Part 7

Outside of his own home Robert Schumann was a very silent man. It is said that he once went to a friend's house, entered the music room with a friendly nod, went straight to the piano, and opened it, softly whistling the while. Seating himself, he played a few chords, followed by a charming melody, closed the piano, and walked out, nodding his head in a friendly way. Then off he went without a word to any one.

Although at different times Schumann lived in various cities, most of his compositions were written in Leipzig. He was a hard worker, in one year writing thirty pieces of music. Some of his well-known compositions are _The Pilgrimage of the Rose_, the music for _Faust_, and the music for Byron's _Manfred_.

In 1845 Schumann was obliged to leave Leipzig on account of failing health. He chose Dresden for his home. He heard no music, for his doctor had forbidden it. He led a very quiet life, seeing few friends. It was at that time that he made the acquaintance of Richard Wagner. At the end of the year his health was much improved. He took up his work once more and wrote his second symphony.

During the next eight years Schumann wrote many beautiful compositions. He lost much time, however, on account of ill-health.

Two years before his death, Schumann and his wife took a trip through Holland. The composer was very much pleased to find that the Dutch people knew his music and loved it well.

On his return to the Fatherland, his health failed utterly. His mind, which had not been strong for some time, grew weaker day by day. During the last months of his life he spent much time at his beloved piano. He died in 1856 and was buried in Bonn.

FRANZ PETER SCHUBERT

(1797-1828)

God sent his singers upon earth With songs of gladness and of mirth, That they might touch the hearts of men And bring them back to heaven again.

--LONGFELLOW.

[Music: (Hark, Hark! the Lark.) Hark, hark! the lark at Heav'n's gate sings, And Phoebus 'gins to rise.]

One winter's night in 1797 a little child was born in Vienna. He was called Franz Peter, and his father was Schubert the schoolmaster. The home into which the child came was one of poverty. There was a large family of children to be cared for, and there was but little money with which to feed and clothe them.

On the day that Franz Schubert was born in that humble home, Haydn was sixty-five years of age, and the great Beethoven was a young man of twenty-seven. Mozart had passed away six years before. Little did Schoolmaster Schubert and his good wife dream that their little son would one day make the name Schubert as famous as any of these.

Famous, indeed, did the family name become through Franz Peter. And to-day, if you were to visit Vienna, you would find his first home marked with a gray stone tablet. Carved into the marble are words meaning _Birthplace of Franz Schubert_.

Franz started to school when he was six years old. A year or two later he began the study of music. His teacher soon found that the boy already knew a great deal. At the close of a lesson one day, he said to the child, "Who has been your music teacher?"

"May it please you, I have had none but yourself."

"How, then, have you learned so much about music?"

Then the boy told his story. He said that a playmate of his was an apprentice in a piano factory. Franz often begged to be allowed to go to the shop. At last his friend said, "You may go with me just this once." When he was ready to go home, Franz could not be found in the workshop. The apprentice hurried from one room to another. At last he found the little lad in the room where the pianos stood. He had been having a delightful time, picking out exercises on the white keys. Many times after that he went to the piano factory. Soon he had taught himself all that most children learn in a great many lessons.

The boy's singing teacher often said to the schoolmaster, "I have never before had such a pupil." One day he came to the father with tears in his eyes, saying, "Whenever I want to teach Franz anything, I find he knows it already."

The boy's father was anxious that Franz should become a member of the choir in the emperor's chapel. Those who sang in the choir first passed an examination in music. Then they were allowed to enter a school where music and other studies were taught.

Franz often saw the choir boys in their uniforms trimmed with bands of gold, and studied harder that he might one day enter the choir. When he was eleven years old, he passed the examination. The chapel master said, "You sing well, indeed, my boy."

When Franz arose to sing for the chapel masters, some of the boys began to point their fingers at his poor clothes. Franz could hear them whispering among themselves, "He must be a miller's son." When he began to sing, the whispering ceased. The sweet, pure tones filled the great room and the silence was unbroken.

One day the chapel master saw some music that Franz had composed. He said to himself "Franz Schubert is no ordinary child. He must study composition in earnest. He shall have the finest harmony teacher."

Franz and his new teacher became fast friends. The lad was eager to learn, but the master found little to teach. He used to say, "He has already learned everything, and God has been his teacher."

During the years that Franz attended the choir school it was his custom to visit his parents on Sunday afternoon. The schoolmaster and three of his sons had formed a quartet. The father played the violoncello, Franz the viola, and the others the first and second violins.

Although Franz was the youngest, he was the first to notice a mistake. If it was one of his brothers who made the mistake, Franz would frown. If it was the father who played a wrong note, no notice of it was taken the first time. If he played incorrectly the second time, Franz would smile and say modestly, "There must be something wrong, father."

