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TRANSCRIPT
LIV ING MASTER S OF MUS IC—VI .ED ITED BY ROSA NEWMARCH
JOSEPH JOACH I M
BY J . A . FU L L ER M A I T LAN D
ONDON {9’ NEW YORK. MDCCCCV
PREFACE
I T is perhaps right that panegyric should
be the prevai ling note of contemporary
biography it is at all events much easier
to discount praise than blame,and one gets a
far more vivid picture from the man who
admires his subject,even if it be with only
the fool ish admiration of a Boswel l,than
through the atmosphere of hardly concealed
invective in which some modern biographers
have chosen to shroud the figure they present .
The system of panegyric has one drawback,
though it may be considered an indirect one
if superlat ives are spread too thick,l ike the
butter in the moving bal lad of The Walrus
and the Carpenter, over individuals whose
ultimate position in the history of art must
at present be a l ittle uncertain , what terms
are to be employed in speaking of one whose
place among the immortals of music has long
josEPH jOACH I M
been an accepted fact ! I t the language of
praise has been exhausted over a Gossec or a
Ste ibelt, how shal l we write about a Haydn
or 3. B eethoven But if it is difficult to find
words that shall unite a judicial impartial ity
with adequate appreciat ion,it cannot be other
than a grateful task to attempt to write even a
short sketch of a l ife so full of dignity,useful
ness,and beauty as that of j oseph Joachim .
77u Author’s (banks are due to I ke kindness (y the owners
ofvariousportrait: ofj oaelzz'
m, notably to M r. H emy j aaelzz
'
m,
the possessor ofthe daguerreotype opposz'
le page 6 was
kindly photograplzed for this book by Professor A . B . LV.
Kennedy , and M rs. Frank Gi bson (M me . E ugen ie
for the portrait: 07: pp. 14 and 2 6 , and M r. G.
Andrew: ofGuz'
ldford, as well a: to the owner qftfie copyrtglztin t/ze portrait by Watts 67° Sargent.
CONTENTS
C HALPREFACE
l. H I S CAREER
I I . H I S V I OL IN PL AYING
I I I . H I S TEACH ING
I V . H I S I N FLUENCE
V . H I S COM POS IT IONS
I L L USTRAT I ONS
JOSEPH JOACH I M IN 1904 (FROM THEPRESENTAT ION PORTRA IT BY 1. s.
SARGENT, R .A . )
JOSEPH JOACH I M AT THE T I M E OF H IS
FIRST vi su' TO ENGL AND (FROM ADAGUERREOTYPE To face page 6
JOANNE S BRAHM S AND JOSEPH JOACH I M
(FROM A DAGUERREOTYPE)
JOSEPH JOACH I M m 1 8 6 6 (FROM A
PORTRA IT BY G . F . WATTS , R .A . )
JOSEPH JOACH I M m HUNGAR IAN DRESS
(FROM A DAGUERREOTYPE)6 . CANON WR ITTEN DUR ING THE T I M E
WHEN JOACH I M AND BRAHM S Ex
CHANGED COM POS ITIONS . THEM E
OF AN OVERTURE WR I TTEN FOR
A FEST I VAL OF THE ACADEMY OF
FI NE ARTS IN BER L I N
DR . JOACH I M AND THE L ATE G . F.
WATTS, R .A. , IN 1904 (FROM A
PHOTOGRAPH BY M R . G . ANDREWS,
OF GUI LDFORD)
JOSEPH JOA C H I M
C HAPTE R I
H I S CAREER
THE facts of joachim’s l ife can be very brieflyrecorded ; and after al l it i s not his career
that matters so much to the history of music,
as the influence of h is personal ity, the straight
forwardness of h is character,h is singl eness of
artistic aim,and the faithfulness with which
he has fol lowed his highest ideals .
B orn atKitsee , near Pressburg, in Hungary,on j une 2 8
,1 8 31 , the seventh child of J ul ius
and Fanny j oach im,he
,l ike his brothers
and sisters,was brought up in the J ewish
faith,in which he remained until about 1 8 54,
when he embraced the Christian rel igion . I n
1 8 33 the family moved to Pesth . I t was a
fortunate accident that a certain medicalA
2 JOSEPH JOACH I M
student,named Stiegl itz , an enthusiast ic ama
teur viol inist, noticing the child’s efforts to
follow his sister ' s singing on a toy fiddle,
began teach ing him the rudiments , and in
duced the parents,who were not special ly
musical themselves,to send h im for regular
instruction to S erwaczynski, who super
intended h is first studies on the viol in wh ile
he was attending the publ ic elementary
school of the town . H i s first appearance i n
public took p lace on M arch 1 7, 1 8 39, when
he jo ined h is master in a double concerto by
E ck, and played a diffi cult set of variat ions
on a waltz of Schubert . On the persuasions
of a cousin,Frl . Fanny F igdor, the boy was
sent to V ienna,and at first stud ied with Miska
Hauser for a few months,afterwards going to
Georg H ellmesberger the elder, whose two
sons,about j oachim ’s age , were also his most
proficient pupils . Ou one occasion, when
the three boys , together with a fourth , named
S imon , played M aurer’s famous concerto for
four viol ins , one of them was found to be so
backward in the use of the bow that the
master considered he would never make a
good viol inist . I t is hard in the present day
4 JOSEPH JOACH I M
Le ipzig merchant, was anxious for her young
cousin to come to Leipzig,where Mendelssohn
was just start ing the famous conservatorium .
She probably saw that the earnest artistic aim
with which the school was being formed
would suit the boy’s nature better than the
atmosphere of Paris and luckily for the
world,he was sent to Leipz ig in 1 8 43, with
the object of entering the school in the usual
way . Butwhen M endelssohn heard him play,
and examined h im in various departments of
musical knowledge, he wisely decided that i t
would be better for h im to study privately,
and so it was arranged for h im to do, pursuing
his general studies under a tutor,named
Hering,l earn ing the theoret ical side of music
from Moritz Hauptmann,and receiving advice
from Ferdinand David and from Mendelssohn
himself . j oach im ’s steadfast adherence to
the best th ings in music,and to them alone
,
is no doubt one of the results o f th is inti
macy and in practical music, it i s stated by
joachim ' s biographer that the artist ' s “ inimi
table mbato may be traced to the example of
Mendelssohn,who understood perfectly how
to blend one subject with another without
H I S CARE E R 5
forcing the passage i n the sl ightest degree .
The boy ' s first appearance before the Leipz ig
public took place in the Gewandhaus on
August 19, 1 8 43, at a concert given by Paul ine
Viardot-Garcia .
I n 1 8 44 Joachim paid his first visit to
London,armed with a letter of introduction to
H . Klingemann, of the Hanoverian embassy,from Mendelssohn , whose recommendation
contained these words His manner of
p laying al l modern and classical solos,his
interpretation , his perfect comprehension of
music,and the promise in h im of a noble
service to art, wil l, I am sure,l ead you to
th ink as highly of h im as I do . But at the
same time , he is a capital,healthy
,well
brought-up, and altogether thoroughly good
and clever 1ad,full of intell igence and very
straightforward . Therefore be kind to h im,
look after him in great London , and introduce
him to those of our friends who wil l appre
ciate such an exceptional personal ity,and in
whose acquaintance he,for h is part
,wil l also
find pleasure and stimulat ion .
” These words
were a far truer augury for Joach im’s career
in E ngland than was to be found in the
6 JOSEPH joACH I M
conditions of h is first appearance in public in
London . I t i s, of course, obvious to every
one who knows about music . that beginners,
l ike beggars,cannot be choosers of the kind
of concerts in wh ich they wil l appear . But
there is something very amusing in the
account of the performance that took place
at Drury Lane Theatre for the benefit of the
egregious “ poet ” B unn,on March 2 8 , 1 8 44.
