ercise of his duties here he was able to accept
the manuscript of Wagner's "Lohengrin" when that hot-headed young
musician had gotten himself mixed up in the revolution of 1848 at
Dresden, and Liszt produced the work at Weimar in 1850. From that time
forward Liszt was the mouthpiece of the new school, or rather he was a
sort of godfather to it, ministering to Wagner's impecuniousness often
and again out of resources which were absurdly small when we consider
the rank of genius which the salary covered. Liszt's salary at Weimar
was about $1100 a year.

In order to appreciate Liszt's standpoint as pianoforte writer more
particularly, it is necessary for a moment to glance at his celebrated
contemporary, Thalberg. This artist, born one year later than Liszt,
was taught by Hummel and Sechter at Vienna, and in 1827 he made his
debut as pianist, exciting admiration by the beauty of his tone, his
unexampled equality of running work, and perhaps a little later through
an effect of which he was the inventor (at least for the
pianoforte)--that, namely, in which the melody is carried by the thumbs
in the middle range of the instrument, the long tones being sustained
by the pedal while the hands carry long and light running passages
across the full range of the instrument. The real inventor of this
effect was Parish-Alvars, a great virtuoso of the harp, who was born in
1808. Availing himself of the beautiful melodies of his native Wales,
and later of suitable operatic melodies of the Donizetti and Bellini
school, he created beautiful effects upon the harp, previously unheard,
by means of melodies and surrounding variations or accompanying
arabesques of runs, both arpeggios and scales. When Thalberg began to
be praised for discovering this device in piano playing there ensued a
long and acrimonious correspondence between him and Parish-Alvars, the
latter claiming the prior invention--and rightfully so.

Thalberg arrived in Paris in 1836, and for some time there was quite a
contest between him and Liszt for superiority of art. Thalberg sang a
melody beautifully, and his running work was of the most delightfully
clear and even description. He was entirely reposeful in his work,
never manifesting any uneasiness of bodily position, no matter what the
difficulty of his playing might be. Liszt, on the other hand, being of
an impassioned and nervous temperament, had a great deal more motion,
and in his brilliant climaxes he devel