Mr. Pepys the Musician (Continued) Author(S): Francis Hueffer Source: the Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, Vol
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Mr. Pepys the Musician (Continued) Author(s): Francis Hueffer Source: The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, Vol. 22, No. 457 (Mar. 1, 1881), pp. 116-118 Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3359222 Accessed: 14-11-2015 01:20 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Musical Times Publications Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.252.67.66 on Sat, 14 Nov 2015 01:20:15 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 116 THE MUSICAL TIMES.-MARCH I, 1881. is one which requires great acting to do it hour upon the contemporary stage in a cleverly de- justice, and to awaken the human interest, monstrative manner. Time is the test of opinions, which, it must be confessed, does not lie on the and Mr. Pepys's utterances about the composers of surface, and which, in almost any other hands, his age have stood that test remarkably well-as we might easily fail to find expression. Herr Schott's shall see by-and-by. But first of all as to facts. Azim, was a creation of no less excellence. Gifted, There are in the Diary a number of curious entries as those of our readers who witnessed his per- referringto the mechanical appliances of the art, the formance of Lohengrin last winter in London various musical instrumentsfrom which our ancestors will remember, with a superb stage presence, he elicited sweet sounds in the days of the Restoration. looked the part to perfection, and sang the music To appreciate the historical or practical value of allotted to him most admirably, but the character is these pieces of information,the present writer knows not one to excite great interest. The central figure himself to be peculiarly incompetent. All he can do of the opera unfortunatelydid not find so satisfactory is to quote the words as they stand for the benefit of a representative. Doubtless the part of Mocanna is Mr. Hipkins, Mr. Carl Engel, and other learned men one of no ordinary difficulty,chiefly perhaps because, interested in these matters. by the face being covered, all expression is of neces- To begin with the king of instruments,the organ: sity confined to movements of the figure and limbs; here is a statement relating to the history of its but Herr Nollet, to whom the part was intrusted, vicissitudes in England. The following extract, although possessed of a powerful voice, has ex- dated November 4, 166o, will at the same time tremely little histrionic ability, and failed utterly illustrate the havoc the Commonwealth had made in his conception of the character. The parts of in the service-musical and otherwise-of the Fatima, Abdullah, the Watchman, and the Caliph Church :- were admirably filled by Frau Vizthum-Pauli and "Lord's Day. In the morn to our own church, Herren Bletzacher, Emge, and Von Milde respec- where Mr. Mills did begin to nibble at the Common tively. The chorus was very efficient, and the Prayer by saying 'Glory be to the Father,' etc., playing of the orchestra absolute perfection. The after he had read the two psalms; but the people whole opera was exceedingly well put upon the had been so little used to it that they could stage; the mountingof the second act especially being not tell what to answer. This declaration of the of unusual beauty. The evolutions of the ballet were King's do give the Presbyterians some satisfaction, extremelygraceful, being copied fromoriental dances; and a pretence to read the Common Prayer, which the dresses were a great relief fromthe conventional they would not do before because of their former costume, with its hideous contour, being long, almost preaching against it. After dinner to Westminster, reaching to the feet, and soft and flowing in outline, where I went to my Lord's, and having spake with with veils which were used with great effectivenessin him I went to the Abbey&where the first time that the dance. These dresses, and indeed those of all ever I heard the organs in a cathedral." the principal characters, were closely copied from The explanation of the last sentence is too obvious. Mr. Tenniel's illustrations to " Lalla Rookh." The ordinance passed by the Lords and Commons After the second and third acts, at the first per- on May 9, 1644, "for the further demolishing of formance, the composer and the chief singers were monuments of idolatry and superstition," contains a called repeatedly before the curtain; and at the special paragraph to the effect"that all organs and second performance, on the iith ult., the ultimate the frames and cases wherein they stand, in all success of the work was assured, the enthusiasm churches and chapels aforesaid, shall be taken away with which it was received being, if possible, still and utterlydefaced, and none others hereafter set up greater than that of the firstnight. in their places"; and Mr. Hopkins, who reprints the It is surely a matter for regret that a work of such ordinance in his exhaustive article on the "Organ " importance as this should have been first performed in Grove's " Dictionary," adds a description of how, in a foreigncountry, and that, with all our national "at Westminster Abbey, the soldiers brake down the taste for music, we should be unable as yet to point organs and pawned the pipes at several alehouses for to an institution where operas of a high class by pots of ale." native composers can be produced. It is to be hoped Immediately afterthe Restoration a new organ was however that, before long, our countrymenmay have erected in the Abbey, being, like that in the Chapel an opportunityof witnessing a performance of " The Royal-also mentioned by Pepys (July 8, i66o)-the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan " sung in the language work of Father Smith. It was a small instrument, to which it was originally composed. having cost only i12o, and stood on " the north side of the choir." These and other details may be found in that mine of valuable information,"The Organ; MR. THE PEPYS MUSICIAN its History and Construction," by Mr. Hopkins and BY FRANCIS HUEFFER. Dr. Rimbault. The followingfacts relating to the (Continuedfronmpage 68.) instrument on which Purcell played, and which Mr. III. Pepys heard, are found in the same work. According Music, as we have seen, was with Mr. Pepys a, to one account it was removed from the Abbey in matter of sentiment, a passion, but a passion not 1730, when the present organ by Schreider and Jor- wholly irrational, not altogether in the clouds, but dan was built. It was given or sold to the parish of founded on a sound basis of fact. To facts, as con- St. Margaret's, Westminster, and the remains of it, nected with the music of his time, this thirdPepysian lying for many years in the tower, were disposed of article shall be devoted; opinions must be left till a by the churchwardens about fortyor fiftyyears ago. later occasion. Not that these latter are, in this Another account states that it was removed to Vaux- particular instance, of no value, or even of less value hall Gardens, and was the instrumentin the orchestra than the bare record of things existing. On the con- of the Royal Gardens when they ceased to exist. trary, Mr. Pepys was a man of great taste and a It seems strange that Mr. Pepys, who was born in judicious critic, if ever there was one. There are 1632 and passed his early youth in or near London, critics who have acquired a world-wide reputation should, as he states in the passage last referredto, by being always wrong, by abusing genius before the not " rememberto have heard the organs and singing- world had acknowledged it, and by mistaking for men in surplices in my life." The explanation is giants the pigmies who manage to strutand frettheir probably that the boy was a staunch roundhead, This content downloaded from 128.252.67.66 on Sat, 14 Nov 2015 01:20:15 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE MUSICAL TIMES.-MARCH I, 188I. II7 although the man conformed to the more congenial and two children,whereof one a very prettylittle boy, tenets of the loyal Church. Mr. Pepys's early repub- like him, so fat and so black. Here I saw the organ, lican tendencies troubled him a good deal in later but it is too big for my house and the fashion do years, and there is an amusing account in the Diary not please me enough; and therefore I will not of how he meets a Mr. Christmas, an old schoolfellow, have it." and is much afraid "that he would have remembered Readers may care to know that the " fat and black" the words that I said the day the King was beheaded boy so unceremoniously introduced grew up to be (that were I to preach upon him my text should be an Irish judge, and a baronet of Queen Anne's ' The memory of the wicked shall rot '), but I found creation.