THE WRITER OF SWEET SONGS

It was in 1813, when Franz Schubert was sixteen years old, that a great change came into his life. His voice lost its purity and sweetness. He could no longer reach the high notes with ease. For these reasons he was obliged to leave the chapel choir.

The boy knew that he must earn his own living. He became an assistant in his father's school. There, day after day, for three years, he taught the little children their A B C's. He did not enjoy his work, and the moment school was over he busied himself with something far dearer to him than teaching. Composition was his heart's delight, and he spent all his leisure time in writing music.

One of the best compositions of his early years was a mass in F. It was given in a large church, where Franz went to hear it. It so happened that his old teacher was there and heard the young man's music with great pleasure. At the close of the mass, he came hurrying to his friend, exclaiming, "Franz, you are my pupil--one who will do me much honor!"

Teaching and being taught--that was the way in which young Schubert spent a year or two after he left the emperor's chapel. Teaching the primer class in his father's school and being taught the science of writing music was the work which filled his hours.

Many of Franz Peter's friends spent their leisure time in outdoor games. Should you not think that young Schubert would have been glad to join them when school was over? He often wished that he might join his comrades, but he would say: "No, I can not go. There is much work to be done."

Few composers ever spent so busy a year as did Schubert in 1815. Indeed, it was the busiest year of his life. In those twelve months he composed church music, operas, symphonies, and a hundred songs. He never wrote songs more tender or sweet than those written at that period.

Often, when Schubert read a poem that pleased him, he set it to music. The words of many of his songs are the poems of some of the best German writers. He was particularly fond of Goethe's works and set many of his poems to music. The words of two of Schubert's most beautiful songs, _The Erl King_ and _Gretchen at her Spinning Wheel_, were written by Goethe.

Although Schubert wrote so many beautiful songs, the German people knew little about them. Perhaps they might never have known them well, had it not been for a good friend of Schubert's. This man was a singer. He admired Schubert's songs and sang them well. In fact, he sang them at almost every concert in which he appeared. He it was who first gave _The Erl King_ in public.

There is a story telling how Schubert chanced to write the well-known song, _Hark, Hark, the Lark_. Returning one evening in July from a long walk, he strolled into the park to rest. On one of the benches he found a friend reading Shakespeare. When his friend had finished reading, Schubert picked up the volume. Idly turning the pages, his eye fell upon the verses beginning, "Hark, hark, the lark at heaven's gate sings."

As he read, music fitting the words passed through his mind. Hastily taking pencil and paper, he drew the staves, and, without once glancing up, he wrote every note of the music.

Schubert had only a few friends, but these were near and dear to him. The "King of Song," as we sometimes call him, was a man unselfish and true. To the last days of his life he was poor. He never complained, nor was he sad on this account.

In many respects, Franz Peter Schubert had a different life from most other great composers. He never played at the courts of queens and emperors. He was never given diamonds or other costly presents. He seldom played at concerts. He never had the joy of hearing his compositions cheered again and again. He never saw an audience sit silent under the charm of his music.

Many songs that Schubert wrote have never been published. Among his best-known works are _The Wanderer_, _Hedge Roses_, _The Wanderer's Night Song_, _The Pilgrim_, _Prayer before the Battle_, and the _Slumber Song_. He also set to music Scott's _Lady of the Lake_.

We must not forget that, although Schubert is best known as a song writer, he also wrote much exquisite instrumental music. One of the loveliest compositions for the piano is the _Serenade_. Many serenades have been written, but no other is so lovely as Schubert's _Serenade_.

Although Schubert and Beethoven lived at the same time, they seldom saw each other. It was during Beethoven's last illness that he first came to know Schubert's compositions. A friend brought him a number of Schubert's songs to read, and the master was delighted. In the procession of friends at Beethoven's funeral, Schubert was one of the torch-bearers.

Scarcely a year had passed before Schubert, too, had passed away. He was buried in Vienna, near the graves of Mozart and Beethoven. A stately monument marks the last resting place of "The Writer of Sweet Songs."

[Music: (The Erl King.) Who rides there so late thro' night so wild?

A loving father with his young child.]

HEDGE ROSES

Once a boy a wild rose spied, In the hedgerow growing; Fresh in all her youthful pride, When her beauties he descried, Joy in his heart was glowing. Little wild rose, wild rose red, In the hedgerow growing.

Said the boy, "I'll gather thee, In the hedgerow growing!" Said the rose, "Then I'll pierce thee That thou may'st remember me." Thus reproof bestowing. Little wild rose, wild rose red, In the hedgerow growing.

Thoughtlessly he pulled the rose, In the hedgerow growing; But her thorns their spears oppose. Vainly he laments his woes, With pain his hand is glowing. Little wild rose, wild rose red, In the hedgerow growing.

--GOETHE.

