August 18, 2025 • 23 mins
Dive into the captivating world of Gustav Kobbe, a German-American music critic who lived during the vibrant era of Liszt and Wagner. With a distinct flair for storytelling, Kobbe offers a romantic and entertaining exploration of the loves and lives of seven iconic composers, all while firmly aligning himself with the Wagnerian perspective. His unique writing style, filled with rich imagery and unusual sentence constructions, transports listeners to the 19th century, making each chapter a delightful auditory experience. Wagner receives an especially thorough account, reflecting Kobbes personal claims of familiarity with both Liszt and Wagner, as well as Cosima Wagner. This blend of anecdote and insight creates an original narrative that stands apart from more traditional biographies. (Peter Thomlinson)
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter three of the Loves of Great Composers by Gustav Cobe.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
Peter Tomlinson, Chapter three Mendelssohn and his Cecili. Mendelssohn was
a popular idol. On his death, the mournful news was
(00:22):
placarded all over Leipzig, where he had made his home,
and there was an immense funeral procession. When the church
service was over, a woman in deep mourning was led
to the bier, and, sinking down beside it remained long
in prayer. It was Cecili taking her last sparewell of Felix.
(00:45):
Mendelssohn was born under a lucky star. The pathways of
most musical geniuses are covered with thorns. His was strewn
with roses. The Mendelssohn family, originally Jewish, was well to
do and highly refined, and Felix's grandfather was a philosophical
writer of some note. This inspired the off quoted mode
(01:08):
of the musician's father. Once I was known as the
son of the famous Mendelssohn, now I am known as
the father of the famous Mendelssohn. Felix was an amazingly clever,
fascinating boy. Coincident with his musical gifts, he had a
talent for art. Gerta was captivated by him, and the
(01:30):
many distinguished friends of the Mendelssohn's house in Berlin adored him.
This house was a gathering place of artists, musicians, literary
men and scientists. His genius had the stimulus found in
the atmosphere of such a household. There was one member
of that household, between whom and himself the most tender
(01:51):
relations existed, his sister Fanny, who became the wife of
Hensel the artist. The musical of Felix and Fanny were alike.
She was the confidante of his ambitions, and thus was
created between them an artistic sympathy which from childhood greatly
strengthened the family bond, growing up amid love and devotion,
(02:15):
to say nothing of the admiration accorded his genius in
the home circle. With tastes naturally refined, cultivated to the
utmost both by education and absorption, he was apt to
be most fastidious in the choice of a wife. Fastidiousness
in everything was in fact one of his traits. One
(02:37):
has but to recall how one after another he rejected
the subjects that were offered him for operatic composition. I
am afraid, said his father, who was quite anxious to
see his famous son properly settled in life, that Felix's
censoriousness will prevent his getting a wife as well as
a libretto. It may have been a regretful feeling that
(02:59):
he had to say, disappointed his father by not marrying,
which led him, after the latter's sudden death in November
eighteen thirty five, to consider the matter more seriously. He
hastened to Berlin to his mother, and then returned to Leipzig,
where he had charge of the famous Govender House concerts.
He settled down to work again, and especially to finish
(03:20):
his oratorio of Saint Paul. In March eighteen thirty six,
the University of Leipzig made him a pH d. In
May or June of this year. A friend and colleague
named Schebel, who conducted the Cecilia Singing Society at Frankfort
on the Main, was taken ill and, desiring to rest
(03:41):
and recuperate, asked Meddelstown to officiate in his place. The
request came at an inconvenient time. For he had planned
to take some recreation himself, and had mapped out a
tour to Switzerland and Genoa. But Felix was an obliging
fellow and promptly responded with an affirmative when his colleague
called upon him for aid. The unselfish relinquishment of his
(04:05):
intended tour was to meet with a further reward than
that which comes from the satisfaction of a good deed
done at some self sacrifice. And this reward was the
more grateful because unexpected by his friends, his family, or
even himself. Yet it was destined to delight them all.
Felix was in Frankfort for six weeks, so short a
(04:28):
period ready leased to a decisive event in a man's life,
but it did so in Mendelssohn's case. He occupied lodgings
in a house on the schon Oulsich, beautiful view with
an outlook upon the river. But there was another beautiful
view in Frankfort which occupied his attention far more. For
(04:48):
among those he met during his sojourn in the city
on the main was Cecili Cecil Charlotte Sophie Jean Renaud.
