Part 20 (1/2)
Full of satisfaction at the idea of having made thirty ducats, and the friendly acquaintance of a great man, Mons. Schramm, at the exact hour of five, presented himself at the hotel of St. Petersburg, situated on the Jungfernstieg. With the violin in his hand, and the receipt for 500 ducats in his pocket, he demanded to speak to his Excellency the Baron De Strogonoff, Amba.s.sador from Russia, to the Court of St. James's-such being the address given him in the morning by the gentleman with the equipage. He was informed by the porter that he knew nothing of the said n.o.bleman, inasmuch as he had not come to their hotel. Mons. Schramm hereupon insists and grows warm; the servants gather round, and the dispute at length draws forth the master of the hotel, who pledges his word, in positive terms, that the Amba.s.sador in question is not at his establishment! Enquiry is then made at all the large hotels in the town-and, at all, the Baron De Strogonoff is unknown!
It was now high time for Mons. Schramm to consider himself as having been played upon! As for the rogues, they had so well concerted their measures, that all subsequent efforts to discover them proved abortive.
Mons. Schramm had full leisure for maledictions upon his own credulity and ultra-commercial spirit; nor did he very speedily get rid of the jests and gibes of his fellow-townsmen, at the piquant fact of his having paid so handsome a sum, for a fiddle that was not worth much more than a ducat!
_An apt Quotation._-The felicitous power of allusion which Dean Swift had at his command, was never more pointedly shown, than in his seizure of a line from Virgil, to _fit_ the circ.u.mstances of a certain domestic disaster. Relating from memory, I give but the outline of the story. A lady's gown (or _mantua_) accidentally caught fire, and damaged a gentleman's fiddle, which was lying unfortunately near it. The Dean, either witnessing the accident, or informed of it, exclaimed pathetically,
”_Mantua_, vae! miserae nimium vicina _Cremonae_!”
_The ”Leading Instrument” victorious._-Anseaume, a French gentleman, of very limited income, hired a small house at Bagnolet, and invited his friends once or twice a-week to come and amuse themselves there. On these occasions, each brought some provisions: one, wine; another, cold meat; another, patties; another, game. It unluckily happened that Anseaume, as absent in mind as straitened in his finances, had forgotten, for a whole year, to pay his rent. The landlord made a descent upon him, precisely on the day when his friends Colle, Panard, Piron, Gillet, the painter Watteau, the musician Degueville, and other epicures, had a.s.sembled there. These gentlemen, according to custom, had brought plenty of provender, but no money; and the landlord imperiously demanded his rent of two hundred crowns. What was to be done, in order to a.s.sist their friend? They immediately set about cooking the meat and poultry; they levied contributions on the fruit and vegetables of the gardens; Watteau drew a beautiful and inviting sign, and Degueville borrowed a _violin_ of the parish beadle; in short, they got up a _cabaret_ and _fete Champetre_. The appearance of these new cooks, who served their customers in habits of embroidered velvet, with swords by their sides, had a curious effect, and greatly diverted the company, which was so numerous, that the receipts amounted to five hundred crowns! Anseaume paid his landlord, and his distress was converted into joy and gladness. But now a question arose, that was discussed with no small earnestness and interest:-To which of his guests was the host most indebted? Those who played the part of cooks, declared that, without their labours, there would have been nothing for the public to eat; Watteau laid no little stress on the invitation held out by his sign; and Degueville insisted that, without his music, the people's attention would not have been drawn to the sign; and that, even if they had noticed it, and come in, there would have been no mirth and spirit, little eaten, and that little scantily and reluctantly paid for. The dispute began to grow warm, when Degueville seized the violin, played them all into good humour, and was, at length, allowed to be the victor!
_Sending for Time-Keepers._-In treating of the importance of adjusting the time of a composition to the sentiment and intention of the author, it is stated by Kandler, an able German writer, that Haydn was so offended at the rude and hurried manner in which he found his music driven by us English, when he first visited our country, as to send for the family of the Moralts from Vienna, to shew the Londoners the time and expression with which he intended his quartetts to be played.-Kiesewetter also, in leading Beethoven's symphonies at the Philharmonic Concert (although himself a performer who particularly shone in rapid playing), is said to have insisted upon their being executed more slowly than that orchestra had been accustomed to perform them.
