Weber

“ Then she asked Sanin whether he knew “Freischütz,” whether he was fond of Weber, and added that though she was herself an Italian, she liked such music best of all. From Weber the conversation glided off on to poetry and romanticism, on to Hoffmann, whom every one was still reading at that time.
And Frau Lenore still slept, and even snored just a little, and the sunbeams, piercing in narrow streaks through the shutters, were incessantly and imperceptibly shifting and travelling over the floor, the furniture, Gemma’s dress, and the leaves and petals of the flowers. ”

“ Weber knew that his days were numbered. A model husband and father, the thought of his wife and children was never absent from his mind; to provide for them to the utmost of his power was not only his most sacred duty, but his highest happiness. No one can fail to be touched by the tenderness and devotion which breathe in the letters to his wife, many of which are printed by his sons in the biography. After quitting Stuttgart, he had regulated his affairs in the most exemplary manner. He lived very comfortably in Dresden, and was able even to afford himself small luxuries. ”

“ Courts and princes had done their best to ruin Weber, but to his lasting credit he came unhurt from the ordeal. After such trying experiences he began a new life. He was no longer a parasite, dancing attendance in the antechambers of royalty, but a musician, enthusiastic for his art and eager to perfect himself in all that could assist the development of his genius. He himself realized what an escape he had had. In his diary at the close of 1810 he wrote: "God has sent me many sorrows and disappointments, but he has also thrown me with good people, who have made life worth living. ”

“ From the mind of one of these 'boys,' the impression of these performances was never effaced, for Weber always described them as a thing not to be forgotten. Anon we get glimpses of Weber at work on 'Abu Hassan' or on 'Papa's' biography, while the 'old gentleman' looks on, and advises or composes, consuming 'enormous quantities of snuff.' By way of varying the regular routine the master would take his scholars with him to organ recitals in neighbouring towns. The pupils, in their turn, would diversify the common round by writing an ode to celebrate 'Papa's' birthday. ”

“ Weber did not insist. John understood why, as it was patent that he needed rest. He made himself comfortable in the seat, and the others left him in peace. The machine rolled on swiftly and smoothly. It was one of the beautiful roads so common in France, and John felt scarcely a jar. A full sun tinted the green country with gold. ”

“ But personal dislikes never lasted with Spohr. He could distinguish between a man and his work, and was always a loyal friend to Weber.
The Duke's younger brother, Prince Friedrich, an admirer of Italian music, had brought a singing-master back with him from Italy, and often had Weber to go through Italian operas with him. He had a good tenor voice, and for him Weber composed an Italian scena ed aria, with chorus, from an opera 'Ines de Castro,' performed at a court-concert on Dec. 17. ”

“ Captain Weber’s face was very sad. With the brig was lost the savings of a life, and he carefully turned over in his mind all the circumstances. He looked over the side and noticed with a sigh how deep the “Halcyon” lay in the water, and how sluggish was her motion. He noted the idle sail as it hung against the broken foremast, and the clank of the chain pumps came to his ear, as the clear salt-water flooded the deck.
The old seaman groaned.
“There is nothing for it, Lowe,” he muttered. “Keep the pumps going; half the hands will do the work. Serve out a good allowance of grog. ”

“ Weber, who did not understand a syllable of what he was quoting, spoke at random as usual. This "obscure phrase," misken, or mixen, is a word perfectly plain, and to be found in every dictionary in the language. Mixen, in short, is a dunghill, and the allusion is to the practice of accelerating the ripening or maturing of any thing by burying it in warm dung. Mr. Weber's ignorance is really pitiable, that of his employers wants a name. ”

“ Professor Weber said to him the day before yesterday in my presence, 'My worthy colleague, you are a perfect treasure to the University, as regards science, but for all the details of practical life you are worth absolutely nothing. In all such matters you are quite at sea. It is a mercy your young wife is so well able to supply your deficiencies.' He is quite right, is he not, Emile? ”

