Anecdotes of Great Musicians

Willey Francis Gates (1865 - 1941)

Three hundred anecdotes and biographical sketches of famous composers and performers.

I have attempted to cull from the mass of material that came to my notice such anecdotes as have two features,—that of being characteristic of the person referred to, and that of possessing sufficient interest; and in this re-narration I have incorporated such bits of musical information, along biographical and historical lines, as came to mind at the time of writing, but letting this feature be secondary to the main idea of the work. Thus it is hoped that while my readers may find interesting anecdote, they may also incidentally find that which is of more permanent value.

No classification has been made in the body of the work, thus avoiding monotony in a consecutive reading. The indexes furnish ample references.

If these narrations awaken a more general interest in musical biography, one purpose of my labor will have been accomplished. - Summary by W. Francis Gates (from the Introduction)

Genre(s): Music

Language: English

Keyword(s): music (130), anecdotes (15)

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 00 Introductory Kerry Adams
00:03:21
Play 01 The Gregorian Chant; The Bach Revival; Why We Should Sing; Glimpses of Cherubini; Discovering a Nightingale Kerry Adams
00:14:27
Play 02 Balfe's Strange Room Mate; Berlioz and Paganini; History Repeats Itself; The Greatest Musical Prodigy; A Test of Precocity Sonia
00:09:18
Play 03 Irish Enthusiasm; Playing like "Zwei Gotts"; A Sudden Cure; Ole Bull at "Rouge-et-Noir"; Outspoken Admiration Sonia
00:09:33
Play 04 Whims of Composers; Ole Bull as a Duelist; He Didn't Purchase; A Critical Composition; Keep in with the Accompanist Gillian Hendrie
00:08:18
Play 05 The Youthful Beethoven's Trick on a Singer; An Untalented Royal Pupil; Händel's Persuasiveness; Good English in Song; An Uncringing Reply BookBard
00:10:55
Play 06 Southern Passion; Rather a Hard Opponent to Conquer; Catalani and Goethe; The Music but Not the Face; A Concert Preacher Matea Bracic
00:09:54
Play 07 Traveling in State; Tuning Up; Voice Against Trumpet; Beethoven's Kiss; Mendelssohn's Dislike of Meyerbeer Matea Bracic
00:08:40
Play 08 An Army, a Cow and a Prima Donna; A Musical Priest; Musical Criticism; High Art; A Boy's Memory Sonia
00:07:40
Play 09 Slippers at a Premium; Artistic Aversion to Empty Honors; Music and Madness; Baton Waving. Lully Losing a Limb; Prima Donnas Come High Sonia
00:09:22
Play 10 An Unorthodox Creed; The Devil's Trill; Unlucky Manuscripts; Forewarned is Forearmed; A Queen's Regard for her Music Teacher Sonia
00:11:06
Play 11 An Earnest Student; A Witty Songstress; Moscheles' Blunder; Jealousy in the Family; Prejudice Sonia
00:07:33
Play 12 Musical Gratitude; The Greater the Composer the Greater the Student; An Ignorant Tenor; Three Classes of Players; How to Secure a Successful Début BookBard
00:11:14
Play 13 A Song for Forty; The Temple Organ; A Fiddler's Trick; Personal Appearance; Mozart's Acknowledgment BookBard
00:11:50
Play 14 Operatic Sore Throat; Leoncavallo's Whimsical Opinion of his "Clowns"; How to Make a Singer Sing; Another Way; Rossini Hearing the Impossible Gillian Hendrie
00:10:55
