Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1897-01-31

! music.-meaning by education the severe
/ course of training Mozart ana Menue's-
! sohn were subjected to he had httIe OF
none.
He was child of nature and IN rs
tening to his work one is never betrayed
into saying How very clever, put Always
! how beautiful. how poetic, how intensely
! Schubert. The artist vanishes ana there
! remains the loving, simple human friend.
! Schubert had a passion for the poetry oil
! his native land. and he lived at exactly
! the right moment to take advantage OF the
! treasures offered by Goethe, Heine and
, others. and it has been said of him. mat
he would gradually have set the whoie
} German literature 10 music had he lived
J long enough.
This influence of the lyric element can
be traced so easily in his instrumental
works that we recognize many of them
as literally tone poems. In his songs ne
never sets the poet al naught by repeating
his words over and over again. hut ne
goes through the poem. combining himself
! to enforcing the expression. the music
changing with the words as landscape
does when sun and cloud pass over A.
In this Schubert has anticipated Wagner.
since the words to which he writes are
as much the absolute basis of his Songs
as Wagner's librettos are of his operas.
schubert began work directly he
awoke-and even slept in his spectacles
10 save trouble. He got at once to his
writing: sometimes in bed. and worked in
cessantly until his two o'clock dinner
after which as a rule. he was free for the
day. at least that was his IDEA, but no
place or hour was proof against his in
spiration. when anything happened to eN-
cite it, The wind stirring the leaves, the
sunlight making little shadows on the
grass a single bird note, was motif sufh7
cient for a musical inspiration that will be
known and loved as long as time endures.
a boat dancing on the water suggested
the wild grace in the rocking wavy motion
Of the Barcarole. known to US familiarly
as 'Du Dist des rue The sight OF
peasant standing idly on the shore was
inspiration for the Fisher Maiden.
What sweet devotion is shown in his
Ave Maria with its accompaniment so
steadily preserved like prayer without
ceasing. yet rising and falling like the
painting bosom which pours it forth.
What desolate sadness in his song Of
Gretchen and how skillfully the cease
less hum and motion of her spinning
wheel accompanies her heart breaking
strains. What tender yearning in the
Last Greeting what solemnity and
grandeur il The Stars what fine re-
Elective soliloquisng in the song of the
Old Man" what stormy desperate sorrow
i'm his Atlas. and what stirring dramatic
motion in his Earl King This song.
with the 'Wanderer.' has the distinction
Of having first made Schubert's narHe
famous throughout the civilized world.
and it was the Earl hing that frs won
for him a rapturous encore. There were
two copies of it, one in the Royal Library,
Berlin and the one to be sung to-day
which is the copy procured from Madame
Schumann. and therefore beyond question
as to its authenticity. 1t is said to be one
Of the most minutey complete compost
lions that the world has ever known.
The violin solo-No. on our pro-
sramme. needs no words to tell its story;
what exquisite breathings of love. moon
light. flowers, and everything fairy-lke
and heavenly. 1t offers us. The and b,
No. on the programme, are most notable
examples of the exceeding beauty of
Schuberts melodies, and they reveal TO
US that indehnable yearning which so
often appeals to us, as he implores the
brook, the bird, the stars TO tell him, Does
She Love Me Alas. there is no answer
and once again poor Schubert learns that
the lesson of life for him is to renounce
Returning from a Sunday stroll he saw
sitting in the garden of one of the taverns
a friend who when they gained him, had
a volume of Shakespeare on the table. |
Schubert seized it and began to read, but
before he had turned many pages. pointed /
to Hank! Hank, the Lark! saying. such |
a lovely melody has come into my head. /
II only had some music paper Some |
one drew a few lines on the back of /
bill of fare and there amid the hub-bub |
that beautiful song. so perfectly fitting |
the words, and so happy in its accom- |
paniment came into perfect existence. 1t |
was taken from Cymbeline.' and that same !
evening Who is Sylvia, from the Two /
Gentlemen of Verona and the drinking
song Come Thou Monarch of the Vine"
from Antony and Cleopatra were com
pleted. Can any one fancy this other /
than truest inspiration?
I'm instrumental music, Schubert reach !
ed his own style. while Beethoven began |
on the lines of Mozart, and Mendelssohn |
on those af Weber, each arriving al their |
own style. With Schubert spontanety |
was natural. With Beethoven spontaniety |
was the result of labor, and the more |
he polished the more natural was his |
work. Schubert's productions when meas |
ured by those of Mozart and Mendelssohn, !
are greatly in excess. and he died at an |
earlier age Beethoven lived to nearly |
double his years, and at an age when Bee |
thoven had written one symphony Schu- |
bert had written ten. II would be folly TO !
say that each and all of his works were |
of equal value but there are magical |
feats Of harmonic progression, and |
strokes Of meditation that have had |
great influence upon great composers of |
later times. The point which he serves to |
illustrate is the transition from the use |
of the idea on richly developed scale |
to the close, and intensely emotional |
treatment of ideas which has as yet |
found it's highest exponent in Schumann. /
Beethoven was the object of Schubert's |
greatest reverence, but Mozart was his
ideal composer, and Of him he wrote |
%. Mozart, immortal Mozart! gently as |
out of the distance does the magic tones |
Of thy music strike upon my ears. there |
to work for good past all power of time !
or circumstance. In the darkness of this |
life. what countless consolatory images |
of a bright and better world hast thou |
stamped upon our souls
Compared with Beethoven. Schubert is !
as a woman to a man, for ones attribute |
toward him is always that of sympathy /
and love. rarely that OF embarrassment or |