“ One of his pupils, Fräulein von Belonde, was lady-in-waiting to the wife of Duke Eugene of Wirtemberg, then living at Schloss Carlsruhe in Silesia, where he kept up a great deal of music. The lady's influence procured for Weber the title of Musik-Intendant, which would, it was hoped, be a help to him on his tour, but that prospect having been destroyed by the war, the Duke invited Weber to Schloss Carlsrühe. Here he found not only a refuge for himself, his father, and an aunt, but a most desirable atmosphere for the cultivation of his art. ”

“ I am an Austrian. I was born on the Zillenstein estate of Prince Karl of Auersperg. My family has served his for a thousand years. Great as I hold Hapsburg and Hohenzollern, Auersperg means even more to me. The Auerspergs are the very essence and spirit of that aristocracy and rule of the very highborn, in which I believe and to which your country and later the French have stood in the exact opposite. Every time that my pulse beats within me it beats with the wish that you and all that you stand for should fail."
John did not feel the slightest doubt of Weber's sincerity. ”

“ WEBER, OTTO (1832–1888) , painter, son of Wilhelm Weber, a merchant of Berlin, was born in that city on 17 Oct. 1832. He studied under Professor Steffeck, and was also much influenced by Eugen Krüger. He became a very skilful painter of landscapes and animals, working both in oil and watercolours, and his pictures were much admired in Paris, where he resided for some years and was awarded medals at the Salon in 1864 and 1869. On the outbreak of the Franco-German war in 1870, Weber left France, and, after a stay of two years in Rome, came to London, where he settled. ”

“ But only one of the little group, besides the subject of this sketch, has left a name to be remembered,—and that is Carl Maria von Weber. The other two may have had as noble aspirations, as untiring energy, as passionate ambitions; but Fate had decreed that Godefroy von Weber and Gänsbacher should never win the world's applause. Carl Maria and Meyerbeer were the "cronies" of the little school. They were constantly together; they built their air-castles with a view to future joint occupancy; they made their boyish vows of eternal friendship. ”

“ These choruses for men were sung throughout the Fatherland, as they still are sung.
But from the height of glory to which he was now borne, as the living voice of the nation, he was dragged back to the depths by the little hand and the little finger-nails of Caroline, who could be jealous enough to suspect that not all the adoration Von Weber was receiving from the women of Berlin was pure and impersonal patriotism.
Von Weber had from the first insisted that no marriage of theirs could have hope of success, unless she left the stage. ”

“ From the age of sixteen to eighteen he was kapellmeister at the theatre in Breslau. After some two years of uncertainty and rather fast life he became private secretary to the Duke Ludwig of Württemberg. His life became faster. He became involved in debts. Worse, he became involved in intrigue. The king was suspicious. Weber was arrested and thrown into prison. He was cleared of the charges against him, but was banished from the kingdom. Realizing that the way of the transgressor is hard, Weber now devoted himself to serious living and the making of music. ”

“ Waldemar threw down the paper. "Poor Doctor! How often will you be made to suffer for having brought up such a monster as myself! In truth, your system of education has as little to do with my unamiable character as my influence had with Weber's review of your book; but in these exclusive circles they will never forgive you for having been a private tutor, even though you should one day mount into a Professor's chair." ”

“ On April 1, 1822, he was appointed one of the organists of the Chapel Royal in the room of Charles Knyvett, deceased. In 1824 he accompanied Charles Kemble to Germany to engage Weber to compose an opera for Covent Garden, and when Weber came to England in 1826 to bring out his 'Oberon' he was the guest of Sir George Smart, in whose house he died on June 5. It was mainly by the exertions of Sir George Smart and Sir Julius Benedict that the statue of Weber at Dresden was erected, the greater part of the subscriptions having been collected in England. ”

“ I recognized in a motor the Very High Born, his High Mightiness, the owner of the earth, the Prince of Auersperg."
Weber took another drink of coffee.
"An able man and one of our most bitter enemies," he said. "A foe of democracy everywhere. I think he was to have been made governor of Paris, and then Paris would have known that it had a governor. ”

