tuned their instruments and took up a posi- 
 tion in his breakfast-room, awaiting his appearance to 
 strike up. What was his astonishment and pleasure 
 when he came down to breakfast as usual in his duffel 
 dressing-gown, to be received by the strains of a compo- 
 sition for which he entertained profound admiration and 
 reverence one of the Posthumous Quartets performed 
 by artists of such surpassing ability ! For a few seconds 
 he stood, as though turned to stone, mouth and eyes 
 alike wide open; then, suddenly recognising Maurin, 
 whom he had known and frequently heard in Paris, he 
 rushed up to him with open arms and embraced him, 
 fiddle and all. The French musicians spent the whole 
 day with Wagner, during which they played at least a 
 dozen quartets for his delectation. He, on his part, 
 feasted them right royally, and during dinner proposed 
 two toasts in eloquent language one to "his Eoyal 
 benefactor," and the other to " the greatest of French 
 musicians, Camille Saint-Saens." To the end of his days 
 Eichard Wagner retained a lively and grateful remem- 
 brance of this particular birthday "surprise." Indeed, 
 only a few weeks before his death he told one of his 
 intimate friends that he had never heard Beethoven's 
 last quartets so satisfactorily played as by the French- 
 men whom the King of Bavaria had sent all the way 
 from Paris to Lucerne to regale him with " the finest
 
 WAGXER'S GRATITUDE. 311 
 
 music ever composed," on the morning of his birthday 
 anniversary, in the year of grace 1869. 
 
 Immediately after the third performance of Tristan 
 and Isolde at the Royal Opera House, Munich namely, 
 on the 19th of June, 1865 Eichard Wagner addressed 
 the following characteristic letter to the members of the 
 Bavarian Court Orchestra : " Dear and honoured gentle- 
 men, my very worthy friends, It is out of the question 
 that on this day, after the third and (for the present) 
 last performance of Tristan and Isolde, I should part from 
 you without addressing to you a few last words of grati- 
 tude. In truth, no artist can ever have been animated 
 by a more exhilarating feeling than that which I have 
 experienced throughout my relations with you. Eveu 
 a mother, rejoicing in the child to which she has given 
 birth with anguish, cannot feel the exquisite satisfaction 
 which pervades my being when I hear the score that has 
 so long lain dumb before me, resounding in my ears with 
 such a warm and rapturous tone-life as you have breathed 
 into it by your marvellously beautiful performance. To 
 attempt, by any praise of mine, the recognition of the 
 inimitable importance of your feat would only be to 
 break in rudely upon your own splendid consciousness 
 of merit. You all know what a feat it has been, and 
 what it means, as far as you yourselves are concerned : 
 your hearts must tell you what you have become to me, 
 through this performance. You must know that I feel 
 as a personal friend towards each one of you ; for nothing 
 short of the most hearty reciprocal friendship could have 
 inspired you with the warmth, passion, and tenderness 
 with which you have revealed my work, nobly and ex-
 
 312 THE STRATJSS JUBILEE. 
 
 pressively, to the world at large. The hours of our 
 rehearsals in common cleave to my memory as the most 
 agreeable and encouraging of my whole life ; the days 
 and years that we, perhaps, are destined to spend 
 together in the future shall bear witness to the exalted 
 significance of those hours of commune. As long as I 
 shall breathe and have my being it will be the inmost 
 vocation of my heart to prove to you how dearly I love 
 you, and how entirely thankful I feel towards you. 
 Always your faithful and devoted friend, BICHARD 
 WAGNER." The above letter can scarcely fail to be a 
 surprise to those and they are many, both in England 
 and Germany who entertain the conviction that "Wagner 
 was constitutionally incapable of any feeling akin to 
 gratitude. 
 
 On the 15th of October, 1884, a jubilee celebration 
 took place in Yienna at the Wieden Theatre, to com- 
 memorate the fortieth anniversary of the day upon which 
 Johann Strauss, the " Walzerkoenig," made his first 
 public appearance in the character of an orchestral con- 
 ductor. The stalls, boxes, and pit were crowded with 
 the 6lite of Yiennese society, fashionable, artistic, and 
 literary the sort of gathering that may be seen in the 
 great central alUe of the Prater on May-day, when every 
 other person you encounter on horseback, wheels, or foot 
 has some generally-recognised claim to political or social 
 distinction ; Archdukes gossiping with actors, financiers 
 arm-in-arm with journalists, native Ministers and foreign 
 Ambassadors paying eager homage at the shrine of 
 beauty, their worship dedicated with absolute impartiality 
 to ladies of the Court and belles of the ballet. It was
 
 THE STRAUSS JUBILEE. 313 
 
 just such an assemblage that filled all the " numbered " 
 seats at the Wieden on the jubilee night above referred 
 to, whilst the galleries were thronged almost to suffoca- 
 tion by Strauss's most enthusiastic admirers the true- 
 born Viennese of the lower middle classes. Archduke 
 "William who, being Grand Master of the Order of St. 
 John, seldom shows himself in a theatre occupied the 
 Imperial Box, whilst King Milan of Servia sate out the 
 whole performance in a ground-tier stage box, signifying 
 his admiration for the leneficiaire* s talents and achieve- 
 ments by conferring upon him, towards the close of the 
 evening, the Cross of the Takovo Order. The pro- 
 gramme of the occasion consisted of selections from 
 Strauss's operas, conducted by himself. His desk was 
 converted for the nonce into a gorgeous flower-bed of the 
 costliest exotics ; and his appearance thereat, baton in 
 hand, was the signal for a demonstration of affectionate 
 rejoicing on the part of the audience, such as, according 
 to the leading journals of the Kaiserstadt, has never 
 before been witnessed within the walls of a Vienna 
 theatre. He opened the entertainment with his bright 
 little overture to Indigo his first opera, produced at the 
 "Wieden Theatre about twenty years ago which was 
 rapturously re-demanded. Then came the first act of A 
 Night in Venice, followed by the immortal Schoene blaue 
 Donau during the entr'acte, which inimitable waltz 
 brought down a shower of laurel wreaths upon its com- 
 poser's head. The second act of Fledermaus, with some 
 additions to the dialogue written especially for the 
 occasion, came next, and was succeeded by "musical 
 episodes" from Spitzentuch, Methusalem, Cagliostro, Der
 
 314 THE YOUTH OF STRAUSS. 
 
 Lustige Krieg, and the Carnival in Rome, each successive 
 number being supplemented by presentations of addresses, 
 medals, and flowers. Amongst the floral devices offered 
 to the hero of the jubilee were two, in particular, 
 revealing remarkable taste and ingenuity in their 
 designers, viz., the Strauss coat of arms, executed in 
 fresh blossoms of its respective heraldic colours, and a 
 huge silken banner, displaying the titles of all Strauss' s 
 operas in letters composed of full-blown white and red 
 roses. Mighty bouquets and costly batons, forwarded 
 direct to the theatre by his admirers in Berlin, Dresden, 
 Munich, Pesth, Prague, and a dozen other distant cities 
 of the German and Austrian Empires, were brought upon 
 the stage during the " waits," and presented to him. 
 
 The professional career of the delightful composer to 
 whom such splendid and well-merited honour has 
 been paid in the city of his birth for Johann Strauss 
 first saw the light within the precincts of the Kaiser- 
 stadt was during its earlier years a singularly ad- 
 venturous one, by no means unfamiliar with mishaps 
 and even privations. His parents wished him to study 
 engineering ; but he was not to be diverted from 
 his resolve, adopted in early boyhood, to become a 
 famous musician. To realise this resolve he worked 
 day and night at the instrument of his choice (the violin) 
 and at counterpoint from his twelfth to his eighteenth 
 year, during which period he attained extraordinary 
 proficiency as an executant. When a mere stripling of 
 nineteen, he contrived to get together a scratch orchestra 
 of young players who had sufficient faith in his talent 
 and energy to elect him their leader, and started from
 
 AN ADVENTUROUS CONCERT-TOUR. 315 
 
 Vienna upon a concert-tour through Transylvania and 
 Koumania. The slender fund with which this joyous 
 company set out on its wild expedition was soon ex- 
 hausted, and at Pancsova, a small town in the Lower 
 Banat (situate on the left bank of the Danube and 
 famous, of late years, for the excellence of its beer), 
 Strauss and his merry men found themselves one fine 
 morning without a kreuzer in their collective pockets. 
 What was to be done ? The band performed a serenade 
 under the mayor's bedroom windows, and its leader suc- 
 ceeded in borrowing from that functionary a sum suffi- 
 cient to purchase the immediate necessaries of life, but 
 only on condition that the loan should be repaid out of 
 the proceeds of certain concerts to be given in Pancsova 
 itself. To these concerts, however, the Pancsova public 
 so steadfastly refrained from coming, that the Strauss 
 orchestra fell into grave embarrassments, culminating in 
 the seizure of its instruments, at the instance of hard- 
 hearted creditors, by the myrmidons of the law, one 
 evening in the middle of a performance at the Town 
 Hall. Long and animated negotiations ensued between 
 Strauss and the local authorities, resulting in the resti- 
 tution of the instruments, with permission to their 
 owners to prosecute their professional tour in charge, 
 however, of the Pancsova chief constable, who was to 
 accompany them at their costs and charges until their 
 debts in the town should be discharged to the last penny. 
 Seated on the box of the van in which their instruments, 
 music-stands, etc., were packed, this official stuck to 
 them for several weeks with unappeasable appetite and 
 insatiable thirst. With him they visited and performed
 
 316 AX ADVENTUROUS CONCERT-TOUR. 
 
 at Semlin, Arad, Temesvar, Grosswardein, Hermann- 
 stadt and Kronstadt, en route for Bucharest, paying 
 instalments into his hands whenever their receipts ex- 
 ceeded their expenses. At last, on their arrival in the 
 Transylvanian chef -lieu, he informed them that, as far as 
 the town of Pancsova was concerned, their liabilities were 
 discharged, and took leave of them with the assurance 
 that he had enjoyed his trip amazingly. 
 
 By this time the members of the Strauss orchestra 
 were in an alarmingly dilapidated condition, ragged, 
 dirty, unshaven and wayworn, presenting the outward 
 and visible aspect of incorrigible " rogues and vaga- 
 bonds." No Kronstadt inn-keeper would accord them 
 food and shelter or allow them to perform within his 
 premises, the view taken of them being that they were 
 highwaymen disguised as wandering musicians. Conse- 
 quently, although it was the depth of winter, they and 
 their instruments were crammed into an open hay- 
 waggon and conveyed across the Carpathians to the 
 Wallachian frontier under a strong military escort. At 
 the close of this remarkable episode in their tour, the 
 members of the band mutinied against their leader, and 
 vowed they would go no further. Upon this Strauss 
 harangued them in the following terms : " Comrades ! 
 We must see this thing out together. One man is as 
 good as another, if not better. Let our watchword be 
 * One for all and all for one.' We will give a farewell 
 performance in the nearest town, divide the proceeds, 
 and then get back to Yienna the best way we can ! " 
 To this proposal they all agreed ; but a fresh difficulty 
 arose, the offspring of their fears (in which Strauss him-
 
 AN ADVENTUROUS CONCERT-TOUR. 317 
 
 self largely participated) of being attacked by brigands 
 whilst working their way down the Eoumanian slopes 
 of the Carpathian pass, at that time infested by more 
 than one predatory band of blood-chilling reputation. 
 It was resolved to purchase weapons at the sacrifice of 
 two violins, in exchange for which they managed to 
 obtain a few old rusty pistols, but no ammunition. 
 These were distributed amongst them by Strauss, who, 
 however, kept three for himself, sticking them in his 
 belt, where they imparted to him a highly impressive 
 air of robber-chieftainship. His trombone-player, one 
 Seidl, a man of exceptional thew and sinew, scornfully 
 rejected the pistol tendered to him, remarking that " he 
 would back himself to settle any ten bandits of the 
 whole neighbourhood with his trombone." 
 
 So formidable was the appearance of the Strauss 
 cohort, numbering thirty-four ferocious-looking musi- 
 cians, that the peasants of the villages on their road 
 fled or hid themselves as they approached, taking them 
 for brigands of the deepest dye; and, between Kym- 
 pena and Ploesti, a real robber-band which chanced to 
 encounter them took to its heels, panic-stricken, in the 
 full belief that a rival association had come down the 
 mountain-side in overwhelming force for the purpose of 
 putting an end to local enterprise. 
 
 Eventually Strauss and his formidable cohort reached 
 Bucharest in safety, where for some time they did ex- 
 tremely well, from a pecuniary point of view. Their 
 conductor's amatory proclivities, however, brought the 
 tour to a premature and somewhat tragical conclusion. 
 A Wallachian lady of rank, who had conceived an irre-
 
 318 STRAUSS IN RUSSIA. 
 
 sistible passion for the handsome young Viennese, made 
 a tender appointment with him at the house of her 
 washerwoman, whither, however, she was followed by 
 her husband, an energetic and vindictive Boyar. This 
 much-wronged personage brought half-a-dozen of his 
 man-servants with him, to whose unmerciful hands he 
 committed the luckless musician, whilst he himself beat 
 his wife almost to death with a heavy dog- whip. By 
 the domestics in question semi-barbarous Wallachian 
 peasants Strauss was very roughly handled. They 
 drubbed him soundly with thick sticks, tore out the 
 greater part of his hair and beard, and inflicted upon 
 him two severe scalp-wounds, which kept him confined 
 to his bed for two months, and actually endangered his 
 life and reason. 
 
 A year later Johann Strauss took his orchestra " on 
 tour " for the first time to Eussia, and underwent some 
 uncommonly quaint adventures and experiences in that 
 country. It was odd, for instance, that a railway com- 
 pany should engage him to give a series of concerts in 
 the capital, to attend which entertainments it ran excur- 
 sion trains from different stations on its line. One day 
 he received the Empress's command to attend with his 
 band at " Tsarkoe-Selo," and to perform before her 
 Majesty in the park of that Imperial summer resort. 
 Upon his arrival there he was informed by the Cham- 
 berlain on duty that he would have to rehearse the 
 morceaux of his programme thrice before playing them 
 to the Czarina. His amazement at so unprecedented a 
 request found vent in eager inquiries as to its motive ; 
 but no explanation was vouchsafed to him. Such were
 
 STRAUSS IN RUSSIA. 319 
 
 Her Majesty's orders, and he had nothing to do but to 
 comply with them. Still greater waxed his astonish- 
 ment when he observed that during the three rehearsals 
 an empty Court carriage was drawn by a pair of horses 
 slowly backwards and forwards in front of his orchestra. 
 During the final performance, however, the meaning of 
 this mysterious proceeding became apparent to him. 
 Owing to a sharp attack of gout, the Empress was com- 
 pelled to recline in a carriage, with her foot on a cushion, 
 throughout the concert; and the object of the three 
 rehearsals had been to accustom the horses to the sounds 
 produced by a full string-band, lest, haply, they should 
 take fright and bolt with their Imperial mistress. At 
 the end of the performance an exalted dignitary of the 
 Eussian Court bade Strauss follow him to his apartments 
 in the chateau, where he sate the Kapellmeister down to 
 a splendid grand piano, saying : " Now, be good enough 
 to play me all the newest Vienna dance-music." Though 
 extremely fatigued by his three rehearsals and "State" 
 performance, Strauss deemed it expedient to comply; 
 but after he had played continuously for over an hour, 
 he came to a stop, observing, " I presume that will be 
 sufficient." " I am not at all tired," coolly rejoined his 
 Excellency. " But I am ! " replied Strauss, and rose 
 from the instrument. It is said that he came very near 
 being sent to Siberia for " disrespectful behaviour, un- 
 precedented in a person of his condition." 
 
