The Secret Memoirs of the Courts of Europe by marquise de Fontenoy

Author:marquise de Fontenoy [Fontenoy, marquise de]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9781409955436
Google: 3WcjQwAACAAJ
Goodreads: 7655767
Publisher: Dodo Press
Published: 2009-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER X

If it is observable that the taste, ear, and talent for music prevail among the inhabitants of the mountain districts of the world far more extensively than among the populations of the plains, it is no less true that nearly all persons belonging to the exalted spheres of life, for instance, emperors and kings and their consorts, as well as princes and princesses of the blood, are not only passionately fond of music, but frequently absolute melomaniacs. In none of the reigning houses, however, is this particular branch of art developed to such an extent as in the Hohenzollern family. Thus the collection of the compositions for the flute by Frederick the Great discovered some ten years ago in the lumber rooms of the "Neues Palais" at Potsdam, and recently published after being edited by Professor Spitta, proves that the royal patron of Voltaire, and the founder of Prussia's military power was no mere dilettante, but a real genius in the art of composition. Prince Louis Ferdinand, the son of Frederick the Great's brother, who courted and met with a premature death at Saalfeld, while rashly engaging the French enemy, against strict orders, showed, with all his eccentricities, remarkable musical gifts, leaving in fact behind him a variety of compositions for orchestras. He also wrote a march which is published under his name.

Among the collection of marches constantly used in the Prussian army, is one composed by Frederick-William III. in 1806, which occupies a place between that of Frederick the Great, written in 1741, and the well-known Dessauer march. In that very same collection are the so-called "Geschwind Marsch," No. 148, for infantry, the "Parade Marsch" No. 51, for cavalry, and the "Marsch Für Cavallerie" No. 55, which emanate from the pen of Princess Charlotte of Prussia, niece of old Emperor William, and first wife of the present reigning Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. It is doubtless from her that Prince Bernhardt of Saxe-Meiningen, married to the eldest sister of the present kaiser, has inherited his powers of composition, for his name figures on the title page of many a piece of music; and among his other more important works has been the setting to music of "the Persians of Aeschylus," which has been most successfully staged at Athens. This is published under the initials of "E.B." (Erbprinz Bernhardt).

Though King Frederick-William IV. did not himself add anything to royal musical literature, as did his predecessors on the throne, he devoted much attention to ecclesiastical melody and song. The Berlin cathedral choir of men and boys—trained to sing without musical accompaniments—owes its origin to his ambition for having a choir in his own Protestant basilica at Berlin, corresponding more or less to the Pope's in the Sistine Chapel of Rome. It was he who engaged Mendelssohn as director of this choir, as well as composer; and it was the latter's successor, the director of the music of the Chapel Royal at the Prussian court, who compiled a collection of volumes containing settings of many of the Psalms of David, most beautifully arranged.

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