APPENDIX A.

Memorandum as to the Influence of H.R.H. THE PRINCE CONSORT upon Musical Taste in England.

THE love of music and the arts may be said to have been hereditary in the Coburg family. The Duke Emil Leopold Augustus of Saxe-Gotha, the lifelong friend and patron of Carl Maria von Weber, was himself a poet and musical composer of very considerable accomplishment. Of this he gave proof by his 'Kyllenion, a Year in Arcadia,' with musical accompaniments by himself, and by his ArtRomance, 'Pandenone,' both of which were composed by him at Reinhardtsbrunn in 1804. The late King of the Belgians had also a great love and knowledge of music and sang well. He had been thoroughly trained in the best style of Italian singing, and used his fine baritone voice with a skill far beyond that of ordinary amateurs. Prince Albert's brother, the reigning Duke of Coburg, is known as a composer, and his opera of 'Casilda' has been performed with success in the principal theatres of Germany.

It has been already shown, that even while at Bonn Prince Albert was regarded by his fellow-students as a musician of no ordinary gifts and attainments. He took great interest in the study, and engaged actively in the proceedings of the Choral Union of Gotha. Thus we find him, on the 23rd of July, 1839, sending from Dresden to Concert Master Spaeth, as part of his contribution to their library, the full score and parts of Beethoven's famous Preis der Tonkunst, and begging to be informed of the progress of the Society's rehearsals of Händel and Nannini (Early Years, p. 210). In Florence, as we have seen, his organ-playing commanded admiration; and the letters of Lady Lyttelton, quoted in the text, show that it was distinguished by the qualities which are only to be found in players of a genuine musical gift.

The Prince's taste had been modelled upon the works of the best masters; music, therefore, was to him not merely a delightful solace and recreation, but an art, in which the whole world of emotion and aspiration finds the most varied, and often the highest expression. He brought with him to England an extensive knowledge of the works of the greatest composers; and, small as the leisure was which he could command for the purpose, he was at pains

Atom 1 Vive in many persons members of the band seemed the glattete all Seatest of Beethoven and the quanema and Oment of Xendelse cou The Prove made the selection of mulctes.es performances the rigjet of his special care, and forat in the performances themselves a derer-falling source of de

As every year an a barier strain upon his thongits and energies. Dia plesetre in them appeared to increase. Iner seemed to take him into a dream-world, id with the anxieties of life were for the moment forgotten. He would often stand apart in the Drawing Worn, while wone great work of Beethoven, Mozart, or Mendelssohn was being performed, rapt in reverie, but with a look in his face, which toom could best understand, and most loved to see, who knew by it, that the pressure of a brain often too severely taxed was for the moment removed.

Of modern composers, Mendelssohn appears to have been his favourite. Mendelssohn was introduced to the Prince in June, 1842; and in that month he played at Buckingham Palace, where his works, with which both the Queen and Prince were well acquainted, had already become familiar by their frequent recurrence in the performances of the Private Band. On that occasion Her Majesty's Jourwal records: 'He played several of his celebrated Lieder, and other pieces of his composition, and then asked the Queen and Prince to give him a Thema on which he would improvise, which he did most wonderfully and beautifully.'

In a letter from Frankfort to his mother (19th July, 1842), Mendelssohn gives a charming account of the incidents of this meeting:

I must tell you,' he writes, all the details of my last visit at Buckingham I'nlass,... It is, as G. says, the one really pleasant and thoroughly comforta

PRINCE'S MUSICAL TASTE.

397

ble English house, where one feels à son aise. Of course I do know a few others, but yet on the whole I agree with him. Joking apart, Prince Albert had asked me to go to him on Saturday at two o'clock, so that I might try his organ before I left England; I found him alone, and as we were talking away, the Queen came in, also alone, in a simple morning dress. She said she was obliged to leave for Claremont in an hour, and then suddenly interrupting herself, exclaimed, "But goodness, what a confusion!" for the wind had littered the whole room, and even the pedals of the organ (which, by the way, made a very pretty feature in the room) with leaves of music from a large portfolio that lay open. As she spoke she knelt down and began picking up the music; Prince Albert helped, and I too was not idle. Then Prince Albert proceeded to explain the stops to me, and she said that she would mean while put things straight.

I begged that the Prince would first play me something, so that, as I said, I might boast about it in Germany; and he played a Chorale, by heart, with the pedals, so charmingly, and clearly, and correctly, that it would have done credit to any professional; and the Queen, having finished her work, came and sat by him and listened, and looked pleased. Then it was my turn, and I began my chorus from "St. Paul "-"How lovely are the messengers." Before got to the end of the first verse they both joined in the chorus, and all the time Prince Albert managed the stops for me so cleverly-first a flute, at the forte the great organ, at the D major part the whole, then he made a lovely diminuendo with the stops, and so on to the end of the piece, and all by heart -that I was really quite enchanted. Then the young Prince of Gotha came in, and there was more chatting; and the Queen asked if I had written any new songs, and said she was very fond of singing my published ones. "You should sing one to him," said Prince Albert; and, after a little begging, she said she would try the "Frühlingslied" in B flat-"If it is still here," she added, "for all my music is packed up for Claremont." Prince Albert went to look for it, but came back, saying it was already packed. "But one might perhaps unpack it," said I. "We must send for Lady ," she said. (I did not catch the name.) So the bell was rung, and the servants were sent after it, but without success; and at last the Queen went herself, and while she was gone Prince Albert said to me, "She begs you will accept this present as a remembrance," and gave me a little case with a beautiful ring, on which is engraved “ V. R.

