[40] From this somewhat accidental origin of Spohr’s autobiography it may be readily inferred, that it contains nothing more than a faithful picture of his eventful life, interesting to the majority of those who take a warm interest in his musical compositions; and that it was not his intention in any manner to have it considered in the light of a contribution to the history of art, nor as a critical opinion of the works of his colleagues in art, which has been here and there erroneously expected from this biography.
[41] To him, as a true representative of the Spohr school was the preference given over all the competitors who bid in emulation of each other and at very high prices for the highly coveted Stradivari violin of his honoured master; and which became his property one year after the decease of the latter.
[42] The leader’s bâton here described with such evident satisfaction, formed a worthy companion to a scarcely less costly and tasteful one that Spohr had been presented with by his faithful pupil F. Böhme of Holland. He was always very proud of such appropriate and artistically executed presents, and it was always his custom to take them out of their respective cases with his own hands, and to replace them after use with equal care.
[43] These quartet evenings in the society of a few of the families of his most intimate friends, were always a source of great pleasure to Spohr. Every year, on the approach of winter, he took early steps for their re-arrangement, and generally opened the series in his own house. Painful as it was to him whenever the death of one of the members of the circle caused a vacancy therein, the loss of his two oldest and most faithful friends, chief director von Schmerfeld and Lord marshall von der Malsburg, who had died in the two previous years, was long and deeply deplored by him.
[44] To the many marks of honour which Spohr still received in the latter years of his life must be added also his nomination to the honorary membership of the “Musical Society,” which had just previously been instituted in London. Upon the occasion of his presentation with this diploma, an enumeration of the various diplomas which he had already been presented with gave an amount of Thirty-eight, among which was one from New York, from Buenos-Ayres, St. Petersburg, and Stockholm, with two from Rome and two from Holland.
Transcriber's Note
Note 8 on volume 1 p. 114 refers to a fac-simile appended to the volume; this was not included in the printed book.
The book contains many instances of inconsistent, archaic or doubtful spelling, hyphenation and punctuation. These have been left as printed, except as follows:
Volume 1