choose to conceal it.' It is essentially German: it breathes the sentimentality of Werther and Jean-Paul, unrelieved by the virile qualities so remarkable in the great German composers.

Spohr's taste was not catholic. It stopped at Mozart, only admitting, in a grudging manner, the first period of Beethoven. His judgment of Beethoven's later works is uncompromisingly unfavourable. The Ninth Symphony, he says, is atrocious, and the choral part wholly unworthy of its composer. It is difficult to reconcile this view with the high opinion he held of Wagner. The assumption that Spohr's judgment was misled by an inordinate vanity is by no means borne out by the tone of his diary. He there certainly indicates a pardonable sense of the merits of his own compositions, but always frankly admits their inferiority to those of Mozart. On the other hand, he is so naïf in his expressions of pleasure at the receipt of praise from others that one is disinclined to admit a doubt of the sincerity and simplicity of his character. Of the latter-day men he held Mendelssohn in high

esteem.

СА:

TAUSIG

1841-1871

ARL TAUSIG was the favourite pupil of Liszt, and some of Liszt's great characteristics were reproduced in Tausig in a vivid and intensified form, after being subjected to the formative influences of a strong individuality and a virile musical genius.

He was born at Warsaw in 1841, and was presented to Liszt at Weimar when he was fourteen years of age. The great man was peremptory in his refusal to accept any more pupils. The boy's father remonstrated; the maestro was inexorable. He did not wish to add to his engagements as a teacher; and he was especially resolved to have nothing to do with an infant prodigy-for somewhat in that character the boy's father recommended him to Liszt. 'There are so many of them,' said Liszt, and they never get beyond their infancy.'

Lo! a strange thing happened. While the

great master shook his leonine head with obdurate emphasis, and the father pleaded in vain, the sounds of a pianoforte reached them. The boy was pleading his own cause with the great master in a language that could not fail. He had stolen to the instrument unobserved, and, as his fingers wandered tremulously over the keys, the desire of his soul trembled into music. The mouth of the great master relaxed its stern expression, the lips quivered and parted with an expression of pleased surprise, the eyes shone with the soft light of newly awakened interest. The cause was won. 'I'll take him!' were the only words of the great master. The words had an import of life and joy. They embodied a rapturous devotion and enthusiasm for the happy boy at the pianoforte; they filled the grateful father's heart with gladness and a benison of thanks inexpressible.

Carl remained with Liszt for over five years, and a great friendship and camaraderie grew out of the initial relationship of master and pupil. The latter was faithful to his studies; erratic, careless, reckless in other respects, but when seated at the piano a stern and indomitable student. The kindly master was unremitting in his attention to the boy, viewed

his progress with an eye of critical admiration, and regarded his many grave escapades with mild indulgence and benevolent human sympathy. Tausig was Tausig was extravagant in money matters, and frequently resorted to the pawnbroker and the money-lender for aid. It is averred that on one occasion a score of Liszt's found its way, among a parcel of music-doubtless by accident-into the hands of the accommodating 'uncle.' Liszt got wind of the matter, and redeemed the manuscript, enjoining secrecy upon the broker, who was requested not to mention the affair to Carl, 'as it might hurt his feelings.'

When Tausig commenced his public career, about the year 1860, he created a great stir in the musical world. His technique was the theme of universal praise. Without being exactly second to that of Liszt, it was clear, powerful, and captivating. His style had intensity, passion, distinction; but there was headlong youth in it, and it lacked the repose inseparable from the highest expression of art. His faults of style, and the position he assumed as a violent adherent of Wagner and the extreme revolutionary school, militated against his immediate success, and disposed various critics to take sides against him.

Yet he speedily established his position as an artist of the highest rank, and no amount of criticism could serve to gainsay his genius, his power, or the growing ripeness and classical grandeur of his style. After a series of artistic tours, interspersed by temporary sojournings at Dresden and Vienna, he decided to take up his residence at Berlin, where in 1865 he established an academy for instruction of the pianoforte, which gained him fame and fair emoluments. Tausig was a man of great mental power, an eager student of science, and could boast considerable intellectual and artistic acquirements. As an instructor he became a great authority. The system of teaching inaugurated by him has been widely adopted by teachers; it reduces the technical part of pianoforte playing to a science such as could only have been conceived by a logical thinker and a man of superior methodical power. As a teacher he was almost brutal in his sternness. Tears nor sighs had any power to move him; no word of satisfaction ever passed his lips. He would stand over the trembling débutante (they were mostly girls) as if he were about to strike her. Terrible! Unheard of! Shocking!' were his mildest epithets. There ought to be soul in that music, child; soul! do you