 Another ill-timed complication, arising from an affaire 
 de cceur in which Strauss became entangled, compelled 
 him to quit Eussia never to return thither before the 
 completion of his professional tour. He had fallen
 
 320 STRAUSS IN RUSSIA. 
 
 desperately in love with a young lady belonging to a 
 highly respectable Eussian family resident in St. Peters- 
 burg, and contrived to obtain access to her in the 
 character of a German pianoforte teacher. Her parents, 
 however, one fine day, made the discovery that he was 
 playing with their daughter's feelings instead of teach- 
 ing her to play the piano ; whereupon they informed 
 him that he must espouse her forthwith, or take the 
 consequences, which promised to be something very dis- 
 agreeable indeed. He declined to be forced into matri- 
 mony and invoked the protection of his patrons at Court; 
 more especially of the Austrian Embassy. The Eussian 
 authorities, however, decided that he should marry "the 
 victim of his wiles," or suffer still more unpleasant pains 
 and penalties ; they even went so far as to fix his wed- 
 ding-day. Nothing but desperate measures could save 
 him from the Hymeneal noose; so his friendly Embassy 
 demanded his arrest and consignment to its custody on 
 the very morning appointed for the celebration of his 
 nuptials. Notes were exchanged with unflagging energy 
 between the Austrian Ambassador and Prince Dolgo- 
 rouki during some six weeks, Strauss remaining a guest 
 of the Embassy all that while, and never once venturing 
 outside its gates. Finally, the matter was arranged 
 a Vaimable, and the somewhat too amorous Kapellmeister 
 was permitted to quit the Czar's domains unwedded and 
 otherwise unmolested. 
 
 Such were a few of the more emotional peripetia of 
 Johann Strauss' s early career as an orchestral leader. It 
 seemed likely at the time of his debut in Vienna, that 
 he would be heavily handicapped by his father's fame
 
 DEBUT IN VIENNA. 321 
 
 as a composer and conductor of dance-music. But his 
 creative and executive talent was so unmistakably first- 
 class that it obtained prompt and unreserved recognition 
 from the Viennese musical critics, whose doyen, Johannes 
 ISTepomucene Yogi (the poet) wrote in the Oesterreich- 
 isches Morgenblatt, of October 9, 1844 : " The Vienna 
 dancing-world was as deeply exercised by hopes and 
 fears as though it had been on the eve of a great battle 
 that should decide the fate of thousands ; but Strauss 
 junior, round whom all these hopes and fears revolved, 
 made his appearance, and the first stroke of his bow re- 
 assured the doubting and confirmed the hopeful. I can 
 bear witness that young Strauss possesses eminent 
 abilities as a conductor, and displays, in composition, 
 the same flow of melody, the same piquant and effective 
 instrumentation that distinguish his father, whose 
 method, however, he does not slavishly imitate." 
 
 At nine o'clock on the morning of the jubilee, the 
 Chief Burgomaster of the Austrian capital (like Berlin, 
 Vienna has two Mayors) waited upon Johann Strauss, at 
 the latter' s residence in the Igelgasse, to offer him the 
 municipality's congratulations and present him with the 
 freedom of the city. A host of theatrical deputations 
 followed, bearing thank-offerings to the " "Waltz-King," 
 and presently his only surviving brother, Edward for 
 Joseph Strauss, a scarcely less admirable conductor than 
 Johann, drowned himself in the Danube a few years 
 ago, in consequence of a love disappointment appeared 
 with the entire personnel of his orchestra, and serenaded 
 the hero of the day. The gift of the band led by Edward 
 Strauss was a huge cornucopia of roses and camellias, on 
 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 322 THE STRAUSS JUBILEE. 
 
 either side of which passages from Johann's most popular 
 waltzes were notated in hyacinth blossoms and Parma 
 violets. Magnificent vases and oil-paintings arrived 
 from Eussia ; valuable presents without number from all 
 parts of Germany, Hungary, Poland, Eoumania and 
 Switzerland. The Archduke John sent a telegram of 
 cordial felicitation from Linz, regretting that indisposi- 
 tion prevented him from running up to Vienna for the 
 day in order to express his sentiments of regard and 
 admiration in propria persona to a great musician whom 
 he was proud to call his countryman. It is agreeable, 
 in these prosaic days, to record such convincing proofs 
 of the gratitude entertained not only by his own com- 
 patriots, but by thousands of persons alien to him in 
 birth and speech towards a peculiarly genial and 
 fanciful composer who has been the means of sensibly 
 increasing, throughout four decades, the sum total of 
 human happiness. May Johann Strauss live in pros- 
 perity and honour to celebrate his Golden Jubilee the 
 fiftieth anniversary of his first appearance at the con- 
 ductor's desk ! 
 
 I hear that Johann Strauss is about to embody the 
 musical reminiscences of his youth in an opera, the 
 leading motivi of which are to be revivals of dance- 
 tunes composed by him when he was a lad, studying 
 engineering against his will. His boyhood, as well as 
 that of his brothers Joseph and Edward, was spent 
 under the roof that sheltered his renowned father, whom, 
 however, he seldom saw; for his parents were sepa- 
 rated, and for many years lived in different storeys of 
 the same house, the Strauss boys having been judicially
 
 THE STRAUSS FAMILY. 323 
 
 assigned to their mother's care. All three developed 
 remarkable musical ability at an early age, and, when 
 still in round jackets, were familiar figures in several 
 musical salons of Vienna, where they constantly played 
 their father's compositions, and sometimes their own. 
 Their musical feats of course reached old Strauss' s ears, 
 much to his gratification : but he made no sign until, 
 several months having elapsed since he first became 
 aware that they were acquiring celebrity, it struck him 
 one day as absurd and unnatural that he should be about 
 the only musician in the Kaiserstadt who had never 
 heard any of his own son's compositions. Forthwith he 
 sent a message to his wife, who occupied apartments 
 above his own, but two flights higher, to the effect that 
 he would esteem it a favour if she would permit his sons 
 to pay him a visit. His request was granted at once, 
 and the three boys were ushered into their father's pre- 
 sence. But, strange to say, the " Waltz-King " (as the 
 Viennese had christened Strauss the elder) had no piano- 
 forte in his rooms. What was to be done ? After some 
 hesitation, he decided upon sending another message 
 upstairs to ask Mamma Strauss to lend him her piano 
 for an hour or two. Presently down came the piano, 
 and the boys began to play first their father's music, 
 and then their own. The old man's delight was un- 
 bounded ; he embraced them over and over again, gave 
 them his blessing, and then sent them back to their 
 mother, together with the piano and his " compliments 
 and thanks ! " 
 
 T2
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 MUSICAL AUDIENCES IN AUSTRIA, GERMANY, ITALY, AND 
 OTHER CONTINENTAL COUNTRIES. ENGLISH FRE- 
 QUENTERS OF CONCERT-ROOMS, OPERA-HOUSES, AND 
 OTHER PLACES OF MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT. 
 
 COMPOSERS and executant artists live by the breath of 
 public favour, and are dependent upon the il many- 
 headed " alike for the bread they eat, and for the appro- 
 bation that nourishes their immortal part. Remunerative 
 royalties and high salaries are the solid pudding of 
 popularity ; applause is the immaterial pabulum upon 
 which the musician's soul regales itself, when it can get 
 it, with unappeasable appetite. It is the way of the 
 world that audiences should all but worship their favourite 
 artists, creative or interpretative, luckily for these latter ; 
 whereas the common-sense view of the relations between 
 the composer or singer and the public which does its 
 best to satisfy his physical and psychical needs can 
 hardly fail to suggest that, after all, he lies under a 
 weightier obligation to his patrons than any he can 
 possibly impose upon them. For it can scarcely be doubted 
 that the pleasures of living in a comfortable house, 
 eating and drinking of the best, dressing well, owing
 
 ARTISTS AND AUDIENCES. 325 
 
 nothing to your tradesmen, and keeping up a satisfactory 
 balance at your bankers, are completer and more enduring 
 than those derived from listening to a faultless perform- 
 ance of the finest composition extant. And yet my 
 acquaintanceship with professional musicians which, 
 for some thirty years past, has been an exceptionally 
 large and varied one leaves me under the impression 
 that, as a rule, they regard their audiences with feelings 
 from which affectionate gratitude is conspicuous by its 
 absence. I have heard the most eminent composers and 
 the most popular singers speak with disparagement and 
 scorn of the public that loaded them with material and 
 sentimental proofs of its admiration and favour. Of the 
 reflection they thus cast upon their own merits they 
 always appeared sublimely unconscious ; although one 
 need not be a logician of the first water to conclude that 
 if an audience be chiefly composed of dunces and dullards 
 it is more likely to applaud a bad composition or per- 
 formance than a good one. Musicians, however, are a 
 supersensitive folk, peculiarly self-tormenting, greedy 
 of praise, jealous, exacting and fretful. The more culti- 
 vated among them, although enthusiastic plaudits never 
 fail to greet their public achievements, growl at audiences 
 for lack of discrimination in their demonstrations of 
 approval, objurgate them for missing "points" of rare 
 delicacy or thoughtfulness, and even go so far as to 
 invoke curses upon their devoted heads for applauding 
 " in the wrong place." The less gifted, for obvious 
 reasons, grumble at them for their coldness, unreasoning 
 favouritism, and perverted judgment. No matter how 
 generously it pays, or how lavishly it applauds, an
 
 326 ^ ARTISTS AND AUDIENCES. 
 
 audience rarely succeeds in satisfying the exigencies of 
 a professional musician, who is apt to look down upon it 
 somewhat contemptuously from a self-erected pinnacle of 
 assumed superior knowledge and finer taste. 
 
 It has been justly remarked by a Transatlantic sage 
 that " there is a good deal of human nature in man; " 
 and musical audiences more correctly, gatherings of 
 persons who desire to listen to music are, after all, 
 composed of average men and women, having in all 
 probability but one common characteristic ; a predilec- 
 tion, more or less pronounced and instructed, for 
 " concords of sweet sounds." Carlyle defined the British 
 nation as so many millions of human beings, "mostly 
 fools ; " and if he was right in thus appraising his own 
 compatriots it is scarcely unfair to assume as these 
 latter are renowned all over the world for their strong 
 common-sense that the predominance of folly is at least 
 as remarkable in other peoples as it is in ours. An 
 ordinary theatrical or musical audience may be assumed 
 to epitomise, more or less accurately, the nation to which 
 it belongs; therefore silly folk are likely to be more 
 numerous in its ranks than wiseacres. As a matter of 
 fact, it is the preponderance of the silly element through- 
 out all classes of society that enables innumerable 
 incompetent artists to live very comfortably, and even 
 to flourish like the green bay-tree. Pretenders and 
 impostors hang in thick clusters to every branch of the 
 arts no less abundantly to that of music than to those 
 of poetry, painting, and sculpture and their prosperity 
 is manifest to the naked eye. They draw largely at sight 
 upon the inexhaustible bank of human folly, which
 
 ARTISTS AND AUDIENCES. 327 
 
 honours their drafts with unfailing punctuality, dis- 
 playing a liberality for which no matter what its 
 motive may be I contend that they ought to be more 
 grateful than I have hitherto found them to be. One of 
 the privileges of genius is to be discontented with every- 
 body and everything ; there is always a pea hidden in 
 the mattress upon which Nature's elect lie, and they are 
 distressfully sensible of its presence, like Andersen's 
 Princess, however thick and downy may be the feather- 
 beds of popularity and well-being intervening between 
 their tender skins and the fundamental paillasse. Another 
 prerogative of genius is to be more unthankful, and with 
 greater impunity, than is permitted to mere average 
 talent. This is probably as it should be ; for extreme 
 susceptibility and absorbing egotism are intrinsic ele- 
 ments of the creative nature. Those musical demi-gods, 
 Beethoven and Wagner, were both extensively wor- 
 shipped during their lives, as well as after their deaths ; 
 but their quarrelsomeness and intense selfishness debarred 
 them from enjoying the pleasures of friendship. Let 
 us, by all means, make allowance for the eccentricities 
 of temperament that render great geniuses so much more 
 agreeable to contemplate from a distance than to know 
 intimately ; let us condone their unamiability, and totter 
 along, as best we may, under the burden of the conviction 
 that they despise us. But when sham prophets, or even 
 fairly good capacities of the merely reproductive class, 
 to whom the divine afflatus is wanting, usurp the inborn 
 right of genius to decry the intelligence of average 
 mankind such, for instance, as supplies an ordinary 
 musical audience with its various component parts let
 
 328 MUSICAL AUDIENCES. 
 
 us mildly observe to them : " These people, upon whom 
 you profess to look down, are in many cases better bred 
 and educated than yourselves, abler far to estimate the 
 exact quality of your performance than you are to 
 appraise their intellectual capacities or taste, and them- 
 selves entertaining in a dozen different ways, whereas 
 you are only so, if at all, in one. Besides, do not forget 
 that they could live without you ; whereas you would 
 find it a hard matter to live without them. Be, there- 
 fore, at the very least, tolerant of the public, whose 
 favour is all in all to you, and do not speak, or even 
 think, despitefully of it." 
 
 The musical audiences of different countries resemble 
 one another in a broad and general way. Like other 
 aggregations of men and women, they display national 
 characteristics to the intelligent observer, and afford 
 ample opportunity to him for accurate appraisement of 
 the several standards of musical culture attained by 
 European peoples. One and all, they are made up of 
 technically educated dilettanti; of persons endowed with 
 a natural taste for music ; of those to whom musical 
 performances, good, bad, or indifferent, supply an 
 agreeable ear- tickling ; of slaves to fashion, who frequent 
 opera-houses and concert-rooms because they deem it 
 " the correct thing" to be seen in such places; and 
 finally of the wealthy idlers of society, whose presence 
 at musical entertainments is simply the outcome of their 
 chronic yearning to consume the leisure that hangs so 
 heavily upon their hands. It is in the respective pro- 
 portions of these elements that the main distinctions 
 between French and English, German and Italian,
 
 GERMAN AUDIENCES. 329 
 
 Spanish and Eussian audiences make themselves manifest. 
 The minor differences have their rise in local customs 
 and in social habits generated by special climatic con- 
 ditions. The audiences in Northern Europe are more 
 judgmatical, decorous and, in particular, tolerant of false 
 intonation than those of the south ; but less easily moved 
 to demonstrations of enthusiasm for the art, or of 
 sympathy with the artist. The Latin races love music 
 in an unreasoning sort of way ; they experience little or 
 no inward call to analyse the sensations it occasions to 
 them, being averse to introspection or any other mental 
 exercise in connection with their amusements. The 
 Teutons also love music, but are prompted by their 
 painstaking, straw- splitting instincts to expend con- 
 siderable intellectual effort in trying to find out why 
 they like it, and what there is in it logically to justify 
 the pleasure it causes them to experience. In pro- 
 nouncing praise or condemnation, Italian and Spanish 
 audiences obey their momentary impulse, whereas a 
 German audience is guided by a judicial spirit. What 
 they have in common is a genuine fondness for music, 
 which they express differently the Latins by outbursts 
 of emotion, the Teutons by concentrated attention. To 
 the true artist the latter is the more satisfactory, although 
 far less exhilarating than the former. 
 
 Typical German audiences of the musical variety, are 
 those of Vienna, Berlin, and Munich ; the two latter 
 more distinctively so than the former, because the public 
 of the Kaiserstadt on the Danube is by no means exclu- 
 sively Teutonic, being strongly leavened with Slav, 
 Magyar, and even Italian elements. Viennese society is
 
 330 AUSTRIAN AUDIENCES. 
 
 an epitome of the huge Hapsbtirg Monarchy, in which 
 four, if not five, nationalities are co-existent and contrive 
 to get on together more or less harmoniously. Their 
 representative men, political, commercial and artistic, 
 naturally gravitate to the capital of the empire ; and it 
 may be assumed that non-German Austrians constitute 
 from one-fourth to one-third of the music-lovers who 
 throng the Hofoper and the various concert-rooms of the 
 Eesidenz whenever any .special attraction is offered to 
 them by the managers of those recreative establishments. 
 In no country of Europe is the art of music more 
 generally and assiduously studied, or are musical enter- 
 tainments more distinctly recognised as an essentially 
 popular class of amusement than in Austria proper and 
 the Kingdom of Bohemia. These two divisions of the 
 " Eastern Realm" furnish the Yienna Conservatoire with 
 nine-tenths of its students, and supply a similar propor- 
 tion of instrumentalists to the theatrical orchestras and 
 military bands of the empire. Austrian musical audiences 
 resemble savoury broth, the main strength of which lies 
 in its German stock, whilst its appetising odour and high 
 flavour are attributable to a felicitous blending of 
 Slavonic, Hungarian, and Latin ingredients. They are 
 at once appreciative and sympathetic gatherings critical 
 avec connoissance de cause, but of a kindly temper 
 exacting with respect to small excellences, and tolerant 
 of great defects. As far as instrumental performances 
 are concerned, nothing short of such perfection as it is 
 human to attain will content them. They are accustomed 
 to the very best, and will have it. This rule applies to 
 chamber music as well as to the renderings of orchestral
 
 VIENNESE AUDIENCES. 331 
 
 works. The Viennese expect quartets and trios to be 
 played to them no less faultlessly than symphonies and 
 overtures. To the shortcomings of their singers they 
 are amiably forbearing ; to those of their instrumentalists 
 they show no mercy. The virtues of the Hofoper 
 orchestra cover a multitude of vocal sins perpetrated 
 nightly in that Imperial establishment. 
 
