A generous act was his labor in behalf of the Beethoven monument, to be erected in the master’s birthplace, Bonn.  The monument was to be given by subscriptions from the various Princes of Germany.  Liszt helped make up the deficit and came to Bonn to organize a Festival in honor of the event.  He also composed a Cantata for the opening day of the Festival, and in his enthusiasm nearly ruined himself by paying the heavy expenses of the Festival out of his own pocket.

The political events of 1848 brought him back to Weimar, and he resumed his post of Court Music Director.  He now directed his energies toward making Weimar the first musical city of Germany.  Greatly admiring Wagner’s genius, he undertook to perform his works in Weimar, and to spread his name and fame.  Indeed it is not too much to say that without Liszt’s devoted efforts, Wagner would never have attained his vogue and fame.  Wagner himself testified to this.

While living in Weimar, Liszt made frequent journeys to Rome and to Paris.  In 1861 there was a rumor that the object of his visits to Rome was to gain Papal consent to his marriage with the Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein.  During a visit to Rome in 1864, the musician was unable to resist longer the mysticism of the church.  He decided to take orders and was made an Abbe.

Since that time, Abbe Franz Liszt did much composing.  He also continued to teach the piano to great numbers of pupils, who flocked to him from all parts of the world.  Many of the greatest artists now before the public were numbered among his students, and owe much of their success to his artistic guidance.

In 1871, the Hungarian Cabinet created him a noble, with a yearly pension of three thousand dollars.  In 1875, he was made Director of the Academy at Budapest.  In addition, Liszt was a member of nearly all the European Orders of Chivalry.

Franz Liszt passed away August 1, 1886, in the house of his friend, Herr Frohlich, near Wagner’s Villa Wahnfried, Bayreuth, at the age of seventy-five.  As was his custom every summer, Liszt was in Bayreuth, assisting in the production of Wagner’s masterpieces, when he succumbed to pneumonia.  Thus passed a great composer, a world famous piano virtuoso, and a noble and kindly spirit.

For the piano, his chosen instrument, Liszt wrote much that was beautiful and inspiring.  He created a new epoch for the virtuoso.  His fifteen Hungarian Rhapsodies, B minor Sonata, Concert Etudes and many transcriptions, appear on all modern programs, and there are many pieces yet to be made known.  He is the originator of the Symphonic Poem, for orchestra; while his sacred music, such as the Oratorio “Christus,” and the beautiful “Saint Elizabeth,” a sacred opera, are monuments to his great genius.

XV

GIUSEPPE VERDI

In the little hamlet of Le Roncole, at the foot of the Apeninnes, a place that can hardly be found on the map, because it is just a cluster of workmen’s houses, Giuseppe Verdi, one of the greatest operatic composers, was born, October 9, 1813.