Her father, long dead, had been the master of the
French Walloon Reformed Church in Frankfurt, where his widow and
his children moved in the best social circles of the city. Cecily,
(05:11):
then seventeen ten years younger than Felix, was a beauty
of a most delicate type. Madame Jean Renaud still was
a fine looking woman, and possibly because of this fact,
coupled with Felix's shy manner in the presence of Cecily,
now that for the first time his heart was deeply touched.
It was at first supposed that he was courting the
(05:32):
mother and her children. Cecily included twitted her on it.
Now Felix acted in a manner characteristic of his bringing
up and of the bent of his genius. Mozart, Beethoven, Schoponshumann,
liszt Wagner. Not one of these hesitated a moment where
his heart was concerned. If anything, they were too impetuous.
(05:54):
They are the masters of the passionate expression in music.
Mendelssohn's music is of the re fine, delicate type like
his own, bringing up the perfectly polished songs without words,
the smoothly flowing symphonies to the lyric violin concerto these
are most typical of his genius. Only here and there
(06:15):
in his works are their fitful flashes of deeper significance,
as in certain dramatic passages of the Elijah Oratorio. And so,
when Felix found himself possessed of a passion for Cecili
Jean Renard the Beautiful, he did not throw himself at
the feet and pour out a confession of love to her.
(06:37):
Far from it, with a calmness that would make one
feel like pinching him, were it not that, after all,
the story has a happy ending. He left Frankfort at
the end of six weeks, when his feelings were at
their height, and in order to submit the state of
his affections to a cool and unprejudiced scrutiny, he went
to Shrevingen Holland, where he spent a month. Anything more
(07:02):
characteristically Mendelsnian can scarcely be imagined than this leisurely passing
of judgment on his own heart. Just what Cecily thought
of this sudden departure, we do not know, no doubt,
by that time she had ceased twitting her mother on
Felix's supposed intentions to make Frau Mendelssohn of Madame Jeanrenard,
(07:26):
For it must have become apparent that the attentions of
the famous composer were not directed towards the beautiful mother,
but toward the more beautiful daughter. If, however, she felt
at all uneasy at his going away at the time
when he should have been preparing to declare himself, her
doubts would have been dispelled. Could she have read some
(07:49):
of the letters which he dispatched from Swengingen that she
herself was captivated by him, There seems little doubt it
was an amusing change from her preconceived notion of him.
She had imagined him a stiff, disagreeable, jealous old man
(08:09):
who wore a green velvet skull cap and played tedious fuse.
This prejudice, needless to say, was dispelled at their first
meeting when she found the crabbed creation of her fancy,
a man of the world, with gracious, winning manners and
a brilliant conversationalist, not only on music but also on
(08:29):
other topics. It is a curious coincidence that, when Felix
left Frankfort for Suevinghen, with the image of this fair
being in his heart, the Cecilia Society should have presented
him with a handsome dressing case marked f MB and Cecilia.
Footnote one that B on the dressing case stands for Bartholdy.
(08:54):
When the Mendelssohn family changed from Judaism to Protestantism, it
added the mother's family name. He had come to Frankfort
to conduct the Cecilia, he had met Cecilia, and now
he was, at the last moment reminded that he was
leaving Cecilia behind, yet he was carrying Cecilia with him.
(09:15):
If there was anything prophetic in coincidences, everything pointed to
the fact that Cecilia was to play a more prominent
part in his life than that of a mere name.
