The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1876-03-29
Anecdotes of Musical Composers.

The handwriting of Mendelssohn was
beautifully neat, and his manner OF correc-
ting the proofs of the printed works excess
siyely careful and painstakipg. The same
may be said of his very extensive cores
pondence. Few men, probably no compos-
ers ever wrote more letters-they must
have been tremendous tax upon his time
and patience-and yet the smallest note is
as accurately expressed and carefully writ
ten as if il were a State paper. In compos-
ing he made few sketches, but built up the
whole in his mind, and then, when writing
down the score thus mentally prepared,
rather invited his friends conversation than
otherwise. "Prsy come in said he on
one such occasion. 81 am merely copy
ing" On the other hand, he was fastidi-
Gus to fault in allowing his music finally
to leave his hands for the publisher. The
beautiful Italian symphony WAS kept back
by him till his death, the "Walpurglsnicht"
nearly as long, and some of the finest num-
bers in Elijah and the "Hymn of
Praise" were added after the first perform
ance. No musician more thoroughly appre-
ciated the maxim that what is worth doing
is worth doing well, or more consistently
carried into practice. 1t was in a dream
or, more properly speaking, a nightmare
that Tartini composed his famous sonata
for violin. called the "Trillo del Diavolo. ="
Rossini, if report may believed, could not
compose at any time so we'll as Immediately
after supper. When he was young, as the
story goes, he was once writing an opera
for the carnival of an Italian town, and the
weather being bitterly cold, and his purse
absolutely empty, he remained in bed in
order to keep himself warm while he wrote
Just as he was finishing duet, the princi-
pal morceau in the opera, the paper slipped
from his hands and fioated and futtered
under the bed. He reached out as far as
he could without quitting the bed, first on
one side and then on the other, but with
out being able to recover the piece. He
therefore resigned himself to his fate, and
wrote it over again. A friend came in
presently, and hearing what had happened,
tished up the first duet, which proved to be
altogether different from the second version.
Meyerbeer's imagination was powerfully
excited during thunder storms; at such
times he would retire to his room and write
with freedom and spirit Halevy, with
more domestic tastes, whom his inspiration
failed him, would put a kettle on the fire,
and as it simmored and boiled his mind
gradually recovered its usual activity and
his ideas flowed again in abundance. Auber
loved being on horseback, and while the
animal was galloping his thoughts came
with facility and speed. Mozart confessed
similar thing. " 1t is when travelling in
carriage or walking after dinner" writes
he to Baron ", "that my ideas flow best
and most abundantly." Many persons of
less eminence than Mozart or Auber have
experienced the same effect from the
motion of a handsome cab. But while
Auber was happy on the gallop, ..Adolphe
Adam, on the other hand, which at a loss
for ideas, loved to bury himself with his
cats, under thick quilt of elder down.
Macmillan's Magazine.