Between the first and second acts of the
B ohemian Girl (we are not told whether the
whole opera was given or not) there was a
M iscel laneous Concert,mostly undertaken
by Ignaz M oscheles, who played a fantasia
on I rish airs for piano and orchestra , and
took part with Mme . Dulcken and B enedict
in a “ concertante ” for three p ianos of his
own . The programme contained the an
nouncement that The celebrated Hungarian
boy, M aster j oach im
,wil l make h is first
appearance before an E nglish public and
perform Grand Variations for the viol in on
a theme from Rossini ’s ‘Othel lo by E rnst ."
I t was long before the antithesis of B ohemian
Girl ” and “ Hungarian boy ” was forgotten
by those who knew joach im well enough to
JOACH I M .AT THE TI M E OF H I S F I RST V I S I T TO ENGL AND
F row a Daguerreotyfe
H I S CAREE R 7
ral ly him on the conditions of h is first appear
ance in London . One of B enedict' s monster
concerts took place on the lgth of May in
the same year,and Joach im took part in th is .
E ven at the age of thirteen years he must
have been a master of canlabz'
le playing, for
L ablache was enthusiastic about h im,and
went often to hear him play .
What may be cal led his real début in
E ngland took place at the Ph ilharmonic
Concert of May 2 7, 1 8 44, when he played
B eethoven’s Concerto under Mendelssohn’s
conductorship . The performance, as far as
may be judged from Mendelssohn’s letter to
the boy’s friends at Leipzig, and certain criti
cisms in the London press,must have been
marked by not a few of the same charac
teristics that have been joach im’s al l through
his l ife ; the cadenz as, composed by himself,were warmly praised for the ir musical value .
I n the I llustrated L ondon News appeared an
account of the concert,in wh ich the fol lowing
passage occurs,showing how emphatic was
the impression produced upon the public at
large“ But now come we to the dicta mz
’
rabz'
le
8 JOSEPH JOACHIM
monstmm, in the shape of a l ittle boy of
th irteen, who perhaps i s the first vio lin
player, not only of his age, but of his sz‘
e‘
ele .
Ofl ate years we have heard some prodigies
but we can safely say that l ittle J oach im
is equal to any,or all of them
,put together
His tone is of the purest eantabz’
le character ;h is execution is most marvellous
,and at
the same time unembarrassed ; h is style is
chaste,but deeply impassioned at moments
and h is deportment is that of a conscious, but
modest genius ! H e performed Beethoven ’s
solitary concerto,which we have heard al l the
great performers of the last twenty years
attempt,and invariably fail in. I n the
cadenz as, composed by the youth himself,there was as much genius exhibited as in the
subject which gave birth to them . J oach im
plays from memory, which is more agreeable
to the eye of the auditor than to see anyth ing
read from a music-stand it seems more l ike
extemporaneous performance,and admits a
greater degree of enthusiasm on the part of
the instrumental ist . We never heard or
witnessed such unequivocal delight as was
expressed by both band and auditory.
"
m josEPH JOACH IM
he gets from his viol in , as wel l as h is
great dexterity and certainty,and it has
fully recognised and encouraged these
qualities before now . What Herr J oachim
gave us this time was doubly surpris ing,for he not only gave evidence of the im
portant advance he has made in technical
skil l,but also showed that he has developed
so far as to grasp the spiritual meaning of
a work of the highest artistic importance .
The manner in which he performed the
diffi cult and inspired concerto of B eethoven,
precludes every doubt as to h is vocation
for the'
musical profession , and sets h im
far above the mere virtuos i in the ranks
of the artists . I n th is connection may be
noticed the two cadenz as introduced by
him into th e first and last movements of
the concerto respectively,which are built
most cleverly upon the chief themes of
the work. H err j oach im’
s p laying is so
round and certain,h is tone so broad and
elegiac,and so pure in . intonation even in
the h ighest and most difficult passages, his
style so natural yet so independent,that it
is only by looking at h is youthful form
H I S CARE E R 1 1
that one can realise h is age . May the
young man,who last year had a triumph
in E ngland,l ong preserve h is chi ldl ike,
modest nature,and may he not desist from
his unwearied work and advancement,whether tempted by the great success that
fol lowed al l h is efforts on this as on every
other occasion, or by the assumption that
he already stands on the apex of per
fection ! H e has a great and honoured
future before h im, and wil l most assuredly
be numbered among the great artists .”
E very word of the above seems strangely
prophetic,and the wise writer, whoever he
was,can hardly have expected to see h is
words so l iterally fulfilled as they have
been .
After Mendelssohn ’s death,in 1 8 47, Leipzig
of course lost its ch ief attraction for j oach im,
and, although he was engaged in teach ing at
the Conservatorium , and was in the habit of
playing,for the sake of practice, in the
orchestra of the Gewandhaus concerts,he
accepted the invitation of Lisz t to go to
Weimar as concertmeister, zle. leader of the
orchestra . Before leaving Leipzig he had
1 2 JOSEPH JOACH IM
been to E ngland several t imes more, and had
played in Paris under Berl ioz ’s direction , and
with the greatest success . As l eader of the
Weimar orchestra, J oachim threw himsel f
ardently into the cause of the new music
that was then beginning to divide Germany
into two opposing camps .
The charm of Liszt’s personal ity was
irresistible,and this
,and the intercourse with
Von Bulow and R aff undoubtedly did some
thing to counteract the Leipzig influences,
though it was only for a t ime that J oachim
was ranked among the partisans of the new
movement . I t is made clear in M oser’s
biography that the Symphonic Poems of
Liszt were the works which convinced
Joachim that h is own ideals were real ly
irreconci lable with those of th e new school .
The whole story may be read there (E ngl .
transl . pp . 103 from the beginning up
to the point at which Joach im definitely
broke offhis allegiance to the Weimar school .
His official connection with that place had
ceased at the beginning of 1 8 53, when he
went to Hanover as concertmeister,a far
better position than the Weimar post,and
H I S CAREE R 13
one in which he could exercise a greater
influence on the orchestral players who were
part ially under his control . I n the first few
years of h is Hanover appointment, he spent
the summer months at Gottingen, attending
the univers ity l ectures,and in improving
h is general culture . During h is fifteen years ’
tenure of the post he made many more
visits to E ngland , coming here in 1 8 58 ,
1 8 59, and 1 8 6 2,with such great success
that after the latter year h i s vis its became
annual . His marriage with Amalie Weiss
took place in 1 8 6 3, and those who remember
that great singer ’s performances in London in
1 8 70 and 1 8 78 , wil l have no diffi culty in
real is ing that she held a place of the highest
distinction among the s ingers of Germany.
She set the crown on her dramatic achieve
ment in a certain performance of Gluck’s
Orfeo,
” given for the birthday of the Queen
of Hanover,April 14, 1 8 6 3, on which occasion
Joachim conducted an operatic performance
for the first and only time in his l ife . After
her successful career as an Opera- singer,she
left the stage on her marriage, and ach ieved a
high position as an oratorio and lyrical singer .
14 JOSEPH JOACH IM
The union of these two great artists had a
great influence on the art o f their time their
house was a centre of the truest musica l
culture,and the deplorable c ircumstances
which occasioned a separat ion in 1 8 8 4 were
felt as occasioning a personal loss by a vast
number of German musical people . Frau
Joachim so seldom came to E ngland that her
husband’s E nglish admirers could not take it
in the same way, deeply as they might
sympath i se in h is great trouble . She was
for many years eminent as a teacher of
singing,and died in Berlin
,Feb . 3, 1 8 99 .