Even before Felix left Frankfort, there were some who were
in his secret. Evidently the Mendelssohn family had received reports
(09:38):
of his attentions to the fair Cecili Jean Lenard and
were all a flutter with happy anticipation. For there is
a letter from Felix to his sister Rebecca, which must
have been written in answer to one from her, containing
something in the nature of an inquiry regarding the state
of his feelings the present period in my life, he
(10:01):
writes to her, is a very strange one. For I
am more desperately in love than I ever was before,
and I do not know what to do. I leave
Frankfort the day after tomorrow, but I feel as if
it would cost me my life at all events. I
intend to return here and see this charming girl once
(10:21):
more before I go back to Leipzig. But I have
not an idea whether she likes me or not, and
I do not know what to do to make her
like me, as I already have said. But one thing
is certain that to her I owe the first real
happiness I have had this year. And now I feel
fresh and hopeful again for the first time when away
(10:44):
from her, though I always am sad. Now you see,
I have let you into a secret which nobody else
knows anything about. But in order that you may set
the whole world an example, in discretion, I will tell
you nothing more about it. He adds that he is
going to detest the seashore and ends with the exclamation, Oh, Rebecca,
(11:08):
what shall I do? Rebecca might have answered, tell Cecily
instead of me. And indeed I wonder if she did
not take occasion to drop a few hints to Cecily
during her brother's absence in Holland. There was another who
might have told Cecily how Felix felt toward her his mother,
(11:29):
for to her he wrote from Schevingen that he gladly
would send Holland its dikes, sea bars, bathing machines, cursls
and visitors to the end of the world to be
back in Frankfort. When I have seen this charming young
girl again. I hope the suspense soon will be over,
and I shall know whether we are to be anything,
(11:52):
or rather everything to each other or not. Evidently, his
scrutiny of his own feelings was leading him to a
very definite conclusion. He was in Shechevingen, but his heart
was in the city of Maine, and he was wishing
himself back in the scherne Alsigte, longing for that beautiful
(12:13):
view once more. Back to Frankfort, he hide himself. As
soon as the month in Holland was happily over. He
was not only back to Frankfort, it was back to
Cecily in every sense of the words. For if Rebecca
and his mother had not conveyed to the delicate beauty,
some suggestion of the feelings he had inspired in Felix's heart,
(12:34):
she herself must have become aware of them and as
something very much like in her own. Since matters were
not long in coming to a point. After his return,
he spent August at Schevingen. In September his suspense was
over for his engagement to Cecily formerly took place at
Clonburg near Frankfort. Three weeks later, he was obliged to
(12:58):
go back to his duty in Leipzig. How much he
was beloved by the public appears from the fact that
at the next Goevender House concert, the director is placed
on the program verda einholdees Vieblungen he who a lovely
wife has won from Fidelio, and that when the number
was reached and Felix raised his battle, the audience burst
(13:21):
into applause, which continued a long time. It was their
congratulations to their idol on his betrothal. Le Philitiens was
a title given to Felix and Cecily by his sister
and Fanny later in life. At this time Medelsohn himself
(13:42):
was indescribably happy. At least he could not himself find
words in which to express all he felt. It is
pleasant to find that a great composer is no exception
to the rule which makes lovers too happy for words.
But what words am I to use in describing my happiness?
(14:03):
He writes to his sister. I do not know and
am dumb, but not for the same reasons as the
monkeys on the Orinoco. Far from it. We gain an
idea of Cecili's social position from Felix's statement contained in
this same letter, that he and his fiancee are obliged
(14:23):
to make one hundred and sixty three calls in Frankfort.
This was written before he had returned to his duties
in Leipzig. Christmas again found him with his betrothed and
again writing to Fanny, this time about a portrait of
Cecili which her family had given him. They gave me
a portrait of her on Christmas, but it only stirred
(14:45):
up afresh my wrath against all bad artists. She looks
like an ordinary young woman flattered, rather a good bit
of criticism. It really is too bad, though with such
a sitter the fellow could not have shown a spark
of poetry. It is quite evident that Felix was much
in love with his fair fiancee. He and Cecily were
(15:10):
married in their father's former church in March eighteen thirty seven.
During their honeymoon, Felix wrote to his friend Edward Devrient,
the famous actor from the Bavarian Highlands, A rare spirit
of peace and contentment breathe through the letter. You know
that I am here with my wife, my dear Cecili,
(15:31):
and that it is our wedding tour, that we already
are an old married couple of six weeks standing. There
is so much to tell you that I know not
how to make a beginning picture it to yourself. I
can only say that I am too happy, too glad,
and yet not at all beside myself as I should
(15:53):
have expected to be, but calm and accustomed, as though
it could not be otherwise. But you should know, my Cecily,
evidently such a love as was here described was not
a mere sentimental flash in the pan. It was an
affection founded on reciprocal tastes and sympathies the kind that
(16:15):
usually lasts. Cecily was refined and delicate and beautiful. She
was just a woman to grace the home that a
fastidious man like Meddelsohn would want to establish. The most
insistent note to be observed in his correspondence from this
time on is that of a desire to remain within
his own four walls. Fanny had been advised to go
(16:38):
to the seashore for her health, but are delayed doing
so because loath to leave her husband. Think of me,
writes Felix, urging her to go, who must in a
few weeks, though we have not been married four months
yet leave Secily here and go to England by myself,
all too, for the sake of a music festival. Me all,
(17:01):
this is no joke. But possibly the death of the
King of England will intervene and put a stop to
the whole project. The life of a king meant little
to Felix in the distressing prospect of being obliged to
leave his Cecily. Felix the husband was not as eager
to travel as Felix the bachelor had been. There are
(17:24):
various appreciations of Cecily. The least enthusiastic, perhaps, is that
of Hensel, Felix's brother in law. He says that she
was not a striking person in any way, neither extraordinarily clever,
brilliantly witty nor exceptionally accomplished. But to this somewhat indefinite observation,
(17:44):
he adds that she exerted an influence as soothing as
that of the open sky or running water. Indeed, Hensel's
first frigid reserve yielded to the opinion that Cecilia's gentleness
and brightness made Felix's life one continue mude course of
happiness to the end. It was some time after the
(18:04):
marriage before Mendelssohn's sisters saw Cecilia for the first time.
