TonMus

Musical Oddities

Thekla Badarzewska, (1834-61), a Polish composer of salon music, published at age 17 a piece called Molitwa Dziewicy (A Maiden’s Prayer) which unaccountably seized the imagination not only of inhibited virgins, but of sentimental amateur pianists all over the world. More than 100 editions of this unique piece of salon pianism, with dripping maudlin arpeggios, were published in the 19^th century. Badarzewska wrote 34 more piano pieces in the salon style, but none of them matched A Maiden’s Prayer. An ungentlemanly German critic opined in an obituary that ‘Badarzewska’s early death saved the musical world from a veritable inundation of intolerable lachrymosity.’ Listen to a few bars, make up your own mind: A Maiden’s Prayer.


Katherine Bainbridge was the first centenarian to win the Woman’s International Aeronautics Association prize for songwriting. She wrote the lyrics of numerous songs with music by Friml and others.


In two years of singing in London, the celebrated artificial soprano (castrato) Farinelli amassed a fortune. (His real name was Carol Broschi, his father, a flour merchant (farina in Italian), called him Farinelli ‘little flour’.) He became court singer to Phillip V of Spain, singing the same four airs every night for ten years, the only way to calm the delirium of the monarch. Thus The Orpheus of Europe was reduced to being Music-Therapist, by Appointment.


American composer William Henry Fry gave his symphonies unusual titles. A few are The Breaking Heart, Santa Claus Symphony and Childe Harolde. He also wrote a symphonic poem, Niagra.


Robert (Johann Nepomuk) Führer (b. Prague 1807 d. Vienna 1891) was an organist in provincial towns before succeeding his teacher as Kapellmeister at Prague Cathedral. Becoming involved in fraudulent transactions, he was dismissed. Further posts followed, with further dismissals after a series of embezzlements and other criminal offenses. He was Bruckner’s competitor for the position of organist at Linz. He published one of Schubert’s masses under his own name. In spite of his notoriously dishonest acts, and his professional unworthiness, he had a reputation for fine musicianship.


When Haydn came to London, he was so excited, he filled four notebooks with his impressions and ANECTOD:


• He recorded the case of the parson who collapsed and died upon hearing the Andante of his (Haydn’s) 75^th Symphony, having had the music revealed to him in a dream the night before.

• At the first performance in London of Haydn’s newest symphony, the audience in the parterre had left their seats and rushed towards the orchestra, in their excitement to see Haydn from close range, leaving the seats in the middle of the parterre empty. No sooner was the parterre empty than a chandelier crashed to the floor, smashed, but completely missed the recently moved public. A Miracle! The title The Miracle is given to the symphony no. 96 in D major, whereas the accident happened at the first performance of the symphony no. 102 in B flat major.

• Haydn entertained fellow-musicians with an account of the pompous conductor who, too impatient to wait for the percussion to be fully tuned, ordered his drummer ‘to transpose in the meantime’. And for aristocratic patrons, he preserved detailed accounts of the Lord Mayor’s dinner, a day at the races at Royal Ascot and, intriguingly, a cryptic note of the stranger’s foot spotted beneath the Duchess of Devonshire’s petticoat.

Frederick William Herschel, (1738–1822) was a German-born musician who became a noted astronomer. He and his brother Jakob followed their father in the Military Band of Hannover. Following a tour to England 1755 with the regiment, the brothers resigned from the band and emigrated to London, William was aged 19. Herschel is noted for the discovery of the planet Uranus and two of its major moons, Titania and Oberon, two moons of Saturn and infra-red radiation. He was knighted in 1816, in 1820 he helped to found the Astronomical Society of London. He died in his 84^th year, the same number of years that Uranus takes to complete its orbit of the Sun. Herschel played the cello oboe, organ and harpsichord. He musical oevre comprise 24 symphonies, many concertos, and church music.
Jakob published sonatas for two violins and bass. He is thought to have been murdered. In the Berlinsche Muzikalische Zeitung of 1893, there is an article based on music in Hanover, which includes the following: The Vice-Concertmaster Jacob Herschel was found last year strangled in the field (of battle), and the position has since been vacant ... The writer then complains “of the lack of oboists due to the present circumstances of war”. As it is hard to imagine Jacob voluntarily taking part in military service, it is likely that he was a civilian who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Their sister Caroline was a singer, who had considerable success in the oratorios of Handel. When she ceased performing, she trained as an astronomer, making important discoveries. The crater on the moon C. Herschel is named after her.


Emanuel Moór invented the Moór-Duplex piano, consisting of a double keyboard with two manuals (an octave apart). Thus a new technique was made possible, which facilitated the playing of octaves and tenths and even chromatic glissandi. Some manufacturers (Steinway, Bechstein, and Bösedorfer) have put the Moór mechanism into their instruments. Needless to say the invention sank into desuetude.


Ignacy Paderewski (1860-1941) piano virtuoso became the first prime minister of Poland in 1919 when it was felt a government free from party tendencies was required. His premiership was not a success. As a virtuoso Paderewski was accustomed to flattery, and he resented criticism. A similarity exists with the playwright Václav Havel, who became president of the Czech republic after the fall of communism.


Triple Tristan
On Monday, January 11, 1960, just weeks after Birgit Nilsson made her long-delayed debut at the Met in New York, the Met’s three Heldentenors suddenly found themselves out of voice, the victims of winter colds. (The fact that two of them had been panned by critics after earlier appearances might have also affected their health.) Rather than cancel a sold-out performance, the General Manager Rudolf Bing resorted to a technique normally used by the New York Yankees, using each tenor for a single act. Fortunately there are only three acts.
Ramon Vinay, originally scheduled to sing the role, called at noon to cancel. The designated substitute, Karl Liebl, phoned at 2 to say that he, too, was in no condition to go on. Albert Da Costa, 33, phoned in at 4 with the same report. With no other Wagnerian tenors available, Vinay sang the first act, Liebl the second and Da Costa the third. All three took separate curtain calls and reluctantly posed for photographers with Birgit Nilsson, who commented: “I was just afraid to catch the bacillus. They were all really wonderful, my Tristans.” Were all the tenors really ailing? “They said they were,” said Dr. Reckford, the throat specialist who treated all three tenors, “and you have to believe people like tenors.”
Da Costa died in an automobile accident in Kolding, Denmark on 8 November, 1967.


Giovanni Battista Viotti worked closely with Tourte in developing the form of the modern violin bow. He was forced to leave London on suspicion of political intrigue and lived for three years near Hamburg, devoting himself to composition. He then returned to London, and became a wine merchant, but sustained substantial losses.