occupations which already beset him, besides forcing him to exchange a pursuit which he loved and succeeded in, for one for which he had no turn—for teaching was [1]not his forte.
The winter was over, his leg was well, and he was on the point of resuming his 'great journey' in its southern portion, when, at the end of March, 1830, both Rebecka and he were taken with the measles. This involved a delay of a month, and it was not till [2]May 13 that he was able to start. His father accompanied him as far as Dessau, the original seat of the family, where he remained for a few days with his friend Schubring.
He travelled through Leipzig, Weissenfels, and Naumburg, and reached Weimar on the 20th. There he remained a fortnight in the enjoyment of the closest intercourse with Goethe and his family, playing and leading what he calls a mad life—[3]Heidenleben. There his portrait was taken, which, though like, 'made him look very sulky,' and a copy of the score of the Reformation Symphony was made and sent to Fanny. On June 3 he took leave [4]of Goethe for the last time, and went by Nuremberg to Munich, which he reached on [5]June 6. At Munich he made a long halt, remaining till the end of the month; made the acquaintance of Josephine Lang, Delphine Schauroth, and other interesting persons, and was fêted to an extraordinary [6]extent—'several parties every evening, and more pianoforte playing than I ever recollect'—all which must be read in the letter of Marx, and in his own delightful [7]pages. On the 14th, her birthday, he sends Fanny a little Song without Words (Lied) in A, and on the 26th a much longer one in B♭ minor, which he afterwards altered, and [8]published as Op. 30, No. 2. Both here and at Vienna he is disgusted at the ignorance on the part of the best players—Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven utterly ignored, Hummel, Field, Kalkbrenner, accepted as classics. He himself played the best music, and with the best effect, and his visit must have been an epoch in the taste of both [9]places.
From Munich he went through the Salzkammergut, by Salzburg, Ischl, and the Traunsee, to Linz, and thence to Vienna, Aug. 13. Here he passed more than a month of the gayest [10]life with Hauser the [11]singer, Merk the cellist, the Pereiras, the Eskeles, and others, but not so gay as to interfere with serious composition—witness a cantata or anthem on 'O Haupt voll Blut und [12]Wunden' (MS.), and an 'Ave Maria' for Tenor solo and 8 voices (op. 23, no. 2), both of this date. On Sept. 28 we [13]find him at Presburg, witnessing the coronation of the Crown Prince Ferdinand as King of Hungary; then at Lilienfeld; and by Gratz, Udine, etc., he reached Venice on Oct. 9.
His stay in Italy, and his journey through Switzerland back to Munich, are so fully depicted in the first volume of his Letters, that it is only necessary to allude to the chief points. He went from Venice by Bologna to Florence, reaching it on Oct. 22, and remaining there for a week. He arrived in Rome on Nov. 1—the same day as Goethe had done, as he is careful to remark—and he lived there till April 10, at No. 5 Piazza di Spagna. The latter half of April and the whole of May were devoted to Naples (Sti. Combi, Sta. Lucia, No. 13, on the 3rd floor) and the Bay Sorrento, Ischia, Amalfi, etc. Here he met Benedict and renewed the acquaintance which they had begun as boys in Berlin in 1821, when Benedict [14]was Weber's pupil. By June 5 he was back in Rome, and after a fortnight's interval set out on his homeward journey by Florence (June 24), Genoa, Milan (July 7–15), Lago Maggiore and the Islands, the Simplon, Martigny, and the Col de Balme, to Chamouni and Geneva. Thence on foot across the mountains to Interlaken; and thence by Grindelwald and the Furka to Lucerne, Aug. 27, 28. At Interlaken, besides sketching, and writing both letters and songs, he composed the only [15]waltzes of which—strange as it seems in one so madly fond of dancing—any trace survives. At Lucerne he wrote his last letter to [16]Goethe, and no doubt mentioned his being engaged in the composition of the Walpurgisnacht, which must have brought out from the poet the explanation of the aim of his poem which is printed at the beginning of Mendelssohn's music, with the date Sept. 9, 1831. Then, still on foot, he went by Wallenstadt and St. Gall to Augsburg, and returned to Munich early in September.
Into both the Nature and the Art of this extended and varied tract he entered with enthusiasm. The engravings with which his father's house was richly furnished, and Hensel's copies of the Italian masters, had prepared him for many of the great pictures; but to see them on the spot was to give them new life, and it is delightful to read his rapturous comments on the Titians of Venice and Rome, the gems in the Tribune of Florence, Guide's Aurora, and other masterpieces. His remarks are instructive and to the point; no vague generalities or raptures, but real criticism into the effect or meaning or treatment of the work; and yet rather from the point of view of an intelligent amateur than with any assumption of technical knowledge, and always with sympathy and [17]kindness. Nor is his eye for nature less keen, or his enthusiasm less abundant. His descriptions of the scenery of Switzerland during the extraordinarily stormy season of his journey there, are worthy of the greatest painters or letter-writers. Some of his expressions rise to grandeur.
'It was a day,' says he, describing his walk over the Wengern Alp, 'as if made on purpose. The sky was flecked with white clouds floating far above the highest snow-peaks, no mists below
- ↑ See a similar remark in Hauptmann's Letters to Hauser (i. 157) in reference to a similar attempt in 1835.
- ↑ F.M. i. 313 (inaccurately August).
- ↑ Letter, May 25. See letters in G. & M.
- ↑ G. & M. 70.
- ↑ L. June 6, 1831.
- ↑ L. Oct. 16.
- ↑ F.M. i. 313–327.
- ↑ In this, as in several other cases, he has altered the notation from quavers to semiquavers.
- ↑ Letters to Zelter (June 22 and Oct. 16, 1830).
- ↑ L. Feb. 18, 1836.
- ↑ Afterwards Director of the Munich Conservatorium, and Spohr's correspondent.
- ↑ Dev. 105.
- ↑ L. i. 21.
- ↑ B. 7.
- ↑ L. Aug. 11.
- ↑ G. & M. 80.
- ↑ Letters. Oct. 25, 1830, June 25, 1831, Sept. 14, 1839.
