The Strand Magazine, Vol. 27, Issue 160, April, 1904Various
General
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 27, Issue 160, April, 1904
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
The next picture shows us Sebastian Bach, "the father of all music,"
playing before Frederick the Great. The painter has chosen the moment when
the King is giving Bach a theme on which to improvise. This theme, "a right
royal one," as Bach called it, was afterwards worked out by him and sent
back to the King, under the name of "A Musical Sacrifice." The King, who
was himself a remarkable musician, had shown Bach the greatest
appreciation, and this visit to Potsdam seems to have been one of the
happiest events in Bach's life. Those who are inclined to regard Frederick,
in his musical capacity, as no better than a _dilettante_ flute-player
would do well to remember that he was among the first to recognise and to
encourage the genius of one of the greatest musicians of all time. Yet
Bach's greater works remained in manuscript, and it was left to musicians
of a later period--especially to Mendelssohn--to unearth and make them
known to the world at large.
[Illustration: "FREDERICK THE GREAT AND SEBASTIAN BACH."
FROM THE PICTURE BY CARL RÖHLING.
By permission of the Berlin Photographic Company, 133, New Bond Street,
London, W.
_Copyright, 1901, by Photographische Gesellschaft._]
Another of our master-musicians, Haydn, unlike Bach, who never left his
country, came to England, and reached in this country the summit of his
renown. In the picture on the next page we see him on board ship. Well
wrapped in his great-coat he stands on deck and seems to enjoy the
sea-breezes, unconscious of the curiosity of the other passengers. He is
wondering what will await him in that strange country across the sea. Will
they understand him and the message he has to deliver to them: harmonies
so pure and simple from a heart so kindly and a will so strong? And they
did understand him in England; a glorious season of success awaited him.
Sympathy met him everywhere, and in such fulness that on returning home to
Austria he stopped at the little village of his birth and, kneeling at the
threshold of his father's humble cottage, he thanked God for all the
happiness which he had known in England.
[Illustration: "HAYDN CROSSING TO ENGLAND."
FROM THE PICTURE BY CARL RÖHLING.
By permission of the Berlin Photographic Company, 133, New Bond Street,
London, W.
_Copyright, 1902, by Photographische Gesellschaft._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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