Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) [Illustration: image of the book's cover] MEMORIES OF A MUSICAL LIFE [Illustration: WILLIAM MASON IN 1899] Memories of a Musical Life by William Mason [Illustration: colophon] NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. MCMII Copyright, 1900, 1901, by THE CENTURY CO. _Published October, 1901._ THE DEVINE PRESS. TO MY DAUGHTER MINA MASON VAN SINDEREN AT WHOSE REQUEST THESE MEMORIES HAVE BEEN WRITTEN CONTENTS PAGE EARLY DAYS IN NEW ENGLAND 3 Lowell Mason's Career 7 First Beethoven Symphony in America 8 Musical Conventions 9 Early Musical Training 10 Webster and Clay 11 First Public Appearance 18 Leopold de Meyer 19 "Father Heinrich" 22 An Embarrassing Experience 25 STUDENT LIFE ABROAD 27 Meeting with Meyerbeer 28 Liszt's Feat of Memory 31 First Meeting with Liszt 33 Arrival at Leipsic 34 Moscheles, Beethoven, and Chopin 36 The Intimacy of Moscheles and Mendelssohn 37 Schumann 38 Schumann's "Symphony No. 1, B Flat" 39 Schumann's Absent-mindedness 42 Moritz Hauptmann 44 A Visit to Wagner 48 Wagner on Mendelssohn and Beethoven 51 A Wagner Autograph 55 Moscheles 57 Joseph Joachim 62 Schumann's "Concerto in A Minor" 63 Carl Mayer 65 Dreyschock 66 Prince de Rohan's Dinner 71 Chopin, Henselt, and Thalberg 75