As a composer Joachim did but little in his later years, and the works
of his earlier life never attained the public success which, in the
opinion of many, they deserve (see MUSIC). They undoubtedly have a
certain austerity of character which does not appeal to every hearer,
but they are full of beauty of a grave and dignified kind; and in such
things as his "Hungarian concerto" for his own instrument the utmost
degree of difficulty is combined with great charm of melodic treatment.
The "romance" in B flat for violin and the variations for violin and
orchestra are among his finest things, and the noble overture in memory
of Kleist, as well as the scena for mezzo soprano from Schiller's
_Demetrius_, show a wonderful degree of skill in orchestration as well
as originality of thought. Joachim's place in musical history as a
composer can only be properly appreciated in the light of his intimate
relations with Brahms, with whom he studiously refrained from putting
himself into independent rivalry, and to whose work as a composer he
gave the co-operation of one who might himself have ranked as a master.
There are admirable portraits of Joachim by G. F. Watts (1866) and by
J. S. Sargent (1904), the latter presented to him on the 16th of May
1904, at the celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of his first
appearance in England.
JOAN, a mythical female pope, who is usually placed between Leo IV.
(847-855) and Benedict III. (855-858). One account has it that she was
born in England, another in Germany of English parents. After an
education at Cologne, she fell in love with a Benedictine monk and fled
with him to Athens disguised as a man. On his death she went to Rome
under the alias of Joannes Anglicus (John of England), and entered the
priesthood, eventually receiving a cardinal's hat. She was elected pope
under the title of John VIII., and died in childbirth during a papal
procession.
A French Dominican, Steven of Bourbon (d. c. 1261) gives the legend in
his _Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit_. He is believed to have derived
it from an earlier writer. More than a hundred authors between the
13th and 17th centuries gave circulation to the myth. Its explosion
was first seriously undertaken by David Blondel, a French Calvinist,
in his _Éclaircissement de la question si une femme a été assise au
siège papal de Rome_ (1647); and _De Joanna Papissa_ (1657). The
refutation was completed by Johann Dollinger in his _Papstfabeln des
Mittelalters_ (1863; Eng. trans. 1872).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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