Monday, March 22:
R. slept well but is somewhat worn out from his "raging" in King Lear. I do not have breakfast or lunch with him on account of pains in my knee which compel me to lie down. He talked about a melody from I Puritani which he was singing and about Bellini: "There is still a lot of naivete among these people here, and so there is something touchingly simple in these themes by Bellini; one can understand what a great effect they had after Rossini, in whom everything was dissolved into runs." He quotes the dying Romeo's canzona from I Capuleti ed i Montecchi, which he once heard sung by [Wilhelmine] Schröder[-Devrient], a very simple canzona which made such an impression on him that he thought to himself, "To the D----- with all classical music." "But Bellini was too poor a composer, he knew nothing of all the available musical resources."
In the evening he plays the hunting chorus from Euryanthe, and when I express my delight in it, he says: "Yes, but one must watch what becomes of such a man, how he develops. His starting point was the Körner songs; then he wrote the hunting chorus in Der Freischütz, which had so much success that there had to be hunting choruses everywhere, but whereas in Der Fr. it is just hunters singing a song, in Euryanthe it is like something experienced, like a forest coming alive. God knows, the chorus in Der Fr. was well done and, in comparison to other hunting choruses of the time, unprecedented. Oh, it is impossible to say how much Weber has meant to us, and he is so little recognized!" He plays the chorus from Der Freischütz; then a song by a young composer from Rome, sung by Loldi, its banal melody laced with modulations, leads the conversation to the modern manner of composing. As an example of a model song I mention Mignonne, which R. then sings to us.
The "Open Letter," translated by a Dutch woman into her own language, brings us to a very nice piece written by the translator herself. When I mention it to R., he says: "Such signs are very touching, and there are many things which might cheer me, but my concern about the general situation keeps me from enjoying the particular aspects. What I am now looking for is results, and they cannot come from Germany, spoiled by too many Jews and too many professors." "If I don't go to America, it is because I am too old, because I have again let 10 years go by." When, referring to Dr. Jenkins's letter, I remark how little the Americans overestimate their native land, however much they love it, and relate with what heavy feelings Miss Tilton, after 4 years in Italy, is returning to her home, R. says: "Yes, if you view everything from a historical standpoint and only want to stare at the past. But if you want to see what the German spirit is still capable of, and is indeed producing, then things look somewhat different. It is not the worst Germans who have gone over there, and Schurz's example shows what a proper German can do." He goes into the next room and plays something from the 3rd act of Parsifal.
When he sees how moved our friends are, he observes that this is not possible unless one sees the action and follows every word. "It is different when I am telling you everything at once; then we are working together." We think of the poor members of our Society, who have done so much, the cantor in Zittau, for example.