The intimate friendsh ip between Joachim
and Brahms began during the fi rst few
months of the viol inist’s appointment at
Hanover . The story of the first introduction
by Remenyi, a Hungarian viol inist of no
great importance,has been often told
,and
generally wrongly ; the first meeting between
the two took place at Hanover,and soon
afterwards B rahms stayed with J oachim at
Gottingen , where the latter was spending the
summer . The correct account of this episode
is given in Moser ’s “ Life of J oachim,
” i n
Kalbeck’
s Life of B rahms,and in the new
1 6 josEPH JOACH IM
not settle in E ngland,where a brother had
long l ived but Berlin was ultimately chosen
as his residence,and ever since that t ime
h is home has been there . I t was a
more or less open secret that the foundation
of the Konigl iche Hochschule fur Musik,
” in
1 8 6 9, was due to the natural wish on the part
of the authorities to create a sphere of special
usefulness for the il lustrious artist and his
directorship of that now famous school,from
that t ime until the present day,has been rich
in artistic results of al l kinds . I n the same
year the “Joachim Quartet” was founded, with
Sch iever, De Ahna,and Wi lhelm Mul ler .
From the beginning the concerts given by
th is organisation were crowded,and through
different changes of personnel1 i ts p0pu
larity has been ful ly maintained, not only in
Ber l in,but in other p laces in Germany, as
1 On the resignation ofHerr Schiever after the first two
seasons, his place as second v io l in was taken by D e Ahna,when Edward Rappoldi became v io la player. I n 18 77 the
latter went to Dresden, and was succeeded by Emanue l W irth.Muller, the vio lonce l l ist, was succeeded by Robert Hausmannin 18 79, and Johann Kruse , who had been acting as substituteforDe Ahna during a long i l lness ofthe latter , became regularsecond v io l in in 1892 , remaining ti l l 1897, when Hal ir took hisplace . M r. Kruse appeared with the rest ofthe quartet on the
first two visits ofthe Berl in quartet party to England in 1897
F rom a photograph by F . 110100 ]
jOSE l’H JOACH I M m 1 8 6 6
F rom a portrazt by G. F . lVatts, R .A .
H I S CAREE R 17
well as in Paris and London, where for
some years past the visit o f the party has
been regular .
Perhaps no one except a crowned head
has had so many opportunities of getting
overdone with admiration as J oachim . B e
sides the regular tr ibute of a multitude of
worshippers wherever he appears in publ ic,
he has received tangible evidence of the love
that he inspires on several most important
occasions in h is li fe . I n 1 8 8 9 the fiftieth
anniversary of the beginn ing of h is protes
sional career was fitly ce lebrated at Berl in
and el sewhere by gala concerts and other
fest ivit ies . At Berl in , where the celebration
necessarily took place a short time before the
actual completion of the fiftyyears (as Joach im
was in E ngland on the actual day), at the
H o chschule,after the performance of a cantata
and 18 98 , but on subsequent occasions Pro f. Hal i r has come toL ondon, so that L ondon musicians hear the quartet exactly asit is in Berl in. The regular quartet party led by Joachim at the
L ondon Popular Concerts fora great numbe r ofyears consistedofL ouis R ies, L udwig Straus, and A l fredo P iatti , but in spiteofthe individual exce l lence ofall, and the supremacy ofthe
last-named artist in his own l ine , the four players be longed to
such difierent schoo ls that a perfect ensemble was scarce ly attainable by them, and it was a reve lation to L ondoners whenthe Berl in quartet first came over as awho le .
1 8 JOSEPH JOACH IM
by Bach , a memorable speech by Dr . Spitta,and the presentation of a bust by Donndorf
,
a concert took place at which three works by
Joach im were played under Rudorff’s direction ,the “ H amlet and “ Henry IV .
” overtures,
and the Hungarian Concerto,each movement
of the last being played by an eminent pupil
of the composer . A more practical tr ibute
to the unique position occupied by Joach im
in B erl in was the fact that a sum of a hundred
thousand marks 5000) was raised, and part
of it was the nucleus of a fund for provid ing
poor students of the Hochschule with fittingi nstruments . The house in which B eethoven
was born,at Bonn
,had been bought by twelve
citiz ens of the town,and in celebration of the
j oachim “jubilee,
” the great artist was offered
the honorary presidency of the “ Beethoven
House Society,” a body which organised the
interesting B onn festivals,which have taken
place every three or four years since 1 8 90 .
I n E ngland an interest ing presentation took
place,on Apri l 1 6 , 1 8 8 9, of an exception
al ly fine Stradivarius viol in , and a Tourte bow
that had belonged to Kiesewetter . A meet
ing was held in the lower room at St. James ’s
H I S CAREE R 1 9
H all,at which Lord (then Sir Frederick)
Leighton spoke, and in returning thanks
j oachim made a quotation which may wel l
stand for an epitome of h is own artist ic career,
though he no doubt used it simply as a
memorable piece of advice to the many
younger artists who were present
D erM enschheitW iirde ist in eure Hand gegebenBewahret sie .
”
Ten years afterwards the sixt ieth anniversary
of the artist ’s entry into public l i fe was cele
brated in B erl in with even more pomp and
circumstance,for his pupils
,past and present
,
to the number of 1 1 6 viol ins and V iolas,with
twenty-four violoncell ists who had attended
Joach im ’s ensemble classes, took part in the
wonderful concert conducted by F ritz Stein
bach,which culminated in a performance
of the B eethoven concerto,undertaken at a
moment’s notice by j oach im himself . The de
scription of the pretty incident is wel l given in
the E nglish translation of Moser’s biography .
I n 1 904 the“ diamond jubilee of J oachim ’s
first appearance in E ngland was celebrated , on
May 1 6 , in the Queen’s Hall by a reception
at which his portrait by S . Sargent, R .A.,
2 0 JOSEPH JOACH IM
was presented to him by the Right Hon .
A . J. Balfour, and a concert took place with
the aid of the Queen’s Hall Orchestra
,under
Mr. Henry J. Wood . j oach im conducted h is
own overture to “ Henry IV . , and played
the Beethoven concerto once more,with a
marvellous amount of power and all h is old
beauty of phrasing and conception . The
address read by Sir Hubert Parry gives so
faithful an account of the qual it ies wh ich
have made the personality of j oach im what
it is,that it may fitly be reprinted here :
“ At a time known only by hearsay to
most of us,you first brought before an
E ngl ish audience the promise of that per
formance which has been eminent among
two generations of menflwhich , in gainingan unrivalled wealth of experience, has had
no loss to count but that of novelty ; which
we stil l welcome as a continuing del ight, and
which wil l remain for many generations
more as a tradit ion and example to be prized
by those who are born too late for the happi
ness of immediate knowledge . I t was under
the auspices of M endelssohn that you played
Beethoven’s Viol in Concerto at the Ph ilhar
2 2 JOSEPH JOACH IM
We now hold it fitting that the sixtieth
anniversary of your first appearance here
should not pass without a special greeting .
The welcome we offer you is al ike for the
artist who commands every power of the
trained hand,and for the musician whose
consummate knowledge and profound rever
ence for his art have uniformly guided hisexecution in the path of the sincerest inter
pretation. Your first thoughts as a performer
have ever been for the composer and not for
yourself. I n no hour have you yie lded to
the temptation of mere personal d isplay,and
the weight of your precepts in one of the
greatest musical schools of Europe is aug
mented by the absolute fidelity with which
your example il lustrates them .
The present occasion wil l,we hope
,he
memorable of itself . None the less,we
desired that you should possess a visible
record of it. M r. Sargent has brought us the
will ing and generous aid of a sister art, and
we have the pleasure of presenting to you the
portrait of yourself,which he has employed
no common z eal to complete within the time
at his disposal .
H I S CARE E R 2 3
As the names of M endelssohn , Schumann,and B rahms l ink you in a special manner
with the great masters of the past,th is con
cert includes some of their work . We rejoice
that it is your pleasure to take an active part,which wil l enhance for both performers and
hearers the significance of th is commemo
ration .