Play 15 Manuscript for Kettles; A Patti Reception that She Didn't Receive; The Encore Fiend; Händel's Escape; A Hatful of Pearls Michelle Footz
00:07:30
Play 16 Mendelssohn Composing for Fun; The Right Kind of a Patron; An Episode in the Life of an Artist; Earning a Violin Easily; Schubert's Serenade De Anna Lee
00:08:20
Play 17 Malibran's Generosity; How Berlioz Fooled the Critics; Music Hath Charms; Wagner's Melodies and Chords; Disposing of an Audience De Anna Lee
00:11:59
Play 18 Playing on a Shoe; Händel's Successful Scheme; A Basso's Wit; Old Words to New Tunes; The Composer's Debt to Nature Rita Boutros
00:09:10
Play 19 Sontag's Revenge; A Second Napoleon; A Singer's Sense; Haydn's Noble English Pupil; Lablache and Tom Thumb Sonia
00:07:58
Play 20 A Composer's Chagrin; The Friends, Mozart and Haydn; A Frightened Desdemona; Retentive Memories; Patti's Vanity Ken Sheaffer
00:10:43
Play 21 Clementi's Economy; Music at So Much per Note; Liszt's Precocity; Keeping at It; A Peculiar Genius Chuck Lavazzi
00:10:17
Play 22 Shaking all Over; The "Ox" Minuet; Nilsson and the Shah of Persia; Modulations; An Eventful Career Chuck Lavazzi
00:11:32
Play 23 Napoleon Outwitted by a Songstress; Stubborn Composers; Clerical Wit; A Patient Pupil; Field Fooled JCzekaj
00:11:13
Play 24 Saving a Fiddle; Absent Minded; The Prima Donna of the Eighteenth Century; The "Harmonious Blacksmith"; The Ups and Downs of a Singer's Life jenno
00:13:32
Play 25 Some Liberal Musicians; How Paganini Secured his Favorite Fiddle; Liszt on Mendelssohn; Mara's Revenge; Chopin's Technic jenno
00:11:34
Play 26 Spohr as a Horn Player; Securing Music under Difficulties; In Bülow's Class-Room; Viotti's Tin Fiddle; Liszt's Playing and his Generosity jenno
00:11:33
Play 27 From Humble Origin to Wealth and Fame; Gallant Haydn; Rossini and the Italian School; Lives of Labor; A Great Quartet jenno
00:13:30
Play 28 Rec'd in Full of A/c; Wagner's Working Costume; Cherubini as a Revolutionary Fiddler; Conscientious Acting and Singing; The Peculiarities of Genius jenno
00:12:01
Play 29 Händel's Youth; A Violin for Eighteen Pence; Mendelssohn at Work; A Double Dose of Brahms; Unfailing Sight Reading an Impossibility Gillian Hendrie
00:09:31
Play 30 A Sharp Rejoinder; Two Kinds of Bills; Von Bülow as a Political Speaker; Lind's First Engagement; Beethoven's First Triumph Chuck Lavazzi
00:10:16
Play 31 Händel's Duel; Paganini's Generous Deed; A Gentle Critic; Art Before Business; The "Dear Saxon" quartertone
00:08:00
Play 32 Bülow's Bits; An Interrupted Concert; Coöperative Composition; An Absent-minded Conductor; Costly Admiration Chuck Lavazzi
00:08:44
Play 33 Wine and Music; Schubert's "Erl-King"; Royal Honors to a Singer; The Deaf Beethoven; The History of a Violin Rita Boutros
00:09:42
Play 34 "Vorts" vs. Music; French Wit; Too Literal; Imagination a Factor in Hearing Music; Musical and Non-Musical Accent Gillian Hendrie
00:10:59
Play 35 Von Weber to a Bawling Choir; An Interrupted Opera; Beethoven Punished; Violin Collectors; Pot-boilers Rita Boutros
00:08:17
Play 36 Gounod's Faust; Madame Patti; An Even Distribution of Honors; Rapid Composition; Friends valroth
00:11:40
Play 37 Haydn's Reception by Prince Esterhazy; Proving Identity; A Great Thief; Von Bülow's Memory; Their Favorite Surroundings for Composition valroth
00:13:53
