The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-12-22
BEETHOVAN ANNIVERSARY.

BEETHOVAN ANNIVERSARY.
The dispatches tell us that jury in
Milwaukee has just decided that the
doodle-sack. that is the bag-pipe. is not
a musical instrument.
! Milwaukee is a town of German
population and Of course its inhabit-
ants can not find the music in the
doodle-sack. But they can find what
the old gray-haired inhabitant OF
America of Anglo-Saxon parentage can
not finland that is music in Beetho-
ven and Wagner
Nearly every household in the coun-
| try has a daughter who will sit down To
| the piano and lose herself in some ire
mendous effort of hammering. and
when a fond parent, who does not like
| the music and can see nothing in il
| whatever. asks: What is that?" the
answer will come back: THAT is
Baytoefen.'
The daughter really loves the music
| that sounds SO dreadful TO the parent
| The daughters love of Beethoven.
which the parent does not share, is the
result of our immense German popula-
ton which has brought with il and dis
seminated throughout the whole land a
high artistic appreciation of good
music. The English. and the Ameri-
can branch OF the human family that
has descended from the English. have
no more appreciation of good music, as
rule, than a lop-eared dog has Of
poetry. England has given the world
no great composer. Ii has given the
world no great piece of music, when
music is regarded as an art. No En-
glishman was ever born who has had
the temperament of a musician. Ire
land has produced two, Bale and John
Field, but England not a single one.
The man who puts himself up for a
critic in America and claims that he
would rather hear Sweet Marie" or
"McGinty" than anything Beethoven
ever wrote. exposes his ignorance OF
music and has his parentage only to
blame.
Just what the German nature pos
sesses that the English race, itself
partly an offshot from a German race,
does not. that gives Germany the pre-
cedence in music, Is not known II Is
probably the same temperament that
created Hans Christian Anderson's
fairy tales.
Beethoven, the greatest OF German
musicians, was born 12J years ago this
last week. There is no personality in
English history that is a parallel 20
his. although many have attempted to /
find one for him. He was born a
musician prodigy at twelve; won MOI 1
arts admiration when seventeen. His /
boyhood was sad one. lie knew no /
an incorrigibIe drunkard. The almost
infant Beethoven learned his art in
tears. Early in life he became the
slave OF terrible disease that was "a
scrofuIa- II sspped his life and almost
drove him TO thoughts Of suicide. II
filed his fame with melancholy. drove
him from the leaders desk and his own
great opera, and left him at last deaf
beyond the help of even bis ear-trum-
pet He would not wear a yiennese
costume and peruke. but went around
in most disorderly attire. Yellow
stained wool was stuffed in his ears
He ate in such manner that his
friends could not finally sit at the same
table with him. He got mad al the
servants, poured stew over a waiter
and pitched eggs at the cook- He
rambled from lodging 30 lodging In &C.
centric fashion.
In a sense. Beethoven was n musical
voice Of the European age of revolU-
ton. 81 which Bonspsr7e and the
French revolution were the most start
ing phenomena. Beethoyeu admired
TIE uncrowned Napolean immensely.
attended upon his ievees and a cprlain
infancy. even, = said 20 have existed
between them Beethoven Always did
have an open ahectiOa for the aristO-
rracy and the court General Beras-
hotte suggested 20 him the idea 81 tie
-Eroics SYMPHONY which be AZ srS;
dedicated 20 Napoleon; but whSa IT,
Consul assumed the imperial ioEs- Bee
ihovea tore OF re dedicsfOry cover
page 81 a rage and rechri-fsns-l ias
grand c0mpositi0n- NsTeTiheles< a.
once remarked: -Be-sslo-
zen = the Musical Fever.erzfi0n II fse
French revoluiioa- Not % the guile
inc. % oourSe: bss a. al events. q 4,
hst grea; drama: IA noSlHe history 4
=, 20 ruus5e. Ia, ne tragedy echofn< q +,
music Ehlch = called Liberty. Equal
isy. Fraternity
He died a. Strangely a. BE liFe-s-sr 4 Q
stalking Is eIencAei asts
II the l!<hfninE- :
such ps-nsonaliry = uninssIlsSissi. 70 Z
he Enxsis8 a. a4z--s - - - .,.s-s !