poor by paying to crowned heads such sums as £5,000 per day, the expense of the Czar of Russia, or £1,200 per day, the salary of the German Emperor.
But it is not so with music. The musician works for the people. The people of all classes flock to hear his music and appreciate it. It matters not whether the nobility attend. The people see that the composer gets what is due him.
In the last century things were different. Händel, Haydn, Mozart, Gluck—all engaged in a scramble for the favors royalty had to bestow. The very constitution of things made this necessary. The composers were poor. The prince was wealthy. Securing the prince's favor meant a pension, a home, an orchestra, a hearing. Without aristocratic patronage all this was lost. Be it said to the credit of good old John Sebastian Bach that he remained true to his allegiance to the Church and its music and sought no favor from king or prince. But Bach died almost a pauper, while his son flourished at court.
Even the present century has seen a patronizing monarch and a fawning musician. Wagner received uncounted favors at the hands of the mad King of Bavaria, until he almost thought himself a king, and treated his royal patron with base ingratitude.
Haydn was for many years at the head of musical matters at Prince Esterhazy's establishment. This liberal and highly educated Hungarian Prince gave him every opportunity for composition, and placed him in a comfortable position of ease and freedom from care or want.
But a period of retrenchment set in, and, as usual, it began to be felt first in musical matters. Haydn was informed that the Prince felt he must give up the orchestra which he had long maintained. We can imagine that to entirely support a body of twenty-five or thirty men required no small sum. But the cost was much less in that day than in ours.