1842."

'Then the Queen came back and said, "Lady is gone, and has taken all my things with her. It really is most annoying." (You can't think how that amused me.) I then begged that I might not be made to suffer for the accident, and hoped she would sing another song. After some consultation with her husband, he said, "She will sing you something of Glück's." Meantime the Princess of Gotha had come in, and we five proceeded through various corridors and rooms to the Queen's sitting-room. The Duchess of Kent came in too, and while they were all talking I rummaged about amongst the music, and soon discovered my first set of songs. So, of course, I begged her rather to sing one of those than the Glück, to which she very kindly consented; and which did she choose?" Schöner und schöner schmückt sich!" sang it quite charmingly, in strict time and tune, and with very good execution. Only in the lineDer Prosa Lasten und Müh," where it goes down to D, and then comes up again chromatically, she sang D sharp each time, and as I gave her the note both times, the last time she sang D, and there it ought to have been D sharp. But with the exception of this little mistake it was really charming, and the last long G I have never heard better, or purer, or more natural from any amateur. Then I was obliged to confess that Fanny had written the song (which I found very hard, but pride must have a fall) and to beg her to sing one of my own also. If I would give her plenty of help she would gladly try, she said, and then she sang the Pilgerspruch "Lass dich nur," really quite faultlessly, and with charming feeling and expression. I thought to myself, one must not pay too many compliments on such an occasion, so I merely thanked her a great many times; upon which she said, "Oh, if only I had not been so

frightened; generally, I have such long breath." Then I praised her heartily, and with the best conscience in the world; for just that part with the long G at the close she had done so well, taking the three following and connecting notes in the same breath, as one seldom hears it done, and therefore it amused me doubly that she herself should have begun about it.

After this Prince Albert sang the Erntelied, "Es ist ein Schnitter;" and then he said I must play him something before I went, and gave me as themes the Chorale which he had played on the organ and the song he had just sung. If everything had gone as usual, I ought to have improvised most dreadfully badly, for it is almost always like that with me when I want it to go well, and then I should have gone away vexed with the whole morning. But, just as if I was to keep nothing but the pleasantest, most charming recollec tion of it, I never improvised better;. I was in the best mood for it, and played a long time, and enjoyed it myself, so that besides the two themes I brought in the songs that the Queen had sung, naturally enough; and it all went off so easily that I would gladly not have stopped; and they followed me with so much intelligence and attention that I felt more at my ease than I ever did in improvising to an audience. The Queen said several times she hoped I would soon come to England again and pay them a visit, and then I took leave; and down below I saw the beautiful carriages waiting, with their scarlet outriders, and in a quarter of an hour the flag was lowered, and the Court Circular announced, "Her Majesty left the Palace at twenty minutes past three."'

On the 7th of June, 1844, the Prince was present when Mendelssohn conducted the performance of his own 'St. Paul' by the Sacred Harmonic Society. He was again present, and this time with the Queen,-when the same Oratorio was given by the Society, under Mendelssohn's superintendence, on the 2nd of June in the following year. When the Elijah' was performed in its completed form by the same Society on the 23rd of April, 1847, the Queen and Prince were present. The inscription, already well known among musical amateurs, which was written by the Prince, upon his copy of the words of the Oratorio, immediately after the performance, may find a place here:

'To the Noble Artist, who, surrounded by the Baal-worship of debased art, has been able, by his genius and science, like another Elijah, faithfully to preserve the worship of true art, and once more to accustom our ear, amid the whirl of empty frivolous sounds, to the pure tones of sympathetic feeling and legitimate harmony; to the Great Master who brings home to us the unity of his conception through the whole maze of his creation from the soft whispering to the mighty raging of the elements: Inscribed in grateful remembrance by 'ALBERT.'

'Buckingham Palace, 'April 24, 1847.

We are informed by Sir Julius Benedict, that the Prince's warm appreciation of Mendelssohn's grand work 'gave an unmistakable stimulus to the highest branch of composition-" the Oratorio "-in this country.

Before this time the Prince had testified his appreciation of this great master by arranging the Reading at Windsor Castle on the 1st of January, 1847, of Athalie,' accompanied by all Mendelssohn's choral and orchestral music. The reader upon this occasion was M. Brasseur. This was the first time this fine work had been heard in England. The 'Antigone' was performed on the 10th of Febru