Page:Anecdotes of Great Musicians.djvu/140

128 At the age of ten years, little John Sebastian lost both his parents and was taken from Eisenach to Ohrdruff, where he made his home with his elder brother, one of the "John Christophs." The little fellow had begun his musical study with his father, and now continued under the tuition of his distinguished elder brother. Even at this age, his great genius began to manifest itself, for he would come to his lessons with his music learned by heart. Soon he began to aspire to higher and more difficult music than his teacher would allow him. It seems that John Christoph had laid away on the upper shelf of a certain cupboard a manuscript volume of pieces by Buxtehude, Frohberger, Pachelbel and other noted composers of that day, and this book the little Sebastian modestly requested be given him for study. His brother curtly refused and locked up the cupboard. But the young seeker after knowledge was not to be so easily defeated.

Determined to gain possession of the coveted treasure, he one night managed to get his hands through the openings of the latticed cupboard door, and, rolling up the manuscript, drew it out. Then for six months he would utilize the moonlight nights copying the music, and each night would again place it back in its proper place. But at the end of that time his nocturnal occupation was discovered and the brother was cruel enough to confiscate the result of his hard labor, and, it is said, burned it before the boy's eyes.  

Von Bülow, the eccentric pianist and conductor, was even more severe with his pupils than Liszt. Tears were not infrequent things in Liszt's class-room, and yet his gallantry and winning personality did much to dull the sharpness of his cutting criticism.

Not so with Bülow. His classes were large, and he called out whom he chose to play what they had 