Part 1 (1/2)

Story-Lives of Great Musicians.

by Francis Jameson Rowbotham.

PREFACE

Following the plan of his previous volume of _Great Authors_, the writer has here endeavoured to weave into more or less story form a few of the facts and incidents in the lives of some great musicians.

It is hoped that young readers--and especially those to whom music is a subject of study--will take a greater interest in some of the masterpieces of composition when they have learnt something about the composers themselves, and the circ.u.mstances under which they wrote.

The author desires to express his acknowledgments for the a.s.sistance he has derived from the following works:

Grove's _Dictionary of Music and Musicians_; Bitter's _Life of Sebastian Bach_ (translated by J.E. Kay-Shuttleworth); Rockstro's _Life of George Frederick Handel_; Williams's _Handel_ in 'The Master Musicians'; Townsend's _Haydn_ in 'The Great Musicians'; Jahn's _W.A.

Mozart_ (translated by P.D. Townsend); Schindler's _Life of Beethoven_; Nohl's _Life of Beethoven_; von h.e.l.lborn's _Franz Schubert_ (translated by A.D. Coleridge); Benedict's _Sketch of the Life and Works of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy_; Hensel's _The Mendelssohn Family_; Hiller's _Mendelssohn: Letters and Recollections_; Devrient's _Recollections of F.M. Bartholdy_ (translated by C.N. Macfarren).

STORY-LIVES OF GREAT MUSICIANS

BACH

'Christoph, I wish you would let me have that book of ma.n.u.script music which you have in your cupboard--the one which contains pieces by Pachelbel, and Frohberger, and Buxtehude, and ever so many others--you know which I mean. I will take such care of it if you will only lend it to me for a little while.'

Christoph was about to leave the room, but he turned sharply to his little brother as the latter put his request.

'No, Sebastian, I will certainly not lend you the book, and I wonder that you have the impertinence to ask me such a thing! The idea of your thinking that you could study such masters as Buxtehude and Frohberger--a child like you! Get on with what I have set you to learn, and do not let me hear any more of such fancies!'

With that Christoph shut the door behind him, and Sebastian was left to ponder sadly upon his elder brother's harshness in refusing to accede to his simple request. The disappointment was very keen, for little Sebastian had been longing to get possession of that precious volume. For several days past he had spent hours in his brother's absence gazing at its covers through the lattice doors of the cupboard, and feasting his eyes upon the names of the musicians which were written on the back in bold letters in Christoph's hand.

[Ill.u.s.tration: '_Gazing at its covers through the lattice doors of the cupboard._']

What harm could there be in his _trying_ to play the works of those masters? It seemed so unreasonable to the ten-year-old child, for he was pa.s.sionately fond of music, and exceedingly quick at learning; yet Christoph persistently kept him to simple pieces such as he could master without the slightest difficulty, and which, therefore, afforded him no gratification whatever. He longed to be studying more advanced works, and there were times when this longing seemed insupportable--when the soul of this earnest child-musician rose in revolt against the tyrannical treatment of his elder brother.

Christoph's lack of appreciation of Sebastian's capacity and gift for music was, moreover, so marked as to crush the feelings of love and respect which otherwise would have found a place in Sebastian's heart for the brother whom the sad circ.u.mstances of his childhood had made his guardian.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BACH.

From photo RISCHGITZ.]

Johann Sebastian Bach, as the young musician was named, was an orphan.

Ten years before the period at which our story opens--on March 21, 1685--he had first seen the light in the long, low-roofed cottage, which is still standing in the little German town of Eisenach, nestling at the foot of the wooded heights which form part of the romantically beautiful district of the Thuringer Wald. It is a country abounding in legendary lore, which, taking its birth from the recesses of the interminable forest, and perpetuated in ballad, has for ages found a home in the sequestered valleys lying locked between the hills. On one of the latter, overlooking the town, stands the Wartburg, in which Luther made his home, and where he translated the Bible into the German tongue.

Sebastian's father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, organist of Eisenach, was the descendant of a long race of musicians of the name who had followed music not merely as a means of livelihood, but with the earnest desire of furthering its artistic aims. For close upon two hundred years before Sebastian was born the family of Bach had thus laboured to develop and improve their art in the only direction in which it was practised in the Germany of those days--namely, as a fitting accompaniment to the simple, but deeply devotional, services of the Lutheran Church. So greatly had the influence of this ancient and closely-united family made itself felt in regard to church music that at Erfurt, where its members had practised the art for generations, all musicians were known as 'the Bachs,' although no Bach had actually resided in the town for many years.

That Sebastian should have shown a fondness for music at a very early age is not, therefore, to be wondered at; but, beyond learning the violin from his father, he had not progressed far in his studies when, in his tenth year, he found himself bereft of both his parents and taken into the charge of his brother Christoph, who filled the post of organist at the neighbouring town of Ohrdruff. Christoph, who was fourteen years older than Sebastian, possessed nothing more than an ordinary amount of talent for music, and in addition lacked the sense to appreciate the gift which his little brother at once began to display in response to his teaching. To give Sebastian lessons on the clavier and send him to the Lyceum to learn Latin and singing and other school subjects seemed to Christoph to comprise the full extent of his responsibilities; but that Sebastian possessed genius which called for sympathy and encouragement at his hands appears only to have aroused in him a feeling of coldness and indifference, amounting at times to stern repression.

Beneath this shadow of ill-feeling Sebastian suffered in silence, but, fortunately, the force of his genius was too strong to be crushed, and the spirit which was lacking in his brother's lessons he supplied for himself. The injustice of the denial with which Christoph had met his request for the loan of the ma.n.u.script music-book had fired him with the determination to possess himself of the treasure at all costs, and even the drudgery of playing over and over again pieces which he already knew by heart appeared to him in the new light of stepping-stones to the attainment of his cherished desire. Yet for some time it was difficult to see how the book was to be abstracted without his brother's knowledge.

One night, long after the other inmates of the house had retired, Sebastian stood at the open cas.e.m.e.nt of his chamber, buried in thought. The moon was flooding the valley with her silvery light, rendering the most distant objects clear and distinct, and throwing into still deeper shadow the sombre hills which encompa.s.sed the town.

But the boy had no thoughts to bestow upon the music of the scene thus spread before his eyes; his mind was absorbed by a great project which he was resolved upon carrying out that night, and to which the presence of the moon lent a promise of success. Perfect stillness reigned in the house, and Sebastian, deeming that the opportune moment had arrived for embarking upon his venture, closed the cas.e.m.e.nt and crept softly downstairs to the parlour.