Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 185
185.—THEIR FAVORITE SURROUNDINGS FOR COMPOSITION.
The great composers have each had their own ways of writing out their masterpieces, and some of them chose peculiar surroundings to witness the birth of their musical ideas. Some of these surroundings, while they may seem an odd choice to us, were very commonly chosen by literary and musical men of past days. The tavern and the wine room are not now regarded as productive of great ideas. But, be that as it may, much of our greatest music has come to light of day by that route.
Beethoven was often seen to jot down in his tavern and coffee room visits some musical idea that occurred to him; but not so much of his music first saw the light of day there as was the case with Mozart or Schubert, for Beethoven did much of his composition while walking in the country lanes or fields. There is a large gnarled oak tree shown near Vienna in which he frequently sat composing, and utterly oblivious to his surroundings. Many another musician has climbed up to that seat, but to whom has come the inspiration of a Third or Ninth Symphony?
Mozart loved company, wine, and good fellowship, and we read of operatic managers driven to despair by the fact that he would linger in the wine-room or at the billiard table when they were in sad need of perhaps an overture that he had promised, but had put off writing until "to-morrow." But the overture was sure to be forthcoming just at the last moment, for was it not all completed in his head and had it not been for many days or weeks? It was the manual labor of writing out that he shirked. Who that has copied music can blame him?
Schubert lingered much at the tavern. Well, perhaps it was more cheerful than his home. No clatter of plates and glasses or chatter of busy tongues could stay the flow of his beautiful melodies. The fountain must flow even though the world thought naught of the stream. Many of his songs went to the publisher for tenpence apiece, while their author lacked the necessities of life.
Haydn would shut himself up in his sixth story garret and pen the symphonies which paved the way for Mozart and Beethoven. So absorbed in his work would Haydn become that the absence of food or fuel was unknown; the joy of composition was enough to produce oblivion to all minor matters such as food. But a scolding wife may have had somewhat to do with his voluntary isolation. While hunger and music are not incompatible, we find no instances where the muse has been awakened to loftier flights by a scolding wife.
Rossini was another "jolly good fellow" who could compose divinely, not only when at the tavern but after he had been turned out of it. After a night of revelry his compunctions of conscience would cause him to sit down to work at the dawn of day and note his inspirations which were arranged into permanent shape later in the day, perchance while entertaining visitors and friends. Withal, Rossini is noted as being one of the laziest of musicians. It is related that a friend once found him composing in bed, doing his writing there that he might keep warm. A piece of music had fallen off the bed, and, rather than get up after it, Rossini turned over and wrote out another duet to take its place.
Mendelssohn was a well-balanced man, and a man of few idiosyncracies or unpleasant peculiarities. Scholarly and refined, he was in every sense a gentleman. He, like Mozart and others, composed mentally, did all the drudgery of composition in his head, even to the details of orchestration, and left nothing to experiment on paper or at piano. A friend relates that when once calling on Mendelssohn he was told by that composer to sit down and talk to him, and while a lively conversation was carried on, Mendelssohn was all the while writing music as fast as pen could fly, and each measure for each instrument was completed as he went.
Wagner was a genius, and in some ways a queer genius. When he wished to compose he desired absolute quiet and freedom from disturbance, and at these times not even his wife or his favorite servant dared interrupt him. But his queerest fancy was that he could compose better if he were dressed in the costume of the age that the opera which he happened to be working on represented, or the character whose music he was then writing. He wished to place his surroundings in harmony with his mental attitude, and who can say that this peculiarity did not aid him in the wonderful historic accuracy for which his operas are noted.