The good they heard of her made them the more
impatient to meet her. I tell you candidly, the clever
Fanny writes to her that by this time, when anybody
comes to talk to me about your beauty and your eyes,
it makes me quite cross. I have had enough of hearsay,
(18:26):
and beautiful eyes were not made to be heard. When
at last Fanny did see Cecily, this fond sister of Felix's,
who naturally would be most critical, was enthusiastic over her.
She is aimable, simple, fresh, happy and even tempered. And
I consider Felix most fortunate for though loving him inexpressibly,
(18:46):
she does not spoil him, but when he is moody,
meets him with a self restraint, which, in due course
of time will cure him of his moodiness. Altogether, the
effect of her presence is like that of a fresh breathe.
She is so light and bright and natural to my mind. However,
devrient has drawn the best word portrait of her. After
(19:10):
their first meeting, he wrote, how often we had pictured
the kind of woman that would be a true second
half to Felix. And now the lovely, gentle being was
before us, whose glance and smile alone promised all that
we could desire for the happiness of our sport favorite.
Later Devriente finished the picture. Cecilie was one of those
(19:32):
sweet womanly natures, whose gentle simplicity, whose mere presence soothed
and pleased. She was slender, with strikingly beautiful and delicate features.
Her hair was between brown and gold, but the transcendent
luster of her great blue eyes and the brilliant roses
on her cheeks were sad harbingers of early death. She
(19:52):
spoke little, and never with animation, and in a low,
soft voice. Shakespeare's words, my gracious silence applied to her
no less than to Cordelia. Thus, while Cecily does not
seem to have been an extraordinarily gifted woman from an
artistic or intellectual point of view, it is quite evident
(20:14):
that she possessed a refinement that must have appealed forcibly
to a man brought up in such genteel surroundings and
as sensitive as Mendelssohn. Such a woman must have been,
after all, better suited to his delicate genius than a
wife of unusual guests would have been, For it is
a help meet, not another genius, that a man of
(20:35):
genius really needs. The woman who, without being prosy or commonplace,
and without allowing herself to retrograde in looks or in
personal care, can run a household in a systematic, orderly fashion,
is the greatest blessing that Providence can bestow upon genius. Evidently,
(20:56):
Cecili was just such a woman. Her taxings have been,
and as delicate as a beauty, Without perhaps having directly
inspired any composition of her husband's, her gentleness a simple
grace doubtless left their mark on many bars of his music.
It seems doubly cruel that death should have cut Felix
down when he had enjoyed but ten happy years with
(21:18):
his Cecili, Yet had his life been long, the pang
of separation would soon have come to him. Devrian had
not been mistaken when he spoke of those sad harbingers
of early death, and Cecili survived Felix scarcely five years.
Felix's death occurred at Leipzig in eighteen forty seven. In September,
(21:39):
while listening to his own recently composed nached lead, he
swooned away. His system, weakened by over work, succumbed. Nervous
prostration followed, and on nob the fourth he died. Sudden
death had carried off his grandfather, father, mother, and favorite sister,
and he had a presentiment that his end would about
(22:00):
in the same way. During the dull half sleep preceding death,
he spoke but once, and then to Cecili in answer
to her inquiry how he felt tired, very tired. Devrienne
tells how he went to the house of mutual friends
in Dresden for news of Mendelssohn's condition, when Clara Schumann
came in a letter in her hand and weeping, and
(22:22):
told them that Felix had died. The previous evening, Devrienne
hastened to Leipzig, and Cecili sent for him. I cannot
close this article more fittingly than with his description of
their meeting in the presence of the illustrious dead, the
cherished friend of one, the husband of the other. She
received me with the tenderness of a sister. Wept in silence,
(22:45):
and was calm and composed as ever. She thanked me
for all the love and devotion I had shown to her.
Felix grieve for me that I should have to mourn
so faithful a friend, and spoke of the love with
which Felix always had regarded me. Long we spoke of him,
it comforted her, and she was loath for me to depart.