The following sonnet,by M r. Robert
B ridges,was printed in the programme of
the concert it afterwards appeared in The
M onthly R eview, and is here reprinted by the
kind permiss ion of the author
Belov’
d ofall to whom that Muse is dear,
Wh o h id her spi rit ofrapture from the Greek,Whereby ourart e xcelleth the antique ,
Perfecting fo rmal beauty to the ear
Thou that hast be en in E ngland many a yearThe interpreterwho le ft us nought to seek
,
M aking Beethoven’s inmost passion speak,
Bringing the soul ofg reat Sebastian near
The irmusic live th ever, and ’tis just
That thou, good Joachim—so high thy skillRank, as thou shalt upon the heavenly hill,
Laurel’
d with them forthy ennob l ing trustR emember
’d when thy loving hand is still ,
And ev’ry earthat heard thee stopt with dust.” j
CHAPTE R I I
H I S V IOL IN PLAY ING
TO attempt to assess the qual ities of joachim ' s
p laying in such a way that those who have
not heard him could obtain an adequate idea
of its character,is a well -nigh hopeless task ;
but while it is impossible to exp lain the
causes of the sway he has exerted for so
many years upon al l the greatest musicians
of h is t ime,whether composers
,executants
,
or merely hearers,it is not diffi cult to point
to certain characteristic features of h is style
which have helped to make h im what he is .
E ven in his early youth he must have
attained that rare union between consum
mate technical ski l l,profound intel l igence
,and
interpretative power which has distinguished
his art from that of al l other violin ists .
H i s tone was always distinguished by
viril e energy rather than by voluptuous
H I S V IOL IN PL AY ING 2 5
roundness ; but those who would cavil at
th is,should logically reproach Michelangelo
for not painting l ike Correggio . That he
might,it he had so chosen , have ecl ipsed
al l the feats of Paganini in the direction of
mere virtuosity,is amply proved by the solo
part of the “ Hungarian Concerto,which
stands as a monument of his manual dex
terity, and shows the kind of passages in
which he felt h imself to excel . I t i s safe to
say that no one has ever attained to h is
standard of playing in three and four parts,to mention but one Special point in h is art ;he may very poss ibly have devoted h imself to
th is detail o f execution with the object of
executing the noble polyphony of Bach,i n
certain works which can never have been
adequately played unti l j oach im led the
way . Nowadays the Chaeonne is in the
repertory of every viol in ist, but if it i s so ,
the first practical performer of the move
ment is also the greatest,for in J oachim’s
interpretation there is a depth of musical
significance which is not to be found among
the younger players, who succeed the better
the nearer they approach the great master ’s
2 6 josEPH jOACH I M
reading. As with al l great artists,mere
technical skil l i s forgotten in the far h igher
qual ities of style, and before referr ing to
th is side of h is art,i t may be pointed out
that,in common with j enny L ind and C lara
Schumann , J oach im has the power of making
music seem like the natural spontaneous
utterance of h is inmost feel ings,as wel l as
a faithful reproduction of the thoughts of
whatever master he may be interpreting .
I t is one of the l asting paradoxes of music
that the most individual of artists,those
whose performances would be most easily
recognised as characterist ic of themselves,are precisely those who interpret best the
music of others,and who appear to inter
pose the least clouded medium between the
soul of the composer and that of the bearer.
I t is probable that the trained intuitions
of the exceptional ly great performers lead
them,by a process of unconsc ious reasoning,
to adopt a manner of interpreting any given
passage which is so logical,so completely in
keeping with the style of the period to which
t he music belongs, that it seems to cultivated
hearers, and may actually be , i n exact accord
10110 1111 m HUNGARIAN DRESS
2 8 JOSEPH JOACH IM
able article s on Performance and Person
ality, in a short- l ived publicat ion cal led The
MusicalGaz elle, publ ished by J oseph Wil l i ams,Limited, in December 1 8 99, and subsequently .
They are s igned “ Tamino but,i n spite of
some attempts to throw dus t in the eyes of
the reader,i t is fairly clear that they are
from the pen of M r. D . F . Tovey,whose
words about Joachim convey a wonderful ly
definite idea of h is p laying to thos e who are
unacquainted with it. The moulding of his
phrases,as i t may be cal led
,is in imitable
,fo r
it consists of slight modifications of the strict
metronomic value of the notes,togeth er with
slight variations of power such as no marks
of expression could convey . E lasticity ” is
the word which best expresses the efiect of
his del ivery of some characteristic themes ;as in a perfect rubato there is a feel ing of
resil ience,of rebound
,in the sequence of the
notes,a constant and perfect restoration of
balance between pressure and resistance
taking place,as an indiarubber bal l resume s
its original shape after being pressed . Com
pared with this kind of subtle modification,
the phrasing of many players who lack a
H I S V IOL IN PLAYING 2 9
keen sense of rhythm,but who wish to play
in a free style,suggests the same pressure
when appl ied to a lump of dough ; the sl ack
eningof pace is here made up by no accelera
tion in another place as it is with the great
artists . I t is,perhaps
,th is subjection to the
real laws of rhythm that makes J oachim an
extraordinarily easy player to accompany
one seems to know what he is going to do
before he does it, and the notes of h is phrases
seem to follow a natural curve which,once
started,must pursue an inevitable course .
One of the most typical instances of th is
freedom of phrase is in the obblzjqato to
the air Erbarme dz'
ek, from Bach ’s M atthew
Passion . I n the general outl ine of the move
ment the player follows the singer,as in duty
bound,but in the subdivisions of the bar
,i n
the rapid passages,only a most minute exami
nation reveals how very far they are from
the mechanical regularity of the self-styled“ classical p layers .” Technical ly the secret
of th is regulated or logical freedom may be
said to be based on the principle of what is
now sometimes cal led “ agogic accent,
”zle .
the kind of accent that consi sts, not of an
30 JOSEPH jOACH I M
actual stress or intensification of tone on the
note,but of a sl ight lengthening-out of its
time-value, at the beginning of the bar, and
at points where a secondary accent may be
required . Al l the greatest interpreters of the
best mus ic have been accustomed to lay th is
kind of accent on the first note of the bar,or
of a phrase,as taste may suggest but none
have ever carried out the principle so far or
with such fine results, as J oachim has done .
Such detail s as these , i f impossible to imi
tate exactly,and difficult to describe in tem
perate language, are as noth ing compared with
the soul that joachim puts into al l that he
plays . Great as he is as a solo ist, and wonder
ful as is h is power of imposing, as it were, h is
own readings on every member of an orchestra
that is accompanying h im in a concerto,his
powers as an interpreter are perhaps most
prominently exh ibited in associat ion with the
members of the famous Joachim Quartet, in
whose company he is of course perfectly
free to indulge in the mood of the moment,
knowing that the other members wi ll divine
his intention,though it be formed without
premeditation . E ach performance by these
H I S V IOL IN PLAYING 31
players is a separate revelation of beauty .
The childl ike gaiety of Haydn ; the out
pouring of Moz art’s melodious thoughts, in
the course of wh ich some rather uneventful
passage, such as those which drew from
Wagner the sneer that they were fit to accom
pany “ the clattering of dishes at a royal ban
quet,is interrupted by some glorious moment
of express ive profundity ; the emotional and
intellectual depths of B eethoven , with h is
changing humours ; the int imate tenderness
of Schumann ; the fine polish of Mendels
sohn and last, though not least, the inspired
imaginings of B rahms al l are presented to
th e hearers in what i s felt to be a manner
exactly l ike what the composers must have
conceived in their own minds . I n each and
al l instances,the worthy hearer feels at the
close that he has been l ifted into the closes t
communion with the souls of the greatest
composers, and given an insight into their
thoughts such as can be produced in no
other art .
I t must have happened to many of these
happy listeners to be dashed from their
mood of exaltat ion by the words of a neigh
32 JOSEPH JOACH IM
bour, or a remark of some particular ly inept
journal ist,But he plays out of tune . This
point is one that cannot briefly be dismissed,for it is a quest ion that cannot be answered
by a plain “ Yes ” or “ No .
