1837-1848 In the hands of the Master of the Queen’s Musick!

After four years of ‘being made use of’, I was finally rescued by the Master of the (new) Queen’s Musick, Franz Cramer.  Of all the luminaries around John Ella, Franz Cramer was the only one who had that special Schleiermacher ‘Stimmung’ quality which had now become firmly ingrained into my frame and sounding board.  And Franz Cramer, a rather ‘self-effacing’ German-born musician, made an offer to John Ella, and it was agreed I could belong permanently to him, at his family home in Charlotte Street, just a little way from my Thomas Kennedy’s workshop in Westminster.

(Franz Cramer)

Enter Mendelssohn

These years from 1837 were generally comfortable for me.  There was much music-making with Cramer’s ‘Ancient Concerts’, and opportunities to play chamber music with various London-based musicians.  The atmosphere at this time had become dominated by the music of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, regarded by many – but not all – as the natural successor to Beethoven.  However, I feel that Mendelssohn’s popularity rested largely on his charm and his determination to bring J S Bach’s choral works (especially the St Matthew Passion) into the musical mainstream, and his championing of large-scale choral singing with his highly successful ‘Elijah and ‘St Paul’’.  Of course, his orchestral compositions – Symphonies, overtures, etc – were greatly enjoyed too.

(Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy)

German Englishness

I had the privilege of being played in many of these works – but I have to say there was just a hint of uneasiness in me.  The atmosphere during this new Victorian ‘era’ betrayed a hint of ‘Englishness’ which gave an impression of needing to keep ahead of, and ‘on top’ of, all things ‘German’. During his visits to Britain, Mendelssohn appeared to be ingratiating himself with this tendency of ‘English aloofness and superiority’ – and THAT’S why he was greatly loved.

Of course, I may be mistaken, but, for example, Prince Albert (a fine musician himself) was not universally loved, solely because he was German!  I recall a dinner party in the Cramer’s home, at which Felix Mendelssohn was the guest of honour, and during which, with a group of friends, we played his highly popular ‘Octet’ for strings. Franz Cramer mentioned that he had recently heard from a relative in Tubingen, Germany, who was very excited about his studies in the New Testament.  His name was Ferdinand Christian Baur, and he was propagating the idea that the best way to get to an accurate historical picture of Jesus was to study the authentic letters of St Paul, not the Gospels.

(Ferdinand Christian Baur)

Can anything good come out of Tubingen?

Mendelssohn launched into a blistering attack on Baur, and all the evil critical ways of modern German philosophy and biblical studies, especially at the University of Tubingen!   My frame trembled as I heard echoes of the antagonisms which many English people felt about Schleiermacher and his approaches to history.    Mendelssohn was convinced that this kind of liberal criticism of precious and revered texts was very dangerous and unsettling.  He believed that his oratorios ‘Elijah’ and ‘St Paul’ were greatly enjoyed by the British nation mainly because they upheld the traditional approach to the Bible.  ‘Surely the English population must not be infected by all this German criticism!’, he exclaimed.  Well, well!  And this from the mouth of the grandson of a distinguished Jewish – and German – philosopher!

Maybe, here was another reason why the music-loving public of Britain – with its high premium placed on tradition, familiarity, certainty, ‘keeping calm and carrying on’ – couldn’t get enough of his music.  Here was a German from conservative Leipzig who loved England, admired by the young Queen Victoria, and who was unsullied by all these new-fangled and unsettling ideas from the academic world of his homeland!

(Tubingen University)

That’s my feeling anyway! 

I am just wanting to explain this unsettling ‘atmosphere’ of questioning and uncertainty which I sensed while being played during these post-Napoleonic and early-Victorian days with Cramer in London.   It could be compared to something like an ‘overtone’ or an ‘harmonic’ – a frequency hardly perceptible but an integral component of any sounded note.

I am convinced that Thomas Kennedy crafted me in such a way that my musical body and frame are very sensitive to those harmonic overtones and nuances which may not necessarily be perceived, or easily heard, by every fiddler who plays me.  However, I’m pleased to say that Franz Cramer was one of my owners who was aware of this aspect to my musicality, and no doubt this is why I picked up this otherwise hidden English/German antagonism in these times. 

Later we shall hear more of the suspicions about German critical and theological studies which seem to linger on in the British psyche.  When my recent owner, Harvey Richardson, began his theological studies after leaving the Royal Academy of Music, I overheard someone say to him: ‘Be careful at theological college; too much study will destroy your faith!’

Talking of the Richardson family, the year 1845 saw the arrival of a new young domestic servant in the Cramer household – Mary Ann Richardson, Isaac & Esther Richardson’s 16-year-old daughter!  Now there’s a coincidence!