She was most unpretentious in her sorrow, gentle, and resigned
(23:08):
to live for the care and education of her children.
She said God would help her, and surely her boys
would have the inheritance of some of their father's genius.
There could not be a more worthy memory of him
than the well balanced, strong and tender heart of this
morning widow. End of chapter three
Chapter three of the Loves of Great Composers by Gustav Cobe.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
Peter Tomlinson, Chapter three Mendelssohn and his Cecili. Mendelssohn was
a popular idol. On his death, the mournful news was
(00:22):
placarded all over Leipzig, where he had made his home,
and there was an immense funeral procession. When the church
service was over, a woman in deep mourning was led
to the bier, and, sinking down beside it remained long
in prayer. It was Cecili taking her last sparewell of Felix.
(00:45):
Mendelssohn was born under a lucky star. The pathways of
most musical geniuses are covered with thorns. His was strewn
with roses. The Mendelssohn family, originally Jewish, was well to
do and highly refined, and Felix's grandfather was a philosophical
writer of some note. This inspired the off quoted mode
(01:08):
of the musician's father. Once I was known as the
son of the famous Mendelssohn, now I am known as
the father of the famous Mendelssohn. Felix was an amazingly clever,
fascinating boy. Coincident with his musical gifts, he had a
talent for art. Gerta was captivated by him, and the
(01:30):
many distinguished friends of the Mendelssohn's house in Berlin adored him.
This house was a gathering place of artists, musicians, literary
men and scientists. His genius had the stimulus found in
the atmosphere of such a household. There was one member
of that household, between whom and himself the most tender
(01:51):
relations existed, his sister Fanny, who became the wife of
Hensel the artist. The musical of Felix and Fanny were alike.
She was the confidante of his ambitions, and thus was
created between them an artistic sympathy which from childhood greatly
strengthened the family bond, growing up amid love and devotion,
(02:15):
to say nothing of the admiration accorded his genius in
the home circle. With tastes naturally refined, cultivated to the
utmost both by education and absorption, he was apt to
be most fastidious in the choice of a wife. Fastidiousness
in everything was in fact one of his traits. One
(02:37):
has but to recall how one after another he rejected
the subjects that were offered him for operatic composition. I
am afraid, said his father, who was quite anxious to
see his famous son properly settled in life, that Felix's
censoriousness will prevent his getting a wife as well as
a libretto. It may have been a regretful feeling that
(02:59):
he had to say, disappointed his father by not marrying,
which led him, after the latter's sudden death in November
eighteen thirty five, to consider the matter more seriously. He
hastened to Berlin to his mother, and then returned to Leipzig,
where he had charge of the famous Govender House concerts.
He settled down to work again, and especially to finish
(03:20):
his oratorio of Saint Paul. In March eighteen thirty six,
the University of Leipzig made him a pH d. In
May or June of this year. A friend and colleague
named Schebel, who conducted the Cecilia Singing Society at Frankfort
on the Main, was taken ill and, desiring to rest
(03:41):
and recuperate, asked Meddelstown to officiate in his place. The
request came at an inconvenient time. For he had planned
to take some recreation himself, and had mapped out a
tour to Switzerland and Genoa. But Felix was an obliging
fellow and promptly responded with an affirmative when his colleague
called upon him for aid. The unselfish relinquishment of his
(04:05):
intended tour was to meet with a further reward than
that which comes from the satisfaction of a good deed
done at some self sacrifice. And this reward was the
more grateful because unexpected by his friends, his family, or
even himself. Yet it was destined to delight them all.
Felix was in Frankfort for six weeks, so short a
(04:28):
period ready leased to a decisive event in a man's life,
but it did so in Mendelssohn's case. He occupied lodgings
in a house on the schon Oulsich, beautiful view with
an outlook upon the river. But there was another beautiful
view in Frankfort which occupied his attention far more. For
(04:48):
among those he met during his sojourn in the city
on the main was Cecili Cecil Charlotte Sophie Jean Renaud.
Her father, long dead, had been the master of the
French Walloon Reformed Church in Frankfurt, where his widow and
his children moved in the best social circles of the city. Cecily,
(05:11):
then seventeen ten years younger than Felix, was a beauty
of a most delicate type. Madame Jean Renaud still was
a fine looking woman, and possibly because of this fact,
coupled with Felix's shy manner in the presence of Cecily,
now that for the first time his heart was deeply touched.
It was at first supposed that he was courting the
(05:32):
mother and her children. Cecily included twitted her on it.