” I t is,unfortu
nately, true that in recent years the top joint
of th e l itt le finger of the left hand has become
physical ly weakened,and that it occasional ly
fails to obey the brain’s command in the
stopping of some very high note ; but this
extremely rare occurrence i s not at al l what
the critics and others mean when they charge
J oachim with faulty intonation . M any a
ch ild with a good natural ear for music,
trained exclusively at the p ianoforte,and
taught to regard that instrument as the
ultimate standard of pitch,must have been
astonished at first hearing Joach im, and have
discerned th at in many intervals h is intonation
differed from that given by the pianoforte .
I t i s only after realising that the modern key
board instruments are purpose ly tuned on a
system which,in order to allow of the employ
ment of al l keys equally, makes almost all th e
intervals a little out of tune,that the con
viction dawns that possibly Joachim’s intona
H I S V IOL IN PLAYING 33
t ion may be right and the piano keyboard
wrong. This is,indeed
,the plain fact of the
matter ; and it has been demonstrated by the
greatest acoustician of modern times,Von
Helmholtz that Joachim ’s playing is in “ just
intonation,and far nearer the point of exact
scientific truth than of any other viol in ist .
The faultiness of the keyboard can be easily
recognised by any one who can sing a note
at even pitch,by this l itt l e experiment, going
over no more than three interval s . B eginning
with the notes C,D
,E
,the first three notes
of the scale of C major,s ing them mentally
or audibly unti l they are perfectly in tune ;it wil l be found that the middle note
, D ,has
,
in the key of C , to be made perceptibly
nearer to the p itch of the E than to that of the
C ; in other words, that the d istance between
the two intervals is not the same distance,as
it is on the keyboard . Now,having secured
the p itch of D and E,l et the mind modulate
into the key of D major, taking the same D as
the keynote if you sing the same E as before
for the second note of the scale,it wil l sound
too flat, and in readjusting the mind to the
new key,a higher E wil l almost inevitably be
C
34 josEPH joACH I M
taken unconsciously . This is the difference
known as that between the major and the
minor tone,both of them being expressed by
the same interval on the keyboard . I n a
single diatonic scale, without any modulation,there are seven intervals between adjacentnotes
,al l of wh ich vary sl ightly from those of
the keyboard,and where modulation is intro
duced, as it is in al l modern music,the
difficulty of practically adjusting the interval s
becomes so great that most viol inists give up
al l attempt to play in true intonation , and
just adopt the equal temperament of the
p ianoforte,or someth ing not recognisably
different from it. Joachim,the great master
of just intonation in practical music,has often
passed from a note to its enharmonic equiva
lent (from D sharp to E flat,for example)
with an appreciabl e difference of p itch that a
superficial hearer might easily mistake for an
error in intonation , the fact being that the
player i s possibly the only viol inist who has
ever perfectly achieved this feat .
36 JOSEPH JOACH IM
own playing . The bow of Joachim,l ike that
of Ulysses, can only be perfectly wielded by
the owner himself many of his pupils, who
have adopted h is system,have brought it into
discredit by making manifest certain defects
which do not appear in Joachim ’s own bow
ing . Very few have acquired the system in
its entirety . For the following description of
its characteristics,I am indebted to Professor
Kruse,one of the most eminent of those who
are thorough masters of the method . I ts ch ief
pecul iarity i s th e union between a perfectly
firm grasp of the bow with the thumb and
middle finger, and complete suppleness in
the wrist and arm . I t is easy to see that the
iron grip of the fingers is excessive ly difficult
to combine with a loose wrist,but in Joachim ’s
hands the strength of his grasp enables him
to carry the bow in the air above the strings
(in contradistinct ion to the practice of many
eminent teachers, more especial ly of the
French school,who recommend that the
bow should always be kept lying on the
strings), so that he can use precisely the
number of hairs that he needs to produce
the desired effect . I t is th is wh ich gives a
H I S TEACHING 37
kind of ethereal qual ity to h is execution of
rapid passages,such as the semiquavers at
the beginning of the finale of B eethoven’s
str ing quintet in C , Op . 2 9 . I t also gives to
the tone its ful l,round qual ity alike in forte
and piano passages, and allows h im to mould
h is tone,as it were
,with infinite gradations
of strength and “ texture .
”C losely al l ied to
this power is the pl ayer’s abil ity to produce
the maximum of tone with the minimum
amount of bow, and thus to avo id waste of
time and strength . Another of h is secrets is
that he knows,as the violin ists say, “ every
inch of h is bow, and real ises fully at which
part of its length the effect he desires can
best be obtained .
I t is said that the great artist is shortly
going to publish a M ethod,
” i n wh ich wil l
be made clear as much of his system as is
expl icable in words .
I t is not only as an actual giver of lessons
that J oachim ’s influence i s strongest on the
world ; every time he plays there is a lesson
to be learnt, of phrasing, of conception, or
of some detail of technique, and these lessons
in style are as valuable for those who are
3s JOSEPH JOACH IM
not practical viol inists as for those who are .
I n the art of “ singing ” on his instrument,for example
,notwithstanding the fact that
he has never adopted the luscious! kind of
cantabz'
le that many players affect , how often
has it been wished that singers could lay to
heart the teach ing of the great master in
reticence,proportion , intensity of expression ,
and true intel l igence,that appear in every
thing he plays ! I n yet another way he has
taught his contemporaries many a lesson .
I t would be impossib le for any one to cal l
Haydn’s music “ dry ” who has real ised the
frol icsome humour which Joach im gets from
it ; if he did more than any one else to
encourage that love of M endelssohn which
has not been an unmitigated blessing for
E nglish music,he did more than any one else
to show the true greatness of Beethoven,and
to put him in the supreme position he now
occupies . One can hardly real ise how recent
i s the general conviction that B eethoven is
indubitably the greatest of al l composers .
When the “ posthumous quartets were
played in connection with the Popular Con
certs,in the early seventies (not indeed for
H I S TEACH ING 39
the first time in London, but for the first
time before the general musical publ ic), it was
considered advisable to give them at an extra
concert,no doubt for fear of mortally ottend
ing the regular subscribers , among whom
there were many who thought the quartets
nothing but the ravings of an inspired lunatic .
To Joachim’s interpretation is due the credit
of restoring them to a place of h igh honour,
i f not of actual supremacy,among the master’s
works . As the great apostle of Brahms, too ,he had to bear the brunt of the attacks of
the Wagner faction , and the sneers of those
from whom the beauty of the music was for
years concealed . That it has now won its
way into the hearts of the vast majority of
music- lovers in E ngland i s due in great
measure to J oachim ' s influence, as wel l as
to his wonderful performances,not only of
the three sonatas for viol in and piano,but
of the quartets and chamber music,and
especial ly of the vio l in concerto , of which
for some years he was the on ly interpreter .
What part he bore in the actual making of
the work itself wil l probably never be known
but the accepted eadenz a is owned as h is,
40 JOSEPH joACH I M
and,without his playing
,the work must
have fallen dead as far as practical music is
concerned,s ince no one else would have been
able to show the publ ic al l that it contained
of beauty and depth .
Now that joachim has been the p ioneer,there are not a few
,from Herr Kreisler
downwards,who have attained success in
this very work . Occasionally it has happened
that joachim has been compelled by friend
ship or other c ircumstances to play someth ing
which was not quite in the first rank o f
musical attainment this has occurred more
rarely with him than with any other player,
as he has always,from the very earliest years
,
resisted all temptations to prostitute h is art
in any way . But,short of actual bad music
,
he has been heard in th ings which were not
of the first order on a few occasions . When
this has happened he has never given the
publ ic less than the best of h is own interpretative art
,or played the p iece in a manner
l ikely to suggest that h e despised it but,in
the very process of bringing out what mean
ing it possessed,it became clear to some
hearers that the music was of a really super
H I S TEACH ING 4 1
ficial kind,and would not bear the wealth of
intellectual scrutiny to which it was being
subjected .