THE WANDERER'S NIGHT SONG

Night descends in peace o'er the trees, Each trembling leaflet, e'en the breeze, Hath slumber blest. The little birds cease their ev'ning song. Wait awhile, wait awhile, ere long Thou too shalt rest; Wait awhile, wait awhile, ere long Thou too shalt rest.

--GOETHE.

RICHARD WAGNER

(1813-1883)

EARLY LIFE OF WAGNER

[Music: (Die Walküre.) (Sword Motif.)]

Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig, in 1813. He was the youngest of a family of nine children. His father died when Richard was only a baby. Mrs. Wagner was left with a large family of little children to care for. Her eldest son was a lad of but fourteen years of age.

After her husband's death, Mrs. Wagner received a small pension from the government. She was a thrifty little woman and made the best use of every penny of her small income. It was not sufficient, however, to feed and clothe her large family of boys and girls.

An old friend of the father came to her aid. He helped the Wagner children in many ways. In 1815 he became their stepfather. Shortly afterward they moved to Dresden. The children's new father was an actor, and he had been appointed to a position in the Royal Theater in that city. In a few years the four eldest brothers and sisters became actors also.

The boy, Richard, heard nothing talked about so much as music and the theater. When he was allowed to go to the theater he clapped his hands for joy. When his mother thought it best that he should stay at home, he was sometimes naughty. He would stand in a corner and cry.

Richard was a delicate child and on this account was greatly petted. Up to the time that he was nine years old, he had no lessons either at school or at home. He spent his time with his stepfather. The two good friends took many long rambles into the woods. On these little trips Richard took a sketch-book and pencil. His father tried to teach the boy to draw, but soon made up his mind that Richard would never become an artist.

At that time almost every family in Germany had a piano. There was one in the Wagner household. Richard's mother managed to give her little daughters music lessons, but Richard had none. He was not even taught his notes. He sometimes fingered and thumbed the keyboard as every boy likes to do. The bits of music that he could play he had learned by ear.

He heard his sisters practicing their music lessons. He liked one piece that they played better than any other. It was a wedding song. He heard it played so often, that he could hum it to himself. One day, when alone, he went to the piano and tried to play it. The first time he was not pleased with his efforts; but the second time he could play it perfectly. His mother, overhearing, stopped her work to listen.

Richard's stepfather was ill at this time. When his wife told him how well the boy had played the wedding song, he was delighted. Richard was asked to play it again. He did so, and his father said, "Can it be that the child has a talent for music?"

Soon after the stepfather died. As Richard grew to manhood his father's words came back to him again and again. It was six years, however, before he began really to work at music.

In 1822 it was decided that Richard should attend a boy's school in Dresden. For some time his uncle had been helping the lad with his lessons. He was to enter a school that he might have more studies.

School opened on the 22d of December. The Wagner children were all busy preparing for the Christmas tree. The three days before Christmas were always such happy days in this German home. Richard did not wish to begin school until after the holidays; so he coaxed and pleaded to stay at home. His wise mother would not give her consent, for she did not wish him to miss even a day at school. But he begged that he might just help trim the tree, and was allowed to rise at dawn to do his share.

Richard Wagner always spoke very tenderly of his mother. He called her his "dear little mother." In after years he said to a friend: "I can not see a lighted Christmas tree without thinking of my mother. I can not keep the tears back when I remember how she toiled to give her children pleasure."

At school, Greek was Richard's favorite study. He liked history and geography also. He was a patient worker, and never gave up a point before he had mastered it. For five years he remained at the school in Dresden, working so well that he became a favorite with his teachers. During these years he had a few piano lessons, but made little progress.

In 1827 Richard's mother moved to Leipzig, and for three years the boy attended school there. Later he entered the university in that city.

When Richard was about fifteen years old, he listened to some of Beethoven's music for the first time. The boy thought the symphonies of that great composer were the most beautiful that he had ever heard. They ran through his mind all the day, and he dreamed of them at night. He thought Beethoven the greatest composer in the world. He longed to be like him. Richard now decided how his life should be spent; he, too, would be a musician.

Then for the first time young Wagner worked at his music in earnest. He had an excellent teacher who encouraged the boy to do his best. The lad soon began to write music. Beethoven, the great composer, was his daily study. He knew much of the master's music by heart. The _Ninth Symphony_ was his especial favorite.

[Music: (Siegfried) Siegfried's Horn Call.]

WAGNER AND HIS WORK

The early years of Wagner's manhood were spent in different cities of Germany. Sometimes he was leader of a chorus. Sometimes he was composing operas. At all times he had a hard struggle to support himself. His compositions were not popular, for no one had ever written such music before, and the people could not understand it.

It was while Wagner was managing an opera company in a small German town that he was married. He and his wife soon went to the eastern part of Germany, but did not remain there long. They were heavily in debt. Wagner was paid little for his work and had no idea how to save his earnings.