Play 38 A Kind Act; Public Criticism; Fun on the Stage; The Thirty-three Variations; A Deserved Chastisement valroth
00:07:49
Play 39 Il Trovatore; Music vs. Commerce; A Narrow Escape; A Pyrotechnic Violoncello; Misdirected and Repressed Talent valroth
00:08:53
Play 40 The Discovery of a Tenor; A Long Encore Number; "Englyshe Meetre"; "The Devil on Two Sticks"; Impositions on Musicians Claudia Peri
00:13:43
Play 41 The Hallelujah Chorus; Beethoven a la Cupid; Wagner and the Beggars; Vox Populi; What's in a Name Claudia Peri
00:12:12
Play 42 A Costly Fiddle; Bach's Great Works. How Enjoyed by Some; Peculiar English; Original Tapestry; The Manual Labor of Composition Chuck Lavazzi
00:07:50
Play 43 A Burial Place Denied; Von Bülow's Peculiarities; Not at First Sight; Restoring an Organ; An Exciting Musical Duel Chuck Lavazzi
00:11:02
Play 44 An Interrupted Strain; A Musical Tragedy; Beethoven's Gratitude; Choleric Händel; Music vs. Conversation Rita Boutros
00:10:33
Play 45 The World's Reward to Genius; An Obese Basso; Preserving Identity; A Great German Songstress; A Sight for the Boys MarcThomsen
00:12:09
Play 46 Paganini in Court Dress; A Gory Drumstick; Great Musical Memories; A Comical Revenge; Scherzo Seraphina
00:12:27
Play 47 But One Seat Left; A Compliment from Haydn; A Particular Prima Donna; Mendelssohn's Kindness; Campanini as a Soldier quartertone
00:07:22
Play 48 To Make a Player Play; True Kindliness; Viotti's Independence; Not the Geese that Saved Rome; That Patti Kiss quartertone
00:15:28
Play 49 Longevity of Musicians; Liszt as an Advertiser; Arrested for Treason; Rothschild's Music; The “Prison Josephs" Larry Wilson
00:15:42
Play 50 Schumann's Failure; Genius Discovered by Punishment; Richard Wagner and the Number "13"; A Little Trick of Paganini's; Liszt's Completion of the Beethoven Monument Gillian Hendrie
00:10:38
Play 51 Delayed Appreciation; Overfed Composers; Nasal; A Bold Pupil; Wagner's Activity Nick Donald
00:09:14
Play 52 An Opera Sacrificed; An Erratic Prima Donna; When They Began; Sarcasm; A Prima Donna's Pets valroth
00:10:34
Play 53 Paganini's Method of Study; Goat Hair for Hero Worshipers; Stage Censorship; Fallible; A Dressing-room War quartertone
00:10:48
Play 54 Aristocratic Patronage—Haydn's Farewell; The Hebrew in Music; The Story of Mozart's Requiem; Liszt's Reply to Louis Philippe; Jenny Lind's Generosity Gillian Hendrie
00:13:16
Play 55 Beethoven, Brain-owner; Schubert's Modesty; Our Musical Advancement; Honest Opinions; The Modern Tendency Michelle Footz
00:09:13
Play 56 Fugues and Chess; Fortunes in Fiddles; One Kind of Criticism; Musical Cooks; Artistic Pride Michelle Footz
00:10:09
Play 57 Beethoven's Friends; Prolific Composers; Music for the Eye; Schumann's Madness; Humor in Composition valroth
00:14:51
Play 58 Haydn's Last Appearance; The Heroic in Music; A Peculiar Visiting Card; Origin of the Name "Kreutzer Sonata"; Royal Musicians Gillian Hendrie
00:15:34
Play 59 A Charitable Trio; Beethoven's Forgetfulness; Rossini's Arrogance; To a Pauper's Grave Gillian Hendrie
00:07:36
Play 60 Notable Musical Antagonisms: Händel—Buononcini; Gluck—Piccinni; Cuzzoni—Bordoni; Sontag—Malibran; Liszt—Thalberg Chuck Lavazzi
00:13:33
Play 61 The Financial Circumstances of the Great Composers quartertone
00:09:19