One definite occasion on which th is hap
pened with in the writer’s experience may
or may not be the same occasion which Mr.
Tovey refers to in the articles above quoted ,but the circumstances are so simi lar that
they almost must be identical . “ H e was
playing a viol in sonata (I bel ieve I am
correct in saying that it was a work he d id
not l ike) by an extremely successful com
poser,who was playing the pianoforte part
himsel f . The extremely successful composer
came to the most beautiful theme in h is
work,real ly a very happily turned phrase .
H e threw it offcarelessly,as one might say
‘ a poor thing,sir
,but mine own .
’ Dr .
J oach im took it up, and it sounded as it
might to the imagination of its composer in
the first thri l l of creative impulse . For the
present writer ’s own part,he must confess
that the occasion (supposing it to have been
the same) gave h im the first i nkl ing that the
extremely successful composer ” was not a
great man in h is way. I t would not be
4 2 JOSEPH joACH I M
fair to mention names ; but th e incident,whether it be one or two
,may serve to
show the manner in which definite teach
ing can be conveyed by a great inter
pretative artist .
44 josEPH JOACH I M
has rece ived from men who have afterwards
felt it to be their duty to return to the
broader l ines of music . To cal l h im an anti
Wagnerian,because he does not approve the
system which governs the composit ion of
L isz t’s symphonic poems, i s ridiculous but,
unfortunately,it is not without parallel in the
quarter from which the charge proceeds . A
l ist of works by Wagner— complete acts of
Operas,as wel l as separate orchestral pieces
— produced at the H ochschule , of course with
joach im ’s authority,i s given in Moser’s “L ife ,
and j oachim’s admirat ion for “ Lohengrin
survived the time when he became acquainted
with its striking prototype in Weber’s “E ury
ari the .
”Ofthe relations between L iszt and
Joachim mention has already been made ;and the termination of their artistic inter
course became inevitable when,as it seemed
to j oachim,the symphonic poems were pro
duced in direct antagonism to all the recog
nised rules of class ical structure, and in direct
support of the system of makingmusic sub
servient to some pictorial or narrative idea .
H ow could a lover of the class ics , one who
had gone so deeply into their nature, accept
H I S INFLUENCE 45
theories wh ich,i f they succeeded
,could only
result in a widespread contempt for the great
th ings of the old masters ! Nowadays it is
perfectly easy to see that the movement,
whether it be considered as permanently suc
cessful or not , has done no real damage to
the love of the class ics ; that few cultivated
hearers are l ikely to prefer programme music
to works in which the musical interest is of
paramount importance ; and that many have
been gradual ly convinced,l ike Von Bulow
,
Draeseke , and others , that for them the new
paths of L iszt and his friends led away from
the temple of art . At the time , the real insignificance of the movement could not be fore
seen , and it is difficult to see how any con
scientious man , feel ing as J oachim did,could
have refrained from uttering h is conviction,
or how that conviction could have been
expressed with more courtesy and gener
osity. The causes wh ich led joachim away
from the advanced party are fully set
forth in M oser ’s “ Biography,
” as wel l as
incidental ly in Kalbeck’
s“ L ife of B rahms .
His attitude towards the Wagner question was
rather different . Wagner had announced
46 JOSEPH JOACH IM
privately and publicly that h is music was
henceforward intended only for the delight
of h is personal friends,or at least such
was the interpretation put upon certain
utterances of h is by the great majority of
German musicians . The surroundings of
the Wagnerian circle were not such as could
appeal very strongly to j oachim,with his
wide outlook on music,his deep sym
pathy for the class ics,and his artist ic and
personal integrity the personal fr iendship of
the composer h imself might have been accept
able to Joachim, but inasmuch as Wagner
was never tired of deriding the musicians,l iving or dead
,with whom joach im had en
joyed the closest sympathy and friendship,it
would have been far from easy for the two
men to find a common ground on which to
base a l asting friendship . There is no reason
to suppose that the celebrated ending of
Wagner ’s Ueber a'
as Dz’
rz'
gz'
ren gave Joachim
any personal offence ; th e terms in which he
h imself was spoken of in the passage were
quite favourable,i f not exactly flattering ; but
there was an inherent antagonism between
the ideals of the two schools which could not
H I S INFLUENCE 47
be glossed over, while the battle of the new
and old music was being fought it is only as
time goes on that we can see how possible,
and even easy,it is to admire and sympathise
with both points of view,and that we can
reconcile the complex art of Wagner with
that of the pure music to which Joachim has
devoted h is l i fe . After al l , the famous occa
s ion on which Joachim allowed h is name to
be attached to an utterance concerning the
music of the future ” in an Erleldmng,
or explanat ion , signed by Brahms, J. O .
Grimm,and Bernhard Scholz, in 1 8 6 0
,was
nothing more than a most necessary protest
against the statement in the Neue Zez'
tsckriflfiir
Musz'
k,the periodical edited by Brendel in the
interests of the Wagner party, to the effect
that German musicians were practical ly unani
mous in accepting the new music . I f it had
seemed an unpardonable offence in the eyes
of Wagner to state what was obviously the
fact,it is hardly likely that he should have
spoken as he did of j oach im in the pamphlet,
“On Conducting, which appeared n ine years
after the protest had been published .
Though it were universally conceded that
48 JOSEPH JOACHIM
the personal character and disposit ion of
eminent men were to be guarded never so
strictly from public inspection,yet in the
case of public performers,where technical
skil l h as reached its h ighest point of perfec
t ion,a kind of self- revelat ion takes place in
every performance and,besides the ideal in
terpretation of the music he plays,Joach im
unconsciously tel ls every one who has ears
to hear what manner of man he is in himsel f.
Truth,rect itude, earnestness of purpose, single
ness of artistic aim,a ch ildl ike clarity of the
inner vision,combined with the highest dignity
— all these are evident to any but the most
superficial l istener, and there is a certain quiet
ardour,eloquent of strong emotion strongly
control led,such as distinguishes only those
who possess the h ighest imagination . I t i s
recorded that on one occasion,when he played
at first s ight Schumann’
s fantasia for violin,
the composer,instead of bursting into ecstasies
over the p layer ' s immediategrasp of the inner
meaning of the music,or the cleverness of h is
execution , whispered to h is neighbour , One
can never love h im enough .
” I t is, perhaps,th is power of stirring up a real personal aflec
H I S INFLUENCE 49
t ion in worthy hearers that is the greatest of
al l the player ’s attributes, and such a power
is indeed a gift of priceless value .
I f one had to say in a word what was the
secret of j oach im ’s influence as an artist,
one would surely say that th is qual ity was
that in which he stands alone among all the
musicians who have ever l ived . To hear him
lead the Cavatz'
na in B eethoven ’s quartet in
B flat,Op . 130 , or the Canz ona in mode
lz'
dz’
eo from that in A minor, Op . 132 , is to
be al lowed to gaze into the uttermost pro
fundity of human emotion , into a depth far
below the source of tears . I n the former
quartet two contrast ing qualit ies of the
great viol inist’s art are set in close proxi
mity, for the beginning of the finale is one
of the things in which his youthful impetu
osity is always most startl ingly displayed . No
one who has heard him lead a quartet of
Haydn can have failed to real ise that the
dignity of a noble old age is associated with
the insouciance, the buoyant fun and frol ic
of a schoolboy . Oh one occasion he was
playing in Moz art’s quintet in G minor with
a quartet of young E nglish players . TheD
56 JOSEPH JOACHIM
ensemble was far from perfect, because it
seemed as though four reverend schoolmasters
were vain ly endeavouring to bring the motions
of some scapegrace into conformity with their
own sedate manner of progression . I n speak
ing of the quartet performances,one is apt
to take it for granted that every reader is
aware of how supremely the wil l of the leader
dominates the other players ; not that they
lose their individual ity,but
,in obeying the
impulses of the leader,they attain the highest
imaginable pinnacle of executive art .