Stories reached his ears of the large sums of money which composers received for their work in Paris. He resolved to go to France. In Paris he met with disappointments and failures. He had wished to have one of his operas sung there, feeling sure that the French people would admire his music after hearing it. But the Paris opera company would not even consent to sing it.

Then Wagner tried to obtain some position as a musician. He was willing to take the poorest appointment and do the hardest work, but he failed. For many months the Wagners, sad and lonely, lived in Paris.

After three weary years in France, Wagner returned to his native country. How happy he was to see the land of the Rhine! He said to his wife, "Is it not good to be in the Fatherland again?"

When he lived in Paris, he wrote an opera and sent it to Dresden. It was accepted and the opera company of that city sent for Wagner to come to take charge of the music. This took place in 1842. Three years before, he had left Germany because the people did not care for his music. Now, they were glad and proud to welcome him on his return from France.

After several weeks, all was ready for the first performance of Wagner's opera. The theater was crowded. The singers who took part had said much in praise of the music, and every one was anxious to hear it. They were not disappointed. Indeed, they all praised it highly, and Wagner became the hero of the hour.

Not long after this, another of Wagner's operas was sung in Dresden. It is called _The Flying Dutchman_. It was so well liked that every one in the city was glad to honor the composer. That made Wagner very happy. His life was filled with joy, for he was doing the work that he loved. How different were these days from those spent in Paris--those days of hunger and poverty! Now that all was sunshine and happiness, Wagner's life in France seemed like a bad dream.

_Tannhäuser_, one of Wagner's greatest operas, was written in Dresden. Sung for the first time in 1845, it was even better liked than his first two operas. After it had been given, people stopped the composer on the streets to give him words of praise.

The best loved of all Wagner's works is _Lohengrin_. Not only in Europe is this opera known and loved, but in America as well.

In 1848 Wagner was obliged to leave the country on account of political troubles. Switzerland became his home. The beautiful scenery there afforded the composer much pleasure. The snow-capped Alps could be seen all about, and in many places clear mountain lakes reflected the blue skies above.

Wagner lived in Switzerland about ten years. In that time he composed several operas. He wrote not only the music for these operas, but the words as well. The words alone form beautiful poems. Four of the operas written in Switzerland tell the old fairy story of the gold hidden at the bottom of the Rhine. Indeed, the first one of them is called _The Rhinegold_. Richard Wagner put the legend into poetry and then composed exquisite music to fit the words.

While Wagner was in Switzerland, the German people were learning to love his music more and more. You remember that _Lohengrin_ was written just before he left Germany. At that time it had not been sung.

Franz Liszt, a friend of Wagner's, became greatly interested in _Lohengrin_. Under his direction it was sung in a small town. All who heard it liked the beautiful story and still more beautiful music. Soon nearly every one in Germany had heard _Lohengrin_, the beautiful opera of the Swan Knight.

Wagner, far from home, was cheered by the news that his opera was well liked. He longed to hear it himself. He said: "Nearly every German has heard _Lohengrin_. Soon I shall be the only one who has not heard it."

After many years Wagner returned to the Fatherland. He and the king of Bavaria became great friends. The king had heard _Lohengrin_ sung many times. It was his favorite opera. It is said that he used to dress himself in armor like Lohengrin's and sail about the lake in a swan boat for hours at a time.

The king thought the theaters in Germany were not well built. He thought that a special opera house should be erected in which Wagner's operas could be given. Plans were made and a model opera house was built.

Many people throughout Germany became interested in Wagner's opera house, as it was called. The money that they gave, with the sum given by the king, paid for the building. The building, which Wagner himself planned, is still used, and Wagner's operas are still sung there.

The last opera that Wagner composed is called _Parsifal_. Many think it is finer even than _The Rhinegold_ and _Lohengrin_. Like _Lohengrin_ it tells a story of the Holy Grail.

In 1870 Wagner was married for the second time. The last years of his life were spent in Venice, with his wife and children. Theirs was a bright and happy home, for the gentle Wagner was a kind and loving father. All the people of Venice loved him. In a short time all the poor and needy of the city knew the great-hearted man, for he was ever ready to help those in trouble.

Wagner's unselfish life and sweet character won him many friends. At his death people on both sides of the Atlantic mourned for him.

The great composer died in Venice, and his body was taken to Germany for burial. At every station on the way to Germany, fresh flowers were scattered on the casket. The king sent a beautiful wreath, on which were words meaning, _To the Deathless One_.

[Music: (The Rhinegold.) (Motif.)]

LOHENGRIN

_The Holy Grail_

An old, old story of the cup from which Christ drank has come down to us through the ages. This cup was called the Holy Grail. At Christ's death an angel bore the cup away. It was taken to a far-off castle, where it was hidden from the sight of men.