 But Viennese opera-goers and concert-frequenters 
 alike, though constituting in many respects ideal 
 audiences from the artist's point of view, have one 
 extremely unpleasant and objectionable characteristic in 
 common. They become fidgety and fussy shortly after 
 nine o'clock P.M. Up to that hour their demeanour is 
 exemplary. The singer or player, at least, if expert in 
 his function, has no reason to complain of it; for his 
 hearers are attentive, sympathetic, and ever ready to 
 give tongue to their approval at the opportune moment. 
 But, with a few exceptions the sum total of which does 
 not amount to five per cent, of an average musical 
 audience they are bond- slaves to a baneful tyrant who 
 rules the middle-class Viennese with an inflexible and 
 undisputed sway. Their bondage begins to weigh upon 
 them with peculiar oppressiveness at the hour I have 
 referred to ; they become more and more nervous and 
 uneasy with every minute added by the clock-hand to the 
 record of fleeting time ; no spell of music's magic has 
 power to restrain them from making rustling noises, 
 shuffling their feet, and scraping their chairs along the 
 floor, and finally, if the performance be protracted for as 
 much as a quarter of an hour beyond the time-limit in 
 question, from quitting their seats and hurrying out of
 
 332 THE HOUSE-MASTER. 
 
 the theatre or concert-room with a precipitancy that is 
 manifestly prompted by dread of their dire despot. Let 
 me explain. 
 
 Broadly speaking, no Viennese has a house to himself 
 or his family alone. Viennese families inhabit flats in 
 enormous buildings, some of which accommodate as 
 many inhabitants as a small country town, and yield 
 incomes of from forty to fifty thousand pounds a year to 
 their proprietors. In one of these houses the so-called 
 Buerger-Spital when I resided in Vienna, over three 
 thousand human beings of all social classes lived and 
 had their being. It had thirty distinct entrances and 
 was pierced by eight paved roadways. The "palace" 
 in which I occupied a small third-floor suite of rooms, 
 at a rent of 180, contained a hundred and twenty 
 separate habitations, was six storeys high, and covered 
 as much ground as the green enclosure of Portman 
 Square. These huge edifices are, one and all, in the 
 charge of officials rejoicing in the title of House-Master, 
 which very accurately describes the character and extent 
 of their authority. Police-regulations, framed at the 
 instance of the influential house-owning clique, have 
 invested the House-Master with the right to levy a tax 
 of seven kreuzers (nominally seven, practically ten) 
 upon every inmate of the dwelling controlled by that 
 functionary who demands ingress or egress after ten 
 o'clock in the evening, at which time the main street- 
 door is closed and locked, no tenant being allowed to 
 hold a pass-key that will open that general portal. To 
 obtain access to his own domicile, therefore, sixty 
 minutes after the hour at which dramatic and musical
 
 THE HOUSE-FASTER. 333 
 
 entertainments terminate in Vienna, the Kaiserstaedter 
 must pay twopence to his landlord's representative or 
 more, unless he wishes to suffer a thousand petty annoy- 
 ances at the hands of that congenitally vengeful person. 
 His habits and amusements are to a great extent regulated 
 by this tyrannical institution. He dines in the middle 
 of the day, goes to his theatre or concert at half-past six, 
 or seven at the latest, and consequently requires supper 
 before retiring to rest. This meal he is accustomed to 
 partake of in a restaurant or beer-hall ; he seldom con- 
 sumes it at home. Hence his mental disquietude and 
 corporeal restlessness at the hour of nine ; for his desire 
 not to contribute to the Hausmeister's prosperity is no 
 less keen and ardent than is his yearning to eat and 
 drink at his ease in his favourite supper-room, possibly 
 a mile or so distant from the place in which he has been 
 taking his evening's pleasure, and as far from his 
 residence. He knows that his tyrant is eagerly on the 
 watch for the striking of the hour that entitles him to 
 claim his gate-money, and that the delay of half a minute 
 will have to be expiated by a cash payment, the more 
 vexatious because it is unjustified by any necessary 
 service whatsoever rendered by its recipient. To be the 
 Hausmeister of a large " Palace " in a fashionable 
 quarter of Vienna is to enjoy a lucrative sinecure, the 
 material advantages of which are spiritually supple- 
 mented by the ineffable pleasure of being able to torment 
 your social superiors in many several ways, without 
 incurring the least risk of punishment. It is delightful 
 to be largely paid for doing nothing; but how much 
 more so to derive one's remuneration from reluctant
 
 334 THE HOUSE-MASTER. 
 
 persons, whom one is licensed to use despitefully, as 
 well as to mulct them of their substance ! During my 
 three years' tenancy of the rooms above referred to in 
 the Hardegg Palais I never failed to comply with the 
 prescriptions of the law, as far as my Hausmeister's fees 
 were concerned, although I never once had a civil word 
 from him, or the least quid pro quo, in the way of service, 
 for my periodical payments to him. He never said 
 u Thank you," on receiving his gate-money ; for was it 
 not his legal due, and why should he waste politeness 
 on its acknowledgment ? As I passed his abode on the 
 ground-floor, I used to hear his two daughters alter- 
 nately playing Liszt and Chopin on an excellent grand- 
 piano. Subsequently I was informed that they had been 
 taught by one of the best and most fashionable pianists 
 in Vienna ; and when they took their walks abroad as 
 the testimony of my own eyes repeatedly convinced me 
 Solomon in all his glory was certainly not arrayed 
 like unto either of them. In fact, their magnificent 
 appearance, costly accomplishments and haughty demean- 
 our were, to my apprehension of the fitness of things 
 shared, I doubt not, by many another overborne and 
 quailing tenant of the Hardegg " Palace " more than 
 sufficiently demonstrative of the pecuniary productive- 
 ness, as well as commanding influence, characterising 
 the high office of house-porter, as exercised by Fortune's 
 favourites in the Austrian capital. I happen to have 
 a somewhat exhaustive acquaintance with European 
 despots, some of whom are kindly, well-meaning people 
 enough in their way. But I know none so arrogant, so 
 greedy, so idle, and so superlatively useless as the
 
 VIENNESE MUSICAL CLUBS. 335 
 
 Viennese Hausmeister, the consciousness of whose oppres- 
 sive yoke blights the sincerest music-lover's relish of a 
 quartet or sonata after nine P.M. and converts the 
 rapt attention of a Hofoper or Conservatoire audience 
 into feverish anxiety to be gone from the scene of their 
 artistic enjoyment in time to baulk their remorseless 
 tyrant of his prey. 
 
 Vienna is especially fruitful in that variety of musical 
 audience which inclines to combine conviviality with 
 art-worship, and is assiduous in its attendance at the 
 winter soirees given by artistic associations, from which 
 ladies are excluded, I suppose by tradition ; for nothing 
 can be more harmless or decorous than the entertain- 
 ments offered by these societies to their subscribers, as 
 well as to a limited number of outsiders fortunate enough 
 to obtain invitations. Many of the members, let us say 
 of the "Hesperus," belong to the " Hilaria," at the 
 same time that they are natives of the " Green Island," 
 worshippers of the " Danube Nymph," votaries of 
 " Euterpe," squatters in the " Damp Wood," and sup- 
 porters of " Thalia." There is something of the student 
 the noisy, beer-swilling, cloud- emitting, chorus-chant- 
 ing, ostrich- stomached, Juchs-loving German student 
 in the gravest of grown Austrians, be he Hofrath or 
 Primarius, lieutenant-general or linendraper. Jollity, of 
 which the national Gemiithlichkeit is a mitigated form, 
 expresses itself in Vienna in bolting blocks of luke- 
 warm, over-roasted meat, washed down by a flood of 
 pleasant and innocuous beer, and flavoured with a 
 curiously-sickly tobacco smoke, the while pseans to 
 woodland gods or hymns to Amor are being breathed
 
 336 THE "HESPERUS." 
 
 forth harmoniously by tuneful choirs, or occasional 
 poems declaimed by Thespians in mufti. What more 
 innocent or unsophisticate than these recreations, which 
 can do no wrong, save to the over-taxed digestions of 
 the jocund revellers? Can anybody who knows the 
 realm of the Hapsburg imagine a state of being in which 
 an honest Austrian gentleman can be more complacently 
 comfortable, more completely happy, than in a large 
 room filled with inferior smoke, a piled-up plate of dry 
 roast veal and preserved pears before him, a brimming 
 glass mug convenient to his right hand, his half-con- 
 sumed weed smouldering hard by his bread, a friend on 
 each side of him to whom he can say "Du," and a 
 popular actor in a white neckcloth within hearing, 
 telling how the hard heart of Dionysius the Tyrant was 
 melted ? 
 
 Of all the convivial societies that sprinkle the long 
 Vienna winter season with " art " evenings, the " Hes- 
 perus " was formerly the most hardworking and success- 
 ful. It numbered amongst its members most of the 
 leading musicians, painters, and poets of the capital, 
 all of whom lent their talents, in turn, to the enliven- 
 ment of certain entertainments given by the association 
 to its subscribers. Let me attempt a sketch of the meet- 
 ing especially consecrated to St. Sylvester, and attended 
 only by the male members of the " Hesperus." Imagine 
 a room about the size and shape of St. James's Hall a 
 tiny platform on one side, and at the end farthest from 
 the entrance doors a miniature stage ; the rest of the 
 apartment being chequered with small supper tables of 
 six-man power, every one of which is surrounded by
 
 THE " HESPERUS." 337 
 
 Hesperians, eating, drinking, smoking, and talking. 
 It is the correct thing to be in morning dress: only 
 those artists who have volunteered their services for the 
 evening appear in magpie costume. Gathered round a 
 board spread with good things, the committee and their 
 invites deserve inspection ; for here may be seen the 
 principal literary, musical, and artistic notabilities of the 
 Kaiserstadt, among whom I will venture to say there is 
 more goodfellowship and mutual regard than would be 
 found in a like number of professional caterers for public 
 amusement in any other continental city. One remark- 
 able characteristic of the assembly is the almost total 
 absence of uniforms amongst the guests ; the gentlemen 
 of the army are not great lovers of art, or great favourites 
 in the artist world, as yet we shall see what the 
 stimulus recently applied to their intelligence will do 
 towards facilitating their admission into the society of 
 clever and cultivated men. Nevertheless, if you look 
 carefully round the room, you will detect one or two 
 grey generals, their breasts covered with decorations, 
 seated at a modest little table, out of the way, taking 
 their pleasure meekly, but evidently enjoying the good 
 music as deeply as the longest-haired enthusiast of 
 twenty. Presently, the President of the Society ascends 
 the platform, rings a noisy little bell, and announces 
 that four eminent musicians will play a comic stringed 
 quartet. Did you ever hear one? "Well, it is very 
 funny, as well as profoundly scientific an harmonious 
 lunacy, such as can only emanate from the brain of a 
 German composer. After this, we are regaled with Joan 
 of Arc's celebrated farewell remarks upside down, 
 VOL. i. z
 
 338 THE " HESPERUS." 
 
 illustrated by a punning panorama, painted for the 
 occasion by an eminent Viennese artist. As specimens 
 of the pictorial word-plays, I select two of surpassing 
 infamy. " Ihr traulich stillen Thaler" were represented 
 by half-a-dozen plates (Teller) reposing quietly in a plate- 
 rack ; and " Ihr Grothen " were typified by three or 
 four fat toads (Kroten) disporting on the brink of a pond. 
 This humorous travesty of Schiller was followed by a 
 four-part cantata, composed by Engelsberger, the sub- 
 ject of which is a journey made by the incredulous St. 
 Thomas to earth, at the request of his Supreme Master, 
 in order to examine into the state of things la-bas, 
 Thomas returns with a poor opinion of mundane arrange- 
 ments, and recommends the Omnipotent to rain gold for 
 a few hours on the terrestrial globe, as the only means 
 of alleviating the paper currency disease from which 
 mortals are suffering. The advice is rejected, on the 
 grounds that as soon as "civilised" people get anymore 
 money they spend it on war preparations a practice 
 highly condemned in heaven ; and another remedy for 
 human ills is hinted at education; but St. Thomas 
 finishes by being a greater sceptic than ever. 
 
 Like the citizens of the Kaiserstadt on the " beauti- 
 ful blue Danube" a river, by the way, which vies 
 with the Tiber in yellowness the Berlinese inhabit 
 flats and are addicted to supper. They are, however, 
 ungalled by the yoke of the Hausmeister, which from 
 time immemorial has bowed the necks of the long-suffer- 
 ing Viennese. Life is earnest, however, and hours are 
 early in the Prussian capital. At eleven p.m. the streets 
 of Berlin are for the most part still and void. There are
 
 NIGHT-TIME IN BERLIN. 339 
 
 a few exceptions to this rule, of course, such as the 
 Jacobstrasse, in which was formerly situate the Orpheum, 
 one of the most magnificent free-and-easy dancing 
 saloons in Europe, privileged to keep open until the 
 small hours, and imparting an untimely liveliness to the 
 long, narrow thoroughfare above-mentioned. The Frie- 
 drichstrasse, too, is unpleasantly animate with bad cha- 
 racters all night long. The criminal classes of Berlin 
 especially affect this handsome street, fully qualified to 
 hold its own in unsavoury competition with that section 
 of Lower Eegent Street which begins at the Criterion 
 corner and finishes at Pall Mall. But the Linden 
 Avenue and the Leipzigerstrasse, Berlin's chief arteries 
 of traffic and locomotion ; the Wilhelmstrasse, with its 
 princely palaces, foreign embassies and huge financial 
 mansions ; the splendid terraces of the Thiergarten 
 region, at once the Hyde Park, Belgravia and South 
 Kensington of Berlin, are all empty, silent and forlorn 
 an hour before midnight. Starting from the Eoyal 
 Castle on the Koenigsplatz, at that time of night, and 
 walking due westward for an hour at a brisk pace say, 
 as far as the Zoological Gardens you seldom meet more 
 than a score of people, exclusive of policemen ; unless, 
 indeed, a ball happens to be going on at the Eussian or 
 French Embassy, when long strings of carriages block 
 the roadway and phalanges of tall footmen encumber the 
 trottoir. The typical Berliner, as a matter of fact, likes 
 to get home betimes, although he is essentially a theatre- 
 going and supper-eating creature. The fashionable 
 dinner-hour in " Modern Athens " is five of the after- 
 noon, but the bourgeoisie dines still earlier. Theatrical 
 
 z2
 
 340 BERLIN AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 and musical performances commence at half-past six or 
 
 seven, and seldom terminate later than ten, except in 
 
 the case of such a lengthy "Wagnerian work as Tristan 
 
 und Isolde or Die Meistersinger, which occupies fully 
 
 four hours, as given at the Berlin Opera-house. At 
 
 ten p.m., as a rule, the recreative Berliner sits down to 
 
 his evening meal ; not in his own lodgings, but, if he 
 
 be a swell, in some restaurant of the Hiller and Evest 
 
 class, or, if he belong to the bureaucracy or to one of 
 
 the learned professions, at some respectable Bier-Halle, 
 
 Kneipe or Austern-Keller the last-named establishments 
 
 are frequently subterranean where he can eat and 
 
 drink his fill in congenial company for the German 
 
 equivalent of half-a-crown. Being a rapid, as well as a 
 
 copious eater, he only requires half-an-hour, or even 
 
 something less, wherein to put away his food; after 
 
 which he lights a cheapish cigar (those at seven for 
 
 threepence, if an army officer), absorbs a final libation 
 
 of amber-hued Tivoli, strolls leisurely away, enwrapped 
 
 in GemuethlichJceit as in a garment, and is home by 
 
 eleven at the very latest, having spent his evening 
 
 rationally and cheaply. In the latter respect he has a 
 
 great pull over the Londoner and Parisian. A stall at 
 
 the Berlin Opera-house costs six shillings, save on those 
 
 rare occasions when the engagement of a foreign " star " 
 
 als G-ast is held to justify the Royal administration in 
 
 exacting " Hohe Preise," that is, fifty per cent, more 
 
 than the normal charges. This only happens half-a-dozen 
 
 times or so during the winter season. It is always 
 
 announced in all the newspapers forty-eight hours before 
 
 each performance at the augmented rates of admission
 
 BERLIN AMUSEMENTS. 341 
 
 takes place. " Hohe Preise " are sometimes demanded 
 when a brand-new opera is being given, the setting, 
 mounting and dressing of which have proved unusually 
 expensive. Throughout my eight years' residence in 
 Berlin only three cases in point occurred within my 
 cognizance ; two were Wagnerian productions, the 
 mise en scene of which would not have dishonoured the 
 Lyceum, and the third was an amazingly gorgeous ballet 
 hight " Militaria," upon which Herr von Huelsen had 
 lavished some sixty thousand marks. Prices run even 
 lower at the Schauspielhaus, a subventioned theatre at 
 which tragedy and comedy are admirably played by the 
 best actors in Prussia, It may rank with and after the 
 Theatre Francois in Paris ; there is nothing at all com- 
 parable with it in London. At the Friedrich Wilhelm 
 (operetta) and the Wallner (farcical comedy) the price 
 of a stall is three shillings, less than half the sum 
 charged for similar accommodation at the theatres of the 
 Parisian Boulevards, and exactly three-tenths of that 
 which the lessees of our minor theatres feel justified in 
 demanding for performances of curiously unequal quality. 
 The subscription-concerts at the Opera-house, on a par 
 with those for which the Society of the Friends of Music 
 in Vienna has acquired a world-wide reputation, can be 
 enjoyed at the rate of four shillings apiece, and very few 
 of the concerts given at the Academy of Singing cost 
 their patrons more than a thaler for the best place in the 
 room. Partly in consequence of the moderation displayed 
 by theatrical managers and concert-givers in connection 
 with their tariffs, and partly because the German pro- 
 pensity to temper labour with recreation is a peculiarly
 
