The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-07

banners of the Arlon society of Fort Wayne and
| those of the M8nnerchor and Liederkranz of this
city. II was estimated that the cost OF the So
cety banners in the aggregate amounted to no
less than So, 900.
' THE RECEPTION CONCERT.
The reception concert at Engsh's Opera
house last evening had a large and appreciative
audience. 1t was given under the direction of
Carl Barus, of the Indianapolis Mennerchor,
| and Alexander Ernestinoff, of the Indianapolis
Liederkranz, opening with Richard WagRers
"KaIsermarch," which admirably done by
the orchestra of sixty pieces composed of musi-
clans from this city and Cincinnati. Following
this
THE GOVERNORS ADDRESS.
President Bieer then introduced Governor A.
G. Porter, who spoke as follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Indiana sangerbund:
| congratulate you the favorable auspices
upon which you enter ON your feast of song. The
SIX les smile upon you, and the people have come
TO hear from skillfu voices the songs which have
often cheered and stirred so many of you in your
dear OLD fatherland. l read in the faces before
me the nigh emotions which music kindles in
the German breast. You are the cOuntrymen by
nativity of men whose attainments in mnsic
have made them Immortality lllustrious; of Bach,
and Handel, and Gluck, and Haydn, and Mozart.
and Beethoven, and MendelssOhn, and Weber,
and Meyerbeer, and Wagner, and others in the
same constellation, scarcely less glorious
The passion for song in your race has been so
vehement that, taking possession Of families, it
has passed from age TO age by inheritance. 1t
was so in the family of Sebastian Bach, whose
trapscendent and original excellence, evinced
| at the beginning of the development of the ma
| tonal taste for song. mas won for him the name
of creator and founder of German music.
Mozart, at five years of age, astonished his
| father, himself musician, by showing him a
concerto for the piano that he had composed.
great opera, written by this young musician,
was performed, when he was only thirteen
| years old, before an enraptured audience at
Milan
Excellence in music has come to your race
also from the inspiration of genius. Behold
young Handel, who at four years of age fled to
a garrett from an angry father, to give vent in
great musical COMPOSITIONS TO emotions which
his soul could no longer contain; who later, fol-
lowing on the Thames the barge of an offended
and alienated King, poured forth such strains as
melted that iron bosom and drew from sOver
eign the exclainatlon-m0re precious than the
pension he bestowed upon hlm-that the world
he ID but one man who could compose such
music; the enchanter, who, rough in person, but
divine in endowments, drew from his most Bit
ter enemy and traducer the commentator,
"That great bear must have been inspired when
he wrote that air." who. when lords and ladies
were unable TO rise to the sublime heights of his
growing and transcendent genius. and he fell
into neglect by them, drew to him the plaudits
of the people, who caught the fervors that
crowns and cOrOnets could not; to whose soul
his great musical creations were so real, that
his bi0grapher has recorded that he said, after
he had composed his great OratoriO, the "Mes-
sah," II did think did see all heaven before me
and the great God himself"
What may l not say also of tine genius of
Beethoven, who, visited at early age by the
overwhelming calamity of total Deafness com
posed afterward the great productions which
were heard by delighted world, but were never
heard by himself
What may not say of Haydn, glorious child
of genius, whose soul was so filled with the fer
vOrs of song that he turned from his common
work in a harbershop. on wigs, TO tune his harp
schord aud, in a garnet, caught mingling with
its vibrations the faint first whispers of an endless
fame; who in old age, having been borne in
chair to witness the performance of his oratorio,
the ''CreaIlOn," Ii became necessary to remove
him the end Of the first act, lest the frail bod
lily tenement should prove too weak to retain
soul swelling with the sublime grandeurs of
great musical emotion.
This love of music, from centuries of cultiva-
ton, has become wrought into the substance of
German life. 1t is associated with all that is
pleasant in the recollectiOns of childhood. The
hearthstone of the hnmblest German cottager
has been cheered by it not less than the Kaisers
throne. Patriotism has borrowed from it the
most animating impulses, and from the time of
Tacitus it has gone to the battlefield with every
German army, to bindle heroic ard0rs, to cheer
and to inspire
have brought TO us much that is Invaluable:
love of home and the cheerful tireside frugaty
in YOUTH laying mp store TO comfort old aye;
belief that idleness is criminal, and prompt
ness and persistence in doing whatever can be
done that often places you victoriOusly upon
the summit of difficulty, while others sit at the
base contemplating whether the difficulty may
he overcome; "A facility for laying aside care,
when it will cOrrOde and weaken. ana of taking
up pleasure when it will cheer and strengthen,
OF which knew too little until you came and
along with the sturdy and rugged qualities, an
| ina ginatve faculty and fullness OF emotion that
eXalt life and greatly multiply its delights. We
thank you for the example which these things
have furnished.
We thank you for more. Separated by an
ocean from the society of the old world. we were
unable, as people, to ENJOY the accession of
ideas ana the many other advantages that come
from foreign travel. We could not 90 to Ger
many 10 study her civilization, her thoughts and
lmmIgrntIUR