Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-07-19
GREAT MUSICIANS WIVES
And Their Influence on Their Husbands

GREAT MUSICIANS WIVES
And Their Influence on Their Husbands'
Art.
Music and the Drama.l
Hans Hoffman discourses in the
Brooklyn FeSt-Zeitung on the women
who married some Of the greatest COM
posers, and on those that influenced
them. Let us get acquainted with a
few. Johann Sebastian Bach, whose
importance was resuscitated by Felix
Rartholli Mendelssohn, and who has
been growing ever since in the estima-
ton of the musical public, settled
early in marriage. But twenty-five
wears old. he married his cousin, Mari
Barbara Bach, in 1907, and settle
down with her at Muehlhausen, il
Thuringia. lie had learned to love
Barbara while staying with an aunt at
Arnstadt. Barbara was musical,
plaved the organ, and saw in Bach her
ideal Of man. She became the mother
Of seven children. and died during her
husbands absence in the summer Of
1920. Bach mourned his faithful wife
honestly, but his remarriage became a
necessity, and he found another
sweet woman in Anna Magda-
lena Muelken, the youngest daugh-
ter of court musician. Magdalcna
was a fine vocalist, pianist, and SPLEEN
did writer of musical cOpy-at that
time a great accomplishment-and help
ed her ever-actiye husband most indus
triously in copying his compositions.
Although this happy marriage was
blessed with thirteen children, music
reigned supreme in Sebastian Bach's
house. and he says in letter to
friend, George Erdmann, on the 28th
Of October, 1880: My children are
all of them born musicians. and | can
assure thee that ! can very we'll form
a vocal and instrumental concert
with my family, particularly as my
present wife sings very pretty
soprano, and my eldest daughter, as
well as my sons, join with her very
nicely indeed" Bach educated ten Of
his sons himself as good musicians, of
whom Wilhelm Friedman and Karl
Philip became historically celebrated.
The wonderful talent for musical art
remained heritage through six gene
rations in the family Of Bach, and the
latter covered all Thuringia with Or
ganists and cantorS or chorus-mas-
tiers. When John Sebastian Bach died
at Leipsic, the 30th of July, 1850, ne
left his widow and three daughters.
The sons had all gone from the pater-
nal home. fen years later the widow
died also, and as what? As "almosen
frau or as alms-woman."
Just as fortunate as Bach had been
in the selection of his two wives as I'M
fortunate was Haydn, the sunny, sim
pie, good-tempered Haydn. In 1859
Haydn had, after great struggles, got
so far as to obtain a musical director
ship with Count Morzin, and settled in
Vienna. His salary was but 200 florins,
but he had board and lodging free.
Many pupils came to him, and, among
others. two daughters Of the hair
dresser Keller. Haydn fell deeply in
love with the younger, but his affection
was not returned. for she entered
convent and became a nun. Father
Keller, who was very familiar with
Haydn and had helped him often in
earlier times with small loans, per-
suaded the young composer to marry
his elder daughter, and the marriage
was celebrated or the Goth of Novem-
Der, l7G0. Maria Anna was, however,
no wife for Joseph Haydn. She was
extravagant, bigoted, scolded all the
day, and was utterly uncompanionable
10 a musician. Finally she became so
bad that she only did what she thought
would annoy her husband. She
dressed in the prevailing fashion,
unsuited to her position, invited
clerical men to her table. tore
Haydn's written musical scores and
made curl-papers of them, etc.. etc.,
and yet Hadyn bore it all as well as he
could. How he was able to create
those lovely, sunny-tone pictures in
the Seasons" including the love-
making between Haanchen and Lucas
and that sweet duet between Adam and
Eve in the " Creation" is riddle. In
one letter he says: "My wife is mostly
sick, and is always in a bad temper.
II is the same to her whether her hus-
band is a shoemaker or an artist"
After he had suffered this state of
things in a miserable marriage Of
thirty-two years he seemed exhausted
and wrote, then a renowned com.
poser, to friend from London "My
wife, that internal woman, has written
me such horrible things that | will not
return home again" At last Hadyn
separated from his wife and placed her
as boarder with a school-master in
Baden, where she died in 1900. Her
memory was always disagreeable to
him, even after her death. When show
ing her portrait to friend in his house
in 1905 Haydn answered, on being
asked who she was, "That is my wife !;
she has often Infatuated me-"