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CHAPTER XIII.

MUSICIANS.

THE general remarks I made in the last chapter on artists, apply with especial force to Musicians. The irregularity of their lives is commonly extreme; the union of a painstaking disposition with the temperament requisite for a good musician is as rare as in poets, and the distractions incident to the public life of a great performer are vastly greater. Hence, although the fact of the inheritance of musical taste is notorious and undeniable, I find it exceedingly difficult to discuss its distribution among families. I also found it impossible to obtain a list of first-class musicians that commanded general approval, of a length suitable to my purposes. There is excessive jealousy in the musical world, fostered no doubt by the dependence of musicians upon public caprice for their professional advancement. Consequently, each school disparages others; individuals do the same, and most biographers are unusually adulatory of their heroes, and unjust to those with whom they compare them. There exists no firmlyestablished public opinion on the merits of musicians, similar to that which exists in regard to poets and painters, and it is even difficult to find private persons of fair musical tastes, who are qualified to give a deliberate and dispassionate selection of the most eminent musicians. As I have mentioned at the head of the appendix to this chapter,

I was indebted to a literary and artistic friend in whose judgment I have confidence, for the selection upon which I worked.

The precocity of great musicians is extraordinary. There is no career in which eminence is achieved so early in life as in that of music.

I now proceed to give the usual tables.

TABLE I.

SUMMARY OF RELATIONSHIPS OF 26 MUSICIANS GROUPED INTO 14 FAMILIES.

The nearness of degree of the eminent kinsmen is just as remarkable as it was in the case of the poets, and equally so in the absence of eminent relations through the female lines.

Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer are the only musicians in my list whose eminent kinsmen have achieved their success in other careers than that of music.

APPENDIX TO MUSICIANS.

I am indebted to a friend, for a list of 120 musicians, who appeared to him to be the most original and eminent upon record. They were made for quite another object to my own, and I therefore am the more disposed to rely on the justice of my friend's choice. 26 of these, or about 1 in 5, have had eminent kinsmen, as is shown in the following catalogue. The illustrious musicians are only 7 in number; namely, Sebastian Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Spohr. The 4 who are italicized are instances of hereditary genius.

Allegri, Gregorio (1580-1652, æt. 72); composer of the "Miserere" sung at the S. Sixtine at Rome in Lent; a man of kindly and charitable disposition, who used to visit the prisons daily, and give what he could to the prisoners.

? Exact relation. Correggio Allegri and his family. See PAINTERS. Amati; a family of eminent

logna, who was living in 1786, but whose relationship to the others is unknown.

Those of the family that showed the most original power

are Andrea (B, 2 S, P), and Antonio (F, U, B, N). Bach, Sebastian; a transcendent musical genius (1685-1750, æt. 65). He was very precocious, and arrived at the full maturity of his powers æt. 22. His home life was simple and quiet. He was a good husband, father, friend, and

citizen. He was very laborious; and became blind from over-study.

The Bachs were a musical family, comprising a vast number
of individuals, and extending through eight generations.
It began in 1550, it culminated in Sebastian (6 in the
genealogical table) and its last known member was Regina
Susanna, who was alive in 1800, but in indigent circum-
stances. There are far more than twenty eminent musicians
among the Bachs; the biographical collections of musicians
give the lives of no less than fifty-seven of them (see
Fétis' " Dictionary of Musicians"). It was the custom of
the family to meet in yearly reunions, at which the enter
tainments were purely musical. In or about A. D. 1750 as
many as 120 Bachs attended one of these meetings. A
complete genealogy of the family is to be found in
Korabinsky's "Beschreibung der Königlichen Ungarischen
Haupt Frey, und Krönungstadts Presburg," t. i. p. 3;
also a genealogical tree in No. 12 of the Leipsic Musical
Gazette, 1823. I give a modified copy of this, for it is
otherwise impossible to convey the lines of descent in a
sufficiently intelligible manner. Every person mentioned
in the list ranks as a sterling musician, except where the
contrary is distinctly stated.

F. J. Ambrose, a distinguished organist.
U. J. Christopher, a twin child with Ambrose. These two were

so exceedingly alike in feature, address, and style, that
they were the wonder of all who saw and heard them.
It is added that their wives could not distinguish them
except by their dresses.

G. Christopher (3).

2 GB. Henry (2) and John (4).

[GG.] Weit Bach (1), the founder of the family, was a baker

at Presburg, who sung to the guitar; was obliged to leave

his town because he was a Protestant. He settled in Saxe Gotha.

GN. J. Christopher (5), one of the greatest musicians of Germany; a laborious student.

S.

S.

Guillaume Frederick (7), called "Bach of Hallé;" a man of great power and very learned; died indigent.

C. P. Emmanuel (8), called "Bach of Berlin ;" the founder