Now Felix acted in a manner characteristic of his bringing
up and of the bent of his genius. Mozart, Beethoven, Schoponshumann,
liszt Wagner. Not one of these hesitated a moment where
his heart was concerned. If anything, they were too impetuous.
(05:54):
They are the masters of the passionate expression in music.
Mendelssohn's music is of the re fine, delicate type like
his own, bringing up the perfectly polished songs without words,
the smoothly flowing symphonies to the lyric violin concerto these
are most typical of his genius. Only here and there
(06:15):
in his works are their fitful flashes of deeper significance,
as in certain dramatic passages of the Elijah Oratorio. And so,
when Felix found himself possessed of a passion for Cecili
Jean Renard the Beautiful, he did not throw himself at
the feet and pour out a confession of love to her.
(06:37):
Far from it, with a calmness that would make one
feel like pinching him, were it not that, after all,
the story has a happy ending. He left Frankfort at
the end of six weeks, when his feelings were at
their height, and in order to submit the state of
his affections to a cool and unprejudiced scrutiny, he went
to Shrevingen Holland, where he spent a month. Anything more
(07:02):
characteristically Mendelsnian can scarcely be imagined than this leisurely passing
of judgment on his own heart. Just what Cecily thought
of this sudden departure, we do not know, no doubt,
by that time she had ceased twitting her mother on
Felix's supposed intentions to make Frau Mendelssohn of Madame Jeanrenard,
(07:26):
For it must have become apparent that the attentions of
the famous composer were not directed towards the beautiful mother,
but toward the more beautiful daughter. If, however, she felt
at all uneasy at his going away at the time
when he should have been preparing to declare himself, her
doubts would have been dispelled. Could she have read some
(07:49):
of the letters which he dispatched from Swengingen that she
herself was captivated by him, There seems little doubt it
was an amusing change from her preconceived notion of him.
She had imagined him a stiff, disagreeable, jealous old man
(08:09):
who wore a green velvet skull cap and played tedious fuse.
This prejudice, needless to say, was dispelled at their first
meeting when she found the crabbed creation of her fancy,
a man of the world, with gracious, winning manners and
a brilliant conversationalist, not only on music but also on
(08:29):
other topics. It is a curious coincidence that, when Felix
left Frankfort for Suevinghen, with the image of this fair
being in his heart, the Cecilia Society should have presented
him with a handsome dressing case marked f MB and Cecilia.
Footnote one that B on the dressing case stands for Bartholdy.
(08:54):
When the Mendelssohn family changed from Judaism to Protestantism, it
added the mother's family name. He had come to Frankfort
to conduct the Cecilia, he had met Cecilia, and now
he was, at the last moment reminded that he was
leaving Cecilia behind, yet he was carrying Cecilia with him.
(09:15):
If there was anything prophetic in coincidences, everything pointed to
the fact that Cecilia was to play a more prominent
part in his life than that of a mere name.
Even before Felix left Frankfort, there were some who were
in his secret. Evidently the Mendelssohn family had received reports
(09:38):
of his attentions to the fair Cecili Jean Lenard and
were all a flutter with happy anticipation. For there is
a letter from Felix to his sister Rebecca, which must
have been written in answer to one from her, containing
something in the nature of an inquiry regarding the state
of his feelings the present period in my life, he
(10:01):
writes to her, is a very strange one. For I
am more desperately in love than I ever was before,
and I do not know what to do. I leave
Frankfort the day after tomorrow, but I feel as if
it would cost me my life at all events. I
intend to return here and see this charming girl once
(10:21):
more before I go back to Leipzig. But I have
not an idea whether she likes me or not, and
I do not know what to do to make her
like me, as I already have said. But one thing
is certain that to her I owe the first real
happiness I have had this year. And now I feel
fresh and hopeful again for the first time when away
(10:44):
from her, though I always am sad. Now you see,
I have let you into a secret which nobody else
knows anything about. But in order that you may set
the whole world an example, in discretion, I will tell
you nothing more about it. He adds that he is
going to detest the seashore and ends with the exclamation, Oh, Rebecca,
(11:08):
what shall I do? Rebecca might have answered, tell Cecily
instead of me. And indeed I wonder if she did
not take occasion to drop a few hints to Cecily
during her brother's absence in Holland. There was another who
might have told Cecily how Felix felt toward her his mother,
(11:29):
for to her he wrote from Schevingen that he gladly
would send Holland its dikes, sea bars, bathing machines, cursls
and visitors to the end of the world to be
back in Frankfort. When I have seen this charming young
girl again. I hope the suspense soon will be over,
and I shall know whether we are to be anything,
(11:52):
