of its Italian
text and "painted acting," as disgusting. At this time he had grown
familiar with "Der Freischuetz," and whenever he saw Weber pass his
house, he looked up to him with reverential awe. The patriotic songs
sung in those early days of resurrected Germany appealed to his
sensitive nature. They fascinated him and filled his earnest soul with
enthusiasm. "Grander than emperor or king, is it to stand there and
rule!" he said to himself, as he saw Weber enchant and sway the souls
of his auditors with his "Freischuetz" melodies. He now returned with
the family to Leipzig. Did he, while at work on his grand tragedy,
occupying him fully two years, neglect his studies? In the Nicolai
school, where he now attended, he was put back one class, and this so
disheartened him, that he lost all interest in his studies. Besides,
now for the first time, the actual spirit of music illumined his
intellectual horizon. In the Gewandhaus concerts he heard Beethoven's
symphonies. "Their impression on me was very powerful," he says,
speaking of his deep agitation, though only in his fifteenth year, and
it was still further intensified when he was informed that the great
master had died the year previous, in pitiful seclusion from all the
world. "I knew not what I really was intended for," he puts in the
mouth of a young musician in his story, "A Pilgrimage to Beethoven,"
written many years after. "I only remember, that I heard a symphony of
Beethoven one evening. After that I fell sick with a fever, and when I
recovered, I was a musician." He grew lazy and negligent in school,
having only his tragedy at heart, but the music of Beethoven induced
him to devote himself passionately to the art. Indeed while listening
to the Egmont music, it so affected him that he would not for all the
world, "launch" his tragedy without such music. He had perfect
confidence that he could compose it, but nevertheless thought it
advisable to acquaint himself with some of the rules of the art. To
accomplish this at once, he borrowed for a week, an easy system of
thoroughbass. The study did not seem to bear fruit as quickly as he
had expected, but its difficulties allured his energetic and active
mind. "I resolved to be a musician," he said. Two strong forces of
modern society, general education and music, thus in early youth made
an impression upon his nature. Music conquered, but in a form which
includes the other, in the presentation of the poetic idea a