The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-08-28
TRluMpHs oE Llszr.
Musician Who Was Almost WorShfp@@
by His Followers.


by His Followers.
The worlds verdict concerning Franz
Liszt has already been given. He was
the most prominent figure in an age of
marked PROCESS and culture. In any
case Max Nordau's declaration that Liszt
was psychologically an uninteresting
and insignificant character is unjust and
false. In his Selected Letters from
Paris" recently published in Leipsic,
Nordau has an eassy on 'Franz Liszt
and the Ladies of His Little Court" in
which he speaks of him and them in
most contemptuous terms.
One who knew the greatmaster deems
it but simple justice to say that he was
a man richly endowed intellectually,
with keen wit and a mental horizon
which stretched far beyond his musical
gifts and interests. 1t was not his fault
that affection for his person assumed
the form of an enthusiastic and extrav-
agant hero worship. He suffered the
worshipers and forbade them not and
most other mortals would have done the
same.
Nordau is right, however, when he
says that this worship of a master of the
pianoforte belongs to the past, and that
it would be impossible for an artist to
create such enthusiasm at the present
time.
The picture of LISTS early triumph is
given by Nordau with biting sarcasm.
He tells of those who We'd with one
another to do him honor before the rev,
o1 Of Of 41o ND lore
who covered him with orders and badges,
of the women who fought for the gloves
which he threw carelessly under his be-
loved instrument, of the writer's who
! honored him, of the worshipers who
stood entranced before a plaster cast
| of that wonderful, sound-producing
hand displayed in a Paris shop window
as though it were a sacred relic on the
high altar.
He comments on Liszt's countrymen
of Hungary, how they distinguished him
as they would a victorious General re-
turning with the sword of honor in his
hand. Vorosmarty, whom the Magyars
considered their greatest poet, addressed
an ode to him, in which the famous mu-
sician was represented as devoting, with
tragic earnestness. all his Titanic
strength to his country's service to give
it once more freedom and independence.
Opposite this glittering picture Of
Liszt in the days of his youth his critic
draws sketch of the impressions which
the old master made in later years, in
April, 1868, for instance, when he led
his ''Graner mass" in the Church oi
Saint Eustache in Paris. ''The spectacle
was not what l had promised myself il
would be- said Nordau. ITO be sure
Liszt and all the distinguished ladies
who formed his little court were there
1t was the publicans alone, who filled
the body of the church, who felt much
to be desired and who destroyed the
unity of the picture. Liszt, both in re
pose and motion, was picture at which
to gaze in his fantastic costume, which
was a combination of priestly garb with
the splendor of Persian Shah in {
Jewel studded coat. of-mail and the Leg
and feet dressed like those of dancing
master.
''The six and twenty jeweled orders
and crosses which covered the breast o
his cassock glittered and sparkled al
they caught the suns rays through tht
richly-colored windows. As Liszt en-
tered the church the musicians received
him with trumpet sound and organ peal
A crowd of gorgeously -attired ladies o
rank, none lower than Countess
crowded around him to kiss the hand
which he extended so graciously."-
Cleveland Leader.