52 JOSEPH JOACH IM
that L iszt gave up the public career of an
executant at a far earlier age than joachim
has now reached,so that he had plenty of
t ime to devote to composition . I t is easy to
see what special snares there are in the way
of those who would combine composition
with performance as the work of their l ives
how infa ll ibly the wish to please their hearers,to t ickle their ears, encroaches on the pure
ideals of almost a l l the composers who have
also been players ; how great is th e tempta
t ion to repeat the essential features of estab
lish ed successes and so to become mannered
in style, even in the cases where a lower ing
of artist ic conviction does not actually take
p lace . I t is inconceivable that Joachim could
ever have yielded to such temptations,or have
written with any kind of regard for the ima
gined tastes of the lower classes in the musical
pol ity ; but in avoiding the faults referred
to above,it may be that he has gone too
far in the opposite direction . H e multi
p l ies difficulties of al l kinds in nearly
al l the works in which the violin takes
part (those of the Hungarian Concerto,the
Variations in E minor, and other pieces are
H I S COMPOS IT IONS 53
such as very few players except the composer
can overcome successfully) but these diffi
culties are not the kind of difficulties that
impress the ignorant hearer as being in any
way marvellous . And . besides th is , the music
of Joach im , in its masterly and often intricate
design,its nobil ity of conception
,and general
austerity of bearing, affords the strongest pos
sible contrast to that of the other great virtuosi
composers, such as Paganini , W ieniawski, or
Vieuxtemps among viol in ists . E ven Spohr,with al l h is adherence to the classical forms
,
wrote music that made far more surely for
general effect than J oach im’s does .
Yet,although at a first hearing j oachim’s
music seems hardly to reflect the magic
charm of h is personal ity,or the wonderful
geniality of h is p laying, there is in it an
intimate expression which stamps it as
strongly individual , and gives it a d istinction
to which very few of his contemporaries
among composers can lay claim . There is
often a note of tender melancholy,as in the
Romance in B flat, though the extreme of
pessimism is untouched, as is also the excess
of exultant joy . I t must be remembered,of
54 JOSEPH JOACHIM
course,that in h is busy l ife th ere can never
have been much time for composition and
his unique position as a player has removed
him from the temptation to write anyth ing
with any object but to p lease himself,and
those upon whose sympathy he could best
rely . I t is most noteworthy that the smal l
l ist of h is compositions contains no single
instance in wh ich the most usual of the
classical forms is employed ; he approaches
the dimensions of the sonata or symphonic
form no nearer than in h is overtures,and in
the three concertos . We cannot but regret
that the greatest interpreter of quartet music
should have given the world no specimen of
concerted chamber music . Such , if i t had
existed,would have been of surpassing in
terest,not only to students, but to the world
in general . I t i s possible that he may have
felt what B rahms hinted in a letter to h im,
quoted by Kalbeck on p. 1 8 4 of his first
volume, that he had not undergone the years
of drudgery which alone can give command
over the larger classical forms . For many
years Brahms and j oachim kept up a con
stant intercourse and exchange of composi
H I S COMPOS ITIONS 55
t ions for the mutual advantage of each other ’s
frank criticism . I t is an open secret that in
many of B rahms ’s composit ions,apart from
those in which the viol in takes a principal
part, there are detail s which had their origin
in some suggestion of Joachim ' s . Herr M oser
tells us that th is is the case very markedly in
the pianoforte concerto in D minor,the auto
graph of which shows many alterations in the
handwriting of Joach im . The same writer
also says that the transformation of the string
quintet with two violoncel los,into the wel l
known quintet in F minor for piano and
strings,was due to J oachim . J oach im tran
scribed B rahms’
s arrangements of the Hun
garian Dances,from the four-hand pianoforte
version,for vio l in and pianoforte
,in which
form,he , and nearlyall other viol inists after h im ,
have made them universal ly popular . J oachim
wrote the cadenz a that is a lmost always played
in B rahms ’s violin concerto,and his style of
p laying was no doubt in the composer’s mind
when he wrote th is and the double concerto,
Op . 1 0 2 , as wel l as in the three Viol in sonatas,and al l the chamber music . Brahms arranged
j oachim ’s del ightful overture to Henry
56 JOSEPH JOACH IM
for two pianos, and it was heard in this form
(in London , at least) before it was played on
the orchestra in E ngland .
I t wil l be convenient to give the short table
of Joachim’
s compositions,and then to make
brief notes on the most remarkable of their
characteristics .
OPUS 1 . Andantz'
no and A llegro seizerz oso, violin and
o rchestra.
2 . Three pieces for violin with piano fo rte accom
paniment Romance in B flat, Fantasie
stz'
e‘
eb, F rz'
e'
blz’
ngsfantasz’
e .
Conce rto in G mino r, violin and o rchestra.
Ove rture to Hamle t,”o rchestra.
Three pieces for v iolin and piano fo rte , L indenrauscken, Abendgloeben, Ballade .
Overture to H . Grimm’s D emetrius
,um
published.
Overture to H enry I V .
Ove rture suggested by comedies ofGo z z i.H eb rew M e lodie s for viola and piano fo rte .
Variations on an original theme,forviola and
piano forte .
1 1 . Hungarian Concerto in D mino r forvio lin and
orchestra.
N eltum e in A for violin and small orchestra.
Overture in memo ry ofKle ist.S eena derM arfa(from Schi ller’s Demetrius
for contralto and o rchestra.
CANON . \VR I TTEN DURING T HE T I M E WH EN JOACH I M AN D BRAH M S
EX CHANGED CO M POSITION S
T H E M E OF AN OVERTURE \VR I T TEN FOR A FEST IVAL OF
KG L . AKADE M IE I N BER L IN
58 JOSEPH JOACH IM'
.
style of some things of L isz t,notably in the
shape of the pianoforte passages . We may
suppose that the concerto,Op . 3, had some
of the Weimar influence too , as it was dedi
cated to L isz t (who in return dedicated h is
Hungarian Rhapsody in C sharp minor to
j oachim), and we are told by Herr Moser
that the composer abandoned it altogether as
no longer representing h is mature views . Of
Op . 4, the H amlet overture,let Schumann
speak .
“ As I read it,the scene seemed to rise
before me,Ophel ia and H amlet taking l iving
shape . There are some most str iking pas
sages in it,and the clear
,grand form is just
what i s required for such an ambitious theme .
Your art ist ic interweaving of themes,
the way in which you reproduce former sub
jects in new garb,and above all
,your
orchestration and use of s ingular l ight and
shade effects, it al l seems to me very admir
able . Also there is no lack of daring pro
gressions necessary for the adequate treatment
of. th is particular subject .”
Two of the pieces in Op. 5 may be held
to exh ibit almost the last traces of L isz t’s
H I S COMPOS IT IONS 59
influence i n their fancy titles. The L inden
muschen is not one of the most attractive
at first,but the Abendgloe/een i s ful l of
a delic ious,tender melancholy
,and the
Ballade, in a form something like Schumann ’s
novelettes,is a fine and energetic p iece .
The overture to Grimm ’s “ Demetrius,a
remodell ing of an earl ier work,was sent to
L isz t for his approval ; but from this point
in j oach im ’s work as a composer he stands
entirely alone,except for the mutual influence
that existed for so many years between him
self and B rahms . The overture to Henry IV .
”
has wonderful vigour and impetuos ity ; the
figure of Pr ince Hal has been identified i n
one prominent theme,and the whole has a
noble , strenuous dignity about it which make
it most effective . The overture suggested by
two of Go z z i’s plays i s full of l ife, and although
it is not particularly gay, in the sense in
which the overtures to F igaro or Smetana’
s
Verkaufte Braut are gay, one fee ls that it is
real comedy reflected in music . Opus 9, thefamous H ebrew Melodies,
” is a work tinged
with al l the melancholy of an oppressed race,
yet with a fiery energy in al l the numbers .