“ The law had to be enforced; property, or at least the property of the firm, must be respected. And during an absence of the consul’s, he seems to have drawn up with his own hand, and certainly first showed to the king, in his own house, a new convention. Weber here and Weber there. As an able man, he was perhaps in the right to prepare and propose conventions. As the head of a trading company, he seems far out of his part to be communicating state papers to a sovereign. ”

“ The Duke took great pleasure in his society, but, having at the time many claims on his time, invited Weber to return in the autumn and make a longer stay. In Gotha Weber met Spohr, who since 1805 had been Concertmeister—the court had then no opera—and had married in 1806 Dorette Scheidler, a harpist, and daughter of Madame Scheidler, the court-singer. Spohr had not retained a very favourable impression of Weber's music at Stuttgart, but received him in true brotherly fashion. ”

“ Weber proclaims his error in the very title of his book, A "System" of Ancient Palestinian Synagogue Theology. There is much to be learned from Weber's book, and much that is extremely valuable to those who know how to use it; but, none the less, the whole conception of Pharisaic theology expounded in that book is fundamentally wrong, because Weber calls that a system which never was a system, and never set out to be. Christian doctrinal theology is capable of being presented as a system ”

“ Where could he go for a home but back to the household of the Webers?—now more than ever in poverty since the good father had died and Aloysia had married soon after obtaining her new engagement.
The very name of Weber was a red rag to Leopold Mozart, and he began a series of bitter rebukes, which the son answered with ample dignity and gentleness.
"What you write about the Webers, I do assure, is not the fact. I was a fool about Madame Lange, I own; but what is a man not when he is in love? ”

“ In the youth of Germany, especially in the students, his songs produced a sort of divine intoxication. Part of Weber's summer vacation in 1814 was passed in Berlin. Prussia was leading in the struggle to throw off the yoke of Napoleon, and Weber drank daily of the soma-juice in Körner's "Lyre and Sword." On his return trip to Prague he visited his old friend the Duke Emil August at his castle Gräfen-Tonna. From this old feudal pile he sent his settings of "Lützow's wilde Jagd" and "Das Schwertlied" to his love in Prague. The world has never ceased to marvel at the fire of those settings ”

“ Tony (to Weber, who has posed rather sullenly) . ’At’s da madda?
Weber (stepping over Case’s grip) . I’se jes’ gittin’ over de grip. No, I’ll tell you. Ma gal’s daddy give her an automobile.
Case. Well, what’s that got to do with your being sick?
Weber. Well, dat gal jes’ loves dat machine to deaf; she ain’t got no time fer me.
Ruff. Gentlemen, there’s another instance where man is being replaced by machine.
Case. Man is little more than a monkey, anyhow.
Hans. Yah? Und how’s dot? ”

“ That has seemed particularly desirable since, in the voluminous discussion which has grown up in Germany around Weber's essay, a great deal of misplaced criticism has been due to the failure properly to appreciate the scope and limitations of the study. While it is impossible to appreciate that fully without a thorough study of Weber's sociological work as a whole, this brief introduction should suffice to prevent a great deal of misunderstanding. ”

“ As a student of twenty years he, with his brother, Ernest Henry Weber, Professor of Anatomy at Leipsic, had written a book on the 'Wave Theory and Fluidity,' which brought its authors a considerable reputation. Acoustics was a favourite science of his, and he published numerous papers upon it in Poggendorff's ANNALEN, Schweigger's JAHRBUCHER FUR CHEMIE UND PHYSIC, and the musical journal CAECILIA. The 'mechanism of walking in mankind' was another study, undertaken in conjunction with his younger brother, Edward Weber. ”

“ In 1831, on the recommendation of Gauss, he was called to Göttingen as professor of physics, although but twenty-seven years of age. His lectures were interesting, instructive, and suggestive. Weber thought that, in order to thoroughly understand physics and apply it to daily life, mere lectures, though illustrated by experiments, were insufficient, and he encouraged his students to experiment themselves, free of charge, in the college laboratory. ”

“ WEBER, Paul, German artist, b. about 1823. He studied art in Frankfort, and in 1848 came to the United States, settling in Philadelphia. In 1858 he went to Darmstadt, where he was appointed court painter. ”