or rather everything to each other or not. Evidently, his
scrutiny of his own feelings was leading him to a
very definite conclusion. He was in Shechevingen, but his heart
was in the city of Maine, and he was wishing
himself back in the scherne Alsigte, longing for that beautiful
(12:13):
view once more. Back to Frankfort, he hide himself. As
soon as the month in Holland was happily over. He
was not only back to Frankfort, it was back to
Cecily in every sense of the words. For if Rebecca
and his mother had not conveyed to the delicate beauty,
some suggestion of the feelings he had inspired in Felix's heart,
(12:34):
she herself must have become aware of them and as
something very much like in her own. Since matters were
not long in coming to a point. After his return,
he spent August at Schevingen. In September his suspense was
over for his engagement to Cecily formerly took place at
Clonburg near Frankfort. Three weeks later, he was obliged to
(12:58):
go back to his duty in Leipzig. How much he
was beloved by the public appears from the fact that
at the next Goevender House concert, the director is placed
on the program verda einholdees Vieblungen he who a lovely
wife has won from Fidelio, and that when the number
was reached and Felix raised his battle, the audience burst
(13:21):
into applause, which continued a long time. It was their
congratulations to their idol on his betrothal. Le Philitiens was
a title given to Felix and Cecily by his sister
and Fanny later in life. At this time Medelsohn himself
(13:42):
was indescribably happy. At least he could not himself find
words in which to express all he felt. It is
pleasant to find that a great composer is no exception
to the rule which makes lovers too happy for words.
But what words am I to use in describing my happiness?
(14:03):
He writes to his sister. I do not know and
am dumb, but not for the same reasons as the
monkeys on the Orinoco. Far from it. We gain an
idea of Cecili's social position from Felix's statement contained in
this same letter, that he and his fiancee are obliged
(14:23):
to make one hundred and sixty three calls in Frankfort.
This was written before he had returned to his duties
in Leipzig. Christmas again found him with his betrothed and
again writing to Fanny, this time about a portrait of
Cecili which her family had given him. They gave me
a portrait of her on Christmas, but it only stirred
(14:45):
up afresh my wrath against all bad artists. She looks
like an ordinary young woman flattered, rather a good bit
of criticism. It really is too bad, though with such
a sitter the fellow could not have shown a spark
of poetry. It is quite evident that Felix was much
in love with his fair fiancee. He and Cecily were
(15:10):
married in their father's former church in March eighteen thirty seven.
During their honeymoon, Felix wrote to his friend Edward Devrient,
the famous actor from the Bavarian Highlands, A rare spirit
of peace and contentment breathe through the letter. You know
that I am here with my wife, my dear Cecili,
(15:31):
and that it is our wedding tour, that we already
are an old married couple of six weeks standing. There
is so much to tell you that I know not
how to make a beginning picture it to yourself. I
can only say that I am too happy, too glad,
and yet not at all beside myself as I should
(15:53):
have expected to be, but calm and accustomed, as though
it could not be otherwise. But you should know, my Cecily,
evidently such a love as was here described was not
a mere sentimental flash in the pan. It was an
affection founded on reciprocal tastes and sympathies the kind that
(16:15):
usually lasts. Cecily was refined and delicate and beautiful. She
was just a woman to grace the home that a
fastidious man like Meddelsohn would want to establish. The most
insistent note to be observed in his correspondence from this
time on is that of a desire to remain within
his own four walls. Fanny had been advised to go
(16:38):
to the seashore for her health, but are delayed doing
so because loath to leave her husband. Think of me,
writes Felix, urging her to go, who must in a
few weeks, though we have not been married four months
yet leave Secily here and go to England by myself,
all too, for the sake of a music festival. Me all,
(17:01):
this is no joke. But possibly the death of the
King of England will intervene and put a stop to
the whole project. The life of a king meant little
to Felix in the distressing prospect of being obliged to
leave his Cecily. Felix the husband was not as eager
to travel as Felix the bachelor had been. There are
(17:24):
various appreciations of Cecily. The least enthusiastic, perhaps, is that
of Hensel, Felix's brother in law. He says that she
was not a striking person in any way, neither extraordinarily clever,
brilliantly witty nor exceptionally accomplished. But to this somewhat indefinite observation,
(17:44):
he adds that she exerted an influence as soothing as
that of the open sky or running water. Indeed, Hensel's
first frigid reserve yielded to the opinion that Cecilia's gentleness
and brightness made Felix's life one continue mude course of
happiness to the end. It was some time after the
(18:04):
marriage before Mendelssohn's sisters saw Cecilia for the first time.