 342 BERLIN AUDIENCES. 
 
 strong one, all classes of Berlin society attend dramatic 
 and musical performances much more frequently than do 
 the corresponding varieties of Londoners. Amusements 
 of this description constitute an integral part of German 
 life not an " extra," as with us. The outlay they 
 necessitate is methodically provided for frequently by 
 sacrifices in other directions in the vast majority of 
 German domestic budgets; and, as there is no sort of 
 boredom to which the average German particularly the 
 Berliner entertains so deeply-rooted an objection as to 
 that inflicted upon him by a dull " evening at home," 
 theatres and concert-rooms in the Fatherland, even when 
 their attractions scarcely rise above a dead level of 
 artistic mediocrity, fill nightly with intelligent and 
 orderly audiences, well content to sit out three hours' 
 fourth or fifth-rate performances in stifling heat and 
 vitiated air, those being the periodical conditions in 
 which they have always been accustomed to take their 
 periodical doses of post-prandial diversion. 
 
 The Berlin musical audience, as those who have atten- 
 tively perused the foregoing paragraph will readily 
 understand, entertains in common with that of Yienna 
 a strong aversion to performances that encroach upon 
 its supper-hour. Its members are not compelled, like 
 the more tractable Kaiserstaedter, to pay a fine for enter- 
 ing their own dwellings after eleven p.m. But they 
 resemble the hero of Sam Weller's inimitable crumpet 
 story in the respect that their "habits is reg'lar, and 
 they don't intend to be put out of their way by nobody." 
 Shortly after half-past nine has struck they develop 
 symptoms of restlessness, which soon pass through the
 
 BERLIN AUDIEXCES. 343 
 
 preliminary stage and assume a confirmed and alarming 
 character. Up to that time their behaviour as a rule is 
 irreproachable, from a German point of view ; but I have 
 ventured in days long past to take exception to two ot 
 their practices which in Munich and Dresden, as well 
 as in Berlin always struck me as highly objectionable. 
 In the first place, whether opera, symphony, stringed 
 quartet, or any other variety of concerted music be an- 
 nounced in the bill, all the German youths and maidens 
 present who have a mind to prove by demonstration that 
 they know all about it, and no mistake, bring full scores, 
 oblong in form, with them, and turn over the leaves 
 during the performance in a flappy way that is peculiarly 
 irritating to the auditor who happens to be listening for 
 his pleasure, and not to show other people how intensely, 
 absorbingly, far-more-than-professionally musical he is. 
 I used to find a gloomy consolation for the annoyance 
 inflicted upon me by these disturbers of my peace in 
 observing how hard Nature had been upon them in con- 
 nection with their personal appearance. No pretty girl 
 or tolerably good-looking younker ever turned over the 
 leaves of a score in any Berlin theatre or concert-room 
 when I was present. Only guys did so; and I may 
 remark that the German variety of guy, male or female, 
 is a peculiarly formidable one, including as it does 
 amongst other special Teutonic terrors goggles and long 
 liair, apparently combed with a knife and fork. The 
 other practice to which I demurred was that in which 
 these out-and-out musicians were wont to indulge when 
 anybody a thought less offensive than themselves in 
 aspect and bearing ventured to whisper a comment on
 
 344 BERLIN AUDIENCES. 
 
 the performance, whilst it was going on, to his or her 
 neighbour. The merest ghost of a remark would cause 
 these unsavoury fanatics to turn sharp round upon its 
 utterer, glare at him with blood-chilling ferocity, and 
 give vent to an angry hiss, resembling the hostile warn- 
 ing which a cantankerous old gander addresses to a dog 
 seeking whom it may devour on a village green. This 
 proceeding is not wholly forlorn of a comic element, and 
 it rather entertained me the first time one of the Berlin 
 prize musical scarecrows made me acquainted with it. 
 But I found it pall upon me after a while ; and eventu- 
 ally it bored me so intensely that I left off attending 
 concerts, all except Joachim's, at which I used to sit 
 and watch dear old Moltke positively wallowing in 
 silence, his favourite luxury. 
 
 There is another peculiarity of Berlin musical audiences 
 which no lover of the divine art who has spent a winter 
 in the German capital can have failed to notice. Perhaps 
 it is the outcome of intrinsic amiability. I think this 
 unlikely. Perhaps, on the other hand, it is the corollary 
 of that lack of ear which, side by side with musical 
 culture and erudition of an extremely advanced character, 
 characterises the average German habitue of opera-houses 
 and concert-rooms. The peculiarity I refer to is an 
 amazing tolerance of false intonation. Men may sing 
 sharp, and men may sing flat ; but the Berliner endures 
 them for ever that is, to borrow a term from Bret 
 Harte, if he "likes their style." To be persistently, 
 remorselessly, homicidally out of tune is no offence in a 
 popular vocalist, male or female, belonging to the Eoyal 
 Opera Company, or to any of the leading operetta casts
 
 1 i DETONATION. " 345 
 
 in Berlin. All the public favourites di primo cartello 
 whom I heard in the house on the Opernplatz between 
 the years 1867 and 1878, with those distinguished 
 exceptions Pauline von Khaden, better known by her 
 spinster name of Lucca, Amalie von Yoggenhuber, 
 otherwise Frau Krolop, and Ernst, the lyric tenor sang 
 more or less out of tune. Mathilde Mallinger, good 
 musician and superb actress as she was, has often 
 curdled my blood by singing a whole scena an eighth 
 of a tone below the orchestral pitch; so has Albert 
 Memann, far and away the finest heroic tenor singer 
 and actor in Europe, but incapable, for many years 
 past, of keeping unswervingly in the middle of the note. 
 Dr. Betz, the great baritone of the Hofoper, is a musician 
 of musicians, a dramatic artist of the first water, an 
 ornament to the lyric stage ; but he sings out of tune. 
 Fricke, the basso profondissimo, is a phoenix of talent, 
 sublime in tragic, inimitable in comic roles; the best 
 Marcel and the best Falstaff I have ever seen in my 
 life ; but he sings out of tune. So does Frau Sachse- 
 Hofmeister ; so do Fraeulein Lehmann, Grossi and 
 Lammert, all well-trained vocalists and efficient actresses. 
 So does Schmitz, the second tenor who is always cast 
 for Oberon, in the bewildering opera of that name, and 
 sings his music in a manner that no love-lorn tom-cat 
 need envy. So does the little podgy gentleman, who 
 warbles fioriture with more effort than accuracy, and to 
 whom, therefore, the florid parts of Don Ottavio and 
 Count Almaviva are invariably entrusted I forget his 
 name, and this particular lapse of memory does not 
 convulse me with a single remorseful pang. So did
 
 346 " DETONATION." 
 
 Diener, whose C sharp in " Suivez-moi " still makes me 
 shudder whenever I think of it, although more than a 
 decade has passed away since I last heard him do his 
 worst in the ut de poitrine line of business. So does 
 Mierzwinski ; with this difference, that, while all the 
 previously-named artists merely sing out of tune, 
 Mierzwinski bellows out of tune. I have named the 
 leading favourites of the Berlin opera-going public. 
 None of them can sing in tune straight through a part ; 
 or if they can, they don't. And yet I have never heard 
 them called over the coals, or even gently rebuked, by 
 a Hofoper audience for committing the atrocity which 
 the Germans describe as " detonation." On the con- 
 trary, I have over and over again heard them, one and 
 all, vehemently applauded and enthusiastically called 
 before the curtain for singing in a manner that set my 
 teeth on edge, and caused cold shivers to flutter down 
 either side of my spine. I used to ask my Berlin friends 
 some of them were veritable mines of musical learning 
 why these dreadful sins were condoned. Once, when 
 Fricke had been called out after some achievements in 
 the way of false intonation for which nothing short of 
 his instant execution could have fitly atoned, I said to 
 poor Eckert, who was sitting next to me in the stalls 
 (Radecke was conducting that evening), "Why is this 
 man summoned to receive blessings instead of curses ; 
 or rather, why is he not led away to prompt but painless 
 death ? He has sung every note of his part a quarter- 
 tone flat ; is that what your public likes ? Muss man 
 denn detoniren, um die musikalischen Berliner zn 
 befriedigen ? " " You mean the good Fricke, my dear ? "
 
 FRICKE. 347 
 
 replied my gifted friend the Koyal Kapellmeister; " true 
 is it, he sings out of tune a little now and then (er 
 detonirt ein klein Bischen ab und zu) ; but what a fine 
 artist he is what an accomplished actor what an 
 excellent man, staunch friend, loyal subject ! Do you 
 know, my worthy one, that he paints quite delightfully 
 in water-colours, and plays upon half-a-dozen instru- 
 ments? Ein gar zu ausgezeichneter Mann, mein Bester; 
 daher wird er auch gerufen; mann soil's ihm nicht 
 verdenken ! " (A really admirable fellow ; that is why 
 he is called out ; we must not grudge him the compli- 
 ment.) I did not believe, as I told the Kapellmeister, 
 that the opera-house audience summoned Fricke before 
 the curtain because he executed water-colour sketches 
 which they had never seen, or was a true liege-man 
 to the Hohenzollern, which they could not know for 
 certain. It seemed to me far more likely that they thus 
 distinguished him because they admired his acting, 
 which was truly excellent ; and, above all, because they 
 were insensible to his " detonation." 
 
 Eckert was seriously annoyed with me when I 
 expressed this opinion to him. During my residence in 
 Berlin I found, indeed, that musical Germans almost 
 invariably resented my doubts of their susceptibility to 
 the peine forte et dure of false intonation ; and it struck 
 me that their displeasure was all the keener because 
 those doubts happened, in my case, to be expressed by 
 an Englishman. A very few years ago the conviction 
 was still strong and general throughout Northern 
 Germany that no native of these brumous isles could 
 possibly be a musician, or form any opinion worth
 
 348 GEKMANY V. ENGLAND. 
 
 listening to in connection with matters musical. I had 
 not lived long in Prussia before I found this to be a 
 dogma the dogmatic vein runs large in the Borussian 
 character and ceased to struggle against it. At first I 
 had taken great pains to persuade my German acquaint- 
 ances that, in denying to us, as a nation, the possession 
 of musical taste and culture, they were in error ; I even 
 went so far as to point out to them that England could 
 boast of a fine, vigorous school of creative and executant 
 musicians at a time when the Germans, musically con- 
 sidered, were in a condition of barbarism, the sumptuary 
 equivalent of which might be appraised at the bear 
 and wolf-skin class of garment, worn loosely over an 
 epidermis gaily decorated with rudimentary devices in 
 woad and ochre. They did not seem, oddly enough, to 
 relish this statement ; nor, I am bound to say, to believe 
 it, although it was supported by the evidence of history. 
 But I never happened to know a German who was not 
 a doctrinaire, or who was capable of being convinced by 
 the most luminous arguments that his own view of any 
 conceivable subject was not the only right one. So, as 
 I said before, I soon gave up my endeavour to demon- 
 strate the inborn musicality of Englishmen as a hopeless 
 emprise, and submitted with decent cheerfulness to the 
 inclusion of my own humble person in the sweeping 
 sentence of musical incapacity pronounced upon my 
 fellow-countrymen in general by Teutonic prejudice. I 
 could not, of course, fail to perceive that Berlin society 
 regarded any expression of opinion on my part, having 
 relation to music or musicians, as an impertinence, and 
 estimated the utterance (of which I was never chary in
 
 THE BERLIN HOFOPER. 349 
 
 musical circles) of my conviction that the German ear, 
 with respect to shades of intonation, was even less dis- 
 criminating than the English, as a more than Bulgarian 
 outrage. But all this left me calm ; for, like one of the 
 late Mr. Anthony Trollope's novelistic heroes, I knew I 
 was right. And I defy any person, himself gifted with 
 a correct musical ear, who has assiduously observed the 
 attitude of a Berlin musical audience towards a false 
 note sung by a favourite vocalist, to contradict me. 
 
 The Berlin Opera-house is a marvel of discomfort. 
 Not the slightest provision is made by its directors 
 for the comfort of the public, which is expected to 
 contribute its money gratefully for inferior performances 
 and wretched accommodation. There is no foyer, no 
 tabagie, no ventilation. For the privilege of being 
 slowly boiled and listening to third-rate singing you 
 have to pay from six to nine shillings, if you select the 
 stalls into which officers are forbidden to enter as 
 your abiding-place for the evening, and the prices of 
 seats in the other parts of the house vary between 
 one and five marks. The temperature, about ninety 
 degrees Fahrenheit when the overture begins, rises to one 
 hundred and ten degrees or so by the time the perform- 
 ance is ended. The only concession made to public 
 convenience by the directors of this torture-chamber is 
 a regulation by which the evening's entertainment is 
 punctually brought to a close at half-past nine, ten 
 o'clock being the supper time of the eminently respect- 
 able class that delights to mortify its flesh at the Opera- 
 house. For its own convenience, furthermore, the 
 management has decreed that the entr'actes shall last a
 
 350 A MILITARY "MUSICAL UNION." 
 
 quarter of an hour each; so that, what with the earliness 
 of the closing hour, and the length of the intervals 
 between the acts, there is nothing for it but to mutilate 
 the great works produced upon the stage. Some years 
 ago I underwent the sorrow of hearing the noblest opera 
 of modern times, Gounod's " Faust," so carved, clipped, 
 and mangled as to be almost unrecognisable. It was, in 
 fact, a mere abridgment of the original work not only 
 were whole scenes left out, and others amalgamated or 
 fused down into one another, to the utter destruction of 
 the unities, but Niemann (Faust) cut out the second 
 part of " Salve dimora," and Mdlle. Baumgarten (Mar- 
 guerite) omitted more than half of the jewel song, and a 
 whole verse of the " Ee di Thule." For such whole- 
 sale and unscrupulous barbarism I was altogether 
 unprepared in Berlin, which is ever being vaunted by 
 its inhabitants as " die Hauptstadt der Intelligenz." 
 