_Musical Exaction._-A rich, but penurious personage, who somehow aspired to be thought a man of _taste_, was resolved, on one occasion, to make exhibition of this quality, by giving to his friends an entertainment of instrumental music. While the musicians were all at work, he seemed satisfied with the performance-but when the princ.i.p.al Violin came to be engaged upon an incidental solo, he enquired, in a towering pa.s.sion, why the others were remaining _idle_? ”It is a _pizzicato_ for one instrument,” replied the operator. ”I can't help that,” exclaimed the virtuoso, who was determined to have the worth of his money-”Let the trumpets _pizzicato_ along with you!”-This hopeful amateur may serve to recall the not unfamiliar anecdote about old Jacob Astley, of ”horse-theatre” celebrity, who observed a violinist in his band to be in a state of temporary cessation from playing, during the continued activity of the others, and asked him what he _meant_ by it. ”Why, sir, here's a _rest_ marked in my part-a rest of several bars.”-”_Rest!_”
shouted Astley (who had always a great horror of being imposed upon), ”don't tell me about _rest_, sir. I pay you to come here and _play_, sir, and not to _rest_!”
_A Device for a Dinner._-Doctor Arne once went to Cannons, the seat of the late Duke of Chandos, to a.s.sist at the performance of an oratorio in the Chapel of Whitchurch, but such was the throng of company, that no provisions were to be procured at the Duke's house. On going to the Chandos Arms, in the town of Edgeware, the Doctor made his way into the kitchen, where he found only a leg of mutton on the spit. This, the waiter informed him, was bespoken by a party of gentlemen. The Doctor (rubbing his elbow-his usual habit) exclaimed, ”I'll have that mutton-give me a _fiddle-string_.” He took the fiddle-string, cut it in pieces, and, privately sprinkling it over the mutton, walked out of the kitchen. Then, waiting very patiently till the waiter had served it up, he heard one of the gentlemen exclaim-”Waiter! this meat is full of _maggots_: take it away!” This was what the Doctor expected.-”Here, give it _me_.”-”O, sir,” says the waiter, ”you can't eat it-'tis full of maggots.”-”Nay, never mind,” cries the Doctor, ”fiddlers have strong stomachs.” So, bearing it away, and sc.r.a.ping off the catgut, he got a hearty dinner.
_A ”Practising” Coachman._-Too true it is that Nature has not gifted all mortals with a taste for music. Shakspeare tells us that the man who hath not music in his soul is fit for ”broils;” and the d.u.c.h.ess of Ragusa appears to have inclined to his opinion, if we may judge from an occurrence in which she was concerned some years since. Finding herself offended that the coachman of a certain Miss Ozenne, her neighbour, should practise the violin too much in the vicinity of her ducal ears, she summoned the lady, the coachman, and the violin, before the _Tribunal de Police_, for making a ”tapage injurieux et nocturne.” In vain the lady pleaded the right of her domestics to make musicians of themselves, if they could: the d.u.c.h.ess declared it was done solely and purely for her annoyance; the _Commissaire du Quartier_ declared that the noise consisted of ”sons aigus, bruyans, et dissonans;” and Miss Ozenne was condemned to be imprisoned one day, and to be fined to the amount of ten s.h.i.+llings.-(_New Monthly Magazine._)
_A Footman, to match._-”The following curiously ill.u.s.trative anecdote may be relied on. A few days since, a footman went into Mori's music-shop to buy a fiddle-string. While he was making his choice, a gentleman entered the shop, and began to examine various compositions for the violin. Among the rest, he found Paganini's celebrated ”Merveille-_Duo_ pour un _seul_ Violon,” and, perceiving the difficulties in which it abounded, asked the shopman if he thought that Mori himself could play it. The young man, a little perplexed, and unwilling to imply that his master's powers had any limit, replied that he had no doubt he could perform it, _provided_ he practised it for _a week_; upon which the footman, who stood intent on the conversation, broke in on the discourse, and swore that Mori could do no such thing, for that he himself had been practising the piece for _three weeks_, and could not play it yet!”-(_Harmonicon_, _May, 1830_.)
_A Royal ”Whereabout.”_-Salomon, who gave some lessons on the violin to George the Third, said one day to his august pupil, ”Fiddlers may be divided into three cla.s.ses: to the _first_ belong those who cannot play _at all_; to the _second_, those who play _badly_; and to the third, those who play _well_. You, Sire, have already reached the _second_.”