6 0 JOSEPH joAC I—I I M
I t is,perhaps
,the most successful of the few
works in existence original ly intended for
viola and pianoforte . The variat ions for the
same instruments,which come next on the
l ist, are a masterpiece of construction , but are
by no means easy to follow at first. The
Hungarian Concerto,Op. 1 1 , has been played
fairly often by the composer,and very rarely
indeed by other viol in ists,who may well be
excused for fighting shy of its terrible diffi
culties. No work in existence gives so
admirably the true spirit of Hungarian music,and there are very few things in the world
of more entrancing beauty than the slow
movement,or more exciting than the finale .
I n the eadenz a of the first movement—an
integral part of the work,by the way—there
occurs a wonderful effect in which the -solo
instrument seems to cal l up, one by one, th e
instruments of the orchestra, each of wh ich
enters at first in unison with the solo violin .
About this time Joachim seems to have
preferred,for h is own compositions
,an
elegiac mood which finds express ion, not
only in the lovely nottumo for violin and
small orchestra,but in Opus 13, the over
Fmm a ph otograph by 144 G. A ndrews, (Tufldford)
D R . jOACH I M AN D T HE L AT E ( 1. F .
R . A ., I N 1904,
H I S COMPOS IT IONS 6 1
ture in memory of Kleist , which was played
at Cambridge on the occasion when j oach im
received the honorary degree of Mus.D .,and
in the scena in which the great soli loquy of
Marfa from Sch i l ler ’s Demetrius ” i s set to
music that is sincerely expressive and truly dra
matic in the h ighest sense . The doubt in the
mother ’s mind as to the wisdom of owning
the youth whom she is asked to recognise
as her son is very finely given , and a peculiar
excel lence of Joach im’
s style in writing for
the voice is the way he gives to the words
music that suits their own natural accentua
tion to perfection . E ven in his one E nglish
song this i s most remarkable . Ofthe works
without opus number the best known are the
lovely romance in C,as beautiful as either of
the other romances , and the great set of
variations in E minor,i n which the thematic
development shows that Joachim could,if he
had chosen , have been a master of symphonic
form the surpris ing change in the last varia
tion and the fresh theme that starts with the
finale,belong to the th ings that make most
certainly for efiect, whenever they are pro
perly played,a condit ion not very often ful
6 2 josEPH jOACH I M
filled in performances of this work . There
remains a third concerto,in G major
,written
soon after the Hungarian Concerto , but only
publ ished,at Von Bulow ’s earnest request ,
some twenty years afterwards . I t was written
with special reference to a deceased friend,to whose memory it was inscribed . Frau
Gisela von Grimm,upon whose death the
beautiful second movement of the concerto
is a kind of elegy, was the daughter of B ettina
B rentano,who composed a song the theme
of which is taken as the main subject of
the first movement . I n th is movement the
orchestra plays a part of unusual import
ance, and here, as well as in the finale , the
work abounds in difficulties of al l kinds .
There is no record of more than one per
formance of this beautiful work in E ngland
after its first production in M 8 . at the
Crystal Palace,in 1 8 75. Throughout it has
a noble dignity and breadth of conception ,and is the test of a first-rate art ist .
I t would be impossib le to conclude th is
brief sketch of j oachim’s career without con
fessing many obligations to the admirable
biography by Professor Andreas Moser, pub
s. P. ERARD
J OSEPH W IL L IAMS, L -ro.
BECHSTE IN
JOHN BROADWOOD 81 SONS, L n ) .
TH E ORCHESTRELLE co .
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OL D ENGL ISH SONGS ANDDANCES
PIANOFORTE AND HARP M AKERSBy S pecial Warrants ofAppo intment to I
'
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THE NEW CUPOLA I RON FRAME
OVERSTRUNG BABY GRAND.
01 th is ve ry successful Plano, PADEREWSKI says : I t Is the most
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AN EM I NENT ENGI NEER WRI TES
Stisted Hall,
B raintree ,Octo be r lath , 1903.
Gentlemen,
I em glad to tell you that I am ve ry p leased with Ithe
I nstrument , and my mus ical friends admire it very much .
The tone is remarkably ri ch , ful l , and bri lliant, and atthe same time sweet and mellow—wh ilst th e touch is most
de l icate and the workmansh i p is all I could desi re . I con
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I n wo rking out th e tensi le strength upon th e whole of the
wi res. I fi nd th e total strain must be nearly 2 5 tons, yet the
frame is so beaut iful ly pro po rt ioned , the metal be ingd istributed exactly wh e re I t is most wanted . that wh en th ewires are slack ened and th e who le ofth e h eavy strain re leased .
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since all the wi res are k e pt constant ly at th e necessary
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PUB L I SHER’S NOTE .
0 music ian ofmode rn times has approached more close l yto the heart of the publ ic , nor sti rred more pro found
emotions, than Pete r I lich Tchaiko vsky , compose r of the“ Pathetic Symphony . The authentic b iography of th isgenius. who gave musical expression to many phases ofcontempo rary thought and sentiment, has been anxiousl yawaited bo th in E ngland and Ame rica. The fo rthcomingvo lume wil l nece ssari ly a pear in an abridged fo rm, since i t hasbeen judged thatmany 0 th e de tai ls and a ce rtain propo rtion 0 1the le tte rs contained in th e o riginal edition could onl y be ofvi talinte rest to those intimate ly acquainted with Russian l i fe andsoc ie ty .The E ngl ish edition wil l prese rve the most inte resting
po rtions ofthe b iograph icalmatte r , includingauthentic accountsofthe creation and first pe rfo rmances ofTchai kovsky
’
s ch ie fwo rks. e xtracts from h is diary , and a numbe r ofle tte rs addressedto men ofnote such as To lsto i , N icho las Rub inste in, Stassov ,
Balak i rev , R imskyKorsakov, and the G rand Duke ConstantineConstantinovich .
The most remarkable feature ofthe co r respondence , howeve r ,wil l be a se lection from the compose r ' s le tte rs to his friend andbene factress, Frau von M eck . Thanks to th e gene rosity ofth islady , Tchaikovsky was freed from the uncongenial business ofteach ing. I n offe r ing and accepting th is time ly assistance . a
de l icate bargain was struck be tween these two remarkablepe rsonal i ties, who reso l ved to safeguard th e i r ideal re lations byneve r me eting. I t is probabl y for th is ve ry reason that
Tchaikovsky ' s lette rs to th is intimate strange r are documents ofse l f- reve lation, in wh ich he d iscusses his artistic im ressions
and methods ofwork with a charm of comple te ranknessunusual to h is shy and rese rved d isposition.
]OHN LANE ,London and New York
HEN RY J . WOODB Y R O S A N E W M A R C H
Witb Numerour I llustration:M orning Post Apart from its biograph ical interest, the volume is remark
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"
Academy. A very interesting volume .
Westminster Gaz e tte. Set forth with admirable judgment and discriminationi n these we ll-written pages. "
Daily TelegrapL The writer need ofl'
erno apology.
Dai ly N e mi z—“ The student ofmodern music and the intelligent amateurshould possess M rs. N ewmarch
'
s book.
”
L i terary World This brief, pleasantlywritten, and informing little book.
Pall M all Gasetz‘e . M rs. N ewmarch’
s writing always has a ve ry readablequal i ty.
”
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s Gaz ette.—“ M rs. N ewmarch has shown in a remarkable degre e
tact and impartiality.
M usic. Charmingly written.
M usical N ews.
—“ Pert’eet tact and an exce llent temper a practised and
bri lliant writer. The most important and succe ssful ofall her prosewritings. ”
M usical Opz'
m'
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OL D ENGL I SH
SONGS 8 : DANCES
W GRAHAM ROBERTSON
With 46 I l lustrations in Colour
the Author. Large Fo lio
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specialfeature ofthis work is the coloured
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