 Amongst the musical audiences of Berlin is one which 
 I believe to be, of its kind, unique in Europe, probably 
 in the world. It is exclusively composed of Prussian 
 officers, and frequents the concerts given during the 
 winter season by a full orchestra of guardsmen, every 
 member of which bears his Prussian Majesty's commis- 
 sion. Shortly after the conclusion of the Franco- German 
 war I attended one of these entertainments at the Guard 
 Artillery Barracks, which are situated in a melancholy 
 district, unpenetrated by any of the frequented thorough- 
 fares that are household words to an habitue of the 
 Northern Kaiserstadt a sort of debateable land, called 
 "Am Kupfergraben," or "By the Copper Ditch," 
 close to the Linden, to the Museum, the Academies,
 
 A MILITARY "MUSICAL UNION." 351 
 
 the University, and the Eoyal Palaces, and yet which a 
 foreigner might never happen to traverse during a life- 
 long residence in Berlin, unless he were invited to mess 
 with the gallant gunners, or to be their guest upon such 
 an occasion as that which on the night I refer to drew a 
 brilliant company to the grim old caserne, built in the 
 reign of Frederick the Great. In the mess-room of this 
 enormous building some notion of its size may be 
 derived from the fact that it accommodates a whole 
 brigade of artillery, officers, men, and horses have for 
 thirty-four years past been held the weekly meetings 
 and practices of the " Officers' Orchestral Union." This 
 society numbers over sixty members, fifty of whom are 
 executants, and forms a complete orchestra capable of 
 performing the most elaborate concerted works of the 
 great masters. Colonel von Treske, who has been 
 associated with the " Union " since its origin, was in 
 1874 its President and leader of the orchestra; Colonel 
 von Eibbentrop, of the General Staff, one of the most 
 distinguished scientific officers in the Prussian army, 
 was its treasurer ; and the members are officers of all 
 ranks, from lieutenant-general down to second lieutenant, 
 each of whom has qualified himself for admission to the 
 " Union " by a certain degree of proficiency upon some 
 musical instrument. There are more than a score of 
 first and second violins good store of serviceable, steady 
 celli a couple of vigorous " grunters," and the proper 
 proportion of violas. Every instrument of wood or 
 brass is duly " filled up ; " and the drumsticks were for 
 many years wielded by a soldier-prince, now a major- 
 general and aide-de-camp to his Majesty, who resigned
 
 352 COMIC DECORATIONS. 
 
 them some time ago to their present holder, and retired 
 from the class of " executant members" into that of 
 "listening members," in which he now holds exalted 
 rank and honours. 
 
 With respect to these classes of membership into which 
 the "Union" is divided, I must explain that, shortly 
 after the constitution of the Society, the humorous idea 
 of founding an Order occurred to its managing committee, 
 which straightway drew up the statutes of "The August 
 and Illustrious Order of the "White Napkin," in five 
 classes, to be conferred upon members distinguishing 
 themselves respectively as executants, arrangers and 
 composers. There were, however, then as now, "lis- 
 tening members" of the "Union," and presently it was 
 suggested that they inasmuch as they were expected 
 to hear the performances given by the " executant 
 members " were at least as deserving of some honorific 
 distinction for their services in this respect, as those 
 members who enjoyed the advantage of improving their 
 practical acquaintance with their respective instruments 
 weekly, and whose meritorious endeavours to attain 
 perfection might be held to be occasionally somewhat in 
 the nature of an infliction upon the nerves of their 
 audiences. So a second Order was founded, that of the 
 " Golden Ear," to be bestowed on these listening 
 associates ; and I had the pleasure of witnessing the 
 conferment of its highest class carrying with it the 
 strictly local title of " Excellency " upon the amiable 
 and accomplished Prince von Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen 
 and one or two other " Zuhorenden Mitglieder " of 
 assured merit and long standing. Every member of the
 
 A CONCERT OF OFFICERS. 353 
 
 " Union " who has been decorated with one or both of 
 these knightly Orders is under the obligation of wearing 
 the insignia at the society ? s meetings ; should he fail to 
 do so, he is fined the sum of sixpence. A similar fine is 
 imposed for late attendance or unnotified non-attendance. 
 These fines are duly collected by the " Strafmeister," or 
 Master of Punishments, of the " Union," and expended 
 in a gigantic "Bowie " a sort of cup, made of moselle, 
 champagne, slices of pineapple and orange juice which 
 is solemnly imbibed at the last reunion of the annual 
 season by members executant and listening. 
 
 The particular festivity to which I had the honour of 
 being invited was held in celebration of the twenty-first 
 anniversary of the society's birthday, and was character- 
 ised by the utmost jollity and good-fellowship. The first 
 part of the entertainment was altogether musical, and 
 consisted of orchestral and solo performances by members 
 of the Union. The programme opened with an " occa- 
 sional " overture by Kalliwoda, correctly and spiritedly 
 rendered ; another of the " numbers" was Mendelssohn's 
 Grand Concerto (pianoforte and orchestra) in G minor ; 
 and a third was the slow movement of a quaint old 
 concerto by Haydn, redolent of pulvilio, and suggesting, 
 at every bar, bag-wigs, clouded canes, knee-breeches 
 and silk stockings. A Saxon artillerist sang the great 
 tenor song out of Freischutz, and a Blue hussar who 
 figured very creditably in the orchestra amongst the 
 first violins warbled a sentimental ditty, with cello 
 obbligato by the regimental doctor, to everybody's 
 unbounded gratification. At the conclusion of the 
 programme the tables were rapidly laid, and we all sat 
 
 VOL. I. A A
 
 354 MILITARY HIGH-JINKS. 
 
 down, over a hundred strong, to an excellent supper, the 
 chief event of the occasion. As Colonel von Treske took 
 his seat in the presidential chair, a transparency was 
 hoisted up behind his throne, being an allegorical and 
 emblematic presentment of the society's origin, career 
 and prospects, depicted by an executant member, Knight 
 Grand Cross of the White Napkin. This transparency 
 was divided into eight compartments, to each of which a 
 stanza of the medley d' } occasion subsequently performed 
 by the whole body of members and guests with immense 
 vigour and relish was devoted. As soon as the first 
 course had been removed, the President read the annual 
 report, the Statutes of the Orders, and the congratulatory 
 telegrams from kindred " Unions " in Breslau, Mayence, 
 &c., which had reached him in the course of the anni- 
 versary ; winding up with an eminently humorous 
 speech, the culminating point of which was, of course, 
 the toast of the evening. Then followed the Treasurer, 
 Colonel von Eibbentrop, who proved a balance in the 
 society's favour of forty-one shillings showing a con- 
 dition, it appeared, of unprecedented financial prosperity 
 and laid before the members a plan for investing their 
 floating capital in a State Lottery share, as well as a 
 project for the laying out of the 22,500 which that 
 share could not fail to produce ! A flourish of horns, in 
 the " Katzenmu$ik " manner, then introduced the inter- 
 preter of the transparency, who, armed with a wand, 
 proceeded to expound the application of that graphic 
 chronicle of the society's annals. Each explanatory 
 strophe was furnished with a supplement in the shape of 
 a commentatory stanza set to a popular tune, and these
 
 MILITAEY HIGH-JINKS. 355 
 
 were intoned with an harmonious vehemence that 
 threatened more than once to raise the roof of the 
 building. The next great and impressive ceremony was 
 the conferment of various classes of the Orders by the 
 Grand Master in full chapter each recipient of a cross, 
 star, or collar paying up his capitular fees like a man 
 before his insignia were handed to him. 
 
 How jolly it all was, and how harmless ! What 
 perfect camaraderie between old and young, noble and 
 simple, general and subaltern, all wearing the "Kaiser- 
 kleid," and indulging in these innocent u high-jinks " 
 with the fervour and joyousness of clever schoolboys ! 
 Truly it was one of the pleasantest sights I ever saw in 
 a cheerless city, where every man seems to be eternally 
 on his guard against his neighbour. I must, how- 
 ever, except army men from this rule, otherwise all but 
 absolute. The feeling and bearing of officers towards one 
 another and their foreign comrades are in every respect 
 admirable. The exceptional privileges they enjoy, and 
 the restraints imposed upon them in virtue of the uniform, 
 cause them to be stiff in manner towards civilians in 
 general ; but a brother soldier, of whatsoever nationality 
 or rank, is sure of a hearty welcome from them one and 
 all. And not only do these gallant gentlemen work 
 harder at their profession than does any other specialist 
 that I know of labour at his metier, but for the most part 
 they spend their leisure hours in rational amusements or 
 profitable study. One of the "listening" generals took 
 me aside between the parts of the concert, and described 
 to me the various uses to which the old-fashioned, low- 
 ceilinged mess-room in which we were standing was put 
 
 A A 2
 
 356 PRINCE HOHENLOHE. 
 
 by the " Offizierskorps." "It is really a club to these 
 fine fellows," said his Excellency, " and even more than 
 a club. There is not an evening in the week upon which 
 our officers, young and old, do not gather together here 
 for some social or instructive purpose. One night there 
 is a practice, another night a lecture upon some matter 
 of scientific or topical interest, another night a discussion 
 on professional subjects ; and they like the old walls and 
 the old faces they see within them so sincerely that it is 
 the deuce and all to get them away ! Here are thirty 
 and more young fellows leaving out the oldsters and 
 fogies like myself who turn to and rasp or blow away 
 for dear life week after week with the greatest possible 
 enjoyment. They are able to play any concerted music 
 you can put before them. Do you think that does not 
 do them good ? And when they leave us, as they must 
 in time, through promotion or transfer to other garrisons, 
 is it not a preservative against many temptations and 
 follies that they carry with them the cultivated taste for 
 art the exercised faculty of passing their time agreeably 
 and innocently ? Not only are these boys kept out of 
 mischief by their fiddling and tootling, but they keep 
 their comrades out of mischief as well." And the 
 general was right. As for the illustrious Orders of the 
 "White Napkin" and the "Golden Ear," they are 
 institutions for which I entertain a lively respect ; for 
 they confer, to my mind, a deal more appreciable dis- 
 tinction on those who have the honour to wear them, 
 than a good many of the complimentary decorations that 
 adorn the breasts of persons who have so frequently done 
 nothing to deserve them.
 
 THE 0. K. E. V. ASSOCIATION". 357 
 
 Yet another Berlin musical audience, and I will pass 
 to " fresh woods and pastures new." During the winter 
 of the year 1872 I had the pleasure of attending a 
 meeting of the Orchestral Knitting-and-Koast-Veal 
 Association, held at No. 48, Leipzigers Strasse, in Athens 
 on the Spree. The institution in question was founded 
 upon that 'thorough comprehension of the "fitness of 
 things " characterising North Germans in general and 
 Berlinese in particular. It offered to its members a 
 happy combination of concerted music, seasonable 
 industry and solid nourishment, thus gratifying at once 
 their intellectual, moral and physical cravings. Admis- 
 sion to participation in the enjoyment of the attractions 
 it proffered to those who like their harmony served up 
 hot with gravy, and garnished with coloured wool, was 
 not trammelled by the protective process of ballot. To 
 become a member of the Orchestral Knitting-and-Koast- 
 Veal Association it was not necessary that you should be 
 proposed, seconded and subjected to the ordeal of the 
 black ball. When you presented yourself at the portals 
 of its meeting room, you were not required to produce 
 your baptismal certificate, vaccination papers, and other 
 documents of legitimation; all that was expected was 
 that you should pay your entrance fee, which varied in 
 amount between the sums of sixpence and eighteenpence. 
 Having discharged this obligation, you received a 
 voucher, which passed you into a noble hall, brilliantly 
 illuminated, and fitted with spacious boxes furnished 
 like salons, wherein the servants of the association 
 provided you with " every luxury of the season," at so 
 many thalers a head. If knitting were your " strong
 
 858 
 
 BILSE. 
 
 suit," you had to enter the body of the hall, secure a 
 table, order your roast veal, and produce the implements 
 of your craft. You found yourself surrounded by its 
 votaries. Knitting to right of you, knitting to left of 
 you, knitting in front of you, knitting in rear of you, 
 clicking and rustling, would, if you were susceptible of 
 emulation, stimulate you to extraordinary efforts in that 
 line. Should you not be sufficiently versed in the 
 mysteries of " drop three, pick up one," &c., to take 
 rank in the army of knitters, it were better that you 
 mounted a staircase, and took a seat in a .box, limiting 
 the exercise of your rights as a member to the consump- 
 tion of an " orchestralisches Kalbsfleisch." Knitting 
 was optional, not compulsory ; and you might smoke all 
 over the establishment. The Perpetual Grand was a 
 gentleman adorned with several glittering decorations, 
 of home and foreign manufacture. His name was Bilse, 
 and he was a leader of men. He ruled them with an 
 ebony silver- tipped wand of office ; his sway was just, 
 absolute and undivided. That he knitted, and eat roast 
 veal, in his character as chief official of the Association, 
 I have no reason to doubt ; but I did not see him perform 
 those functions. During my three hours and a half 
 membership I was witness to his admirable fulfilment of 
 other duties attached to his responsible position. P. G. 
 Bilse was an excellent conductor, and a man of refined 
 musical taste, judiciously conservative in his fidelity to 
 the classics, and yet tolerant of innovation where inno- 
 vation is justified through intrinsic merit. Composers 
 of the day had nothing to complain of at his hands ; and 
 he appeased the manes of the great dead by frequent and
 
 BILSE'S PROGRAMMES. 359 
 
 reverent worship. It was something gained to the cause 
 of art that large audiences, chiefly recruited from the 
 sixpenny class of society, should night after night be 
 enabled to enjoy the glorious works of such masters as 
 Beethoven, Haydn and Schubert, even with an accom- 
 paniment pizzicato of knitting needles, or knives and 
 forks oblligati ; and thoroughly well performed, too, by 
 an orchestra of about forty artists, including a few 
 remarkably good soloists. Nor could even a St. James's 
 Hall purist take exception to the admission of such 
 delightful latter-day melodists as Strauss, Offenbach, 
 and Suppe, into the august company of the aforesaid 
 giants upon such neutral ground as the platform of the 
 0. K. and E. V. Association. Herr Bilse's programmes 
 were models of the sort of entertainment that should be 
 offered by the directors of popular concerts to a thrifty 
 but appreciative public ; and few conscientious people 
 who have sat out an oratorio or a matinee of classical 
 chamber music will deny that they have longed for 
 something to do, and above all for something to eat and 
 drink, during the dismal intervals usually devoted to 
 changing legs, hopelessly striving to get something new 
 out of the printed " Synthetic Analysis " or Book of 
 Words, and whispering commonplaces to your neighbour, 
 that elapse between the performances of the several 
 " numbers" set down for execution. The joys of knitting 
 and roast veal (not to mention tobacco), taken in con- 
 nection with orchestral music of a high class, may be 
 unorthodox, utilitarian, and grossly materialistic; but 
 there is a good deal to be said on the other side. 
 Perhaps it is better to knit stockings or comforters a
 
 360 MUSIC, FOOD AND SMOKE. 
 
 mechanical employment that in no way interferes with 
 the intellectual faculty of enjoyment than to sit with 
 your hands before you doing nothing. A good supper 
 conduces to the establishment of a happy frame of mind ; 
 when a man is hungry and the German appetite asserts 
 itself every three hours with such vigour that the 
 arrangements of business life and of all public amuse- 
 ments have long since been made utterly subservient to 
 its demands he listens with comparative indifference to 
 the sweetest strains, and is apt secretly to wish that their 
 duration, instead of being " long drawn out," should be 
 abridged or curtailed. Again, in this our Victorian 
 age it may confidently be asserted that ten men of 
 every twelve are smokers in a greater or less degree ; 
 smoking is become a part of our lives, and a good cigar 
 enhances every pleasure that must be partaken of in 
 comparative idleness. 
 