The good they heard of her made them the more
impatient to meet her. I tell you candidly, the clever
Fanny writes to her that by this time, when anybody
comes to talk to me about your beauty and your eyes,
it makes me quite cross. I have had enough of hearsay,
(18:26):
and beautiful eyes were not made to be heard. When
at last Fanny did see Cecily, this fond sister of Felix's,
who naturally would be most critical, was enthusiastic over her.
She is aimable, simple, fresh, happy and even tempered. And
I consider Felix most fortunate for though loving him inexpressibly,
(18:46):
she does not spoil him, but when he is moody,
meets him with a self restraint, which, in due course
of time will cure him of his moodiness. Altogether, the
effect of her presence is like that of a fresh breathe.
She is so light and bright and natural to my mind. However,
devrient has drawn the best word portrait of her. After
(19:10):
their first meeting, he wrote, how often we had pictured
the kind of woman that would be a true second
half to Felix. And now the lovely, gentle being was
before us, whose glance and smile alone promised all that
we could desire for the happiness of our sport favorite.
Later Devriente finished the picture. Cecilie was one of those
(19:32):
sweet womanly natures, whose gentle simplicity, whose mere presence soothed
and pleased. She was slender, with strikingly beautiful and delicate features.
Her hair was between brown and gold, but the transcendent
luster of her great blue eyes and the brilliant roses
on her cheeks were sad harbingers of early death. She
(19:52):
spoke little, and never with animation, and in a low,
soft voice. Shakespeare's words, my gracious silence applied to her
no less than to Cordelia. Thus, while Cecily does not
seem to have been an extraordinarily gifted woman from an
artistic or intellectual point of view, it is quite evident
(20:14):
that she possessed a refinement that must have appealed forcibly
to a man brought up in such genteel surroundings and
as sensitive as Mendelssohn. Such a woman must have been,
after all, better suited to his delicate genius than a
wife of unusual guests would have been, For it is
a help meet, not another genius, that a man of
(20:35):
genius really needs. The woman who, without being prosy or commonplace,
and without allowing herself to retrograde in looks or in
personal care, can run a household in a systematic, orderly fashion,
is the greatest blessing that Providence can bestow upon genius. Evidently,
(20:56):
Cecili was just such a woman. Her taxings have been,
and as delicate as a beauty, Without perhaps having directly
inspired any composition of her husband's, her gentleness a simple
grace doubtless left their mark on many bars of his music.
It seems doubly cruel that death should have cut Felix
down when he had enjoyed but ten happy years with
(21:18):
his Cecili, Yet had his life been long, the pang
of separation would soon have come to him. Devrian had
not been mistaken when he spoke of those sad harbingers
of early death, and Cecili survived Felix scarcely five years.
Felix's death occurred at Leipzig in eighteen forty seven. In September,
(21:39):
while listening to his own recently composed nached lead, he
swooned away. His system, weakened by over work, succumbed. Nervous
prostration followed, and on nob the fourth he died. Sudden
death had carried off his grandfather, father, mother, and favorite sister,
and he had a presentiment that his end would about
(22:00):
in the same way. During the dull half sleep preceding death,
he spoke but once, and then to Cecili in answer
to her inquiry how he felt tired, very tired. Devrienne
tells how he went to the house of mutual friends
in Dresden for news of Mendelssohn's condition, when Clara Schumann
came in a letter in her hand and weeping, and
(22:22):
told them that Felix had died. The previous evening, Devrienne
hastened to Leipzig, and Cecili sent for him. I cannot
close this article more fittingly than with his description of
their meeting in the presence of the illustrious dead, the
cherished friend of one, the husband of the other. She
received me with the tenderness of a sister. Wept in silence,
(22:45):
and was calm and composed as ever. She thanked me
for all the love and devotion I had shown to her.
Felix grieve for me that I should have to mourn
so faithful a friend, and spoke of the love with
which Felix always had regarded me. Long we spoke of him,
it comforted her, and she was loath for me to depart.
She was most unpretentious in her sorrow, gentle, and resigned
(23:08):
to live for the care and education of her children.
She said God would help her, and surely her boys
would have the inheritance of some of their father's genius.
There could not be a more worthy memory of him
than the well balanced, strong and tender heart of this
morning widow. End of chapter three
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