Page:Anecdotes of Great Musicians.djvu/37

Rh of the city, and to escape from the good graces of his friends for a time, that he might give his whole mind uninterruptedly to composition. It is needless to say that his wish was not granted. Few would wish to be surrounded by the walls of the Bastile unless it were to write a tragic overture or a funeral anthem.

Wagner thought he must be clothed in the costume of the age and place in which was laid the plot that he was then working on. He also desired a perfectly quiet and uninterrupted time in which to write. His family was denied admission to his study and he would not even see any letters that came for him; his meals were passed in to him through a trap door.  

Händel was not the only great musician to fight a duel, although he was the greatest composer who took a part in that exciting pastime. Ole Bull once had an adventure similar to Händel's, but from all accounts the Norwegian violinist must have been a better swordsman than the "Dear Saxon." In his student days in Germany, Bull once fell in with a party of carousing students and was persuaded by them to take the part of their violinist (who had become more than "half seas over") in a concert they were about to give. He accepted the position and played so well that the drunken fiddler whom he succeeded was jealous of his success and challenged him to a duel. Now, Ole could handle a sword as well as a fiddle bow and soon had disabled his opponent. This made things so warm for him in that neighborhood that he had to take his departure to Norway.  

Perfect command of one's instrument does not necessarily imply complete control of one's tongue. This was the case with Lindley, an English 'cellist of the first half