 However, even admitting the validity of these argu- 
 ments in favour of the German praxis, as carried out by 
 the above-mentioned association, I must say that the 
 coup cPceil presented by the interior of the " Concert 
 Haus "on an 0. K. and R. V. night the institution 
 still exists, though not under Herr Bilse's direction is 
 calculated to strike an Englishman as affording one of 
 the queerest spectacles that he ever set eyes on. Were 
 it not for the orchestra, the festive garnishment of the 
 wooden supper-tables, and the wreaths of tobacco smoke 
 floating upwards toward the roof where they stop, no 
 means of exit being provided for them he might fancy 
 that he had strayed into the bosom of a Dorcas Society. 
 Family groups, consisting of mamma, aunt Minna ; and
 
 HARMONY AND BERLIN WOOL. 361 
 
 four or five strapping Frauleins, are gathered round 
 huge workbaskets, as busy as bees in the honey-making 
 season. Click, click, go the needles chatter, chatter, 
 the tongues clink and clatter the plates, knives and 
 forks, with a surprising din that is only partially abated 
 now and anon, when the Kapellmeister raps his desk 
 energetically with his baton. Anything more strictly 
 respectable than the materiel of which the assembly is 
 composed cannot be imagined. Upstairs in the boxes, 
 where seductive young plungers, belonging to the 
 garrison of Berlin, do congregate, a few gaudy sylphs 
 with top-heavy chignons and stilt-heeled boots may be 
 seen fluttering about in search of prey ; but the five- 
 groschen part of the audience consists exclusively of 
 decent tradespeople and employes with the female 
 members of their families. Materfamilias brings her 
 whole brood of daughters, leaving pater at home to 
 mind the shop or read his paper in peace and quiet ; the 
 buxom young chickens range themselves decorously 
 round the " good fat hen," and stick to their Berlin 
 wool as if the one aim and object of their lives were to 
 knit an indefinite number of comforters. Presently, 
 however, comes a refreshment interlude : large mugs of 
 beer and smoking piles of Braten are brought to the 
 table, which is promptly cleared of wool-balls, scissors, 
 and other industrial impedimenta, and the ladies fall 
 to with appetites worthy of Uhlans. Meanwhile the 
 orchestra is playing a rhapsody of Liszt, an overture of 
 Weber, or a waltz of Gungl. The programme is alter- 
 nately music and a bill of fare. Musical motivi are 
 interpolated between the items of the Speisekarte ; roast
 
 3G2 ITALIAN AUDIENCES. 
 
 pig and plums become mixed up in your mind with a 
 triumphal march or a doleful dirge, as the case may be. 
 The entertainment runs something in this wise a plate 
 of red cabbage, an adagio of Beethoven, and the foot of 
 a stocking. It is as confused as the incidents of a dream, 
 but pleasant and highly diverting for all that. 
 
 An excellent Italian baritone, Aldighieri, who was 
 one of my most intimate friends during my residence in 
 his native land, once told me in the fulness of his heart 
 we were strolling through the quaint old gardens of 
 Monza one lovely autumn afternoon that the provincial 
 audiences of Italy were the only ones in Europe of 
 which he stood in fear. He was a man of large pro- 
 fessional experience, an admirable vocalist and fine 
 actor, and had won public favour in every European 
 capital ; but nervousness impaired his powers, so he 
 assured me, whenever he found himself called upon to 
 sing to his compatriots in the smaller theatres of the 
 Peninsula. " All Italian audiences are terrible " (he 
 observed) "to the executant artist whom Nature has 
 afflicted with keen sensibilities, or has forgotten to arm 
 with the panoply of ignorance and conceit that renders 
 so many operatic vocalists invulnerable to the shafts of 
 criticism. For my fellow-countrymen are intensely 
 critical ; not after the German manner, which sub- 
 ordinates the faults of detail in a performance to its 
 general efficiency, but in their own, which regards each 
 individual shortcoming as a heinous offence, and is 
 comparatively indifferent to the merit of an operatic 
 production^ considered as an entirety. They are by 
 no means particular about correctness of mise-en-scene,
 
 ITALIAN AUDIENCES. 363 
 
 appropriateness of costumes and accessories to the period 
 in which the action of the opera is assumed to take 
 place, orchestral excellence or choral correctness; but 
 they are fiercely intolerant of faulty style or inaccurate 
 intonation in the principal vocalists, and when these 
 foil to satisfy them are prone to express their dissatis- 
 faction with an angry vehemence that is little less than 
 appalling to singers whose nerves like my own are 
 not fortified by the supreme tonic of inexpugnable self- 
 satisfaction. It matters not to Italian opera-goers how 
 high the professional standing of an artist may be, or 
 how great his international renown ; if he fail to fulfil 
 their expectations they do not hesitate to hound him 
 down as unmercifully as though he were an assassin or 
 an incendiary, caught in the very act of delinquency. 
 As excitable as they are exacting, they by no means 
 restrict their demonstrations of displeasure to hisses, 
 whistlings, yells, hootings and other more articulate 
 vociferations couched in terms of astonishing vigour. I 
 have seen many a wretched singer, panic-stricken and 
 livid under his paint, pelted off the stage with damaged 
 fruit and vegetable refuse, culled from the market-place 
 during the entr'acte by the vengeful occupants of pit 
 and gallery ; and, in cases when the luckless offender 
 has belonged to the softer sex, it is customary in most 
 of our provincial theatres to call her before the curtain 
 ten or a dozen times in succession in order to assail her, 
 over and over again, with storms of hisses and abusive 
 epithets. To nervousness or physical indisposition in 
 a word, to any of the accidents which cause the best of 
 vocalists, at times, to sing slightly out of tune our
 
 364 ITALIAN AUDIENCES. 
 
 country-town audiences show no pity. The Italians are 
 in the main a good-natured, easy-going, and even, I 
 will venture to say, courteous folk ; but they rarely 
 display these characteristics in their attitude towards 
 the exponents of dramatic and musical art. Disappoint- 
 ment, in connection with the quality of operatic per- 
 formances more especially, seems to turn their abundant 
 milk of human-kindness into gall. They are lambs in 
 their homes, and leopards in their theatres. As a set- 
 off to their ruthlessness when discontented, however, 
 they demonstrate their approval with an exuberance 
 of enthusiasm unknown in every other European 
 country, except Spain. Please them, and their grati- 
 tude keeps no bounds, at least in its visible and 
 audible expression. Annoy them, and they thirst for 
 your blood." 
 
 My own experiences of Italian audiences, undergone in 
 every province of the Eegno Unito (with the two excep- 
 tions of Sicily and Sardinia), and at all seasons of the year, 
 confirm those of Aldighieri, summarily set forth above, 
 in every respect. Nearly twenty years ago, when I 
 sojourned in the fairest of European lands, I was an 
 inveterate theatre-goer ; moreover, it was the fashion in 
 Italian society at that time to spend some portion of 
 every evening at the theatre not necessarily to attend 
 to the piece, but to exchange the news of the day, pay 
 visits to one's friends in their boxes, and, above all, to 
 talk scandal and I did as everybody else did. Indeed, 
 there was nothing else to do, for the clubs were deserted 
 between the hours of nine and twelve P.M., and recep- 
 tions at private houses rarely commenced until at least
 
 ITALIAN AMUSEMENTS. 365 
 
 the second act of the opera en vogue had come to a con- 
 clusion. The only recreative, or even social, resource of 
 the "intelligent foreigner " whose lines are cast for any 
 length of time within the old-world precincts of a pro- 
 vincial Italian town not excluding from this category 
 large cities, the former capitals of kingdoms and duchies 
 is the theatre in which the lyric drama is performed ; 
 the minor houses being generally affected to the repre- 
 sentation of farcical comedy in the local dialect of the 
 district, utterly unintelligible to all save those to the 
 manner born. Fantoccini are fascinating once in a way ; 
 and "talking-shadows," when stage-managed by a 
 caustic wag many such pick up a living in the popular 
 entertainment line on Italian soil are eloquent with 
 excellent fooling, at which one may laugh one's self sore 
 the first time one hears it; but as "a constancy," to 
 borrow a term from Miss Nipper's vocabulary, these 
 funniments are apt to pall upon anybody but an out- 
 and-out Italian. After I had exhausted their joys I fell 
 back upon the stock amusements of the natives opera 
 and ballet, repeated as a rule night after night through- 
 out the stag tone, save when a naming announcement of 
 11 Gran Eiposo," affixed to the entrances of the leading 
 theatre, leads the public to infer that the prima donna 
 has had a more than usually painful difference with the 
 impresario, or that the robust tenor's digestive faculties 
 have proved unequal to grapple with macaroni enough 
 for seven, followed by double portions of frittura mista, 
 polpette, stuffato and bomba alia strega. The Italian 
 robust tenor, I should observe, is an all but unrivalled 
 trencherman, though the tenore lirico, as far as appetite
 
 366 ITALIAN OPERA-HOUSES. 
 
 and stowage capacity are concerned, is not the variety 
 of edax rerum that one could hope to nourish satisfac- 
 torily on a small income. " Gran Riposo " is a term 
 susceptible of interpretation in many several ways. 
 That it may mean either of the calamities above alluded 
 to I have on more than one occasion been enabled to 
 ascertain beyond the possibility of doubt. 
 
 Asking forgiveness for this digression, and harking 
 back to my subject, I will endeavour to reproduce in 
 black and white some of the impressions made upon me 
 by Italian musical audiences. In the first place, when 
 I was a novice in Ausonian " tricks and manners," I 
 was surprised to observe that, except on so-called 
 "gala" nights, next to nobody attended operatic per- 
 formances in evening dress. The stalls were never 
 occupied by ladies " of society," as they are in English 
 theatres, and the men of "high life" and " sport" who 
 sometimes sate in the three front rows generally wore 
 black morning coats and coloured trousers. The " dress 
 circle " institution had not, at that time, been introduced 
 into any Italian opera-house, but the prevalent distribu- 
 tion of accommodation was as follows : stalls, pit, stand- 
 ing room in a seat-less parterre, four or five tiers of 
 private boxes, and a spacious gallery, affording a 
 (literally) bird's-eye view of the stage. Even in the 
 boxes, ladies and gentlemen seldom appeared en grande 
 toilette, unless they happened to be going to a ball or 
 reception after the theatre. Hence the general aspect 
 of the audience was seedy rather than festive. In the 
 pit and gallery which, with the stalls, constituted the 
 emotional element of the house on ordinary nights no
 
 OPERATIC AUDIENCES. 367 
 
 objection appeared to be entertained to those unconven- 
 tional patrons of the lyric drama who kept their hats on 
 their heads throughout the performance. I observed 
 that applause, as well as its converse, was almost 
 invariably led and insisted upon by dilettanti of this 
 class ; while society in the boxes, as a rule, only gave 
 expression to its approval in sotto voce murmurs, and 
 rarely vented its displeasure in sibilation or whistling. 
 All the box-people seemed to know one another, and to 
 pass their time in animated conversation, instead of 
 listening to the opera. The pittites and gods, on the 
 other hand, were eagerly attentive and audibly critical ; 
 no flaw in the accompaniments, no false note in the 
 singing, no hitch in the stage business escaped their 
 notice, or failed to elicit from them some appropriate 
 utterance. Aldighieri was right ; these were terrible 
 audiences indeed, not only to the artists engaged to 
 entertain them, but to the music-loving alien unaccus- 
 tomed to their restless demonstrativeness, and suffering 
 from the nervous irritability provoked by a succession of 
 disturbing noises that only ceased when the opera itself 
 came to an end. It never seemed to strike any native 
 member of an Italian audience that he might possibly 
 be marring his neighbour's enjoyment by ventilating his 
 own feelings viva voce. I have frequently sate between 
 able-bodied fanatici to whom every well or ill-sung 
 phrase suggested a sonorous cry of "Bene ! " or an ireful 
 growl of " Male ! " all through an opera ; and have 
 remembered how savagely I had been snubbed in Berlin, 
 by fanatics of another variety, for daring to whisper a 
 word or two in the ear of my companion for the time
 
 368 PROVINCIAL OPERA-HOUSES. 
 
 being, while some popular cantatrice was singing stead- 
 fastly out of tune. 
 
 This irrepressibility of utterance in Italian musical 
 audiences, even when everything behind the footlights 
 went smoothly and well, was my normal drawback at all 
 the Peninsular opera-houses I ever attended. But it 
 was nothing to the discomfiture that befel me upon one 
 or two occasions, when really vicious performances raised 
 the public temper to fever-heat, and speedily led up to 
 scenes of disorder, sound, and fury such as I have never 
 witnessed in any theatre north of the Alps. During 
 the spring of 1868 I was engaged in the fulfilment of a 
 special mission that took me into several nooks of Tus- 
 cany and the Papal States, comparatively unfrequented 
 by foreigners, and on more than one occasion was com- 
 pelled to stay for two or three days at a stretch in small 
 out-of-the-way towns of fossilised aspect, in the piazze 
 of which grass grew with significant luxuriance, traffic 
 of every kind being conspicuous by its absence from 
 the grey flagged thoroughfares, flanked on either side 
 by huge houses of tawny and dusky stone, with massive 
 closed doors and barred open windows. In old-world 
 places of this kind, remote from the highways of pro- 
 gress, dull, poor, lethargic, and hopeless, I was more 
 than once surprised to find large and handsome theatres, 
 well-built and tastefully-decorated, spacious enough to 
 contain thrice the visible population of the towns to 
 which they belonged, and as far as their acoustic pro- 
 perties are concerned everything that could be desired. 
 How it is with them now I know not, but at the time I 
 refer to they were closed for eight months of the twelve
 
 PROVINCIAL OPERA-HOUSES. 369 
 
 in the year. Throughout the winter, backed up by 
 some small state or municipal subvention, the local lessee 
 contrived to keep them open four nights in the week, 
 with the aid of touring companies and migratory stars ; 
 and although their stock orchestras, costumes and 
 accessories were as a rule very marvels of weakness, 
 decay and archaism I found them almost invariably 
 well- attended, by audiences, moreover,- of the exacting 
 or " terrible " class to which Aldighieri's above- quoted 
 observations referred. Not that they were rough upon 
 the old-established shortcomings of the local executants, 
 scenery and dresses, which they appeared to regard as 
 inevitable evils, to be endured in silence and under 
 gesticulatory protest of sardonic shrugs. They reserved 
 their utmost severities for the vocal " strangers within 
 their gates " the " principals" in troupes engaged for 
 half-a-dozen performances by an enterprising manage- 
 ment, and " billed" all over the town as " the egregious 
 tenor Malandrino," or " the inclyte first-lady Pette- 
 gola." 
 
