HABITS OF GENIUS

Evening Star, Issue 17542, 23 December 1920, Page 9

HABITS OF GENIUS

PECULIARITIES OF 'GREAT MUSICIANS. Handel had an odd habit of tossing sheets of manuscripts from the table as fast as he wrote them. Tho slightest gain in time was of the utmost importance to him. There was only one man living—his copyist,' Smith —who could read his manuscript. Handel often wept while composing. Some of his sacred writings are blotted with tears. Ho was blind during the last years of his life. Schubert was marvellously regular in his attention to composition. When he was composing his features worked, his eyes flashed, and his limbs twitched. This unnatural excitement held complete control of him until the fever of composition passed away. He seldom made alterations in his score. Gluck often had his servants carry his piano out to the lawn. His finest inspirations came to him when playing in the garden. Several bottles of champagne were placed conveniently near him. His theory was that bright sunshine was favorable to inspiration, and he always worked in it when possible. Gluck was fifty years old before ho wrote an opera of any renown. Meyerbeer’s happiest inspirations came when the thunder reared ,the winds howled,’ and the rain dashed in deluging sheets down the winclowpanes of his study. * Chopin, unlike most musical geniuses, was a late riser. " Ha practised so long at the piano, with his back unsupported, that bis spine was permanently -injured. He never composed except when seated at the -piano, and he always had the lights turned out when ho was improvising. A public audience unnerved him to such an extent that he oould not properly interpret the music before him. Seated in the midst of a small, select circle, he easily extemporised and improvised. He “talked” to his piano whenever he was melancholy. Hp thought more of his manuscript and his cat than he did of his intimate friends. Chopin had a superstitious dread of the figure 7, and would not live in a house bearing that number, nor start upon a journey' on that date. Beethoven used the snuffers for a toothpick. It was one of his peculiarities that he never allowed his servant to enter Ids study. Ho insisted that this room fhould remain exactly as he left it, no matter how deep the dust lay on the precious musical manuscripts. He seldom looked in the glass when he tied his stock. Half the time he forgot to brush his hair. Every morning he carefully counted out seventeen beans from the coffee canister. These served for his breakfast. When he composed, he would pour cold water over his hands, and often people below him would complain of tho water that soaked through his floor. Haydn arrayed himself at daybreak in full court dress—sword, wig, lace ruff, and silver buckle. He ' said he could never write so well as when a-massive diamond ring, which the Emperor of Austria had given to him, was on his finger. The paper on which he wrote must be of superfine quality and of the most exquisite whiteness. Many times his inflate love for practical joking got the better of him. One night in church he cut off the queue of one of the other chorister’s wigs. For this offence he was expelled. Wagner had his tomb made in the garden of his house, so that’ at any inoment he could visit it. He sometimes insisted on having his guests inspect" this sepulchre, and at the dinner table he took singular delight in descanting on the subject of death. Liszt smoked large black cigars. When giving lessons he walked up and down the room, muttering 'to himself, and emitting volumes of smoke by way of acoompniment to his remrks. He smoked constontly while he worked.