_Precocious Performers._-The violin, in the hands of _children_, has been often rendered the theme of astonishment. In the foregoing pages, many instances have been given of eminent players, whose powerful maturity was prefigured, in the display of genius made in their tender youth. Many blossoms there are, however, which _never_ pay their promise afterwards in fruit; and many an ”acute juvenal, voluble and full of grace,” has made early flourishes on the fiddle, that have led to nothing of value in his fuller years. Apropos of this too commonly observable disproportion, a French writer has the following epigram:-
SUR LES PRODIGES a LA MODE.
Plus merveilleux que nos ancetres, Ou peut-etre plus singuliers, A dix ans nous avons des maitres, Qui sont a vingt des ecoliers!
Which may be thus freely paraphrased:-
Our's is an age of wonders;-we behold Precocious prodigies, in pa.s.sing plenty: We have our _masters_, now, at ten years old,- But then-they sink to _scholars_, when they're twenty!
The Germans have an expressive denomination for these very early and forced exhibitants. They style them _wunderkind_, or wonder-children.
After hearing some violin variations rattled through at a Vienna Concert by a six-year old performer, son of a M. Birnbach, a prognosticator was heard to say, with a gravity that scarcely seemed unreasonable: ”Well! I foresee that, before many years are pa.s.sed, we shall have a symphony of Haydn's performed by babes in swaddling-clothes!”
As a matter of curiosity, I will here subjoin a few records of early feats, without attempting to distinguish those which may belong simply to the cla.s.s of _wunder-kinde_.
Weichsel, the brother of Mrs. Billington, played in public with his sister, when she was _six_ years old, and himself a year older-their instruments being the violin and the pianoforte.-Balfe, the singer and composer, made a kind of _debut_ as a juvenile violin-player (according to the _Harmonicon_) at a theatrical benefit.-Two Hungarian boys, of the name of Ebner, one ten and the other eleven, played some of Mayseder's difficult variations at a Concert at Berlin, in 1823.-A boy of twelve years of age, named Khayll, pupil of Jansa, introduced by Moscheles at a Concert at Vienna in 1827, played some admirable variations on the violin, in which he displayed an ease and solidity far beyond his years, and a great knowledge of his instrument.-At Limberg, in 1831, Apollinarino Conski, _five_ years old, surprised all hearers by his execution of a concerto of Maurer's; and the son of this last-named Artist, at the age of twelve, performed in the same year some of Mayseder's variations, at his father's Concerts at Berlin.
At Stutgardt, in 1831, the brothers Eickhorn, the elder _nine_, and the younger _seven_ years of age, gave a Concert at one of the saloons, and astonished not only the public in general, but the connoisseurs, by their early proficiency on that most difficult of instruments here under notice. The elder played variations by Mayseder and Rode, and a potpourri with his younger brother, composed by Jacobi-and some variations of k.u.mmer's.
In various towns of Switzerland, during the same year, the four brothers Koella, of Zurich, gave Concerts with great success. These boys were then respectively twelve, ten, nine, and seven years of age-”small by degrees, and beautifully less.” The elder played the violin and violoncello with great spirit and power; the third was a good tenor-player; and the youngest executed concertos of Viotti's! Their quartett-playing, however, was their strongest point.
Dr. Crotch, when about _five_ years old, was capable of fiddling, and after a fas.h.i.+on, too, by no means common to others-that is to say, _left-handed_.
_Fiddlers' Tricks._-In 1731, a Concert was announced at Hickford's room, for the benefit of Signor Castrucci, _first violin of the Opera_, who, as the advertis.e.m.e.nt stated, was to play, amongst other pieces, a solo, in which he would execute ”_twenty-four_” notes with one bow.” On the following day, this advertis.e.m.e.nt was burlesqued by another, in which was promised a solo by the _last violin of Goodman's Fields' Playhouse_, who would perform _twenty-five_ notes with one bow. Such a feat as either of these, would, in our own days, be nothing at all.
A Signor Angelo Casirola, of Tortona, mystified the good people of Milan, in 1825, by playing the _reverse_ way-that is, playing with _a fiddle_ upon _a bow_! His plan was to fasten the bow in an upright position upon a table, and play upon it with the violin, according to the best manner in which he could manage to ”rub on.” The effect was unpleasing, both to ear and eye. Another of his tricks was a _sonata scherzosa_, for which he had two violins _fixed_, with the heads screwed on a table, and then worked away right and left, with a bow in each hand, accompanied by a full orchestra. He fooled his audience to the top of their bent, and was applauded to the very echo! It might a.s.sist the gratification of the gapers after novelty, if the thaumaturgist, operating with his left hand, as usual, on the finger-board of his instrument, were to have the _bow_ held and worked by _another person_.