 It was in one of these theatres, thronged for the 
 nonce, that I happened to be seated, hopeful of whiling 
 away a long idle evening by the aid of the Trovatore 
 announced for performance by a galaxy of stars that 
 professed to have sparkled in Royal Opera-houses with- 
 out number when the ire of the audience, justly 
 aroused by the laches of the robust tenor let us continue 
 to call him Signor Malandrino, in recognition of his 
 vocal turpitude broke all bounds, and gave rise ' to an 
 episode of riot and clamour compared to which Irving' s 
 version of the Brocken orgies might rank as a mild and 
 
 VOL. i. u B
 
 370 AN EXCITING SCENE. 
 
 orderly Sunday-school entertainment of the bun and 
 sky-blue order. Malandrino was a comely and stalwart 
 artist ; when he first " came on " his appearance so far 
 prepossessed the public in his favour that he was 
 received with a round of polite applause. But he had 
 not terminated the introductory phrase of his opening 
 recitative, when an apprehensive shudder ran through 
 the house, and a -few sonorous voices were heard exclaim- 
 ing "Non stuonar !" (Don't sing out of tune !). As he 
 proceeded, however, regardless of this timely prohibition, 
 to sing flatter and flatter, the outcries grew louder, more 
 general, and, I regret to say, more objurgatory in their 
 character. Amongst the uncomplimentary epithets 
 hurled at the wretched Malandrino were "Bestial" 
 " Asinaccio ! " "Infame!" and others (the Italian 
 popular vocabulary teems with such amenities) less fit 
 for publication ; one sustained high note of peculiar 
 atrocity elicited a terrific yell of " Boja!" (executioner), 
 a term of dire reproach throughout the Eealm of the 
 Boot. No sooner had the curtain dropped than the 
 occupants of the pit and gallery vanished from the 
 auditorium with extraordinary rapidity. I followed 
 them at my leisure, fully expecting to find lobbies and 
 entrance-hall crowded with infuriate citizens, in full cry 
 over their wrongs, and stimulating their just wrath by 
 a more than usually passionate consumption of the inde- 
 scribably revolting cigars at five a penny with which 
 Italians were wont to poison the atmosphere of their 
 native land in the days when Unity was not even in 
 the matter of cheap and nasty tobacco and the Penin- 
 sular taste was divided between u Cavours " of home
 
 A " DEMONSTRATION OF REPKOOF." 371 
 
 production, " Yeveys " imported from Switzerland, and 
 " Virginias," hollow horrors pierced by a straw, which 
 afforded rank internal evidence of having been invented 
 and manufactured by the Foul Fiend himself. All the 
 usual places of rendezvous during the " waits " were 
 deserted. Amazement prompted me to ask the official 
 who gave out the entr'acte checks what had become of 
 the audience. With a sad smile he replied " Si sono 
 recati al mercato ! " (They are gone to the market-place !) 
 The true significance of this mysterious statement was 
 revealed to me half-an-hour later, when Manrico the 
 untuneful, reappearing upon the stage, was assailed by a 
 heavy and continuous shower of stale fruit, minor 
 vegetables and other unconsidered trifles which speedily 
 caused him to beat an ignominious retreat into the 
 wing, vainly endeavouring to shield his head from the 
 missiles aimed at him. This " demonstration of reproof," 
 as a gentleman sitting by me happily described it, was 
 accompanied by an altogether inconceivable and inde- 
 scribable clamour, which lasted through the remainder 
 of the performance that is to say, whenever the 
 miserable Malandrino was " on ; " for the audience 
 would not allow the impresa to carry out its desire to 
 drop the curtain and return their money, but insisted 
 upon hearing the opera out, threatening to wreck the 
 theatre if the management attempted to baulk them. 
 And so, at intervals, they howled at Manrico until 
 nearly midnight, calling him forward again and again in 
 order to overwhelm him each time with fresh floods of 
 opprobrium. The poor fellow's agony of mortification 
 and fear might have melted a heart of stone ; " but," as 
 
 B B2
 
 S72 THE POLITEAMA. 
 
 my ingenious neighbour put it, " we other Italians are 
 inflexible in our attitude towards impostors presump- 
 tuous, who dare to desecrate the temples of our national 
 art." Next morning " Gran Eiposo " was placarded on 
 the walls of the "temple of art" above referred to. 
 Malandrino had disappeared during the night, like a 
 dream. 
 
 The average Italian theatrical orchestra would not be 
 tolerated in any third-rate English theatre. That of the 
 Florentine Politeama was peculiarly atrocious in the 
 early days of Italian Unity. The Politeama is an enor- 
 mous amphitheatre, open at the top like the Coliseum, 
 but resembling in the arrangement of its galleries rather 
 the huge ruin hard by Pompeii than the mightiest of all 
 ancient places of amusement. The arena is filled with 
 seats, pit, first and second stalls ; there are about thirty 
 private boxes on the ground tier, including one of modest 
 dimensions, though draped in crimson velvet, for the 
 King ; and an enormous gallery, containing about 3,000 
 persons, stretches away above these to where the roof 
 would be if roof there were any save the deep blue sky. 
 The principal chandelier of this delightful theatre is the 
 moon, of course, and brilliantly she does her work, con- 
 sidering how inexpensive is the abundant light she 
 yields ; but there are jets of gas galore besides, and the 
 gentlemen in wideawakes, gathered together in the 
 orchestra, are supplied with the regular green-shaded 
 burners in plenty. I am sure I do not know to what 
 purpose ; they could not possibly play worse in the dark ! 
 Par parenthese, not the least startling anomaly in a 
 country of contradictions, is the quality and execution
 
 ITALIAN ORCHESTRAS. 373 
 
 of the music provided for public entertainment. It is 
 the fashion to admit, without troubling one's self about 
 taking evidence on the subject, that Italy is the pays 
 musical par excellence. If this postulate be founded on 
 fact, why are the harmless but harmony-loving stranger's 
 cars insulted in every Italian town by combinations of 
 sound so vile that a German audience of street-sweepers 
 would not tolerate them for a moment ? In Naples, at 
 the Villa Nazionale, where the cream of an accomplished 
 aristocracy assembles nightly to eat ices and listen to 
 sweet strains, the musical refection provided for their 
 decidedly appreciative palates is a military band, so 
 weak that, being quite close to it, I could only compare 
 it to a donkey barrel-organ with a cold in its inside. In 
 Eome but no, I will not describe what I heard there in 
 the way of concerted music, further than to say that the 
 players of many trombones appeared to have got some- 
 thing firmly wedged into their dreadful instruments, and 
 to be engaged in a tremendous but fruitless effort to blow 
 it out with many a groan, gurgle, and eccentric interval. 
 In Florence I have heard dragoons play at the Casino, 
 horresco referens ! and have moreover patiently suffered 
 the braying interludes of thePoliteama interludes occur- 
 ring four several times, by reason of the moral drama's 
 historical number of acts. The brass band wont to 
 "attend" weddings in London, if multiplied by ten, will 
 give the exact musical result attained in the largest and 
 best-attended theatre in the former capital of Italy. And 
 yet you shall hear an ostler, or a chambermaid, a facchino, 
 or a flower girl, unconscious of their gifts, trolling out 
 canzoni popolari, or chanting stornelli in perfect tune,
 
 374 FLORENCE BY NIGHT. 
 
 with admirable accent, and oh, such wonderful voices ! 
 How is it that such a people will listen patiently, even 
 cheerfully, to trash so shameful as that trumpeted out 
 every evening at the Politeama? I can ascribe their 
 endurance to nothing but the profound insouciance of the 
 national character. 
 
 To return to the theatre. It is a sublime institution 
 in a southern climate a place where for a franc you can 
 sit in the open air, on a cool iron chair, see excellent 
 acting, and smoke your cigar the while, filling up the 
 entr'actes with natural lemonade, beer of Chiavenna (a 
 sort of malt tea, very effervescent and altogether guilt- 
 less), or threepenny ices. Hundreds of pretty girls 
 the Florentine girls are pretty, deny it who can do not 
 lessen the charm of the scene, to which the open roof, 
 shelving galleries, and moonshine impart an indefinable 
 cachet of classicality. And when the performance is 
 over, the walk homewards, Lung' Arno, along the glitter- 
 ing river studded by tiny boats, each bearing on its 
 prow a coloured lantern is it not almost too lovely to 
 be real ? At night Florence becomes a city of enchant- 
 ment ; it is wrapped in ghostly light and shadow troops 
 of phantoms, diaphanously clad, glide about the white 
 quays, dive into dark, narrow alleys, or float across the 
 bridges spanning the golden Arno; it takes but little 
 elasticity of faith to believe that you are transported into 
 a world of dreams, of which the City of Flowers is the 
 chef-lieu. If your fancy wants confirmation, stray to the 
 square, where the Duomo and Campanile stand side by 
 side, objects of inexhaustible wonder and admiration ; or 
 linger under the shade of the Santa Croce, and mark
 
 OPERA IN ITALY. 375 
 
 how everything outside that shade's sharply defined limit 
 glows in living light. Or still better, get away out of 
 the town to the heights, a couple of miles distant, and 
 look down upon Firenze la Bella, la Cara, bathed in a 
 silver flood. Nobody will ever make me believe that 
 Florence is merely an ordinary, prosperous, prosaic city 
 comme une autre, any more than Venice Anadyomene. 
 No, it is a spirit-abode ; one in which to write poetry, 
 to paint pictures, to think in melodies, to make love, to 
 inhale the perfumes of flowers and fruit ; but not to 
 work in, to make money in, to have butchers' bills, 
 protested acceptances, water-rate in. 
 
 An operatic company engaged at an Italian theatre 
 seldom takes upon itself the rendering of more than one 
 opera, to which the repertoire of three-fourths of its 
 personnel is limited ; and thus the musical public finds 
 itself compelled throughout a half or quarter season to 
 listen night after night to the same strains sung by the 
 same people, the only occasional variation being the 
 interpolation of a stray overture between the first or 
 second act of the opera and the ballet. Thus, let us 
 suppose you to have been staying at Venice during the 
 month of January, and to have taken an abonnement at 
 the Fenice; you would have heard Dinorah twenty- 
 two times in four weeks. Spending your February in 
 Florence, you would have had nearly as many oppor- 
 tunities of becoming familiar with Martha at the 
 Pergola, and would have been so much refreshed by 
 Flotow's delicious music that you would have been equal 
 to a March full of Dinorah at Turin. Coming on in 
 April to Genoa for a " sea-change," you would have
 
 376 ITALIAN THEATRES. 
 
 found the Balk in Maschera well settled down in the 
 Carlo Felice, and would have probably, in the course of 
 a month or so, made an exact and intimate acquaintance 
 with that highly sensational work, as well as with a 
 ballet called Brahma, in which the unities suggested 
 by its title are admirably preserved the scene being 
 laid in China, and a large proportion of the costumes 
 being strictly Polish. As, however, the habitues of 
 Italian opera-houses take up their accustomed places 
 nightly with the settled intention of doing anything 
 rather than listening to the music or looking at the 
 stage, the sameness of the programme, ineffably vexa- 
 tious to the foreigner, does not so much matter to them. 
 According to Puritanical views, theatres are wicked 
 places I should say nowhere more so than in Italy 
 but certainly not by reason of the musico-histrionic 
 performances offered by the management for the public 
 entertainment. It is not the poor players who provide 
 the vice the audience bring that with them, in all sorts 
 of states of development, and devote themselves with 
 remarkable energy and perseverance to perfecting it. 
 Queer stories the boxes in these Italian theatres could 
 tell the ground tier of the Scala, for instance, every 
 private box in which has attached to it, or rather divided 
 from it by the corridor, a luxurious cabinet particulier, 
 with table, sofa, gas, and all complete ! 
 
 Spain and Eoumania are by no means so productive of 
 fanatici per la musica as Italy is, although both the king- 
 doms in question are mainly populated, like the Ausonian 
 Peninsula, by the descendants of music-loving Latin 
 races. Consequently, the Italian characteristics dis-
 
 SPANISH POPULAR MUSIC. 377 
 
 tinctly manifest in their musical audiences are not so 
 strongly marked in attitude or so vehemently expressed 
 in gesture and sound as they are in the cradle of the 
 legions that of yore colonised Hispania and Dacia. The 
 genuine passion and fierce enthusiasm that underlie the 
 outward calm and dignity of Spanish demeanour seldom 
 make themselves visible and audible, save under the 
 stimulus of bull-fighting or political excitement ; whilst 
 the average Eoumanian is restrained from extravagant 
 demonstrations of delight or disapproval by a strange 
 blending of Oriental phlegm and French insouciance. 
 
 The Spanish love of music the strength and genuine- 
 ness of which I am far from wishing to impugn con- 
 centrates itself upon song-melodies and dance-tuues 
 rather than upon operatic works ; it is curiously insen- 
 sible to the charms of symphonic compositions and of 
 what is conventionally designated "chamber -music." 
 Iberians revel in narrative ballads, sentimental love- 
 songs, and all the provincial varieties of their national 
 dance-music. To seguidiUas, in the just rendering of 
 which singing and dancing are combined, they listen with 
 unflagging attention and obvious pleasure, and never 
 weary of the lively measures of the bolero, fandango and 
 cachucha, or of the jaleo's and rondend's plaintive strains. 
 My own recollections of the seguidilla are exclusively 
 Andalusian ; but this quaint song-dance is indigenous to 
 Don Quixote's province, and its orthodox variety still 
 goes by the name of " Seguidilla Manchega," in distinc- 
 tion from the gipsy seguidilla (Seguidilla Gitana), per- 
 formed in slow time and with little movement of the 
 lower limbs compared to that of the torso and arms;
 
 378 CHITARREROS AND BAILARIXAS. 
 
 from the " Seguidilla Bolera," a majestic dance unaccom- 
 panied by song; and from the "Seguidilla Taleada," 
 which affects the impulsiveness of the Bolero, and is 
 altogether of a less droning melodic character than are 
 the other varieties of seguidilla. 
 
 It was at Seville that I last saw and heard them all 
 performed by a very skilful troupe of Spanish minstrels, 
 consisting of five men (vocalists and guitar-players) and 
 three extraordinarily handsome girls, who did all the 
 dancing, but sang not at all, and played upon no instru- 
 ment but the castanets. The performance took place in 
 a long low garret of an old Sevillan palace a sort of 
 lumber-loft, about fifty feet in length and twenty in 
 breadth and was attended by the elite polios mashers 
 they would be called in London of the old Andalusian 
 city, including the Capitan-General for the time being, 
 whose guest I happened to be. No payment was de- 
 manded for admission ; one of the chitarreros was told 
 off to show the u patron cavaliers " to their seats and 
 attend to them generally, while the other four, squatting 
 cross-legged on the floor, formed a small hollow square 
 in the central portion of the room, which was kept clear 
 for the dancers. These latter Anita, Dolores and Car- 
 mencita were really charming creatures, very young 
 (the eldest, Dolores, had just entered her nineteenth 
 year), and tastefully dressed in the style rendered familiar 
 to London audiences by frequent performances of Bizet's 
 chef-d'oeuvre at Covent Garden and Drury Lane. Two 
 of them were very dark I found out, upon inquiry, 
 that they were natives of the Triana, a gipsy-breeding 
 suburb of Seville and the third was a dazzling Yalencian
 
 A SPANISH AUDIENCE. 379 
 
 blonde, with languishing violet-blue eyes and bright 
 golden hair hanging in thick plaits nearly down to her 
 knees. The entertainment furnished by the troupe to 
 some fifty or sixty gentlemen, for the most members of 
 the Circolo Sevillano, an aristocratic club to which very 
 few of even the wealthiest local merchants and profes- 
 sional men were admitted as members, lasted from about 
 nine in the evening to two of the next morning, by which 
 time the guitar-playing vocalists were hoarse with chant- 
 ing innumerable seyuidillas, and the three pretty dancing- 
 girls were fairly worn out with fatigue. Meanwhile 
 they had taken (as I was afterwards assured by a know- 
 ing young aide-de-camp of my guide, philosopher and 
 friend, the military governor of Seville) over sixty 
 pounds in gold and silver, had been laden (the girls I 
 mean) with bonbons, comfits and tiny bouquets, had 
 been treated to a plain but substantial supper no 
 champagne, but a little ordinary Yal de Penas and plenty 
 of natural lemonade, orangeade, and fruit syrups diluted 
 with water and had danced every sort of dance known 
 in Spain, including triumphal kotos and jaleos executed 
 towards the end of the festivity on the supper-table, 
 amongst the plates and dishes, with a single breakage. 
 
 It is, however, rather of the audience than of the per- 
 formance or performers that I desire to treat in this 
 place. The dancing had scarcely commenced true, it 
 was super-excellent of its kind when Spanish frigidity 
 began to thaw, and Spanish thrift to display a conspicuous 
 tendency to transform itself into lavish and even reckless 
 generosity. Many of those present were grave and stately 
 caballeros some few, well advanced in years but, as
 
 380 GRATUITOUS AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 bolero followed seguidilla, and fandango succeeded bolero, 
 they warmed to a heat of enthusiasm I have seldom seen 
 the like of in any Southern country of Europe. When 
 they were sufficiently excited to have become oblivious 
 for the time being of the principles of frugality instilled 
 into them in early childhood, and thereafter practised by 
 them inflexibly with relation to all their ordinary habits 
 and avocations, the dancing-girls began to subject them 
 to an ingenious process of pecuniary depletion, hallowed 
 by ancient custom in connection with terpsichorean per- 
 formances for the contemplation of which no charge is 
 made by their executants. 
 
