Page:Anecdotes of Great Musicians.djvu/129

Rh But even here her caprice showed itself and made her the conqueror after all. She gave costly entertainments to her fellow-prisoners, who were of all classes, from debtors to bandits; she paid their debts, feasted them, and sang to them in her most charming manner; and she was finally released amid the acclamations of the people she had befriended.



If all the stories of musicians and their work were to be sifted for that which is the plain truth, unembellished by fancy, we fear that the number that stood the test would not make a very cumbrous volume. It is not a hard matter to concoct a pretty fair story, and it is much easier to embellish one—not, however, that the writer knows from experience. One of the stories of this suspected class is that so frequently told of Händel's air and variations called "The Harmonious Blacksmith."

The story runs thus: One day when this composer was out taking a ramble, a sudden storm came up and drove him for shelter into a convenient blacksmith's shop. While there he watched the men at work and was attracted by the melodious tones of the hammers as they struck the anvil. He kept the scene in mind and later wrote this piece, giving in it a musical imitation of the occasion.

If the reader will play this piece and then listen to the din made by some muscular son of Vulcan, we believe he will, with the writer, be unable to hear the anvil strokes in Händel's air; or when surrounded by the noise of the shop we defy him to see the parallel between the clank of the hammers and Händel's smooth and pleasant melody.