Letters of Distinguished Musicians
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This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. http://books.google.com Lettersofdistinguishedmusicians:Gluck,Haydn,P.E.Bach,Weber,Mendelssohn LudwigNohl,ChristophWillibaldGluck(Rittervon),JosephHaydn,CarlPhilippEmanuelBach,MariavonWeber,FelixMendelssohn-Bartholdy \CD.A Ibarvarb GoHese library FROM THE BEQUEST OF CHARLES SUMMER CLASS OF 1830 SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS FOR BOOKS RELATING TO POLITICS AND FINE ARTS MUSIC LIBRARY LETTERS OP GLTTCK, HAYDN, P. E. BACH, WEBER, AND MENDELSSOHN. LOWDOIT PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODB AMD CO. NEW-STBEET SQUARE J O H . C M K>™ T, 6LDCK. London . Lei: , G LETTERS OF DISTINGUISHED MUSICIANS: GLUCK, HAYDN, P. E. BACH, WEBER, MENDELSSOHN. ' TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY LADY WALLACE. V.0 LONDON: LONGMANS, GRE EN, AND CO. 1867. OCT 8 1885 TEANSLATOE'S PEEFACE. The present volume contains some unpublished letters of Mendelssohn, which cannot fail to be welcomed by those who have learnt to know and to love him by reading the series of Letters long since published. Those letters possessed for all readers a singular charm, attesting a purity of thought, a vigour of fancy, and a rectitude of life rarely indeed surpassed. In them was seen the lover of beauty in all its forms, the painter and the poet whose gifts culminated in music, the great artist who, without a mission or a party, wrote down his thoughts faithfully and ingenuously as they arose within him. It was no exaggerated praise which affirmed that ' nothing more perfect than these letters has ever fallen from the pen even of those whose pen is their only instrument.' The letters now for the first time given to the public exhibit Mendelssohn as he was when he appeared in ». vi TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. England,— full of life, joy, and animation, even at a time when the bodily powers were in great part exhausted. It was this singularly pure, bright, and genial character which awakened the interest felt in this country for any memorials of a man so gifted and so guileless. But although Mendelssohn was the first great German musician whom English readers learnt to value as much for their writings as for their musical works, he was not the only one whose career, so far as it was known, enlisted the sympathies or admiration of all who appreciate true greatness. Through a longer life Beethoven had struggled with greater difficulties than fell, happily, to Mendelssohn's lot ; and his deafness gave him a claim on public reverence not less than that which blindness conferred on Milton. With natural powers almost more dazzling, with a play of fancy and a vigour of imagination not less wonderful, Mozart had died, like Mendelssohn, at the age of thirty-seven. The expectation was not disappointed that the lives of these men, if they could speak in their own persons, would present materials well worthy of careful thought. The letters of Beethoven exhibited a character in which the highest artistic genius was combined with unswerv ing integrity and an indomitable tenacity of purpose. Those of Mozart bring before us a being full of beauty and grace alike in mind and in person, but having to fight his way among men as much beneath him intellectually TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. Vll as iu rank they were above him, and to struggle with a poverty which his disposition left him little able to cope with. The affectionate cheerfulness which rarely flagged under constant anxieties, adds greatly to the charm of these letters, and heightens the pathos of his bright but brief career. A mournful interest gathers round the closing days of his life ; but, in spite of their dreariness, the reader feels that one who had done so much to delight his fellow-men for ever was not without his reward. The volume now placed before the English reader has been compiled and translated under the conviction that the lives of other musicians may awaken an inte rest as real, if not, perhaps, so deep or so acute, as those of Beethoven, Mozart, and Mendelssohn. The name of GLUCK is associated with a revolution in music. He propounded principles which were generally un acceptable, and he never faltered in what he supposed to be his duty. His letters tell the story of a man assured of the truth of his convictions, and not less sure that these convictions would in the sequel be received as undoubted principles of the art and science of music. Of the letters of CARL P. E. BACH it may be enough to say that they are not unworthy of the son of so great a father. Those of HAYDN will probably carry with Vlll TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. them for English readers a higher interest, will bring before them a man in whom great powers were com bined with a genuine simplicity of character, and will enable them to appreciate more thoroughly the mental strength which at an age of more than sixty years could produce such works as the Creation and the Seasons. The letters of Carl von Weber, contained in this series, are addressed with few exceptions to his most intimate friend, and may thus be regarded as intro ducing us to his inmost thoughts. If they do not im part much new information about his opinions, it must be remembered that he was known scarcely less as a writer than as a musician. This volume is illustrated with portraits of Gluck, of Haydn, and of Weber, the latter having been kindly lent for the purpose by the possessor, Dr. Ayling. October 1867. PREFACE. A perusal of the letters of celebrated musicians con fers on us not only the enjoyment of a closer per sonal knowledge of the writers, but also possesses the advantage of enabling us to trace more correctly the connection between their works and their spiritual life. The recognition of the value of letters from musical men was first awakened in more extended circles by the publication of those of Mozart and Beethoven, which quickly gained the sympathies both of the public at large and of men of letters. We do not doubt, therefore, that this fresh collection will also meet with a kind reception from musicians and lovers of music ; and though a very small group of the distinguished musi cians of the last century is here represented, yet the number of the letters and documents given amply suffices to afford a complete insight into the peculiarities of each master. The series appropriately opens with Christopher Willibald Ritter von Gluck, the great reformer — this X PREFACE. master being not only the first earnestly to combine music with universal spiritual life, but, above all, the first to set forth these, his innovations, with clear conviction, striving also to expound his doctrine in plain speech. His method and his principles, being based on the true essence of art, more especially as regards the Drama, can never lose either their truth or their value. The manner, too, in which he expresses his ideas, in thoughtful words with calm deliberation, and persist ent energy, cannot fail in many ways to excite fresh interest in these questions at the present day, when a new form of dramatic music is once more in the course of development. Gluck's written effusions, ex pressive of his ideas and tendencies, are here given for the first time in as complete a form as possible, and it is surprising to see how true and striking the expressions of the great man are, nearly without exception, and that it is his still surviving spirit that animates the finest artistic efforts of the day, and aids in the pro duction of new works of genius. Almost every word of his seems as if only recently uttered, on subjects, too, which at this very moment possess the most vital interest for us ; the imperishable charm of Truth still lives in Gluck. Notwithstanding every effort and research, what we now offer of Gluck's contemporary, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, is much less valuable and important, PREFACE. XI both in number and in substance. The highly gifted son of the great .Tohann Sebastian may also be called a reformer in his day ; carrying out in his peculiar style the work of the talented Domenico Scarlatti, with intel lectual cultivation and heartfelt enthusiasm. He may with justice be designated as the founder of pianoforte music, in the same way that Gluck is that of the Musical Drama. His reforms, however, are not so clear and palpable in spiritual things as those of Gluck, who, in his analysis, invariably quotes the text of his operas, and is always prepared to portray with the most perfect lucidity the intentions of each of his works. But though C. Ph. Em. Bach's letters chiefly treat of the form of his artistic productions, still his whole mode of expressing himself has so much of universal interest, and of striking truth, that the large circle of the music-loving public cannot fail to have their sympathies enlisted. Indeed, the science and the esthetics of this art will here find many solid materials to complete the still unfinished bridge between the substance of music, and of spiritual life. JOSEPH HAYDN ! Whose heart has not been a hundred times gladdened by him, both in bright and sorrowful moods — who has not keenly felt the charm of his in genuous natural style ? From him we do not expect special reflections on his art and its effects— yet, in first learning thoroughly to know and to prize the man Xll PREFACE.