 Here I may parenthetically remark that experience 
 has taught me and at no inconsiderable cost that 
 professedly gratuitous entertainments are invariably the 
 most expensive recreations in which the pleasure-lover 
 can indulge. It comes cheaper to attend a Maskelyne 
 and Cooke seance, having duly paid for your stall, than 
 to patronise an open-air magician in Egypt ; to hire a 
 ground-tier box at the Italian Opera on a Patti-night 
 than to accept a Pasha's invitation to see a Cairote 
 choregraphic celebrity go through the " Bee-Dance ; " 
 to purchase a front-row place on the shady side of a 
 bull-ring when El Tato is announced to appear than to 
 witness a dancing divertissement in an Andalusian cock- 
 loft as the honoured guest of a club-committee, or even a 
 Captain-General. I have partaken of all these " gra- 
 tuitous " joys in my time, and of many others of a 
 similar character, to the serious minishment of my mone- 
 tary resources ; and I earnestly exhort persons of mode- 
 rate means who crave for professional amusement of any
 
 EL COMPLIMIENTO. 381 
 
 kind to find out beforehand exactly how much it costs, 
 and to pay at the doors. 
 
 The method of collecting fees adopted by Spanish 
 dancers of the " select and exclusive " class to which 
 Seiioritas Anita, Dolores and Carmencita belonged in 
 the year of grace 1868 was the following. I should 
 premise that the spectators were seated on chairs and 
 backed-benches (like those set up for public accommo- 
 dation in our London parks) arranged in the form of an 
 oblong circle some thirty feet long and twelve feet 
 broad. In the space thus surrounded the girls danced 
 in succession sometimes two at a time to the accom- 
 paniment of the strumming and chanting quartet seated 
 tailor-wise in the centre of the boarded floor. Shortly 
 before the closing measures of any particular dance, the 
 bailarina as though moved by a sudden and irresistible 
 impulse plucked her pocket-handkerchief from her 
 girdle, and whilst gyrating and tripping past the front 
 rank of the excited polios, tossed it saucily into one of 
 their faces. Etiquette required that the gentleman thus 
 distinguished by her special attention should knot up a 
 coin in one corner of the handkerchief, and restore the 
 latter to its pretty owner during the next interval be- 
 tween the dances. This obligation having been punc- 
 tually discharged, it was not considered the correct 
 thing for that particular bailarina to " compliment " the 
 contributor in question again in the course of her per- 
 formance ; unless, indeed, his own uncontrollable enthu- 
 siasm should prompt him while she is dancing later on 
 to exclaim, "Quiero elpanuelo !" (I solicit the kerchief ), 
 when she might once more throw it at him without com-
 
 382 EL COMPLIMIENTO. 
 
 mitting any breach of professional decorum. But each 
 dancing- girl had the right to " lanzar el pafiuelo " once 
 in the course of the evening at whomsoever it might 
 please her to favour with that delicate attention ; and 
 base, sordid, despicable would have been considered the 
 insensible wight who should have restored the kerchief 
 to her unweighted by Spanish currency. The least 
 valuable coin he could offer, with any respect for him- 
 self, his family and his ancestral tree, was a peso fuerte, 
 or Spanish dollar, a clumsy coin about the size and weight 
 of a five-franc piece. But silver was looked down upon 
 by a bailarina of any standing, who expected at least ahalf- 
 isabellino in acknowledgment of her complimiento; I have 
 seen such an one burst into tears of rage and mortifica- 
 tion upon finding a peseta in the corner of her kerchief 
 when she untied the knot ; and I regret to say that that 
 inadequate tribute emanated from a middle-aged English 
 clergyman, unversed in the "customs of the country," 
 and who as he naively confessed to me had made 
 offering of the sum he would have thought it his duty 
 to " put into the plate at afternoon collection." The 
 intensity of the girl's humiliation at receiving tenpence 
 when the contributor being a caballero estranjero she 
 expected at least ten shillings, was chiefly attributable 
 to the accident that her rivals were eagerly looking on 
 with envious curiosity whilst she undid the handker- 
 chief, and broke out into a tempest of scornful laughter 
 and cackling chaff as soon as they caught sight of the 
 humble peseta usurping the place of the expected isa- 
 bellino. The latter coin was the proper one to have 
 given to a dancer of established provincial renown,
 
 THE CAPTAIN-GENERAL. 383 
 
 although its moiety a fat, comfortable-looking little 
 gold piece, bearing the effigy of the Reyna muy Espanola 
 was, as I observed, invariably acknowledged by a bright 
 smile or (when contributed by an exceptionally good- 
 looking youth) a blown kiss. The Capitan-General, as 
 beseemed his Excellency's exalted station and large 
 emoluments, gave a golden onza in the prescribed man- 
 ner to each of the bailarinas in succession, the recipients 
 duly stepping up to him, curtseying and presenting first 
 one cheek and then the other to be kissed by their gene- 
 rous patron. His evening's amusement cost him nearly 
 twelve pounds ; but, as he told me afterwards, he con- 
 sidered it well worth the money. He also explained to 
 me that, had the form of Government then obtaining in 
 Spain not been Eepublican, he could not, in his official 
 position, have attended the performance; that even under 
 the existing regime certain prescriptions of etiquette pre- 
 cluded him from engaging a troupe of dancing-girls to 
 entertain him in the Palacio; and that las bailarinasrenom- 
 Iradas of the class to which the Senoritas Anita, Dolores 
 and Carmencita belonged hardly ever appeared on the 
 theatrical stage ; so that, as he drily put it, but for the 
 "enterprise" of his friends, Serrano, Prim and Topete, 
 he might have been doomed until his retirement from 
 public life to drag on a gloomy existence, never bright- 
 ened by the sparkling feats of the lindas muchachas which 
 had enraptured us both that evening ! Worthy simple- 
 hearted Capitan-General ; that he, the supreme repre- 
 sentative of authority in Seville, arrayed in the splendid 
 uniform of his rank and attended by two gorgeous aides- 
 de-camp, should be seen by illustrious natives and " dis-
 
 384 LAS BAILARINAS. 
 
 tinguished foreigners " sitting all night long in a cock- 
 loft, gloating over the singularly suggestive dancing of 
 three girls " of the people," and giving free vent to his 
 enthusiastic admiration of their significant contortions 
 and provocative gestures, did not for a moment strike 
 him as an anomaly. Cosas de Espana ! 
 
 I learnt from him that the " gifts " bestowed upon the 
 bailarinas in the course of their performances were always 
 put into the common purse of the troupe, and divided 
 amongst the executants in shares, the proportions of 
 which one to another had been settled by verbal agree- 
 ment at the commencement of the tour. Any attempt 
 on the part of the dancer to secrete a real of the 
 money personally given to her and frequently one 
 girl would happen to take eight or ten pounds more of 
 a night than either of her companions was, as he 
 assured me, unheard of. " They are keen about their 
 money, as you may perhaps have noticed," he added, 
 "but quite honest to one another; ninas muy caballerescas 
 I assure you, who never throw their handkerchiefs at 
 any men for whom they really care, it being quite 
 against their principles to put a cortejo favorecido to any 
 unnecessary expense." " And what becomes of these 
 pretty girls, Excellency?" I ventured to ask. " Tempta- 
 tion dogs their dainty heels by day and night their 
 vanity, fed as it is by passionate Spanish admiration, must 
 be something tremendous ; do they finish their career 
 in the hospital or the poorhouse, after the manner of so 
 many French and Italian figurantes ?" " Nada, nada 
 (not at all)," he replied. " They are thrifty, they drink 
 nothing ; they take care of their money and save it up
 
 SPANISH MUSICAL AUDIENCES. 385 
 
 for their dowries ; generally, when they have been 
 dancing for five or six years, they marry empleados 
 (Government clerks) who cannot make two ends meet 
 on their own salaries, and are glad to find pretty wives 
 with a few thousand reals in their aprons, and to ask no 
 embarrassing questions. Those girls whom we have 
 admired to-night, and after whom all the polios of Anda- 
 lusia are running just now, will take husbands some 
 day, and be very fond of and true to them, too. But 
 they must have their dote, in order to settle respectably 
 in life, and they know it; so meanwhile they work 
 hard and spend next to nothing, except what their fami- 
 lies and sometimes their lovers contrive to squeeze 
 out of them. I know of two or three ex-bailarinas here 
 in Seville, and of one in Cadiz, where I was formerly in 
 command, who are married to good plodding fellows in 
 the Customs and Excise ; mothers of families, too, and 
 pinks of propriety. But they soon lose their bright looks 
 and lithesome gait when they take to respectability !" 
 
 On the whole, after living nearly a year in Spain, I 
 came to the conclusion that Spanish musical audiences 
 were amongst the most enthusiastic I had ever encoun- 
 tered ; but, as a rule, only when the music of their 
 predilection every phrase of which lends itself to the 
 practice of the sister-art, dancing constitutes the en- 
 tertainment provided for them. I have seen them sit, 
 frigid and silent, through excellent operatic perform- 
 ances ; and for classical compositions they have neither 
 inclination nor patience. In the national zarzuela a 
 sort of vaudeville, interlarded with saltatory episodes 
 they take the liveliest delight ; and no wonder, for more 
 
 VOL. i. c c
 
 386 BRITISH TOLERANCE. 
 
 amusing and better played pieces I have never seen, 
 even in Paris. But, when all is said and done, what 
 goes straight to their hearts is the seguidilla, in which 
 the strains they love and the steps they admire are 
 triumphantly combined. 
 
 Before concluding this chapter, I will venture to say 
 a very few words about that variety of English musical 
 audiences which is more particularly to be observed within 
 the walls of the London opera-houses. Nothing is more 
 eminently calculated to strike an observant Englishman 
 habitually resident abroad and visiting his native country 
 but rarely, than the growth of tolerance in general Lon- 
 don society with respect to advanced or eccentric 
 opinions. Pharisaism is still deeply rooted in British 
 soil, but its superficial growths, formerly so obtrusively 
 luxuriant, have been so mown and clipped by the shears 
 of science within the last twenty years, and so unmerci- 
 fully dealt with by the pruning-knives of free-thinking 
 litterateurs that they can only be seen here and there 
 cropping up in sparse tufts feeble caricatures of their 
 pristine vigour. Who, for instance, would have deemed 
 it possible a couple of decades ago that the lessee of Her 
 Majesty's Theatre would have obtained the Lord High 
 Chamberlain's permission to bring out an opera the first 
 scene of which is laid in the heaven of Christianity not 
 of Buddhism or Brahminism the entire action and in- 
 terest of that scene being centred in a wager between 
 the Deity and the Prince of Darkness respecting the ulti- 
 mate destination of a doubtful human soul ? Yet such was 
 the entertainment presented by Colonel Mapleson during 
 the 1880 season to the wealthy and aristocratic fee-
 
 *'LE ROI DE LAHORE." 387 
 
 quenters of his opera-house, and by them greeted with an 
 enthusiastic welcome, expressed in tempests of applause 
 such as I never before listened to within the walls of an 
 English theatre. Towards the end of June, 1879, when, 
 seated by Adelina Patti in her ground-tier box at Covent 
 Garden, I witnessed the production of Massenef's Roi de 
 Lahore, I could not help thinking that we English were 
 getting on apace in the way of emancipation from old- 
 fashioned prejudices and hallowed traditions ; for the 
 third act of that extremely remarkable work is also tran- 
 sacted in the celestial regions, its " leading business " 
 being appropriately confided to the First Person of the 
 Trinity, who promotes human souls to eternal bliss or 
 condemns them to its converse in solemn strains (to the 
 accompaniment obbligato of four trombones), seated on 
 his throne and surrounded by his angels cherubim and 
 seraphim who dance "ballets of rejoicing" whenever a 
 virtuous spirit obtains advancement or a sinner's ghost 
 is bundled off to the infernal regions. True, the Deity 
 thus presented on the boards is a member of the Brah- 
 minical, not of the Christian Trinity ; but, considering 
 that Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are devoutly worshipped 
 by many millions of British subjects, who hold them to 
 be the only true gods, it struck me that the lyric stage 
 of our Empire's capital was perhaps hardly the most 
 fitting place whereupon to exhibit even the Indian 
 Creator as a dramatic personage " with a song." The 
 role of the Omnipotent was rendered in an admirably 
 dignified manner by worthy old Capponi, a veteran 
 "heavy father" with a potent bass voice, excellently 
 suited to the majestic exponence of a mimic divinity's
 
 388 "MEFISTOFELE." 
 
 decrees ; and the surpassing humour of the whole episode 
 consisted in the circumstance that the crowded audience 
 (including several members of the Eoyal Family) was 
 obviously unconscious that anything unusual far less 
 irreverent or blasphemous was going on, and absolutely 
 insisted upon a repetition of one of the angels' ballets, 
 interrupting a divine recitative for that purpose. If 
 any one present happened to reflect that, after all, there 
 was something a trifle queer in representing heaven other 
 than the Olympian realm freely dealt with in several 
 modern operettas upon the boards of Covent Garden, he 
 or she probably jumped to the conclusion that " an Indian 
 god did not so much matter, especially when set to such 
 pretty music." To me the bass Deity and his capering 
 seraphs seemed to point unmistakably to the fact that 
 English convictions are far less stubborn than they were 
 in my youth, and that tolerance of trifling with sacred 
 personages and subjects, whether it be real or affected, 
 is become a fashionable institution in the upper classes, 
 at least, of British society. 
 
 The impression then conveyed to me was materially 
 strengthened by my experience of the reception accorded 
 by elite London audiences to Signer Boito's Mefistofele. 
 Not only was the above-alluded-to bet between God and 
 the Devil, with all its accessorial intermezzi of archan- 
 gelic fugal choruses and cherubic comments, in monotone, 
 upon the terms of the wager, rapturously applauded and 
 even redemanded, but Faust's singularly immoral adven- 
 tures in Greece, to which the fourth act of the opera is 
 devoted, elicited a deafening clamour of approval from 
 the spectators, as did that singularly dishonourable per-
 
 11 MEFISTOFELE." 389 
 
 son's final breach of faith with his infernal "guide, phi- 
 losopher and friend," which exhibits Faust himself as a 
 psychical swindler, and his august backer as by no means 
 an uncompromising advocate of fair play. No more 
 startling, and at the same time ludicrous, examples of 
 stage "business " had hitherto met my gaze than when 
 I saw Faust, upon Mephistopheles claiming the fulfilment 
 of his bond, snatch up a promiscuous Bible (for the pre- 
 sence of which upon his library table there is certainly 
 no warrant in Goethe's tragedy) and hold it up menac- 
 ingly before the very nose of the terror-stricken fiend, 
 who cowers, shrinks, and shivers, subjugated by its un- 
 called-for interference, and ultimately vanishes through 
 a practicable panel of the laboratory " set," driven from 
 his legitimate prey by a shower of rose-leaves, rained 
 upon the expiring voluptuary by seraph hands in the 
 flies. This amazing anti-climax, however, was not 
 greeted by the audience with shouts of derisive laughter, 
 according to its intrinsic merit, but with vociferous 
 plaudits, reiterated recalls of the leading actors, and a 
 thundering summons to the composer, who came on 
 between the Devil and Faust whilst the celestial petals 
 were still falling ! It should be remembered that this 
 performance took place in one of our two great opera- 
 houses, the lessees of which have been steadfastly pro- 
 hibited for years past and still are so by the Eoyal 
 censors from bringing out Eossini's Mose in Egitto, and 
 Rubinstein's Maccabaer, on the ground that the subjects 
 of those glorious operas are borrowed from Scripture a 
 circumstance constituting an insurmountable disability 
 as far as their production on the British stage is con-
 
 390 OUR OPERATIC FUTURE. 
 
 cerned. Permission, however, having been granted to 
 the enterprising Mapleson to represent heaven and hell 
 upon the boards of Her Majesty's, surely the day is not 
 far distant when we shall be allowed to contemplate 
 Moses in the full exercise of moral suasion upon Pharaoh 
 by means of ingenious mechanical miracles, got up "re- 
 gardless of expense ; " or to gloat over the incremation 
 of the three younger Maccabees, chanting loud hosannahs 
 on their way to the oven ; and the homicidal triumph of 
 Judah over Israel's unprincipled oppressors. Within a 
 few years doubtless the Passion plays at present drawing 
 crowded houses in the Ober Ammergau will be given at 
 Drury-lane, where they will be brilliantly stage-managed 
 by gallant Augustus Harris; and "Kevelations," deftly 
 travestied into a Christmas pantomime, will furnish de- 
 lectation to thousands of juveniles at the Alhambra with 
 its u entirely novel effects, gorgeous costumes, and 
 scenery of unprecedented splendour." 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 FaiKTKD BT J. 8. YIRTUK ASD CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON.
 
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